One of a Kind Pieces for One of a Kind people
This week, I created a YouTube video to show buyers how I create the beautiful diffusers for my lampshades.
Though Edison-style lightbulbs are available, they don’t always suit every interior style scheme, especially if you’re going for a more cosy, less industrial look.
Watch how easy it is to assemble a diffuser for your lamp shades. I’m considering having these as kits in my shop as an alternative way to hang and present my artwork.
This week, my YouTube video addressed a question from one of my subscribers. They asked for a video explaining how the duplex fitting can be used. I show how they’re used to suspend a lampshade from above. Lampshades can be suspended from a ceiling cable or wires on either side of a bed. We often see the suspending of smaller lampshades in industrial-style or fishing rod-style floor lamps.
In the video, I show details of the spider attachment. You get to see how I easily swap over various styles of lampshades. It’s less bothersome to do the same with the usual fittings.
Please ensure your lampshade has the duplex fitting when you buy from my shop. This ensures ease of swapping over. This enables you to use an empire shape. You can suspend it from above or place it on top of a table lamp.
Below is a bonus video showing how the same duplex frame on my Empire lamps can also be used as a table lamp. In essence, you don’t need to turn the lampshade upside down.
This week I was delivering professional development training and facilitated workshops in Manchester in the north of the UK and back down in London.
On the way back home I noticed how all the HQ buildings in the area had beautiful Xmas trees. Next year I will do a post on the line up of Xmas trees at corporate HQ buildings.
It told me something about how just putting up a Christmas tree in the spacious reception areas of these building is important for converting a sense of arrival and welcoming.
Seeing how the facilities teams of these massive organisation seriously consider the decorations made me realise that when we work from home we must also create our version of the well dressed welcoming Christmas tree for people that join our meetings online in virtual meetings.
3 top tips for more festive spirit in your virtual and online office scene
What will you do decor wise this season to bring cheer to the office and team?
Look up from the main hall at Ashridge house and you will marvel at the amazing craftwork and design choices of those with an eye for style and culture hundreds of years ago.
Overall my visits this week made me notice the extent of my eclectic appreciations, I can be enthralled by ancient design and crafts through to being captivated by 21st century crafting of our cultural practices from brands like Formaly Known as Hackles.
While visiting some London City offices recently, I found some authentic Japandi. Working as a facilitator corporate trainer/ instructor I was able to see how the combination of textures used in the external meeting rooms and breakout area fittings created a captivating and calming atmosphere. Colours are neutral and highlighted by the colours from natural elements such as metals and woods and watery looking glass panels.
If you want to create the Japandi look in your home office here’s five things to remember
Comment below to share what your favourite elements are in Japandi office or home interiors. Do you like light Japandi or dark Japandi?
Previously I complained about companies not getting the walls of the training room right for instructors in this post, here.
But recently I was impressed when I visited one major international corporation in the business district of London and saw a well thought out design scheme for delivering learning.
The whole space and training rooms were all thoughtfully designed to inspire and lock in the learning and development of their talent. Read the captions in the images below to discover how the design details support learning.
The designers of this training space clearly recognized the importance of walls for facilitating learning. They understood that walls play a crucial role for trainers and corporate instructors in enhancing the educational experience.
This week’s photo blog showcases the impact of wall decor in corporate training room environments. From functional and stylish fittings to the carefully crafted calligraphy on the walls, each element contributes to creating a memorable impression and inspires innovative ways of working.
We can take some of these ideas and incorporate them into our home office wall decor. For instance, having a large poster with inspirational quotes can serve as a personal reminder of how we want to work. Additionally, when planning the treatment of our walls, why settle for plain paint? Consider creating a space that includes a glass panel for chalkboard sessions with your team. This setup encourages more interactive meetings and gives leaders and managers a reason to turn on their cameras and engage effectively.
The AI created the feature image based on what it read about the blog. The four images above are what I took myself. Other parts of the blog show examples of AI generated images to create design scenarios.
