What to do when someone falls in love and won't listen to good advice!

Could the title of this blog get any longer?  

This blog came about as I was reading an article on the magazine site:  The Stylelist, Kimberly Mullian, It got me thinking about the surfaces and appropriateness of use and a designer's responsibility.  In this blog she discusses the fact that her designer recommended Carrara marble for the bathroom and how she agreed - because she likes it and everyone has it right?   Having lived with the marble in her bathroom for some months she is finding the down side of the beautiful white, porous & delicate substance.  I can see why the marble was selected but this is where I think Designer who is doing her job well will try and dissuade her client from using a particular product when it is not suitable for the purpose.

Carrara marble is one of the softest of marbles.  Its white colour will not remain white and pristine for long if subjected to any chemical cleaners, drops of nail varnish cleaner, wet soap left on it, etc. etc.  It may be sealed but we all know that doesn't count for much if through ignorance or ineptitude the wrong things are used or spilt. What would I have done?  I would have said - Yes, use the marble on vertical surfaces but be aware that if you use it on horizontal surfaces you are liable for staining, scratching and defects appearing.  Why not use: Corian, Axion etc many other man made products which cope with modern living very well and look very like marble and are just as expensive.

I have had clients select, fall in love with and want a product that is inappropriate for the job.  Persuading them to change and alter their minds is difficult.  The item you are usually trying to discuss is probably integral to the design/look of the room and they just 'want it'.   I am of the opinion that it is the designer's duty to point out all the flaws and potential problems with any particular product.  It is then up to the client to decide if they want to use it being made aware of these facts.   Occasionally, I will say that  'In my opinion this product is not suitable for the purposes for which they want to use it, and that they are using it against my advice.....And they have to be aware of the consequences'.  That hasn't happened often mind you!

So to answer the title of the blog - What to do when someone falls in love and won't listen to good advice:  give the advice, makes sure that you have documented the fact that you gave the advice and that your client is aware of the facts and then 'go with the flow'!  People fall in love with unsuitable people so let them live with their unsuitable interior decor choices if that is what they have fallen in love with.

What do you think - should a designer insists they know what is right or should they let a client make that decision?

Marble stained with water.

What has Twitter done for me?

So, what has Twitter done for me?  I've been actively engaging on this social media site for the last  8 weeks - Um, let me count the things!

1) I have a job - thank you Barclay Interiors

2) There are many authors on Twitter and I've read a number of books: a couple of the good ones so far: The Rings of Alathea by Dan Moore and  Designer Devil by Stuart Peel

Scarf from Horrockses Fashion

3) I won a beautiful silk scarf from Horrockses Fashion

4) Had photographs of our Street Party taken for the local newspaper.  

5) Been inspired by the amazing Keren Lerner Top Left Design with whom I won a few hours of her time to discuss my blog and website.  I shall definitely be using her services in the future and the technically savy and Twitter guru Alicia Cowen.

6) Wasted huge amounts of time!   The amount of information on Twitter is slightly overwhelming. You could spend all day just  watching your feed and pinging to websites and not get a thing done....shh don't tell anyone that is exactly what has happened to me on occasions.

7) Found some interesting people.  The breath and wealth of talent is truly amazing - and I would not have come into contact with half of these people had they not either followed me or I followed them. 

8) New suppliers of furniture, fabrics and other house hold bits and pieces that I will use in the future.

9) Enjoyed some brilliant blogs  Mad About the House by Kate Watson Smyth is one I particularly enjoy.  

10) Lastly but not least an idea for a new, but small business - helping people around Twitter, Pinterest, Blogging, Linkedin and other social media sites.  Click for more info:  Twit For You

It has all been a most wonderful and entertaining 8 weeks.  I have to admit to still learning Twitter etiquette, I do apologise when I get it wrong.  All in all I have found Twitter to be an interesting, entertaining and informative place.  I have also wasted a lot of time on there!  You have been warned.

Kitchen - the Heart of the Home

You've bought a house, or you've lived in it a while and now you want to do up the kitchen.  Make it into the uber space that you have had in your minds eye for the last five years.  If you are organised you have even got a file of pictures from magazines with lovely lustful kitchens.  Well done!

