Style File - Jewelled Opulence

It's a beautiful sunny day here in the UK for late September so this post seems a little premature.  However, as we move into Autumn, I'm being increasingly inspired by the rich, lavish hues adorning furniture, fabrics, accessories and even humans (as seen at the fashion shows) over the past couple of weeks.

Summer's brights make way for the calmer jewel tones of Autumn - deep purple, crimson, sapphire, jade, teal and chestnut. Combined, these dark and sultry colours create a warm and soothing, yet powerful scheme and are made even more interesting using textures such as swede, leather, felt, wool and of course, fur.

Using metallics in both fabrics and accessories injects drama and light into a room for a decadent, indulgent feel.

It's a brave soul who dresses up their walls with a combination of these muted hues, but the effects can be absolutely stunning.

Top left: Hicks' Blue & Silt - littlegreene.com
Bottom left: Regency Fawn & Mocha - littlegreene.com

Top right: Brinjal & Brassica - Farrow & Ball,
Bottom right: Cinder Rose - Farrow & Ball, Mulberry - Designers Guild

Top left: Designed by Victoria Hagan, image by Simon Upton, elledecor.com
Top right: Photographed by Paul Massey for Livingetc.com
Bottom left: Photography by William Abranowicz for elledecor.com
Bottom right: Designed by Kelly Wearstler, elledecor.com

Bedroom project - For a teenage son

I'm in the process of updating my 17 year old son, Oliver's bedroom.  Here's a peek at the scheme I've come up with.

First off, Oliver choose this sumptuous padded wall effect wallpaper from Albany, I then created the rest of the design around it.

I chose the yellow to really lift the scheme, I love the transformation that yellow and grey have when combined and having seen it recently in interiors mags, I was just dying to incorporate it into his room design.  The shiny surfaces of the chair, table and mirror adds a bit of grown up glamour and the stripes give a smart, masculine look.  The geometric yellow fabric is from Romo's new collection and will be made into a roman blind.

I shall wallpaper two sides of the room and the walls and woodwork will be painted in the taupe, grey colour from Albany Traditions range.

The striped Romo fabric is pin striped, so I wanted to play around with sizing by having the fabric of the blind in a much, much larger design.

Update on Oliver's bedroom redecorating - the carpet needs to be laid and I've still to source the accessories.  My sewing machine hasn't seen daylight in a while so I'm making the curtains and the roman blind myself.  I made a set of Roman blinds once before, a few years ago but I'm going to brush up on my skills by taking a course on it later this month with Rebecca Woollard.

Top: Albany Metro Wallpaper in Grey, Middle left: Melbury Mercury - Romo, Middle: Melbury Ebony - Romo, Middle right: Portico in Acacia - Romo, Bottom left: Black gloss mirror - furniturehausdirect.com, Bottom 2nd: Yellow ball chair - Ebay, Bottom 3rd: Temple emulsion - Albany Traditions, Bottom right: Black console table - my own.

Loves - Wedding Cake Creations

Without doubt, the best wedding cake I have ever seen - lovingly created by my best friend Clare Dixon for her sister in law, Charlotte. The wedding took place in Devon and had a vintage fete theme - the guests sat on long benches eating the wedding breakfast from wicker baskets.

Apart from the silver cupcake case at the top, the entire cake is edible.  Clare's a very clever and talented lady.

Ruffles Galore

For those of you who subscribe to Esty.com's regular 'Finds' emails, you'll no doubt have seen the offerings on today's French Style guide.

Being a 'colour' girl, I was drawn to the first image of a colourful set of custom made ruffle rose pillows in various pastel shades.

The person responsible for these gorgeous creations is American, Angella Eisman. 

Each pillow is one-of-a-kind, sewn from recycled felted wool and/or cashmere sweater knits.  What a delightful way of recycling such materials!  Available in quite possibly any colour option you fancy, for us UK people, prices are very affordable and start at £18.00 plus shipping.  Angella has many different designs and it's worth taking 10 minutes out to look through her online store or blog for her other offerings.  She will also do custom orders.

Now I just need to decide which design to buy for my bedroom....