AI created the featured image above after it read my post. I wouldn’t say I liked the first one it chose, but I settled on this one as the colours tied in with the green and gold that I talked about this week. This week, I’m reviewing the different themes in bookshelf backdrop styling that I do for my own shelf in my 9 to 5.
You can theme your shelf or backdrop beyond the colours of the books. The pictures below show how I have fallen into the trend of colour-coded bookshelves and am working to curate more meaningful staging for myself.
Consider curating talking pieces on your shelves to help you connect with colleagues. Avoid those bland vanilla Items you got because the influencer told you they look great. It might be a good idea to plan your shelf styling. You could take a picture on your phone and get the AI to rehash it to produce a simple outline like the one I did below. This might give you a sense of where the lines of the styling need altering so that they form that V shape or pyramid going across.
Remember that it’s all about your personal branding (the extent to which you, in your backdrop, epitomise the organisation or company brand/ strategy), especially if you are a leader. It is also about your well-being through the social connection that can arise from extended chats about you and your curated collection. So what you place on the shelves should open up tales of your interesting travels, curious pieces of art you bought because you liked what the artist said or the strange way they made their art. There could also be pieces that tell of your scrapes and how you got through things; some examples below have those.
Whatever you do with your shelves in your 9 to 5 backdrop, ensure they are on message for you. Remember, it is your home, but it also plays a significant role in your personal branding and your potential in the organisation. The way we present ourselves on camera is now as crucial as the attire we used to carefully select for meetings with the boss.
Our backdrop is our new jacket.
What do you think or do about your backdrop for meetings? Think about it if you want your professional personality to shine beyond using the standard images available in Teams and Webex. Zoom, etc.
The WordPress AI generated the featured image above of the gold lighting, after it read my post. I think it’s OK as an illustration of the mood. It seems to understand what my blog post is about home offices and new forms of lighting. But it does not represent what I created, but I’m glad it didn’t use my design. It only used the colours I’m talking about. So that’s what makes it OK.
Last week I wrote about preparing for the design competition, using my inspiration from visits to the design centre in Chelsea and noticing other lighting creators offering their variations of the black and gold lighting theme. This week I can report that i have submitted my work to the competition. Below shows the other images and videos I took of the later part of my process.
The featured imaged is AI. The machine computed what my blog was about and created a picture with that massive light with feathers. It made me chuckle 🤣.There is another AI generated image at the end of the blog. However, all of the images in the middle were taken by me.
This week I had some time mid week to wander around my favourite interior trade suppliers in Chelsea Design Centre. Being a West Londoner, hailing from Fulham Lots Road is very familiar to me.
Below shows more images of things that took my fancy. They show trimmings or lighting features that either conjured up excitement or a sense of cosy familiarity for me…
Continue reading “Exploring Interior Trade Suppliers for Lighting Design Inspiration | DCCH”On search for design inspiration, I went to the Wow house, down the road from me at Chelsea Design centre. The exhibition is in its third year, which means that I was there at the first Wow house see blog link. But then I had used visiting the Wow house as a tactic to get me out of the house after my pandemic imposed social anxieties.
Now that those wowes are behind me I had a bit more pep in my step as I visited this time. Now, in 2924, I was purposefully looking out for the latest thinking about home office design and where the field is on shelf styling and lampshade trends. This post is about examples of home office styling and accessorising I saw. I have pulled together my top five to comment on.
Study One: Conceptualising Studio Spaces
Subscribers will remember that I love the fantastical in art and this studio by Fosbury Architecture has done it in room design, furnishings and finishings. They have ensured that all work surfaces receive the maximum levels of cosy because every office artefact, tool and piece of equipment is covered by the fabric of the sponsor Dedar. I loved the sumptuous nature of it. It certainly is an answer to the current calling for cosy office or cozy office decor as they say in USA. I later sat in this room with 20 other people when we were on the guided tour.
