the pop up shop

is finally going to happen....

I saw our unit yesterday. It's in Kingly Court just off Carnaby Street. The unit is absolutely massive so I am hoping that we can do it justice.

I am keeping in mind though all the Mary Queen of Shops programmes I have been watching and how she advises her clients to keep the layout and fixtures very simple. I love the interior of the Mayfair Stella McCartney shop with its vintage style wallpapers combined with modern touches like the bright pink bag display unit.

My aim is to move us as far away from a 'craft fair' with its horrible 'behind a table' philosphy to a place where customer can browse and touch the product, see demos of knitting, embroidery and other crafts and really talk and get to know who is behind the product. I have a fab bunch of designers ready - some london etsy folk, others I have met at craft markets.

In order to keep costs down I am planning to use some of the victorian pine vintage furniture I have already plus we are of to find a cool sofa and chair at one of the many second hand places round here at the weekend. Plus a trip to Ikea for some open shelving too.

I have big plans so watch this space!

children's bedrooms

Whenever I see children's bedroom in interior magazines like living etc and elle dec it makes me feel a bit sad as they are always so 'styled' and more for adults than kids. Recently DesignSponge featured a Yellow and Grey colour scheme which to me was really bland and had very little to stimulate a child's imagination.

Ok so the pics here of the little lady's room are after a good tidy and hoover this morning but it is a room for playing and enjoying. Yes it does have elements of her mum's style in it - vintage furniture and crochet blankets but it is for her to enjoy as she grows and if she wants Barbie wallpaper at some stage then so be it!

The wardrobe I bought on ebay, it is victorian pine and it is gorgeous. The child's chair I resuced from the side of the road. The rug is from ikea (it's really easy to clean) and the grey toy cupboard was given to me by my mum.

The wallpaper is cream with silver flowers - it was here when we moved in and I actually really like it now!

My bedroom

Hello bedroom! I have some new pics on flickr including this one of my bedroom. I made lovely new bed cushions made from a vintage butterfly print and a paisley print vintage dress. My crochet blanket came from a charity shop and the lampshade is a Habitat sale purchase made from cork which is a material I really like.

The chest of drawers came from an antique shop in crouch end and is made of victorian pine. It's one of my favs. The fireplace is not orignal and is a horrible fake mahogany. I did read in living etc though that to disguise a not so nice fireplace the surround should be painted the same colour as the walls. As you can see we haven't tried this yet! The walls are a bit distressed looking as I stripped the hideous 80's wallpaper (green textured background with brown roman collums) about a week after we moved in as it was so so so bad!

The show and tell at broadway market last night was a bit of a fiasco due to staff not turning up so everyone waited hours and hours to be seen. I left after 3 1/2 hours as had to get the bus home! Better luck next time....