New From Christy {AW12 Luxe Retreat}

Marie Nichols — Sun, 04 Nov 2012 21:41:35 +0000

It’s been a busy couple of weeks here. Not only have we done a little shoot for Number 57 {news on that to come over the the 57 blog soon} but I’ve once again been working with the lovely team at Christy, shooting their new SS13 Collections. Which reminded me I’ve not yet shared the AW12 ranges we shot back in the spring {such an upside down world I live in!} Once again the collection has been split into three looks. I’m starting with “Luxe Retreat”. Largely because I think it’s my fave of the three collections and because the weather has been so horrid today that all I’ve wanted to do is snuggle up and any of these ranges would be perfect for doing so…

I’ll share the other two looks, Spice Trail & Nostalgia with you over the next week or so, but for now I’ve got to dash and load the car ready for tomorrows Christy shoot {Spring Summer 13 is looking rather lovely!

Oh and if you have a chance pop over to the New Christy blog, where design manager Lucy shares all the latest news and inspirations.

Colour To Go : Leafy Green & Azure Blues

Marie Nichols — Sun, 28 Oct 2012 17:46:40 +0000

When people ask about “the day job” one of the most common question is Where do you get your inspiration? Inspiration comes from everywhere, I’m alway snapping things that catch my eye especially when it comes to colour combinations “to bank” for future shoots…

Office Plans

Marie Nichols — Mon, 22 Oct 2012 17:02:13 +0000

So you’ve seem my temporary office but my long term plans revolve around a rather nice Cole & Son wallpaper that I fell in love with a couple of years ago. Sadly I had no walls left to paper in the old house so I’ve had to wait. Simon really isn’t a fan of the paper (he thinks it’s too girly!) which is a shame because we normally have pretty similar tastes. Generally speaking if he felt really strongly about something décor wise I wouldn’t do it…but I love this paper so I’ve decided I’ll have just a small amount in my office above the fireplace (so he doesn’t have to look at it!) Plus we have rather a lot of pink cushions from our old living room so I need to tie them in somewhere and they’d be perfect on the old wrought iron daybed Simon and I picked up in Lille last year. Storage is a must in my office and the room is only tiny so I’m hoping to get some bespoke MDF shelving made here, so it can be painted the same as the walls (pale grey) and give the storage a seamless look.

With a baby on the way the office has been somewhat pushed down the list of priorities, so by the time we get round to starting “project office” I may have fallen head over heels with another paper (I’m so fickle!) and plans may change!

The Pop-Up Office

Marie Nichols — Sat, 20 Oct 2012 12:07:42 +0000

Yesterday afternoon I decided I’d had enough of working from the sofa. What was the perfect spot for an office during the Olympics isn’t the “office space” most conducive to creative ideas. Plans for my office have shifted further down our priority list over the past couple of months so realistically we are probably looking at middle of next year before I get my perfectly functioning office / craft space. So I decided to set up a temporary work space – that was somewhat more functional than its current state…full of boxes and more inspiring than my sofa!

The boxes are now neatly stacked against one wall, rather than dumped in the middle of the room where I left them after stripping the wallpaper! Allowing me space for my desk and an area to set up the printers, now I have a perfectly functioning office to tide me over the next few months, complete for inspiration board where I can pin-up everything I’m loving.

It’s amazing what a difference actually having desk space makes. I don’t know about you but sitting on my lap top anywhere but at a desk means I’m far too easily distracted?! I’m feeling far more focused already!

Friday Fancies

Marie Nichols — Fri, 19 Oct 2012 09:57:35 +0000

This weeks Friday Fancies comes to you from “down under”. Sadly not literally (if only!) but after receiving an email from a friend in Melbourne this morning I felt inspired to go a little bit nostalgic and share a few of my favourite Australian things…

1. My friend asked if I could recommend a Melbourne based stylist for a project he’s working on so I of course suggest Glen Proebstel – Love this Geometrics feature for Inside Out.

2.I love the work of Rachel Castle. When Simon proposed he gave me one of her felt heart pieces and un-bekown to each other at the time we each gave a piece of her text based work as a surprise wedding gift!

3. Craig Wall was one of the photographers I was lucky enough to work with regularly during my stint in Oz, check out his website, lovely shots.

4. I love little messages written in neon. I particularly love the idea of one in our new house, that mix of old with new again, much like these pics from showcasing Penny Farthing Design House’s wonderful pieces. The last image is from a favourite Inside Out Shoot styled by the very talented Vanessa Colyer Tay

I’m so pleased it’s nearly the weekend. DIY (naturally!) the village Farmers Market and a trip to Suffolk are in store for us, what are your plans?

Plans for the Living Room

Marie Nichols — Thu, 18 Oct 2012 21:12:20 +0000

One of the biggest frustrations we have at the moment is the fact that there is so much that needs doing to this place (everything) and yet very little we can actually get started on until we have Listed Buildings Consent. Until we have the layout of the new Kitchen / dining space in place and permission to install a boiler we can’t put the central heating in or re-wire, meaning decorating in all other rooms (even those unaffected by the main building work) has to go on hold. I’ve been frantically tying to get hold of our plumber and electrician this week to work out if they can do a first fix of pipe work and wiring in some rooms that would then allow us to start the decorating. My main focus has become the living space, and it’s my aim to get cracking on this asap. Obviously me being me I had moodboards drawn up months ago, before we’d even signed on the line so I’m desperate to get painting. Painting however is still a long way off. We’ve stripped wallpaper, removed ceiling tiles and Simon spent a very dusty and labor intensive weekend re-discovering the old inglenook fireplace which is going to look amazing. Next step is probably sanding back the paintwork, then it’s a case of waiting to see what can be done about electrics and plumbing, before skimming of ceilings, laying floorboards and then, maybe then some painting!