Sitting there in the corner gave me a real sense of belonging and feelings of affinity with the others on the tour. It felt safe, cocoon like. It has given me some ideas about the future of training room design, that I have long complained to my colleagues about. Perhaps training room studios could be like this and the cocooning is the butterflies that will emerge from their day of corporate training.
Study Two: Functional Reality.
There were also office and study displays to be found in the showroom windows adjacent to the exhibition. The example below from Ligne Roset. This shows the reality of what people tend to buy. I do love the warmth of a dark walnut wood. It might be the new burled wood style that is coming in.
Study Three: Global Style Influences
East meets west. Japan has an influence in the room set up below. By Anahita Rigby’s cool office with a strange zen yet industrious feel. It was one of the rooms that enjoyed sitting in for a long time just absorbing all the textures.
Below are videos of lighter versions of studies.
Study four: How to elegantly place your desk in your bedroom
The exquisite desk arrangement in the Courtyard bedroom of Veere Grenney showing restrained elegance for Schumacher.
I think you can hear other viewers giggling about another room, they were hinting at how one of the rooms reminded them of a cosy country cottage. I left the sound on as the music seemed to find to fit the calm feel of this desk arrangement.
Study Five: Library Decor on Stage
And lastly putting on a grand appearance (his background explains why) is the Library by Andrea Benedettini. He used to be a Ballet Dancer and the Library was inspired Swan Lake and theatre curtains. I love the ballet and have seen many productions and this library setting was significant for me as it including floor to ceiling curtains to cover the walls. Andrea Benedetti is said (by the tour guide) to have been inspired by stage curtains for the wall draping. It was beautiful. I love that the overall look acknowledges the importance of presenting those bookshelves. And this room is a great exemplar for shelf styling cabinetry integrated into a room.
Overall I found I was full of wonder at the wow house. I was struck by how every study room appeared to use fabric as a wall covering. There was also deeply considered treatment of the ceilings as a feature or complement the room
Metal tended to feature in the lighting for all office desks and shelves so this might influence what I do with future lighting collections too.
Art was another big feature for shelf and desk displays, with nearly every room acknowledgeing the important role that art plays for personalising the space and conveying the inhabitant’s unique personality. I particularly loved how in the Martin Moore kitchen with Studio Vero (Romanov Brihi and Venetia Rudebeck) they purposefully curated and displayed green and organic themed art for shelves in their kitchen. It complimented the beautiful green and black marble surfaces they used, to make the space feel like a place to spend time and truly enjoy.
As a bonus i have added the Colefax and Fowler Morning Room by Lucy Hammond Giles. For some reason this was the room where everyone seemed to just want to sit in and rest and take in the decor.
What are the best office set ups or studies you have seen? What did you like about the five studies I’ve looked at?
Like or comment below.
I was watching BBC news while away from home and noticed my eye drawn to what the presenter was saying. It was a psychology Professor in Sheffield interview on BBC.
I noticed how it seemed like he had carefully arranged how his office set up would appear on screen.
Continue reading “Strategic Shelf Styling for Effective Personal Branding in Virtual Teams”When it comes to home office decor themes I discovered that have my preferences.
I don’t like the cold, stark, hard surfaces office look. It might seem futuristic (very 21st century to us Baby-boomers). But those images used to be the standard result of search for office decor or desk style as far back into the early 2000’s. It felt boyish, channeling teenage son lone woolf, building code and gaming in their bedroom and I just couldn’t relate.
To the other extreme I do not like the overtly feminine big frilly country kitchen table, make shift office desk and ramshackle bookshelf disorganised recipe books; propped up iPad against tiny metal pots of lavender look. That was a trend for a while, fitting in with a cottage core or rustic chic.
