Pippa Jameson Interiors: Blog, Hints, tips, trends and advice for the home » Interior Styling

Book review: Nomad by Sibella Court

Meghan Plowman — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 08:14:20 +0000

A gift I received this Christmas (or rather gifted to myself with gift money!) was the newest title from my very favorite Aussie stylist Sibella Court. ‘Nomad’, explores how you can easily create wonderful nooks and installations within your home to display your much loved travel mementos. As usual, Sibella’s beautifully styled pages rekindled my urge to travel and explore the back streets and hidden gems in ‘my list’ cities like New York, London and Paris. I hope you enjoy reading this as much as I did!

Chasing the sweet things in life

Carrie Graham-Clarke — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 10:24:43 +0000

One of my favourite blogs to read has to be Sweet Paul, written by New York City based, Norwegian, Paul Lowe – a food and prop stylist. His craft creations and yummy recipes are used in many editorial and commercial projects; but most notably in his own online and free publication, Sweet Paul Magazine.

Paul’s Oslo heritage can be seen in all aspects of his work. Cleverly working light, texture and colour in an effortlessly chic way. Crafting also comes naturally to Paul which gives him the edge to think out of the box and create something truly special. His beautiful images and food creations will not only make your mouth water, but they’ll leave you inspired. Sweet Paul’s recipes are easy to follow and due to the rustic, fun nature of the images – you don’t feel intimidated to try them. The elegant recipes are for home, friends and family; rather than Masterchef professionals! All 172 pages of the Winter 2011 Sweet Paul Magazine are brimming with original and festive ideas for you to try. Personal favourites from this issue include ‘Make Your Own Paper’ Pg 28, ‘Christmas Pudding Cupcakes’ Pg 37, and the feature on a homemade ‘Natural Christmas’ Pg 53. The feature on crafting your own wreaths {Pg 118} offers a creative option to the old classics. Oh, and the Divine Chocolate feature {Pg 160}!! There’s just too make great features to choose from.

To view the Winter 2011 Sweet Paul Magazine please click here.

Vintage inspiration

Pippa Jameson — Mon, 05 Dec 2011 08:00:36 +0000

The following images are from the blog, ‘My Shabby Streamside Studio’, and belong to the talented Sandra Foster. Her pure and simple style is breathtaking, combining white on white interiors with pretty vintage accessories.

Tips on vintage styling:
- Use old medicine bottles as vases, clear glass look best.
- Use old french linen as a tablecloth, embroidered edging looks super cute.
- Hang vintage bags on door knobs or if you have one, on the corner of your metal bedstead.
- Shabby chic some old pine chairs, take a look at our guide on ‘How to Shabby Chic furnitre’.
- White metal bird cages are still a firm favourite, try filling one with tea-lights and hang it above your dining table as a feature light.

Stylish Christmas table setting

Meghan Plowman — Sat, 03 Dec 2011 19:00:08 +0000

I have certainly noticed that Christmas is becoming more personalised and crafty from year to year. The possibilities of how you decorate and style your dining table, gift wrap and trees are endless and provide you with opportunities to take the time to enjoy more than just the food and presents! I recently stumbled across this image of a gorgeously designed Christmas spread, which successfully combines rustic, contemporary, earthy, romantic and beachy styling. My favourite touch is the hanging pine cones! What is your theme this year for the festive season? Image via: Sweet Paul

Original needlecraft books from the 1950′s

Pippa Jameson — Tue, 22 Nov 2011 11:11:38 +0000

Hello everyone, I’m afraid it’s been a while since my last post as I have been out of the office for a while, but I’m back and now and have some fantastic posts coming up.

I was in the middle of sorting through some bits at home and whilst doing so, I came across these original needlecraft books from the 1950′s; there seems to be a vintage theme on my blog at the moment! They belonged to my grandmother, who was crazy about needlecraft, and I think they’re fantastic. The front cover of the first image is especially interesting as 50′s interiors are so fashionable, people are paying a lot of money to buy original pieces like this; especially the sideboard. The 1950′s paint swatch card is from Erwinhouse, I thought it would be interesting to see all the colours together. Most of them are a bit heavy for my taste but I am a fan of the Chelsea gray, I could see this one amongst the Farrow & Ball colours.

