Things to hang on the wall - 

1. Vintage hangers - try etsy, ebay, store liquidations…

2. Fairy lights in odd little shapes - I have it on good authority that Dunnes and Lidl have the best value fairy lights!

3.  Vintage swimsuits - again ebay, and etsy, or try making your own by dollying up some new sets!

4.  Vintage theatre signage - very difficult to get, but I have found some on etsy and ebay.

5. Wooden hangers as print holders - buy cheap ones from Heatons and paint in different shades of greys and beige!

6. Hand mirrors - buy a selection, old and new. Ikea have a very pretty one in at the moment. 

x Blanaid

Shades of brown -  the anchor colour in either floaty white spaces or the muted tones in an industrial style home. You have to love the tones of wooden floors, simple frames, battered leather chairs, a simple wreath on the wall…just little touches. 

Images via ffffound, decorology, and home sweet home.

x Blanaid  

I love this idea - buy or find an old vintage fire surround (watch out for the lead paint though)…paint white, place behind divan bed, adorn and done. Simple. 

Images via Decorology on Flickr

x Blanaid

My brother Eoin and I are hoping to open a new photography studio in Kilkenny shortly. It’s in an old building, not a huge amount of floor space, but plenty of ceiling height, which is handy for the old photo taking!

These are just a few of the images I’ve saved into my ’studio’ folder, I’m thinking all white, bit of stainless steel, retro furniture and theatre light signage. I also love the idea of illustrating a ‘coming soon!’ poster for the windows as soon as we get the lease sorted…

x Blanaid

The only, only thing I dislike about my lovely new apartment is the absence of a bath. I’m considering an old-school tin one in the living room, that I’ll fill with the kettle. Shouldn’t take long, I imagine…

x Blanaid

Hues of off-white and grey. Images via : Emmasblog, Fashion Toast, and Ffffound. Lyrics in title -’Gotta Have You’ by The Weepies - 

x Blanaid

I was thinking that the spare room in our new apartment would be lovely in just a soft grey, but after seeing the bottom image, I’ve changed my mind. Walls plastered in images it is…

x Blanaid

Images via >etc<

Found this hotel via the blog ‘Solid Frog’…the Story Hotel is based in a downtown Stockholm, and is filled with art and all sorts of cool furniture. Their philosophy for the hotel is to create a space that is a combination of design and innovation, which I think they’ve succeeded in doing. I am slightly in love with the painted decking in the courtyard (first image), exactly the colour of the floorboards I would like in my dream apartment.

x Blanaid

A little beige and black moment…

The second part of the shoot with Andrew Clancy will be up later if you’re kicking around the intraweb!

x Blanaid

Beautiful mix of light and dark greys, and blues. My new favourite combination.

x Blanaid

You could call it - ‘the place where I throw my bags of unsorted paperwork..’ or ‘the room that now acts as a wardrobe while I work on my laptop, eh..on my lap in the sitting room.’ Whichever - I think that study design works best when treated with the gravitas you think it deserves, at this stage, before you realise you may never use it…- they work particularly well when weighed down with dark parquet flooring, enhanced by industrial furniture, and topped off with ‘aren’t I so creative!’ bits of inspiring paper stuck all around the walls. Maybe if you do it like that, then it becomes an adventure in design, even if that is all that it remains. 

x Blanaid

EDIT ** the wallpaper in the last image is available >>here<< **

A selection of kitchens - some of which I love in their entirety, some of which I love aspects of - hope you find a few you like too! 

This kitchen (above) is pretty much perfection in my eyes - the mix of grey and white units, with some stainless steal detail. Modern and rustic mixed together so seamlessly - I love it. 

I love the symmetry of this kitchen (above), the perfectly balanced units, the run of drawers on the bottom, the space left above the top, and the balance of wood and white. So easy to recreate using Ikea units etc, but still quite individual. 

Leaving a planting space underneath a feature wall is a simple but amazing addition to a space - perfect for a kitchen or a bathroom, get some advice from your tiler and your builder though..

I love the idea of a lack of top units - they tend to make the space look quite cluttered in my opinion. This kitchen is so perfectly balanced and underwhelming - in a perfectly subtle way!

Running a low level of units similar or the same as your kitchen units in the dining part of an open plan space can act as a fantastic alternative to a sideboard while tying the two spaces together. 

The combination of the kitchen units on the left, complete with amazing grey and white retro tiles, and the dining chairs on the right - one of my dream kitchen/diners.

Stainless steal island unit - looks amazing- probably a nightmare to keep clean!

The flooring in the two photos above pleases me! Such a simple, subdued way to add character to the space, these tiles are both retro and rustic. Perfect. 

 Thinking outside the box (above), an unusual creation that really is almost a work of art. A functional unit that allows the space to still feel open and light. 

That’s it for now…sitting rooms next week!

x Blanaid

Love the pendant light in the first photo,  the white panelled storage in the second, the metal shutters in the third, and the calm of the fourth. 

All via Remodelista.

x Blanaid

A clean and fresh post from the inspiring blog ‘Desire to Inspire‘, featuring a modernist apartment in France. I am in love with the folowing : The couch. The lightbox art work. The dining chairs. The stunning parquet flooring. The light and space. The fact that it’s in France. *sigh*

Read the full post >here<

x Blanaid

I usually prefer a white, clean space, but am slightly, ridiculously in love with the salvage look too.. Here’s a fantastic example of that particular style, which was a collaboration between London architects Stiff + Trevillion and the team from the excellent salvage specialist website,  Retrovious.  Images via the brilliant site : Remodelista, which you should really visit if you’re doing up your house/workspace. Excellent resources and inspiration. 

x Blanaid

Two simple images - the first from Lolita..the second was just found along the way. 

x Blanaid

A little bit of contemporary style for your very eyes.. all of these images are from the portfolio of Richard Powers, a UK photographer who captures interiors images for magazines such as Wallpaper*. Very lovely stuff.

Check out the rest of his work >here<…

Any of these images tickle your dream-home fancy?

x Blanaid

After featuring the fantastic Interior Stylist Atlanta Bartlett a couple of weeks ago (see that post >here<) I thought it was high time to take a break from the clothes, and bring you some images from the portfolio of Twig Hutchinson. Not only does she have a fantastic name, but a brilliant eye for simple, rustic and comfortable set ups. 

The curtains on the bed in the second photo made my heart skip a beat - I had a search through the interweb and found this similar pair > couleur-chanvre.com … they’re certainly NOT ikea prices, but so beautiful. 

Through doing up a few houses, I’ve found that grey is an often overlooked but underestimated neutral. I love the Cabot Cape Cod Grey, which is just about to be discontinued - eek! It’s a very calm taupe-toned grey, which offsets white walls perfectly. 

Hope you enjoy Twig’s photos, see more here > twighutchinson

x Blanaid