There is also the girl boss look, I see with some YouTubers which is less chintzy but has neon name signs on white walls and lots of fluffy textures incorporated whether the a macrame wall hanging or stringy plants dangling from shelves or wall (for the backdrop). These are combined with sheepskin covered chairs or armrests. It does give off a dreamy fantasy of what a girl’s world of business could be like (pink fluffy and pretty). It seems to be playing at being in business and those of us women working in corporate or refugees from freelancing know that, it sure ain’t no game. However I get the need to convey the light ethereal fantastical vision contrasting the hard realities of our capitalist system.
Instead, I like a style that that emanates wisdom, elegance and being grounded. The moody and cozy home office style is indeed a theme on Pinterest. When you look at those images you see a bold cohesive comfortable and elegant look.
The cozy home office
Be mindful, though. This look isn’t that shining high polished look that you might find in Dubai, Knightsbridge or Belgravia show houses where our top interior professionals produce. Perhaps akin to what you see in TV show Buying London (Netflix 2024). No, this cozy home office look is somewhere that you and I will feel comfortable doing everyday business because it is as if our friend down the road was the cabinet maker and our interior design pal (old friend from local comprehensive/ grammar school) helped with sourcing of fabrics for the wall and space planning of our furniture.
Continue reading “Intensive Pigment Palettes: Creating a Moody and Cozy Home Office Aesthetic”I realised how much I appreciate some classical English stately home decor from my trip to Ashridge House in Hertfordshire recently. I was surprised as I thought a lot of my style comes from my Caribbean heritage and London urban living and my immersion in corporate training.
But I discovered how much I love the juxtaposition of earthy stone tones with the bling of gold frames that can be found in some English Stately homes like Ashridge.
The amazing thing about Ashridge house is that it used to be where Henry the VIII and Elizabeth 1st lived. It is also famous for various films like Beauty and the Beast, Malificent, killing Eve and More.
Continue reading “ANCIENT CLASSICS: MY STYLE TOO”
My return to and finding new uses for the small drum lampshades have sparked fresh creativity and renewed interest.
Currently the empire and coolie (more correctly conical) style of lampshade is all the rage. This created my dilemma, as fewer people were buying the drum shades, especially in the small sizes that I make. And I had made a lot to experiment and sharpen my practice of adding more decorative elements to them like the metal upholstery studs as I’ve always loved that classic look.
But, this week I set on a spree to rediscover what the styling options were for the plethora of small 15cm drum lampshades that I have in store (not all are in the online shop).
Continue reading “The Drums are not Beaten”I’d been noticing how my eye has been drawn to organic and natural materials recently. Then later discovered that this is not a recent phenomenon. Natural and organic has been the core of my decision making around decor and product design but it sometimes got hidden. This is the story of the uncovering.
Recently I’d been playing with the idea of natural trimmings, naming it, my natural calling while trying to figure out what this means for future designs products and art.
Some of my recent inspirational pieces were the Samuel and Sons jute trimming collection. There is something quite ironic around having the basic and most ancient of materials used in contemporary and extravagantly decorative ways.
Continue reading “Rediscovering Organic & natural”Write about your dream home.
When people think about their dream home, they often think about the broad architecture. They might also dream about the interior space, structure and design. But their imaginings often miss considering the tiny decor details like the composition and likely colours needed in styling their shelves, open storage and library bookcases. Instead those finer details are left to chance. Then what we see at best their shelf display is about arranging things neatly. And at worst the shelf seems to curiously be like an exposed front draw with tens (or 100s) of items drowning in layers of sticky dust.
This post gives a few ideas for styling your shelf. It especially shows you how to use pieces of shelf art to anchor the colour scheme and inspire what items should go on the shelf and how to artfully display them so the scene is an amplification of the art.
Continue reading “Dreamy Shelf Styling”What makes a good leader?
This bloganuary prompt (what makes a good leader?) made me chip in mid week and roll over to Sunday. We are seeing more reports on successful leaders being able to follow a variety of elements within the organisation. Some of the elements include what their followers say is of concern. Leaders today also must follow guidance and advice from a range of stakeholders. Later you will read how important it is that leaders get the very soft and aesthetic elements right too.