In our previous house (a Victorian Semi) colour featured quite heavily. With this property being older we still want to have hits of colour but are going for a bit more of a refined feel. Dare I say more grown up! Simon and I aren’t really in to Country Cottage Style at all but we’re hoping to go for a bit of a modern take on a rustic Scandinavian feel, lots of light wood, greys, and whites, but with accents of colour here and there, still in keeping with the age of the property but incorporating our love of old meets new. Well that’s the plan!

Home Sweet Home

Marie Nichols — Wed, 17 Oct 2012 21:11:02 +0000

Home is so very important to me. It’s the epicentre of my life. I don’t know if it’s just because of the job. I’ve always felt such a strong connection with the place I call home and have actually lived in very few houses. My childhood home, my student house (but Mum & Dad’s was still home) Number 57 and our Sydney Apartment. So when it came to selling Simon and my first home together I thought I’d feel a little bit sad. As it turns out I didn’t at all. I guess when we packed our bags, rented out the house and headed off to live in Australia for a bit {3 years ago now – I can’t believe it} I became a bit detached. Ever since arriving back in the UK our focus was on finding a new place to call home and despite moving all out stuff back into Number 57 it never quite felt the same, somehow our lives had moved on. We searched and searched and at times it felt as though we’d never find a place that ticked the boxes and was within reach of our purse!

We’ll the summer bought with it our lovely new home. It’s another project but one day it will be just perfect for us!

A little old man had lived here forever, and so it’ in need of rather a lot of TLC. Despite the fact it’s more than a little tired around the edges, that the kitchen is literally just a sink, there’s no central heating and we have a very temperamental hot water supply I love it and feel at home already. We’ve been in almost a couple of months now and I’d love to report progress but things are running a little slower than this impatient stylist would ideally like. We have fairly modest plans for this old place but because the property is listed we have to get architect involved to draw up plans and then wait…and wait…for Listed buildings consent to be to be approved (fingers crossed) We can’t even put heating in so we are bracing ourselves for a chilly winter! Would you like the tour? ….

It’s a typical Kentish style semi-detached cottage with tile hung front. Simon has a massive thing about symmetry so it pleases the designer in him! and It’s in the cutest little village, where everybody who walks past smiles and says hello, so we have the village environment we’ve been longing for.

We hoped the lurking behind the paneling and hideous 80’s gas fire in the living room would be an inglenook fireplace, and we were right!

My office – Granny Chic! I dream of sitting at my desk by the fire with Dudley dog curled up beside me, it may be a long way off!

The Kitchen – Basic and cold! But with stacks of potential. This side will (fingers crossed) become the dining area and we are hoping to open up the room next door and the bathroom (currently downstairs and so darn cold I can’t stay in there for longer than a few seconds) to become the kitchen area.

Hopefully the bathroom will be moving to the first floor into a derelict little room that will be great once it’s transformed.

The Master Bedroom comes complete with walk-in wardrobes…well a big cupboard really!

The little room will become the nursery. Yes you heard me right that was the other tiny matter that took over the summer. Simon and I are expecting our first child in just over 4 months time. We are unbelievably excited and in denial of what’s about to hit us in equal measure I think! But the growing bump makes it seem more real every day. And yes there is no way the house will be done…so it should be interesting!

Loft Space … this is phase two, we’ll of run out of money and time long before we get to this but one day we are hoping these two rooms will become another bedroom with en-suite.

So that’s the place we now call home. It’s dusty, chilly and sitting at the kitchen table eating supper together feels like we’ve regressed 50 years but we kinda like it! Over the next week or so I’ll share some of the moodboards for what (one day, hopefully soonish!) the rooms will look like.

A Summer {?} of Distractions

Marie Nichols — Wed, 17 Oct 2012 17:38:32 +0000

Hello! Without really planning to it turns out I took the summer (did we have a summer?) off from my little spot on the web. With so many changes going on elsewhere I just found it a little hard to find the time and focus, but I’ve missed this little place so I’m back!

As ever work remained the main focus in my life throughout the summer with a heavy dusting of Christmas shoots and looking ahead to Spring Summer 2013 too, but what with the Olympics (Oh my goodness how I loved the Olympics and Paralympics) finally moving house and The Shop At Number 57, suddenly it’s Autumn and we’ve so much catching up to do! How’ve you been?, what have I missed out on? I certainly need to spend some time catching up on all my favourite blogs which I’ve neglected for months now. I’ll fill you in on all that’s been going on over the next few days and share some of the shoots and lovely things I’ve stumbled across along the way.

Friday Fancies

Marie Nichols — Fri, 29 Jun 2012 07:13:49 +0000

It’s Friday, Hooray, here are a few things that have caught my eye this week…

1. Moody Blues from Homes & Gardens & shot by Emma Lee (they never credit the stylist on the website, grumble grumble!)

2. Fabulous Neon paper vases from Cachette, (not a lotta good for flowers but lovely all the same!)

3. Origami flowers from Goorigami.

4.Colourful artworks from Maya Hayuk.

5. The countdown to the olympics is in full swig, love this print by Angus Hyland of Pentagram (found Via It’s Nice That)

Daily Inspiration:Mantle Display

Marie Nichols — Thu, 28 Jun 2012 16:40:36 +0000

The mantle piece is looking pretty today (about the only part of my home that is!), with left over blooms from last weeks shoot displayed in an old port bottle picked up in a junk shop for £1 and some of our vintage Labware from Number 57.