Thursday 27 March 2014

Cris and Marcelo Rosenbaum at Home in Sao Paulo

After last weeks blog I asked the staff what is their favourite design style is at the moment and my daughter Kit, senior stylist for Alida and Miller decided that this home pretty well summed her up.
















Cris and Marcelo Rosenbaum at Home in Sao Paulo

What an amazing fun house, nothing dull about about this Eclectic Sao Paulo Home what so ever, every aspect of this place boasts out of control epicness( is that a word?) very much right up my alley, who ever said less is more? My main like about this house is that they don't take it to seriously, and they adopted the "any thing goes' attitude that lots of people seem to be scared of these days! the rules are there are no rules! 

Source: the Selby

Monday 17 March 2014

I Was Asked

The other day I was asked to describe my style. I know what Alida and Millers style is, basically what our clients are looking for, and then guiding them through the interior styling process, but then I realised that the reason why clients approach us is because they like our style.
This got me thinking, what is my style ? After quite a few hours of looking through books, magazines, photos of houses we have interior designed recently and the Internet, I realised that I have been greatly influence by the places I have lived or visited as a child. I grew up on the northern beaches, surrounded by that whole surf  and beach culture of the seventies, and if we weren't holidaying at the beach, we were holiday at my mothers family farm in country Victoria. The home that my mother grew up in was a 100yr farm house, with wooden floor boards and 14 ft ceilings and with vintage and antique furnishings every where, and to this day I have a great love of  old buildings with soring ceilings and old furniture. My second love would have to a beach house. My parents owned a holiday home at Nelsons Bay on the water on the east coast of NSW, and dotted all along the bay were these beautiful once brightly coloured fisherman's cottages bleached by the sun over the years and turning their exterior into soft pastels of blues, pinks, yellows and greens, sadly they have all been pulled down now, but my wonderful recall of these weather board and fibro homes still remain. Living in Byron Bay I am constantly reminded of my youth, with the farm and beach houses scattered around Byron and the hinterland, it brings back fantastic memories keeps me inspired, and constantly gives me exterior design ideas.
 Farm and beach homes to me equal organised clutter and I love that relaxed lived in feel. Books are a must, and colour is really important, but I like my kitchens white. Modern Bo Ho look is a style that I defiantly  learn towards. I think the seventies surf scene is what started that Bohemian feel with borrowing Granny's crochet blankets, velvet bed spreads from your mum and anything else you could scab of your relatives, but saying that I also like the sophisticated look of the Hampton's.
Industrial design is quite new in the interior design world, and I have come to appreciate that look
also, I think it steams back to the love of tall ceiling and old buildings, and the architecture of a room or building is a top priority.
 So, my Style in a nut shell: Farm/ Beach/Vintage/Bo Ho/Hampton's/ Byron Bay/Industrial Design
You can never have to many styles.


Beach Shacks



 







 


Byron Bay Beach Homes








www.atlanticbyronbay.com.au


 
www.Shannonfricke.com
 
The Hamptons Style



Love a white kitchen





You Gotta have Books



My Take on Modern Bo HO





This room pretty well sums me up


 
  www.shannonfricke.com.

A room that has Architectual features will always be a WOW

The love of old buildings will never die


Saturday 8 March 2014

My favourite room in the house.


My favourite room in the house would have to be the kitchen. For me personally I love cooking for family and friends, and watched my children  grow up around the kitchen table. Professionally it is the room  that Alida and Miller get most excited about when we are commissioned to design and fit out a Kitchen for one of our clients. We all know for re-sale value that the kitchen and the bathroom are were we should put most of our budget, but even when you don't intend to sell your home, you should never compromise on a kitchen.
I know that the standard U shape kitchen is the classic design, and don't get me wrong that lay out is fine, but over the years having designed quite a few kitchens I like the galley style kitchen the  most. I have found that style  lends itself to gatherings or parties with the host still able to join in, while the guests are able to sit at the island bench and have a drink and the kitchen itself is large enough for friends to help out and not get court under each others feet. I also prefer the kitchen to be part of a dinning area or family room where you can still see all the action and a galley kitchen design really seems to fit this brief.  The space should be visually appealing and have a focal point or a cool feature that draws your eye into the room, which  should be the very centre of your home. This feature could be as small as a beautiful bowl for fruit, a gorgeous bunch of flowers to a magnificent marble bench top or an over the top oven like an Agar. Your kitchen must always be functional, and always with your taste and the way you use your kitchen in mind. Some kitchens are very small and very little cooking goes on, others are to feed a army, some are U shaped or lead onto an out door eating area and others have views that make you forget what you might be cooking for dinner. But I think the most important role for your kitchen is that it should always be accommodating, firstly for your family and then for all your friends that want to hang out in your amazing kitchen.

 Kitchens with views to die for.



 



 Small but perfectly formed




My favourite kind of Kitchen, one with a table .




 
 Kitchens from around the world.
  

Scandinavia

 Cuba

New York.


 
Mongolia

Italy
 
On the top of my must have list is good storage.
Here are some great storage ideas.