Following rules for shelf styling. Clumping elements in threes, fives or sevens, Maximising the layers, using lighting, botanicals, colour and painting tactically to get an inspired feminine industrious vibe.
Zone into wellbeing elements like designer iconic candles and image on a brochure i liked.
My last post of 2023. This balances out the product showcase post on Sunday 17th.
I went on an interior styling intensive course at Chelsea College of Art and Design. It strangely felt like revisiting my old employer twice. Once because I was previously course director of a MA programme at UAL and second because I worked for the Tate one summer in the membership department at the Tate Britain (Millbank) site in the 1990’s. My work at Tate Britain meant that I then went on to do my arts management dissertation comparing Tate and Art institute of Chicago’s membership strategies. Ahh, those were the days. Sorry I digress.
Anyway, last week, the tutor for my interior styling was the amazing Emma who took us through the practical steps of being one of those people who set up the shots for glossy interiors magazines as well as the communication collateral for big brands.
Continue reading “A Better Style”I visited Wales this week and happened to drive by Cardiff castle 🏯.
I first noticed all the Japanese business people walking past and admiring the different gargoyles and statues on the castle as they walked hurriedly in their smart business dress. I too thought about the makers of the stone and metal castings and carvings. But I wondered about their daily toil. I imagined the working conditions of those aged artisans who made their creative marks luckily lasting 100s of years.
Continue reading “Cardiff Castle Inspo 🏰”I visited Covent Garden for a meal and did some shopping. There I also noticed how the artistic contribution features m in our everyday encounters. Sometimes we must look deeper to notice how the hidden artist gets to express their work through mundane things like our retail experiences and our eating out.
We do! In my 9 to 5 I’ve been working at home for meetings and got a chance to visit our HQ in person this week.
Why did I start designing and making elegant lampshades that soften our office table lamps? Here I recall three parts of a conversation forming reasons why I found it vital to begin this quest and where I am now.
In 2012, I complained to an interior design/ architect friend (I was sharing a Chelsea office with) that we saw too much hard surfaces in office decor (albeit for durability and health and safety) when organisations should be enacting the softening up to echo their espoused prioritisation for well-being and more human side of organisational life.
Continue reading “Elegant Lampshade for Table Lamps: Remembering How it all began”This week I experimented with the new smart French bell-shaped lampshades in gorgeous vibrant colours and curious textures. These new pieces are a start of an impressive new collection. More cool in situ images of these lampshades will be on the Wednesday posts as they will be at the product showcase. I’m excited to share items in the product showcase posts every two weeks. And you can find the product showcase tab under its little tab on the website menu here.Click to find the product showcase
I’ve been immersed in producing decor items lately. It will be wonderful to finally share my most recent efforts with more people online as I list items for sale in my Etsy shop and insert fabulous images here. Below is a little taster of items coming up in the product showcase soon.
See you next time.
In London this week we had two big exhibits. Decorex and Frieze were on this week.
Wednesday, I popped into Decorex ( the interior designers’ top show) and found they were showing three big design trends with lighting. The new styles included natural lampshades, ethereal and fantasy. Below are some photos showing those themes. It was showing in Olympia London, and I felt very at home, since I am from the locality. It was my first time going to Decorex, and I got inspired to do a booth there in future as I was inspired by a small cushion maker’s tiny booth. That could be me, I thought. Not particularly making cushions but instead offering my items to the interior design trade.
The second show was Frieze which according to the tour guide “is the Hollywood of the art world”. It was beautifully set up in Regent’s park. I was very impressed. Slightly overwhelmed and a little bit intimidated at the beginning.
It was great to see so many giant paintings. Some cost £300,000 to a million. Others cost about £6,000. Our guide told us about the process of the gallery pitching then a selection panel decides which work to exhibit. The dominant theme this year and recently is about showing consciousness. There were fewer north European artists and more artworks from voices we don’t always hear about, like native Americans, Vietnam and Brazillian. The underlying themes also had much to do with sustainability, social good, or responsibility.
