LDF roundup: design from Down Under

On my trip around East London for London Design Festival, I made it to Matilda, an exhibition of 13 Australian and New Zealand designers brought together especially for the festival. The group exhibition - backed by venture-capitalist-with-foresight Damon Reeve - puts the Antipodeans squarely on the design map, and will hopefully find a permanent home in London to expand to 30 designers in time for next year's LDF.

Maybe it's something to do with the sunny climes and the laid back lifestyle that we attribute to the Aussies, but the whole vibe at Matilda was a happy, colourful one. From the bright-but-delicate lamp from Marc Pascal (above) to the cheery (and deliciously tactile) Husque bowls (below) to the amazing orange wire stools by Brian Steendyk that I now have a serious crush on, I felt like anything from here would make my home just that little bit more cheerful.




Macadamia nut bowls by Husque.


Dove 44 stool by Brian Steendyk.




Oh, and more lights... Watch Out pendant by Luxxbox.

LDF round-up: Lights!

So many events to see, so little time... When I came to writing up this post from the brilliant-as-usual London Design festival, I realized that most of the things I took pictures of were lighting. Having just curated the mydeco installation of over 70 lamps at The Dock, it may well be that I have lighting on the brain...or perhaps I'm just naturally drawn to lights at this time of year with the weather being Autumnal and the days getting shorter. Or maybe they were just the best things at the festival. Either way, there was lots of lovely lighting on show.

First up are Scott Rich + Victoria at Tramshed; the Unita24 collection of shades (above) are laser cut from 2 sets of alternating parts, the folding element and the curve. The shades fold flat. I am slightly in love with the floor lamp (below). A much more interesting take than the now-everywhere Pixar-style giant anglepoise.


The 'Filament' lights (below) look amazing in the flesh. Unfortunately, Scott told us they would probably only be available to trade and commercial, because replacing the filaments means replacing the entire light more or less, and they can't find a way to do this for retail customers. Boo! Go on Scott, I'm sure you can do it if you try hard enough... I'd buy one!


Also at Tramshed, these beautiful hand-blown glass bubble chandeliers from Bocci. Available singly or in hexagonal clusters (3, 9, 19? I forget), each bubble is unique, and they do look stunning together.

Finally, Lee Broom's new showroom and exhibition space 'One Light Only' didn't disappoint. His new cuboid lights (part of his new collection for Heal's) are Tom Dixon-esque with gold interiors. They look lovely together, but both the small and the large size looked like they would work well alone.

I've seen many 'quirky' lighting ranges recently (jelly molds, wine glasses...) but Lee's decanter lights are beautiful, and still manage to look novel. Personally I love the cut glass range, but if you're into bling, the gold version would look pretty special lined up above a kitchen counter or bar.

I couldn't mention Lee Broom without mentioning the neon strip... I suspect he might be bored of the theme by now, but stand-outs were the classic french bar chair (below) and the awesome Louis style desk, pimped to within an inch of it's life with some serious neon and a DJ no less. Party perfect.

Walking in a rainbow wonderland

Working in design during London Design Festival means the week where some of the most exciting design events to take place all year happen on your doorstep tends to pass in a blur... But I did get to see Stuart Haygarth's 'Framed' installation at the wonderful V&A yesterday.

It was just as beautiful as the artist drawings indicated it would be - and although the framed staircase is only short, and is stuck round the side of the museum, it is just like walking through a rainbow. Made me smile.

Weekend Makeover

Oh I do love a bank holiday weekend. Obviously my ideal way to take advantage of the extra day holiday would be a chic city break somewhere, but in the absence of a European mini break, a weekend of DIY comes a close second. I especially love getting stuck in to those jobs which give you a nice big, immediate satisfaction pay-off - and that's exactly what I got with my quick weekend bathroom makeover.

Bathroom before: boring bare window, ho-hum shower curtain.
Bathroom after:
I made the roller-blind following the instructions on the rather brilliant DesignSponge DIY tutorial here. The roller blind is a cheapo Ikea blind, and I just replaced the fabric with fabric from Ikea. I cheated on the DesignSponge tutorial a bit and didn't even sew the blinds, just used iron-on hemming tape to hem the edges and it worked fine.