Heart Home Magazine shoot

Pippa Jameson — Tue, 18 Oct 2011 23:36:40 +0000

Hello everyone, sorry for the lack of posts recently, things have been really hectic with the launch of our new style service, and so blogging has been really difficult.
I thought I would post some pictures from the shoot I styled for Heart Home magazine as we have just received the high res pics. The magazine launched last month and has been really well received, well done guys and thanks for the front cover! xx

Pippa launches new online interior advice service

Pippa Jameson — Tue, 04 Oct 2011 13:14:39 +0000

Pippa Jameson Interiors launches a new online interior style advice service, ‘Ask the Expert’.

It’s a very exciting day today as we have just launched our new Online Interior Style service, ‘Ask The Expert‘. If you need help and advice with your home, decorating problems, furniture questions and general style advice then this will be just right for you. We are a team of industry stylists on hand to answer all of your decorating dilemmas no matter how big or small.

We realised that there was a gap in the market for people looking for quick solutions to their questions that are too small to warrant employing a full-time Interior Designer but still need the expertise of an industry professional. We see this as an affordable and accessible service that can benefit anyone that is looking for some accurate interior style advice.

The service can be bought directly from the website, launching with an introductory rate of just £38 for an email consultation. To begin your consultation, simply click ‘Ask The Experts‘ at the top of the home page and follow the instructions. We guarantee a personal response within 5 working days and are confident that you will like what we say, but, if for any reason you are not entirely satisfied then we will refund your money.

As the previous Deputy Interiors Editor at BBC Good Homes magazine, with over 15 years’ experience in the industry, I wanted to share my knowledge and experience with my readers.

For more information on this service follow this link

Sarastros – one of the best theatre restaurants in town

Pippa Jameson — Wed, 21 Sep 2011 13:54:54 +0000

Enter a world of drama, passion and excitement where exuberant colour, glittering display and joyous music meet exotic cuisine to create a truly unforgettable dining experience. Sarastros restaurant on Drury Lane is where I met my aunt and sister for super last night and I had forgotten how fantastic it was. I last went about 10 years ago and it’s still as magical. “It’s like walking in to the most amazing theatre props cupboard” said my auntie, who’s an actress.

You have the choice of sitting downstairs in one of the many booths or upstairs in a box. The whole place in decorated to within an inch of it’s life with random props such as witches, costume jewellery and fake fruit hanging in every conceivable corner but somehow it works. Best of all they have performances on Sunday and Monday that consist of violinists and opera singers. They put on an amazing show with lots of humour and involve the audience. I can’t say too much otherwise it will ruin the surprise, you really must see for yourself. Oh, and the food is lovely too!

Trend: Colour blocking at home

Meghan Plowman — Mon, 15 Aug 2011 09:00:23 +0000

A firm trend on the runways for the past year is colour blocking; a trend which I would love to also see being experimented with in interior styling. The key to success with this style? Keep the combination to 3 or 4 bold, pure colours paired with a neutral for some grounding. The results are an explosion of vibrancy! I like that this look can be adapted to just a corner study if you wanted or a whole living area if you were really brave! It’s a minimal look that also lends itself to the introduction of prints and other personal pieces. A few images below for inspiration…

Colour blocking on the runway, source Mariano Vivanco

Vibrant separates, source MCMagazine

Home in technicolor, source: Shrapnel Contemporary

Amy Chin beautifully mixes hues in her prop styling

25 Most Popular Interior Design Web Tools by Sharon Harlon

Pippa Jameson — Fri, 08 Jul 2011 07:00:29 +0000

I was contacted by Sharon Harlon who writes articles for Interior Design Degree , a website dedicated to providing students with the information and tools needed in order to purse their interior design degree. She mentioned that she had just written the following piece and would I like to feature it on my blog. I thought the article was great, with lots of useful tips on software and websites for anyone that is looking to start a career in Interior Design. I hope you find it useful and thank you Sharon!

