Hello everyone! How are you doing today? We have tons of sunshine and warmer temps so I’m feeling quite energized and ready to welcome in Spring. I thought today I would show a super easy project that I put together for you last month – I’ve been waiting to share it when it felt more appropriate for the season so now that March is here let’s think about Springtime decorating! This is a very quick and easy way to make paper flowers that you can tack all over your mood board or wall, or you can replace the thumb tack centers with a button or a badge or even a simple paper circle center in a complementary color and glue them to gifts instead of bows or you can make really large ones to put all over your walls for party decor. I’ve been excited lately about origami paper – no clue what brought that on – but I’m suddenly finding it gorgeous for the season so I’ve used sheets of it to make the flowers. Are you ready to see what I’ve come up with? I hope that you like it!
Step 1: Grab some metal tacks and paint the tops with 2-3 coats of your favorite nail polish color – let dry – I left mine out overnight.
Step 2: Fold origami paper (or paper that is perfectly square) in half, then half again so you have a small square. Cut into the square to create your flower using scissors. Petals do not need to be perfect, have fun and experiment. You can also free hand flowers if you like or you can cut out some cardboard templates in various sizes, trace around them, and cut out your flowers. This works if you want to create larger blooms as well.
Step 3: Cut into the paper to create different sizes of petals and mix different papers and patterns, too. I use 4-5 layers to create my flowers. You can even mix up texture – try incorporating newspaper (I love the look of Japanese and Chinese newspapers), crepe paper and tissue paper for some layers along with paper.
Step 4: Stack your petals to see how they look and rearrange or cut new ones as needed.
Step 5: Grab your thumb tack and stick it through the center! Now you can tack anywhere you’d like! You can also glue the petals in the center as you layer them and top it with a button or a circle you’ve cut using paper and add them to gifts, lamp shades or where you think you could add a little flower power in your home!
Easy and beautiful! I hope that you try making them and let me know how yours came out!
xo, Holly
(photos: holly becker/decor8)
I’m so thrilled to bring you today my review of Charlotte Hedeman Gueniau’s first decorating book, Happy Home – Everyday Magic for a Colourful Home. You may know Charlotte as the lady behind the super mega Danish lifestyle brand, Rice, or you may know her home since it appeared in my first book Decorate. Since Decorate published, Charlotte relocated to a new home that she renovated and decorated from the ground up in a colorful, friendly palette (complete with a glitter bathtub) and you can see most this color-filled castle in her new book. Want to have a peek inside?
In addition to Charlotte’s own space, you will see many homes belonging to her many friends and the bonus is that I’ve never spotted any of them before – even online – which makes this book even more special. Happy Home has everything you need to know about color, whether you love it or are scared to death to explore outside of your neutral world since it encourages you to experiment, play and not be so uptight about it – it’s only color, not hostage negotiation! Have fun!
I’m going to go a bit deeper though so this won’t be the standard reviews I do because in this case, the author happens to be my friend, so it’s tough for me to not let out friendship influence my opinion. Honestly, she could have filled it with photos of her home and wrote on a single page, I Love Color! and I would have bought a million copies because she is just a super special person. But you know what, if you like me and my style then the fact that I like her and her style may tell you that you can still trust my opinion and the gushing words that follow.
Charlotte is the author of two Danish cookbooks, both of which I own, but when I worked in her home in 2010 for Decorate and got to know her better on the shoot, I felt really confident that she could also do a decorating book. We stayed in touch and after she appeared in mine, I dropped the idea by my UK publisher that Charlotte should do a book and before I knew it, she was sitting on a book contract because they agreed with me – she had something truly special to share that not a lot of people have. I am so glad she went for it and even happier that I was chosen to write the foreword for Happy Home because Charlotte is a true authority on hue not only because of how she lives but through the hundreds of products she and her team design for Rice which bring so much joy into homes, especially here in Europe where her brand is so well known and loved.
Another thing about Charlotte that I adore is that whenever I’m around her, I’m so inspired by her clothes! She’ll show up in pink cords, neon striped shirt and a floral blazer topped with a big colorful brooch and a pair of sequined chucks on her feet and she thinks nothing of it. I adore that she owns who she is and her spirited design travels from her magical hands into everything she touches – her wardrobe, accessories, home, the food she prepares, party decor, her products… Even her car is a lovely sky blue Fiat. This is why I think she is the perfect voice for a book about colorful, bright decorating.
There is something about a woman who has such confidence and who wants to stand out and be noticed. You want some of what she has, you know? And for me, I have not only her friendship by now, her new book so there is always a little Charlotte in my life and I like that and I bet you will, too.
Please check out Happy Home because I know that you’ll walk away with color confidence that you may not have guessed you had locked inside. Her approach is so casual, her words so warm and encouraging, and everything she teaches from how to make your outdoor space brighter to infusing your home with bold happy hues, will give you a burst of ideas and the energy to see them through. With Spring on its way, it’s about time we turn to sunny yellow, bold blues, perky greens, fresh-picked picks and juicy orange tones to wash away this gray winter.
Charlotte, well done! I’m so happy for you and hope to see many more books from you in the very near future.
You can buy Happy Home on Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.com and it is soon to be released in German under the title, “Funky Home: Style und Design für ein farbenfrohes Zuhause” at Amazon.de. The book is also available in all good bookstores in North America and the UK.
(images: holly becker)
This morning our e-class kicked off and so for the next few hours, passwords and logins are being sent and we’re watching our students join in – it’s exciting! I always meet the coolest people… For instance, I met a nice photographer from Finland in the forum a few moments ago and her work really spoke to me. Her name is Kreetta Jarvenpaa and I encourage you to check out her photography portfolio. Here are only a few of my favorites below – her site is loaded with more.
I tip my hat to this lady because her work has such a sensitive quality to it. In some photos where she shows so little, she still manages to tell so much. Like the feather or the scene around the table. She is a true storyteller, don’t you think?
(images: Kreetta Jarvenpaa)
Do you love fabric as much as I do? I’m really liking Rashida Coleman-Hale’s latest designs for Cloud9 Fabrics which share her vision of Japanese Koi ponds that are floral, festive, geometric and fun! They would look gorgeous paired with patterns from the collections of other designers for a little mix and match fun. I love her modern interpretation of traditional Japanese motifs and the colorways are gorgeous and feel very current. Here are some of my favorites below.
I really like Ebb & Flow, Pennants Waving (in white) and Smile & Wave (in all colors). I’d love to use them for my sewing and gift wrapping projects but imagine using them for children’s clothing, quilt-making and even stool covers or seat cushions too.
What do you think?
(photos: cloud9 fabrics)
Can we talk about glass cabinets for a moment because I found some online that I have to share with you. I have two glass “Vitrines” but I’m thinking to sell one because the glass goes only halfway up with the bottom being solid wood. I’m thinking to swap it out for one with only glass like these from Lindebjerg Design in Denmark. My favorites are below shown in gray and the other is a shorter version in black for mounting to a wall. I would love to have a mountable glass vitrine like that in black (or white) for my kitchen wall, wouldn’t you? It would be gorgeous to display tea cups, tea tins, and spices inside, wouldn’t it?
These would be equally stunning in a bathroom with a clawfoot tub and a black and white tile floor or old wooden floors aged beautifully OR maybe even white or black penny tiles. Isn’t it fun to dream about the perfect bathroom? I could get lost in bathroom design. I want to ultimately own a home so I can make my interior dreams see the light of day but for now, I have to work with what I have in my rental apartment and that usually means buying what can be removed easily upon moving. So, back to cabinets!
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