But, the look of a kitchen is only half of the battle.  What should you consider when planing and designing this important and vital space?  A kitchen is not just a space to cook, it is often the heart of the home where so much else goes on.  Obviously, where you are in your lives will affect what your require:

• Single:  microwave, dishwasher, beer fridge!
• Recently married: cooking space, more storage and entertaining space.
• Young family: ahh now this is really where the kitchen comes into it's own and becomes the multi functional area of multifarious uses. Cooking, child playing, TV watching (surrogate baby sitter - don't knock it), entertaining, coffee mornings, computer area/office.  The kitchen becomes the hub - the place of primary plastic toys, the essential room.  At this stage you should get the best kitchen you can afford.
• Teenage/young adult family: The primary plastic toys have left the room, you may have allowed (the always used and difficult to part from the opposable thumbs of your teenagers) the XBox, Wii etc into the room.  Or you may have banned this box of engrossing interest to another room.  But the kitchen now has become family eating space, grown up entertaining, some light leisure activities, homework and office space.
• Empty Nesters:  The kitchen is now your space to do with what you wish - oh bliss oh joy.

So how does one room encompass all these functions and different needs?  Planning, thought and talking to an expert.  As I said before, what a kitchen looks like is only half of the job now you need to consider:

1. Storage - you can never, never have too much
2. Electrical requirements - think of future needs, not just what you require now.
3. Fridges - size (often limited by space), material and requirements of the family
4. Sinks - what kind, style, material
5. Worktops - constrained by cost, there are many different options
6. Flooring - what works best for you, what is warm, comfortable for children, easy to clean and looks good.
7. Units - there are some fantastic gadgets and gizmos around, some are useful, some are a waste of space.  I personally subscribe to the notion simple is best.
8. Planning - Always think of the ergonomics of the room - how best you can use the space with the least amount of walking.

Good advice can save you money. 

Good advice will get you the kitchen you want and one that will grow with you over time.  

Where should you go for good advice - an Interior Designer for unbiased advice or a good kitchen company with well trained staff.

Knife, Fork and Spoon by Tracey Kendall

Pinterest - another social media site that I have just been introduced to!

quickmeme.com

So there I am, a Newbie on Twitter quite happily finding my way around hashtags, dm's and other such lingo that is used on Twitter when someone asks if I am on Pinterest.  

Well I wasn't but now I am!  What an excellent visual referencing resource this is. 

This site allows you to 'pin' images from websites that you find interesting or upload your own images into separate boards that you create.  If you click on the image you are then taken to the original website, which is fantastic if you are window shopping, brilliant if you need to remember to credit someone in a post, fabulous if you want to promote an item and well just generally all round marvellous!  Not only that but you can connect your 'pins' to Facebook and Twitter so your 'Followers' can constantly be updated, if they wish, with your wonderful images.   As you can read I am a convert.

I have started to use it as a way of displaying work/projects that have been completed.  These aren't the full on, set up, glossy shots by a professional,  those will come - but snaps of work in progress or just finished. As a way of easily displaying current work, this site could obviate the necessity of having a website that you need to constantly update.  Maybe, just maybe I am ahead of the curve here and everyone will soon be on Pinterest for their portfolio! 

I will shortly update my Pinterest site and upload photographs of artwork that I have painted and want to sell.  The potential market is huge just within Pinterest its self - if you label the items correctly.   How very democratic!

Southwold, watercolour

Link to Pinterest - Art by Rowena Vaughan

Twitter for the Beginner - musings and some helpful websites.

I do not pretend to be anything but a beginner in the miasmic world of Twitter and other Social Media.   However, for those who have and those about to enter into the heaving firmament of Twitter, I have a little advice gleaned from my recent immersion into this world.

There are lots and lots and lots of sites out there that say they can help, will help, are helpful - but AREN'T.

Twitter is and can be a HUGE waste of time unless you manage it well - that is the art of Twitter - MANAGEMENT.

So following on from my last blog listing out some websites that have been recommended by others I will give my opinion of the ones that I have found most useful. 

HOOTSUITE or TWEETDECK 

• These are similar platforms that enable you to run different columns so that you can easily see your Twitter stream, divide out your followers into any sub category you like (which makes them easier to follow), mentions, schedule tweets and your tweets.  Rather than just one long twitter feed.  Makes it much easier to see what and who is Tweeting so you can respond.  You can add further columns but that is for the advanced user!

BUFFER 

• Umm I like this one, once loaded it enables you to click on an icon at the bottom of any webpage and it will load the URL for that website for you to form into a Tweet for  distribution.  So, if you find something interesting it is easy to share it with friends and followers.

