Decorating Ninjas

There's something bugging me in the decorating world at the moment. I'm not sure where it came from and why its hanging around for so long.

I recently worked in an exclusive interiors showroom having to do this activity everyday - I may even have RSI doing it.

These cushions look as pointy as the sunburst mirrors.

You see, when oh when did some bright spark think I know I'll do some karate on the cushions then it'll look perfect. I know some love it, some have mixed feelings and some like me do not understand it.

These bunny ears or devils horns atop the cushions look quite frankly ridiculous and contrived. After smashing about 50 of these a day over the last few weeks I'm not sure if I qualify for a decorating black belt or a session locked away.

Either this decorator had a very bad day or got too excited smashing these cushions.

This is borderline, but still odd.

What are your thoughts, do you like to karate your cushions too or are you a straightener?

(images A.Fulton)

Happy Island Styling

Special Guest Post - Design Shuffle talks Coastal

Hello my island lovelies, hope you're relaxing with a good cup of coffee as we have an absolute special first from Oceania Island Living.

We're so extremely happy to introduce you to Design Shuffle and bring you this exclusive guest post all about Coastal Inspired Interiors.

Warmest island welcome to Design Shuffle...

Hi, I'm Susi, a writer for Design Shuffle, a wonderful online community of designers and design lovers from around the world. I'm lucky to be visiting Oceania Island Living today as a guest blogger; it's such a lovely blog. Inspired by the gorgeous coastal style of Oceania Island Living, I've picked eight of my favourite coastal rooms from around the world to share with you and your readers. I hope you enjoy them and discover lots of interesting decorating ideas! Thanks for letting me and Design Shuffle stop by to visit.

Coastal design elements and artwork create a beautiful room that makes us long for a seaside vacation. Typical coastal colors are white, ocean blues, sandy neutrals, and sea glass green. Love the sophisticated coastal style of this room.

This chic coastal bedroom has a bit of Hamptons style with the Chinese Chippendale style black headboards. The blue and white linens really pop against the black.

Tropical style is all about natural materials and easy, breezy comfort. Love the woven chair and ottoman in this crisp space that has great tropical design.

This galley kitchen has a coastal and nautical feel to it. The small footprint recalls a ship's galley and exterior lighting fixtures used indoors, often seen in coastal kitchen designs, also have a nautical feeling.

With the white shutter style headboard and a mix of sea greens and blues, this bedroom exudes Southern coastal charm that recalls Hilton Head Island or the Outerbanks of North Carolina. Grasscloth on the wall is a perfect choice for this space.

California modern coastal style is all about easy, casual living. Nods to the beach are subtle like the seaweed and coral inspired art; they don't dominate the space.

British Colonial style is a popular coastal style that is inspired by the British West Indies. It's tropical and traditional combined into a beautiful coastal interior design style as seen in this bedroom design.

Another British coastal style is more traditional and is based on the seaside resorts of England. With strong nautical influences, this coastal style has a lovely nostalgic feeling. Images [ 1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / 6 / 7 / 8 ]

If you liked this post on coastal rooms, then come check out Design Shuffle! You can connect with interior designers around the world, including Boston interior designer, San Francisco interior designers and more!

Thank you so much Design Shuffle, we love those images.
Be sure to check this wonderful site out for lots more.



Happy Island Styling.

Trick or Treat - Stylish Creepy Coastal

I absolutely adore styling, but unfortunately I rarely get the time to do any of this good stuff at home.
So today spurred on by my very excited 7 yr old who was dressed in pink tights with black witches on them, I indulged in some spooky styling, just in time for ye ole Hallows Eve.

I really enjoyed playing around this morning creating a spooky yet stylish Halloween inspired trayscape. Trayscapes are my adopted invention, they are genius for styling in a real home, need space just move the tray off the table and your creative vignette is still intact - marvellous thing for a designer at home.

So here are the results of my spooky stylin' Sunday escapade.

My spooky inspiration was to inject some stylish and romantic Gothic elements into the mix.

I played with the images in Coral Paint shop and love this effect.

It's edgy, hard, masculine and a little eerie.

My main aim with the spooky styling was to abandon all the cheap Halloween rubbish out there, so only the stylish remained, tricky bit is to do this in a coastal setting.

I  love the way the silver pineapple has replicated in this stylised image, I think I've just invented a new twist on Halloween - Spooky Glam.

Come on girls, lets set this new trend!

This was an experiment - I have a zebra inspired rug and I quite like the contrast of the smooth white coral and black bat on the contrasting stripes, very Film Noir.

This is an overhead shot of my trayscape, I quite like the orange filter over the black and white image - very Tim Burton. 

Whilst searching around home for props I looked at the India Hicks Island Night candle I have.

How perfect it is for a coastal Halloween with its Gothic silver coral sprawling around a dark glass holder.

The final image, my stylishly spooky coastal trayscape.

Mixing Coastal and Halloween elements is not an easy thing to do, but I'm happy with the results - what do you think?

I'm very excited about this new take on Halloween decorating that a lot of you are creating and sharing online.

Let me know what cool creepy coastal creative you've styled recently in your home.

 

Happy 'Spooky' Island Styling.

 

(All images by Oceania Island Living)