Interior Design Sense feature

Found us featured here today- Interior Design Sense

Very exciting to find our little home has been written about by others

Don't forget that it's up for sale at the moment so if you're interested don't hesitate to contact me on the email address shown at the top.

Our home's up for grabs!

So the time has come where we're selling our beautiful little home............ see our website to view lots and lots of piccies and a brief specification and if you're interested don't hesitate to give us a call and pop down to view it.

We're currently moored in Paddington Basin on our official Olympic mooring and will be moving a little further towards the east in a couple of weeks time.

It's a fantastic way to live, i would recommend it to anyone!

Unique Narrowboat up for sale

How to do.... 'on a budget' upholstery!

So...... it turns out that 'pulled button' upholstery is really really expensive as I found out through a quote i gained a few weeks back from an upholsterer!

So rather than sit and cry into my bare, uncovered, scratchy foam sofa bed.... i thought I'd see if i could give it a go myself!

I first watched a very handy YouTube video of an extremely accomplished american woman who seems to have a lot of time on her hands, i then bought all the necessary items (skipping out the unnecessary ones like a 'yard stick' and a 'thimble'!) and got to work. The pieces i've completed so far took me about a day, the button bit is the most time consuming, especially as I decided to make all the buttons myself (I truly am stingee!)

So, here are the 'Blue Peter' style pictures. Hope you like it....... I still need to complete the largest piece; Decided to have a bit of a breather to save my poor fingers from having yet more skin gouged out of them from the double ended needle (seems i did need that ruddy thimble after all!)

First one done! All the other much larger ones to go!

Next.....

Stay tuned!

Our floating London home

The ultimate floating home.....

After......

Our home:

We're a young couple. I'm self-employed and it's impossible for us to get a mortgage for a home that isn't a tiny leaking box in the middle of a roundabout!

We didn't want to continue saying goodbye to a wad of hard earned cash every month to a landlord that didn't care that we had no hot water!

Our answer..... my mum (to gain a loan for us!), an old holey steel boat.... and a dream of designing our own home!

Here's the result:

Currently moored in East London on the Grand Union Canal, the narrowboat living space is a teeny 40 feet in length and 6 foot 2 width. Having first been constructed in the 1970’s, the boat has been lovingly stripped back to it’s original shell and restored from scratch.
With the layout being as open plan as possible to maximise light from the unusually large windows, and the rubber floor having been especially chosen for its heat storing properties and functional finish. Storage was also cleverly executed in the form of built-in units with each area within the boat having various uses which can be adjusted with the flick of a hinge or the slide of slats, to allow a more economic use of space. The L-shaped sofa with strong coloured stripes dominating it’s upholstery can simply slide-out into a double bed with upholstery folding to suit. Similarly, all worksurfaces on one side flip up or down depending on the space needed for dining or preparing. There are only 2 doors within the interior, these are both sliding. Within these doors a walk-in wardrobe has been created within the only section of the boat where windows do not prevail. Hanging space and drawers sit to either side of the space as you walk through to the bathroom which occupies the end section. The bathroom is fully tiled with bevelled edge brick tiles, for a vintage city feel. Moving back to the main area, the expansive windows are covered with ease by sliding fabric blinds and the somewhat large DVD and book collection sit efficiently within the streamline designed waist-height shelving. By maintaining a light, simple look throughout, with reflective and smooth textures, the overall feel of the space is much larger than it truly is. With the ability to move where we please and whenever we feel, this economical yet designer way of living sets the scene for many young couples looking for a relaxed and serene alternative to city commuting.

Before......

Featured on Apartment Therapy!!!

Our little home is featured in the Small Cool Contest!!!

Take a look and vote us as your favourite and we might just win!!

Dominique's Well-designed House boat

Bathroom piccies!

Right, so after lots of lovely enquiries into what our bathroom looks like,........ I thought I'd pop a couple of photos on here to settle everyones curiosities! Hope you like it!

Watch this space for the upload of our recording of us on the BBC!

Dominique's (MY) Narrow Boat

Our little home has been featured on this lovely Tiny House Blog! Take a look and let me know what you think!
Dominique's Narrow Boat

My new studio!!!

So, after many hours of scrubbing and scraping on hands and knees in order to release the floor from its mastic glue prison...... me and the lovely Donna Walker have finished our new studio! Yay!

We took on the lease with the room looking dark and dismal, with dodgy looking and stained carpet tiles, magnolia walls and weirdly sticky vertical blinds! yet now it is a bright, colourful and frankly happy space for lovely creatives to allow their clever brains to let loose!

We had a minuscule budget (as is always the case!), so our scavenging skills sprung into action and we started by re-upholstering 4 60's steel cantilever chairs which were a steal- (eeek,.. sorry couldn't resist!) at a mere 15 quid for all 4! Bargain!

Next up, we headed to the amazing Wimbledon Car Boot and begged and bartered for varying numbers of cabinets and shelving in all different shapes and sizes- some for free... some for an extortionate £3.50! ;)

We sanded them all down and then carted them off to the spray painters for a quick makeover! We then placed them in formations and mounted them on the wall to create our unique take on office shelving!

And with some desks, a stunning chair and light by Donna Walker Design and a few more up cycled items of ours.... the finished result! Come and join our little design community, large desk spaces with your very own shelving and all mod-cons included are going for a mini £46 per week in a fantastic location just up from Regents canal and down from Dalston Kingsland and Dalston Junction stations: 1-9 Downham Road, N1 5AA

We look forward to seeing you!!! xx

On the BBC!!!!!!!

We're on BBC One!!! Would you believe it!..... no?! Well here's the link to prove it Britain's Empty Homes Episode 13. Fast forward to 6 minutes 57 seconds in and there we are! Enjoy :)

SEB Reception counter design

Another design completed.....

.... Collaborating with my fellow designers at Burtt-Jones and Brewer, the design and construction of the main reception counter at SEB has been completed.

The challenge was to create a beautiful and seamless scandinavian inspired counter around the main body of the existing and rather cumbersome original desk.

The brief was to design a more user friendly counter for both the receptionists and the visitors, ensuring that the creation was both functional and fluid in it's construction and also it's aesthetic.

We're all very pleased with the outcome and so are SEB, so happy faces all round!

For further details visit Burtt-Jones and Brewer's website link and scroll to 'A Grand Reception'

The images above are of the visuals created for the client before construction and then the resulting design.

Primary school reading area come to life

Before I became an independent soul and decided to embark on the design world alone... I worked for a fantastic Architects practice in a little town in the South West of the Uk called NVB Architects. I headed up the Interior Design/ Architect division of the practice (me being the only Interior Designer amongst many Architects!) and was lucky enough to create designs for some very prestigious and exciting projects.

Obviously creating buildings from the ground up is a rather slow process and is the reason that this design has taken a while in the making..... however as they always say- 'good things come to those who wait'!

So, here we are. My input into the project was the design of the rather individual and playful library seating and storage pods being used to great effect by the lovely kids themselves! Always exciting to see happy customers!

The school on the receiving end of such a monumental new build was St Mary's Purton Primary School so feel free to check the beautiful building out in all its glory.

Fantastic outcome!

In the images you can see the original drawings that were created by me and then presented to the school, and then the completed designs.