BITLY

• Another useful website that will shorten those peskily long URL's (thus using up many of your precious 140 characters) enabling you to add more comment and less web address.  Very clever.

TWEETSMARTER 

• Wow, I've only just found this site and it's the best how to, where to, what to, why to site of ALL things Twitter.  It has the answers to all those questions you want to ask but don't know who to ask!  This is a definite go to site for the beginner.

What else have I learnt.

• Do start lists of the people you follow on Twitter - from the very beginning!  Otherwise you will find yourself swamped with info and not sure where they all belong in the scheme of things.  

• How to do this:  when you click to follow someone, there is also another button with a little head and shoulder - click on that and then add to list.  Create your own list titles and add each person each time.  Essential management.

• That I can spend and have spent hours and hours just looking at all the fascinating information that people forward on.  This is a problem - I have other work to do and I am being diverted from that while I 'play' on Twitter.  I know that this will calm down in time as I find out exactly how to manage Twitter - but for the moment it has opened a whole new internet information stream to me and it is difficult to justify this as anything but a waste of time!

• To be honest I am not completely sold on the idea that Twitter will help me in my professional life, but I can see it's value for some businesses.  If I set up a new business - I would without a doubt Twitter/Facebook/Linkedin as an essential form of marketing and getting your new business name and new product out there. But for me - now at this moment, I'm not sure.  What do you think?  Do comment.

Now what do I have to do when not playing on Twitter

• sort out my marketing, 
• get a new website, find a new 'look' for my business, 
• decide how I want to promote my business over all media 
• get new business

Oh yes, and in the meantime make sure that all current clients are kept happy and work is done!  Ah the life of the multi tasker, such hectic bliss is ours.

Six, now seven, of the best websites to make it easier to manage your social media life!

Listed below are a number of websites that were recommended at the Social Media seminar I went to given by Keren Lerner of Top Left Design and Alicia Cowen - to make managing your social media life easier.

I am still working my way through all of them - some proving more useful for me than others. 

Mashable : Social Media news blog covering cool new websites and social networks: Facebook, Google, Twitter, MySpace and YouTube

Tweetdeck :is your personal browser for staying in touch with what's happening now, connecting you with your contacts across Twitter, Facebook, MySpace

Tapatalk : More engagement and participation - Mobile solution for online communities, empowering discussion forums with mobile access since 2009.

Google Reader : constantly checks your favourite news sites and blogs for new articles and information.

Buffer: makes it super easy to share any page you're reading. Keep your Buffer topped up and we automagically share posts for you through the day.

Bitly: Wonderful site that shortens the URL's of sites that you think are interesting so that you don't use up all of your 140 characters when sending a tweet. 

Hootsuite:  Helps you manage your Twitter account, scheduling tweets, seeing whats come in that you need to respond to and allowing you to sort out your twitter feed into manageable columns of data.

There were many others but I think that these were some of the most useful. 

Having  spent a couple of weeks sorting myself out the top two of the above websites that I would recommend for the beginner are: BITLY and HOOTSUITE

What should you spend your money on when doing up your home?

Money doesn't grow on trees (I wish it did) and I know that saving money is important but here you are doing up your house and you want to know where to spend your money to get the best effect or even what is important.   

In no particular order I suggest a few areas that I would  spend money on and others that you can get away with spending less.

1.   Flooring:
Get the floor that you want - don't skimp on this.  Replacing a floor sometime down the line is hugely disruptive.  So this is one item I would suggest that you spend money on.

2.   Worktops:
here you can save - replacing at a later date a  cheap worktop with a nicer one is not too difficult (depending if you have splashback tiles or not). 

3.   Kitchens:
You don't have to spend a fortune to get a good looking kitchen, what you will compromise on will be the hinges, drawer runners and carcass of the kitchen.  But if you only need the units to last for a few years.  Compromise on this.  Also remember that fashions change!

4.   Bathrooms:
Spend on taps and your plumber, save on baths, basins, trays and wc.   Tiles again are a fashion item, so don't get too hung up on an expensive tile.  Often you can find a very good looking tile similar to the expensive one.

5.   Lighting: 
This is an area you should spend your money well.  Items like table lamps can easily be up graded, but ceiling fixtures can't - so spend the money and put in the best you can afford.  Also, put in more sockets than you think you need.  With the electrification of our lives (ipods, pads, computers, hair gadgets, mobile phones etc) you always need more sockets.  I know many people who don't like ceiling lights, spots or other - so one has to find innovative ways of putting light into a scheme.

