> fabulous children's desks

Our daughter is moving to a larger bedroom and has made lots of very specific requests (takes after her mother)!!!! A bespoke bed (naturally) and a desk for her to do her homework. She has developed a rather chic, industrial taste in design and here are some rather lovely desks you could consider for your child.

Which one would you choose?

Graham and Green's Archimedes Desk is lovely and looks great with industrial lighting and accessories (£550.00).

French Furniture Company, Studio Manzano created this minimalistic desk with Eames style stool and is perfect to fit into a small space.

Retro wooden desks shich could be bought from boot sales or slvage yards are great options for kids. Inexpensive and robust they are very trendy at the moment and when teamed with a lovely Anglepoise lamp or the fantastic Jean Prouvé's 1950's Potence wall lamp, it will be a wonderful place to sit and work at.

This one, designed by Danny Venlet comes in a range of colours (this is my favourite) but I fear it could be a budget buster!

> remembering summer....

... actually, did we have one? Here's an image from a lovely lady in Australia showing off her daughter's beautiful bedroom featuring our "Lost Garden" WallScene in glorious Summer Blue. Oh for some lovely weather... 

It looks fantastic with a contemporary mix of natural wood and white painted furniture and there are plenty of colours in the design to pick out for soft furnishings. Love the paper puff balls in the corner of the room... wonder if my daughter (going through a boyish/grungy/industrial phase) can be persuaded to have some in her new bedroom... 

> fabulous lighting for children's rooms

Getting lighting in children's room's is really important - you need good overhead lighting, bedside lamps and desk lights for older children. The choice available is endless. I steer clear of the sickly sweet 'designed for children' lights in novelty shapes in our interior projects (you will so quickly tire of them!) Instead, choose from the vast selection of affordable designer lights - they will stand the test of time, adapt with your child as they grow and really are worth every penny. Here is a concise but fabulous selection. 

One of my favourites is the Norm 03 by Normann Copenhagen (our Daughter has this in her new (nearly finished) bedroom). It is a wonderfully sculptural lamp shade and when illuminated, it casts the most wonderful pattern onto the ceiling and surrounding surfaces. We have this suspended low over her bed!

The FL/Y Suspension light by Kartell is equally stunning and comes in a gorgeous array of colours. Packs a real punch of designer oomph!

Verner Panton (who designed the iconic and my beloved Panton chairs) designer these sweet little Flowerpot lamps, in ceiling, table and desk options.

I can tell our daughter is growing up... she has requested the Anglepoise Original 1227 Desk Light in black for her new bedroom - this possesses a great urban/industrial quality and I celebrate her choice!

The Canned Light Suspension is great fun and adds a hit of 60's POP - a row of these would look amazing!

Norm 03 by Normann Copenhagen (Dennis and McGregor £74.99)

FL/Y Suspension by Kartell (Made in Design £149.00)

Flowerpot by Verner Panton (Dennis and McGregor £177.00)

Flowerpot Table Light by Verner Panton (Dennis and McGregor £252.00)

Flowerpot Adjustable Table Lamp by Verner Panton (Dennis and McGregor £289.00)

Anglepoise Original 1227 Desk Lamp (Dennis and McGregor £134.99)

Canned Light Suspension by Ingo Maurer (Made in Design £165.00)

> Tate Modern - Tacita Dean FILM

You MUST take your children over Half Term and go to Tate Modern and see Tacita Dean's FILM, the latest commission in the Unilever Series. It is amazing! Stunning! Breathtaking!

Set at the end of a dramatically darkened Turbine Hall, FILM, a silent 11-minute 35mm film projected onto a 13 metres tall white monolith is a myriad of spectacular images looking like a giant stained-glass window or a moving wallpaper. It is in constant motion, moving from monochrome to hand tinted to vivid saturated high colour with the iconic image of the wall of the Turbine Hall showing through most of it.

And the children LOVED it!!! They could walk right up to it, be dwarfed by it, become part of it, engage with it... and that's what was so enigmatic and alluring for them. They could run up to it and behind it and and around it and try to catch the gigantic bubbles or egg or the flowing water...

The images; an escalator steps descending the screen, a Victorian fountain spouting water, the sea with waves rolling in, pigeons, roof girders, walkways and skylights, and moving imagery, and still imagery, and spot colour. The list is almost endless, but it is captivating and enduring. We sat and watched it over and over and over. And our daughter run up to it and danced in front of it and made new friends there...

And then we had coffee and cakes!  A PERFECT day out!

Tacita Dean FILM. Turbine Hall, Tate Modern  (020 7887 8888, tate.org.uk) until 11 March.