Interior designers today have a wide choice of design tools available right through their keyboards. You can find design software that is free to use and provides the ability to share your 3D designs with peers and clients. Paint and flooring companies, among many other interior design businesses, offer swatches and the ability to test colors against other design elements. Web sites also offer workshops, inspiration and access to materials that you may have never heard about before. All these online tools are provided in this list of the 25 most popular interior design Web tools available today.

Image: The California Shutter Company, styled by Pippa Jameson

Design Software

3Dream: Quickly and easily design and re-design your space in 2D and 3D then take snapshots to print, email or share with others. 3Dream has over 7500 models, textures and materials in our product library for you to design with.
Arrange-a-Room: Ladies’ Home Journal provides this new interacvtive tool, courtesy of Better Homes and Gardens. Use this Shockwave plug-in tool to rearrange or design any room in a house.
Autodesk Homestyler: Use this design tool for its drag-and-drop ease in layout and decorate with thousands of items and real products. Visualize in 3D and share your designs with others. They also support viewing shared designs on mobile devices.
Design A Room: Armstrong products provides tools that allow users to design rooms from the floor up. Designs are categorized by design styles, and the emphasis is on flooring. Share your designs with peers.
Design Your Dorm: DYD is a Web-based 3-D interior design tool that allows college students to customize their dorm room interiors and purchase their favorite room selections online. But, interior designers can use this tool as well for one-room designs. This tool allows collaboration.
Floor Planner: This may be the easiest and best looking way to create and share interactive floor plans online. With simple drag and drop tools you can make accurate plans within minutes all on scale. Floorplanner BASIC is free for personal use. The PLUS account offers more space if you need it.
Google SketchUp: Designers are using this innovative tool to create anything from coffee pots to skyscrapers. Re-imagine your living space and create model buildings for Google Earth. The free version is easy to use, but does not let users exchange files with other software, create documents or generate reports.
MyDeco: Plan a home in realistic 3D for free with this Web site’s tool. The software includes a large range of real furniture, and you can get feedback and help from the online community. You also can enter your designs into competitions.
Plan3D: This planning and design tool is built into a Web page. From basement to roof or just one room at a time, you can create or remodel a home. Plan3D uses dimensions in blueprint-like mode or in realistic 3D. Plan3D comes with over six gigabytes of 3D furniture and 3D cabinets, landscape items and textures for surfaces.
PlanningWiz: PlanningWiz is an award winning design tool providing online simplified floor planning that supports consumer decisions in retail and real estate. Prospective buyers launch PlanningWiz from your website to quickly furnish and visualize themselves the space in real-time.
See My Design: The goal here is to help you explore design and decorating ideas online through interactive tools that are supported by information about design styles, principles and elements, painting and color theory, room elements and design examples.

Websites

American Society of Interior Designers: This site contains members-only tools and open source materials for anyone interested in interior design. Great source to learn about sustainable design, accessibility and design standards.
Apartment Therapy: This site intends to save the world, “one room at a time.” Great inspiration for apartments, condos, homes and offices — anywhere that requires design ideas for small spaces.
Architonic: This is an independent resource for architecture and design, providing ideas and inspiration for everything from homes to offices and from bathrooms to back yards. Be sure to browse through their carefully considered showcase of over 93.000 premium design products and materials.
HGTV: Home and Garden television provides a site that any interior decorator cannot live without. Design rooms, refresh your color palettes, stay on top of design trends and learn landscaping through the advice provided by professionals.
IKEA Hackers: Designers hack, personalize and re-purpose IKEA products into new items, providing inspiration along the way. This site has been running strong since 2006.
Interior Design: Each month, the magazine and its Web site feature a variety of outstanding projects, the latest new products across all disciplines, industry news and more. With a print circulation of more than 76,000 (paid), and over 170,000 monthly unique visitors online, Interior Design offers an unparalleled level of design-hungry readership.
Inventables: Inventables is the innovator’s hardware store, selling all kinds of materials in small quantities for purchase with a credit card. Product developers, researchers, artists, and inventors purchase products from the store every day to build prototypes and test concepts.
Low Impact Living: You may want to decrease your impact, or you may run across a client who is obsessed with low impact living. If so, this site serves perfectly as a primer on low-impact living and a resource for tools, furniture and design elements that can help reduce that impact dramatically.
U.S. Green Building Council: Learn how green buildings are certified, sign up for courses, workshops and newsletters, and explore green building research through this non-profit site. Their Green Home Guide is a great resource, and also a place to list your business if you focus on green design.