6.   Storage: 
More is best.  YOU CAN NEVER HAVE TOO MUCH STORAGE.  The law of mess dictates that whatever storage you have will be filled.  So plan, plan, plan as much storage as you can.  If you can't afford to put all the cupboarding in now, at least plan for installing it in the future. 

7.   Furniture:
 I know you lust after that must have iconic item, you want it, you need it..............but do you really?  Being practical here, unless you are an uber cool chic person with a fabulous loft style apartment, will that steel and leather day bed actually suit your life?  No!  Well don't buy it now, but remember it and buy it later when the children have left home!

8.   Art: 
A difficult one this as art is so subjective,  I am of the opinion that if you love, love, love it - buy it!  Otherwise it will be an opportunity missed.  But it is one of those luxuries that can completely scupper your attempts at keeping to a budget so beware the impulse buy.  Sometimes a good piece of art can be the starting point for a scheme, layout or idea.

9.   Gardens: 
Love the outdoors - but you've just spent a fortune doing up the house and don't have anything left.  I would suggest that you do something simple for the short term and plan to do up the garden at a later date.   But do plan and put in electricity and water for that time!

10.   Interior Designer: 
Well what would I say except that money spent with an good Interior Designer won't be wasted.  We know our business and  know what is important and what isn't.  We can save you money by concentrating your mind and showing you what is essential.  We also know where to go to get those must have items at excellent prices.  Kitchens, flooring, lighting, storage, furniture, art and gardens - you want the look but don't have the money.  This is what we are there for; planning and strategic thinking.  Pay for us and we will pay for ourselves in the long run with money spent wisely.

Lighting under glass shelf - also access panel for the thermostatic control. 

Tips on How to Organise a Street Party

 

The following is drawn from my experience at being the prime mover in getting 5 other street parties rocking and rolling and should not be taken as a verbatim and accurate way of organising a party. 

Council requirements will alter and fire requirements will be different, depending on where and when you are holding your party. Please check with your council.

Some points to consider when planning. 

1. Leaflets:   Leaflet the street advertising the event, this will enable you to find out level of interest and who might be interested in helping you organise the event. Remember to get email addresses.
2. Apply:  to the council to close the street.   Some councils charge for this - for the Jubilee this year the charge is being waived.
3. Bring:   From experience we have found that it is easier to ask people to provide their own food, drink, tables and chairs.
4. Provide:  The street provides extra tables and chairs, music, games for the children, face painting equipment, insurance, bunting and tent to cover the music man/people/electrics, road closure signs and barriers.
5. Insurance:   Not a requirement, but working on the law of Sod - if we don't have it something will happen, if we do then it won't.  Insurance, depending on numbers and complexity of the event usually starts at around £100.00.  See link to right 'Event Insurance' for the company I use. 
6. Bunting:    When hanging bunting - I have been advised by the Council that all bunting should be hung from the houses in the street - not the lamp posts as these are Council property.  Bunting should also be hung high enough that a fire engine can pass beneath.
7. Marquee:  Any tents in the street have to be placed to one side so that a fire engine/emergency vehicle can pass - in the event of an emergency.
8. Music:   Any electrical equipment should have some form of tent - in case of rain to cover it.  An external transformer is a good idea.  We also have external lights to light up the tent.
9. Money:    I would recommend raising funds and getting people to commit coming before the day.  Collecting money on the day is difficult.  We are raising a little extra money this year to pay for: DJ, toys for children, water pistols, face paints, a new marquee, insurance, hire of trestle tables (3), any over will go to a charity.
10. Clearing the Street:   I would recommend leafleting the street a week before the event houses and cars.  Leaflet the cars again, a few days before getting them to move - and if possible close off the road late the night before the event.
11. The Great Clear Up:   Get as many people to help as you can.   Do quite a bit of it that night otherwise the foxes and vermin make an awful mess.   We usually finish off the next day - after eating breakfast in the road and the children enjoying the empty street for as long as possible.

A rather condensed but hopefully helpful blog on how to organise a street party.

Most of important of all have fun and meet your neighbours.

Some links to some interesting Jubilee Stuff:

Jubilee Jelly Mould 

Jubilee Bunting

Bunting - General

Snazzy Jubilee Scarf from Horrockses Fashions 

Pound Cake with Passion Fruit Cream Cheese Icing - Delicious.