> Tree Table Collection

I came across these lovely tables and stools the other day by Brooklyn designer April Hannah. The "Tree Table" collection, with a nod to mid-century inspiration,  injects some modern and stylish design into children’s furniture and is available in two different styles : Tree Table and Pocket Stool and Interlocking Tree Table and stool.

They are available in maple or walnut veneer with the painted edge colours in grass green, sky blue, dove white or clear coat - although my desire to inject lots of colour into the world would have me choose hot pink, bright orange, lime green and turquoise though. 

> Dandelion Field - new wallcovering

We are working on a new WallScene wallpaper - Dandelion Field. This will be rolled out to bedding and cushions, which we are busy working on now.

Dandelion Field will come in a roll containing 4 panels (61cm wide x 2.75metres long) and in a selection of colourways. The design shows stylised dandelions, seed heads and butterflies and dragonflies fluttering around.  It can be given a fluoro colour boost by adding our soon to be launched accessory packs, containing birdies, butterflies and dragonflies in our trademark bright colours. 

More images will follow over the next few days.

> Boys Art Prints

Been a mad couple of days - in and out of the studio and at photograhy. Here is the first group shot of the boys Art Prints in frames. Girls shots and prints follow on tomorrow.

They look lovely either individually or as a group on a wall and will be available on our webshop tomorrow.

> framed art prints

Today, we are launching a set of 'ready framed' Art Prints that can be bought direct from our webshop. We keep getting asked to offer this service and save you the hassle of traipsing to the shops to buy a frame to fit. So... here you go. The high quality square frames (32cm x 32cm) are supplied in either black or white and are handmade using wood from managed forests. They look lovely either individually or as a group on a wall.

Here are a couple of images, with the full selection and group shots available to see later today on our website. 

Available to order later today on our webshop.

> lovely bedroom furniture

Came across this fantastic Spanish company yesterday - they do lovely children's bedroom furniture. Already planning to use them for some of our interior projects. The liner styling and fluoro colours will work so well with our wallcoverings and high end interiors.

http://www.bm2000.net/

> interior design service

Interior design is an absolute passion for us. It gives us the opportunity to try out new and exciting designs and totally transform a room. We particularly love creating designs that clients would not ordinarily have considered. For this room, the centre piece was a bespoke 'cube' bed wrapped in our wallpaper and studded with Swarovski crystals. The bed was divided into two singles by a central panel with a large cut out enabling the children to peek at each other but retain privacy when sleeping. The walls were painted a warm grey and accents of pink and orange were used throughout the room.

This shows how we approach our interior projects and how we present our designs.  Key to a successful project is a spacial plan, showing what you can get into a room, storage and how the room will fuction.

To find out more about our design services, visit the interior design page on our website.

Vitra - coming soon to our webshop

We are in the process of expanding our webshop to offer some fabulous items of furniture to compliment our range of high end wallcoverings and wallstickers and we are delighted to announce that we will be stocking a range of Vitra products, many of which we use regularly on our Funky Little Darlings and Colliss & Quinton interior projects.

Vitra are world famous for their statement collection of iconic chairs and furniture by design legends such as Charles & Ray Eames, Verner Panton, Isamu Noguchi, Jasper Morrison, Jean Prouve, George Nelson and Ron Arad. These are antiques of the future, manufactured to the highest quality and will last a lifetime... and they are utterly fabulous!!!! 

Coming soon...

> beautiful book illustrations from 1972

Aren't these fabulous illustrations? Illustrated by graphic designer Giancarlo Lliprandi for a series called "Tantibambi" in 1972, they still look fresh and stylish today. The book is about a little bird called Iris Columbo who flies across a landscape filled with colour - I love the subtle layering and patterns he creates. Very inspirational!

> new product - Woodland Wonderland WallScene

Our Woodland Wonderland WallScene will be available to order from our webshop this week. Woodland Wonderland shows a snowy copse of trees filled with the lovely creatures of the woods and of course, punctuated with some of our signature fluoro colours. 

> Serendipity - über cool and colourful children's shop (Paris)

Now this is right up my street! This is how to design the most perfect children's interiors shop. Industrially chic (it is set in a converted garage), the lusciously deep grey walls set the tone for highlighting the incredible array of bright and zingy fluoro products - my favourite range colour combinations. 

Founded in 2004, Serendipity sells a selection of antique and designer furniture... and it does so with bags of style! I LOVE it! 

  

Serendipity - 81-83 Rue du Cherche Midi, 75006 Paris.