Other Tools

Behr Paint Workbook: Register to use the workbook, where you can find colors, gain inspiration and start projects based upon Behr paint colors.
Colors Pallete Generator: Upload an image to generate a color palette based on the image’s primary colors. Useful for quickly grabbing a particular color within an image for inspiration.
DreamDraper: Create window treatments and caculate yardage as well as create new space plans with this tool. DreamDraper has hundreds of furniture and accessory templates for every room, including appliances, fixtures, rugs, windows, doors, fireplaces, plants and staircases. All of these items can easily be re-sized and re-positioned to represent exactly the perimeter of a room and the furniture in it.
PANTONE Paints + Interiors: “The System” consists of over 1,900 colors in cotton, paper and digital formats. Drawing insight and direction from the fashion, beauty and industrial design markets, the PANTONE View Color Planner forecasting tool rounds out the System.
Stainmaster Carpet Design Tools: Use the “vision board,” or choose a room and style it up to see the results. Learn about various carpet types and styles as well as pattern designs and current trends.

3Dream: Quickly and easily design and re-design your space in 2D and 3D then take snapshots to print, email or share with others. 3Dream has over 7500 models, textures and materials in our product library for you to design with.
Arrange-a-Room: Ladies’ Home Journal provides this new interacvtive tool, courtesy of Better Homes and Gardens. Use this Shockwave plug-in tool to rearrange or design any room in a house.
Autodesk Homestyler: Use this design tool for its drag-and-drop ease in layout and decorate with thousands of items and real products. Visualize in 3D and share your designs with others. They also support viewing shared designs on mobile devices.
Design A Room: Armstrong products provides tools that allow users to design rooms from the floor up. Designs are categorized by design styles, and the emphasis is on flooring. Share your designs with peers.
Design Your Dorm: DYD is a Web-based 3-D interior design tool that allows college students to customize their dorm room interiors and purchase their favorite room selections online. But, interior designers can use this tool as well for one-room designs. This tool allows collaboration.
Floor Planner: This may be the easiest and best looking way to create and share interactive floor plans online. With simple drag and drop tools you can make accurate plans within minutes all on scale. Floorplanner BASIC is free for personal use. The PLUS account offers more space if you need it.
Google SketchUp: Designers are using this innovative tool to create anything from coffee pots to skyscrapers. Re-imagine your living space and create model buildings for Google Earth. The free version is easy to use, but does not let users exchange files with other software, create documents or generate reports.
MyDeco: Plan a home in realistic 3D for free with this Web site’s tool. The software includes a large range of real furniture, and you can get feedback and help from the online community. You also can enter your designs into competitions.
Plan3D: This planning and design tool is built into a Web page. From basement to roof or just one room at a time, you can create or remodel a home. Plan3D uses dimensions in blueprint-like mode or in realistic 3D. Plan3D comes with over six gigabytes of 3D furniture and 3D cabinets, landscape items and textures for surfaces.
PlanningWiz: PlanningWiz is an award winning design tool providing online simplified floor planning that supports consumer decisions in retail and real estate. Prospective buyers launch PlanningWiz from your website to quickly furnish and visualize themselves the space in real-time.
See My Design: The goal here is to help you explore design and decorating ideas online through interactive tools that are supported by information about design styles, principles and elements, painting and color theory, room elements and design examples.