I’d like to attend next year and will plan to make a whole day out of it with a nice lunch and make it more social.
I had the famous High tea at Fortnum and Mason’s to celebrate my big birthday this week. I was delighted to see in their 2012 refurbished Diamond Jubliee Team rooms that the chairs had lovely little strips of decorative nails.
The shop’s website tells us that the 300-year-old space (where the world comes for Afternoon Tea- when in London) was originally the Fortnum’s family apartment and the shop’s interior decor section before its refurbishment in 2012. So I felt really in good company. The significance came together when I spotted the clever use of nailhead trim, adding some classic lux detail to their beautiful teal upholstery.
Above are some examples of the coordinated tableware and beautiful tablescape that comes with High Tea.
The images above show how they gave us a nice portion of protein at my High Tea. I had a lobster omelette, and others had fish and strips of steak on light vegetables. It made a nice change from the sandwiches you get at Afternoon Tea. There, I learned the difference between English High Tea and Afternoon Tea.
Here are a few pictures I took when I visited the Wow House at Chelsea Harbour, earlier this month.
Which one do you like? I like the marble with the perforations. And the hexagon empire and that natural fibre style.
I took a short break to St Ives in Cornwall last week. The journey was full of adventures for many reasons. It was my first big trip after two years of lockdown. I had to practice being less anxious about social spaces.
My longest train journey yet: It takes 5 hours to travel from London to St Ives
It was meant to be a creative pilgrimage as I was visiting Tate St Ives and Barbara Hepworth museum
I was surprised to feel less alone with my design style because the hotel room decor was expressive of the cosey smart effect you get when combining pinstripe fabric with nailhead trim as I do in my lampshade collections.
A picture of Barbara Hepworth in her studio. The museum is her studio, interestingly. I was impressed that she might have had lots of parties there. Downstairs is the kitchen and upstairs is the workroom. Similar to my set-up. I felt encouraged.
The whole experience was affirming for me. I feel that I might be on the right track, after all.
Here are my latest makes and recently listed in my shop.
It is of the collection inspired by the green and gold or brass Bankers lamp. I wanted to create a softer alternative so that it is a more cosy fit in homes or hospitality.
What is your favourite lighting for creating a comfortable home office space?
I’ts Christmas and I’m very excited this season to have designed and made these sustainable lampshades. I created them out of recycled upholstery nails and my favourite banana fabric. I mainly designed them to be a modern development to the traditional banker’s lamp. You know the one I mean, they’re the old green glass shade and bulbous brass lamp base that fit traditional victorian inspired office spaces.
These new desk lampshades I love because they are sleek, modern and fit the mid-century trend as well as fit in with traditional spaces as well as those with apartments with a minimalistic vibe. They will be available to buy on my Etsy shop Home Office Charm in early January 2020
I got the inspiration for the form of the new collection of the sustainable lampshade from a traditional handstitched version I did (see image below).
Over the years, I’ve enjoyed its warm golden glow as my bedside table lamp. I knew it would be appealing after hearing the reaction to it while I had it on display at West London interiors showrooms. It was also a favourite shade in my Etsy shop. I had to price it high ( the soft hand-stitched version) as it took me ages to make and it hurt my thumbs along the way. I vowed never to make it again. But I was so enamoured with the warm glow that the shade generated I wanted others to experience it too.
So to make it easier for more people to buy and so that I could make more of them while fitting in with my earth shiny vibe, I created the new collection. I dreamed up the new collection and experimented with these sustainable lampshades at weekends and evenings to fit around my full-time work. I attended courses this year on wiring and batch make them during high days and holidays. I’m so excited to hear what other people think of them when they get listed in my Etsy shop from January 2020.
Home Office Charm 
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