God is in the Details

If you were a fan of Domino magazine, then you remember Lili Diallo's amazing styling skills.  I'm very excited that her new book Details: A Stylist's Secrets to Creating Inspired Interiors has just been released so we can all learn from the master.  Also seemed like a good time to revisit her Brooklyn loft.  It's like the American version of Loulou de la Falaise's Paris apartment.  Enjoy!

kids nursery styling shoot

So the latest issue of real living went on sale yesterday. It features two styling shoots I did for the mag. The first was the shopping feature for May - nurseries. I put my hand up for this one as I was excited - and determined - to create cool spaces.

I really wanted to show that you could create a pink girls room (lots of friends say their girls are obsessed with this colour) without it being saccharine sweet. Enter "Pastel Princess" - the last room. I also wanted to do a room with colour - a space that was fun - but still pulled together. This is "Circus Kids" - the second last room. And, finally, I wanted to create a room that I'd be happy to have for Little C - one that was interesting and engaging but with grown-up touches so it didn't scream kids room - this is "Young Explorer" - my favourite of the three looks.

As usual I got completely carried away with the "makes". In "Young Explorer" we (yes, it was another mammoth shoot so I had some wonderful helpers) created a feature wall of explorer maps, painted a budget chest-of-drawers and made newspaper hats. In "Circus Kids" we hung Bholu's beautiful Mavis Monkey wallpaper. And in "Pastel Princess" we painted a grey and white striped wall - click on the image to see it - and a string of pom poms (instead of bunting). We also created a doll's house - inspired by the amazing one that Jacqui Lewis created here - and got a handmade height chart from Belinda Graham at The Happy Home. There's a whole other story to that one, which I'll have to tell you about on another day.

Love to know what you think, and which room you prefer.

images courtesy of real living and chris warnes

my second ever styling shoot... fridges (lucky me!)

I almost completely forgot that my second ever styling shoot has just appeared in the April 10 issue of Real Living magazine. Lucky me - I was asked to source and prop fridges! It seemed like some cruel test. How can ANYONE make them look good. They're just large rectangular boxes. So I researched like crazy to find great styles (always with an eye to cost and energy efficiency). On the upside of the brief was that I got to shoot with uber photographer Prue Ruscoe, who you might know not only from her extensive magazine work but also the books she's done with Shannon Fricke. I've worked with her previously - but as a subject (she shot the photo of me on the sofa that's in the JanFeb 10 issue of Real Living).

So the shoot day was full on - not quite so manic as the office shoot - but still crazy. I was also shooting another "best of the best" feature, which will run in the May 10 issue. The fridges arrived - well, most of them - and we had to shuffle them into place. I had a fairly good idea of how I wanted them placed as I didn't want to be moving them too much but still there were changes due to the proportions of them. It's not until you see them side by side that you get a real sense of the size. I was also worried that the stripey Smeg fridge would dominate the shot if brought to the front, but at Prue's suggestion we put it quite central to the shot and it worked. Then there was a LOT of work getting the lighting right because of the reflective surfaces. As soon as we got the shots then the delivery drivers arrived to collect the metal monoliths and me and my little posse of workies scrambled to pack up and set up for the next shoot.

Love to know what you think.

images courtesy of real living and prue ruscoe