Nelson Mandela - the icon for world peace has died

Nelson Mandela has died, aged an impressive 95 years of age and school children around the world will be called to assembly to hear more of this man's most incredible life.

I watched his walk to freedom on 11 February 1990 on television. I was at Wembley on 16 April 1990 for the International Tribute for a Free South Africa concert... one of the most moving moments of my life. He walked onto the stage and he was unable to speak for a full eight minutes and we cheered, and cried and chanted. And all the while, he had that serene, humble smile radiating brilliant joy and happiness and love.  

He fought, he never gave up and he changed the lives of millions forever. 

His great friend Ahmed Kathrada, with whom he shared his prison sentence on Robben Island couldn't say it any better... "We have known each other for 67 years, and I never imagined I’d be witness to the unavoidable and traumatic reality of your passing. I had the enviable privilege of being alive and walking the earth with you through the bad times and the good. It has been a long walk, with many challenges that at times seemed insurmountable. And yet we never faltered, and the strength of leaders like you and Walter (Sisulu, the ANC Secretary General) always shone a light on the path and kept our destination and our people’s future in view."

We will never, ever forget...

> Colliss & Quinton - in the press

Two of our Colliss & Quinton (sister company to Funky Little Darlings) wallcoverings are featured on a 6 page spread in the January 2014 issue of "Self Build & Design" magazine. 

Clive and Denise Wells saw some of our designs in an Ideal Home feature and came to meet us to discuss their 17th century listed property in Devon. Pear Tree Cottage is as you would expect a traditional cottage to look, until you get to the conservatory. Bang up to date and greeting 21st century modernity in style. All glass and views, Natuzzi sofas, grey granite surfaces, a mini kitchen and our wallpapers. Our "Abstract No.1" with soft greys, acid yellow and aubergine runs the width of the linking corridor and our "Renaissance" in smokey ink and gold tones is in the new kitchen. 

We visited the cottage in summer 2012 and it really does look stunning. Clive, the more conservative of the two, said Denise brought him kicking and screaming into the 21st century... and he is so glad she did! So much so, they are now re-working the original part of the house to reflect the new, having become "addicted to spending time in the lighter, brighter, open-plan space".

> Fluoro Dandelion wall stickers...

These are flying out the door - a bit of colour to brighten up the December gloom?  Our Fluoro Dandelion and Cowparsley wall stickers. 

They look glorious on an inky grey or a deep taupe wall too! Lovely!

> Highbury project

We are absolutely delighted that our designs for a 9 year old boy's bedroom in Highbury have been approved and are proceeding to production. 

Currently, there is a raised cabin bed with drawers underneath, a single wardrobe, a small desk and a few shelves. He needs tons more storage to house books, toys, an ever growing sports kits and clothes, a larger desk and chair with lots of shelf space. 

We are giving him an industrial style room that will grow with him. It will look cool and contemporary when he is 16! Soft grey walls contrast with sharp white paint on the bedroom door, window shutters and skirtings. Three wardrobes standing almost floor to ceiling are being made to three different depths, to break away from being a solid block along the wall. These will be painted in the same soft grey as the walls, have invisible handles and three large round knobs so he can hang clothes/bags on the door. A tall 10 door cupboard in dark grey provides additional storage. He has a platform bed on go-cart style castors made from Ash (looks like plywood) with a headboard containing secret storage. In both alcoves he will have 10 ash shelves and a desk which is triangulated to meet the 10 door cupboard. He will have an Eames style DSW chair and black anglepoise desk lamps.

Pretty cool! Completion is for the end of January. 

> world map mural - off to print

We've just finished designing a very personalised bespoke World Map mural for a lovely family in Warwickshire. It's crammed with loads of family detail and crazy imagery... my favourite parts are the penguins in the South Pole - mum penguin with her Louis Vitton bag and the little boy with his pom pom hat.

Off to print next week... looking forward to seeing photos of this one on their wall. 

> soft grey Lost Garden WallScene - on webshop

We are delighted to add our "Lost Garden" WallScene wallpaper in gorgeous soft, putty grey to our webshop today, and here's the final design. 

The design features dandelions, cowparsleys, wild grasses and meadow flowers all in white or a gentle tint, together with butterflies and dragonflies and looks quite magical. It looks gorgeous shown together with the swinging crib (which we hope to sell on our site very soon - currently available from Wollnitz.com in Germany) and with our beloved white Panton chair.

Let us know what you think!

> new colour for The Lost Garden

We launch a new colour for our ever popular "Lost Garden" WallScene wallpaper on Monday 25th November, and it is beautiful. In a soft, warm putty grey background with white dandelions, cowparsley and wild grasses it's fresh and contemporary and works in both a modern or traditional nursery or bedroom and with either white, natural wood or retro furniture.

The soft, natural palette of colours and wild floral theme creates harmony and will infuse a nursery with calm but will grow with your child, adding longevity to the design and creating a stunning bedroom that will last for years.

Here’s how to create a stunning nursery or bedroom using “The Lost Garden” wallpaper.

> second Banksy mural for teenager

And here's the second mural wallcovering we did for teenager Jude's room... we added more colour, more graffiti and loads of extra texture. It looks fantastic with his dark grey walls and LED strip lighting!

Photo's to follow!

> Banksy wallcoverings

We recently completed bedrooms for three very lovely children, aged 13, 11 and 7. The starting point for teenager Jude's room were two Bansky wallcoverings which we tailored. We wanted the room to be really cool and grown up so it will last him years. Here is the Mona Lisa wallcovering, with added graffiti and graphics - it looks amazing in his new room. I'll show you the second mural we did for him tomorrow, and we plan to get photos of the finished room shortly.

