All in Colour
For a while now, I’ve wanted to create my own magazine pages, curating what I believe to be an important mix of items, and showing how my love for the fashion, colours and shapes that I’m drawn to has a direct influence on my home interior choices. And I think what we see on the catwalk, guides a lot of us when it come to interior design.
Velvet is my personal fabric of choice, and it’s currently everywhere. Donning cushions, curtains, upholstery, stationary, handbags and even jewellery, the fabric that was once the preference of grandmas UK wide, has now become a designers go-to texture.
So what do what the Dulux team have in store for us in 2021? A shade called ‘Brave Ground’; a warm neutral that connects us to our foundations. Creative Director Marianne Shillingford describes the colour as ‘the mother earth of colours’, a soothing, grounding colour that reconnects us with nature in a non obvious way, from the ground up.
Discuss: Why not create the ‘set’ of your liking by buying separates, instead of what the buyer has pulled together for you? We buy separates for our wardrobe all the time so why not apply the same thinking when buying for our home, after all, we’re ‘dressing’ it for ourselves! So let’s add our character and individuality.
So, ‘Do You Like Good Music’? I have a print in my bedroom with these opening lyrics from the track Sweet Soul Music by Arthur Conley, and it got me thinking about the importance of music and how what we listen to influences our design aesthetic.
I always loved this feature in Vogue magazine which sadly they no longer publish, which was all about buying well and investing in a few key pieces that stood the test of time, then importantly mixed and matched with affordable bits to freshen up the wardrobe for that season. I follow this concept for the home.
I think you know that you’re destined to be a stylist when you enjoy the faffing part of taking the photo as much as the actual photo. Well, its way more than just ‘faffing’ isn’t it? Its researching, planning, sketching and listing the images you want by the end of ‘the shoot’.
The prospect of refurbishing this chair has been looming over me for so long. When furlough came along via lockdown, I promised myself that I’d use the time to finally tackle it and start ordering the paint and fabric samples that I’ve been threatening to do for years.
Collecting art, prints and generally anything that can be flaunted on your walls is an ongoing hobby for those of us who love it. I truly believe there’s no hard stop to the amount of art that you should display in your home.
The Covid-19 pandemic enforced new rules upon us, mainly to spend at lot more time at home to keep ourselves, each other and the NHS as safe as possible. For many of us, being at home has heightened our appreciation for our surroundings and put a whole new importance on the space we occupy.
You might be wondering how this article relates to interior design, styling or colour, but if you read this account about my dad Paul La Gambina, you’ll understand how and why I am the person I am today. It’s something that I’ really want to share.
‘Damn Cool’ will be a features board where you can check out the extra cool pieces that really jump out at me, the ones that I feel the need that you MUST see, and if nothing else, to impart what’s in my brain and give the magazine features editor within me an excuse to play!
The fact that we’re still partly in lockdown and unable to travel at the moment has got a lot of us thinking about places we’ve been, and places we long to visit. I’ve been thinking about the word ‘wanderlust’, isn’t it pretty? Meaning; a strong desire to travel, and I think a lot of us feeling that desire quite strongly right now.
With a background and upbringing in fashion and design, my interiors and styling methods are inevitably influenced by the fashion industry, particularly in terms of colour palettes and texture. I often resonate with the photography used in the fashion adverts within the front few pages of magazines, for the stunning use of colour and pattern in the clothing, and environment they’re shot in.
What is ‘good taste’ and who decides it? Generally speaking, magazines, influencers and the media inform us what’s on the catwalk, therefore what’s in, or coming to the shops so we’re fairly dictated to by trends whether we know it or not, quite simply because that’s what’s currently available to buy.