The design looks fab with our new Concrete cushions...

Hang it all - new colours

We will be adding the new range of colours for the Eames Hang It All coat hooks to our webshop this week. We love this design and have used the original, multi-coloured version in many of our interior projects, but the new colours are fabulous.

Ray Eames designed the original brightly-coloured wooden spheres to encourage children to hang up "all their things"... (something that falls on deaf ears in our household!) In celebration of what would have been her 100th birthday in December 2012, Vitra and the Eames Office developed three new versions of the coat rack in fresh hues of green, white and red. 

As Eames designed the rack so that the distance between each of the spheres is the same, Hang it can be extended along an entire wall! Hopefully, it will entice your little ones to be tidy... but failing that, it looks completely stunning unadorned and is guaranteed to jazz up any boring wall!

> soldier ant wall stickers

Our Soldier Ant wall stickers look rather cool on this bedroom wall... love the way some of them are crawling up the bed frame too. We have some crawling up our stairs and they look brilliant.

They look amazing together with our Soldier Ants wallpaper in cool camouflage tones, or with our WallScene wallpaper in dramatic primary colours! It creates a focal wall with impact!

> Grand Designs mural

Saw a repeat of Grand Designs from 2008 the other evening... and a flash of a mural we did for The Cheltenham House.

Zoe and Tim Bawtree, who designed an underground house, wanted a map mural with a difference for their Ferrari mad 8 year old son. We added dinosaurs, chinook helicopters, iconic buildings, skateboarders and, the Ferrari!

> Staffordshire blue and white Big Ben

We thought you might like to see a rather lovely new addition to our Big Ben range. Inspired by David's Staffordshire pottery roots, we have developed a fantastic blue and white pattern which will be used across a new range of wallcoverings, cushions and, the Big Ben! It looks absolutely fabulous! 

This will be in the studio next week and will be available from our Colliss & Quinton company very soon. 

> 'Pop' goes a primary school... in India

Check out this amazing new primary school in Bangalore, India - it's like nothing you've seen before. The architects, Cadence, designed the school with bags of pop colour, style and passion to excite a whole generation of little students.

The facade with it's decorative theme of letters form the windows, with stripes and neon shades providing a fabulous hit of energetic colour. Sharp angular stair wells contrast with fluid, curvacious walls and shelves. There are little nooks and corners for children to hide in, seating on all floors to chill out and chat and peep holes in all the doors.

This is what will inspire and guide the next generation to be brave and dare to be a little bit different!

> panic button...

Just found this brilliant 'panic' dummy! Sums up the situation perfectly and hopefully, would make a few people smile along the way! 

Available from Fred and Friends.

> new interior commission...

We've just had a new commission to design the bedroom for a growing 9 year old boy... the friend of twin boys whose rooms we completed recently. Thought you might like to see the three rooms we did for them. 

We designed loads of built in storage space and desks (you can never have too much storage space...), fabulous blocks of colour, Orla Kiely bed linen, Original BTC lighting, our beloved Verner Panton chairs and bespoke vinyl wall graphics, including silhouettes of the boys playing football!

> concrete cushions

We've got some rather cool 'concrete' print cushions being made for us at the moment - a little flavour of some of the more urban/industrial designs we have in production, to suit older kids (and parents!). 

Available from our webshop in three weeks.

> stag cushions

We've got some cool new products in manufacture at the moment, including these two 'stag' cushions. We couldn't decide which version to go with, so, we've gone for both! The background features a distressed paint effect and the stags are in a fabulous rust texture with speckles of ice and snow and a gorgeous brown tartan. The text is in the same coordinating rust/tartan adding a typographic twist.

These fellas will be available in three weeks.

> Warhol style soup cans

Today sees the launch in the UK of Campbell's Warhol style tomato soup cans. The limited edition range, in 4 covetable and highly collectable colours are available in Tesco, Sainsbury's and Waitrose supermarkets. 

Campbell's partnered with the Andy Warhol Foundation to produce them to mark 50 years since Warhol created his series of 32 canvases in 1962. He created his iconic artworks in response to claims that he ate the soup for his lunch every day for 20 years!

How about using a set as pencil holders for your child's desk? A great way to bring some of the great man's talent to your child's attention. As a huge fan of this amazing man, I am trying to get hold of two sets; one to keep on a shelf in our studio and the other to use as a set of vases.  Aren't they wonderful? 

> our illo on Cogges Farm beer tankards

Earlier this year, we were commissioned via our Colliss & Quinton company to design and illustrate a map of Cogges Manor Farm in Oxfordshire, and we were delighted see they have used our image of the house to etch onto their beer tankards for a recent Beer Festival. Look cool, don't they?

Here's the image of the house used for their leaflets and also the finished map. 

We're about to start our latest commission for them, designing two sets of nature trail leaflets. Can't wait!

> wood print Woodland Friends stickers

Our wood print Woodland Friends wall stickers will really give focus to a bland, unloved wall, turning it from drab to fab, almost in an instant. The lovely natural tones of the wood texture look really fresh and contemporary and work with all types of furnishings.

Paint the walls a soft grey for a light and airy feel, or go darker and create real drama... how about Farrow and Ball's Railings (a lovely, velvety bronze black) or Down Pipe. I promise you, it will delight! Add funky white or wooden furniture, a chunky textured rug, cushions with a woodland or hot fluoro vibe to inject excitement, a cool pendant light and our kids Panton chair in white to finish the room.