A very interesting interview with one of England’s most famous Interior Designers called Tricia Guild.

Tricia built up the Designer Guild company over many years, and really led the field with her passionate use of colour, design and detail.

It was established in 1970 by Tricia Guild, and Designers Guild designs and wholesales furnishing fabrics, wallcoverings, upholstery and bed and bath collections worldwide.The company is headed and owned by brother and sister, Tricia Guild, Founder and Creative Director, and Simon Jeffreys, Group Chief Executive. The Designers Guild business philosophy is to combine creativity and innovation with the highest levels of quality: quality of design, product, service and people.

More information on DG HERE

A great video by Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen on using colour in your home and the design rules to make it a success, filmed by the  BBC the video gives some great tips and advice on how to make the bets of your bedrooms and living areas.

Laurence refers to the use of colour in home decor as more than half of Britain’s top 10 colours are variations on cream and, much to Laurence’s disgust, magnolia is at No 1. His task in Design Rules is to transform a north-facing family dining room in a Victorian house which has fallen on “decorating hard times.”

Laurence is tempted by purple, which, despite being his trademark, has only been painted on walls by the designer four times over his television career. But Laurence also wants a wrap-around colour palette to really bring the room to life.

One thing that comes out is we in the UK need to be more bold and adventurous in the way we use colour and the effects of light as it hits the various shades.

Hope you enjoy and gives you some great Interior design tips.

In this fifth video episode Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen offers top tips on creating balance and order in modern-day homes. Learn the basic interior design principles of balance, rhythm, harmony, emphasis and proportion to create a superbly designed room

In the 21st century, homes have taken on the role of providing a spiritual nourishment for stressful lives. Laurence demonstrates ancient rules of design that use focal points as energy lines within a room, long before the word Interior Design was ever used, i.e an early Feng Shui.

He reveals that there are even more fundamental reasons for humans preferring symmetrical arrangements. According to psychologists, this is a recreation of human physical symmetry. Most people prefer the aesthetics of balanced faces because it indicates a healthy diet and strong genes.

By watching this video and using the basic interior design principles used by every interior designer to create a great design you  can have a great looking home that is fun and healthy.

“It’s time to flirt with scariness,” says Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen, “because behind every door lurks the chaos factor — you!” An architect may design identical houses but, once people move in, each house takes on the owner’s personality.

Laurence demonstrates how to apply the design rules to reflect individual personality. “Nearly every room you go into says something very, very specific about the people who live in it,” comments Laurence.

The most obvious and fundamental design differences are between extroverted and introverted people. “The extrovert personality type is linked to thrill-seeking and that risk-taking element can be found in what they do with their homes,” explains Professor Barrie Gunner of the University of Sheffield. “They may be inclined to use bold and exciting colour schemes and they like to have a lot of things around them creating stimulation.”

Introverts, however, are biologically different to extroverts. “They have different types of nervous systems,” adds Professor Gunner. “The introvert is less tolerant of physical stimulation.They will tend to shy away from bold reds and oranges and yellows and prefer cooler blues and greens.”

Laurence, maybe not surprisingly, advises people to just be bold and have the courage of their convictions.

This video shows the entire process of vegetable dye textile production at the Adivasi Veg. dye production house in Rajasthan. Vegetable Dye textiles are an extremely labor intensive process and the knowledge of the traditional skills of creating these textiles remains with a handful of artisans in India today. So great to learn and see the traditional techniques of all the different products we take for granted in the West.

This new video series gets right down to the basics of design in this fascinating back-to fundamentals series. Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen tackles real problems in real homes as he explores six themes: space, colour, light, texture and pattern, balance and order, and personality. In addition to his own in-depth experience of design principles, he calls on a colour forecaster, psychologists and a perception specialist to explain and show the science behind the how and the why of Interior Design.

Taking a real home where a design problem is all too apparent, he demonstrates some simple psychology and basic experiments in a ‘design lab’ back at the studio — and it’s all done without knocking down walls or spending large money.

Space comes under the spotlight in the first programme. Lack of space is a common problem in British house which, surprisingly, have 215 square feet less space than Japanese homes, with an average of only 1,291 square feet .

“The cardinal sin that the British indulge in beyond any other nation is the concept of agoraphobic furniture that feels it needs to keep its back against the wall at all times in case something unpleasant happens to it!” quips Laurence.

By painting the walls a paler colour, bringing the outside inside by strategically placing an eye-catching object outside the window and switching to light-reflecting flooring, the brain is deluded into thinking that the room is bigger. Suddenly, the crowded living room is calmer and seems larger — thanks to a little bit of science and the tricks of design rules.

Eye brain specialist Dr Ione Fine comments: “Half of interior design is illusion.”And on a practical note, Laurence shows why it’s better to buy a couple of two-seater sofas — because three people never sit on a three-seater!

The third video in the BBC home interior design series covering Lights and Lighting . Being filmed in England this excellent film covers the particular British problem of poor light and being in the northen hemisphere in relation to Home Lighting and high quality interior design and the way it affects your home.

“Light is much more than something that lets you see. It affects the way we feel and directly influences our moods. To understand lighting you have to understand that it is more than just electrical fittings, sockets and bulbs,” says Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen.

His first challenge in the project house is to transform a north-facing Victorian sitting room. “You have to remember that the Victorians really didn’t trust daylight. As far as they were concerned, it was something that came into their rooms and faded their carpets or turned their ladies odd shades of brick. So they made these great barriers between them and daylight: heavy swags, tassels, fringes …”

Laurence offers practical advice and tricks of the trade for maximising daylight and transforming rooms with atmospheric and moody lighting.

The project kitchen poses a different type of challenge. Here, Laurence must create a flexible lighting scheme to cope with many different conditions. Using the unique studio Design Lab, he demonstrates how to blend three layers of light into a more stimulating, dynamic atmosphere.

The choice of bulb also affects the mood of a room, he reveals. Red- and yellow-tinted light creates an intimate, warm mood, while blue and green gives a cooler, serene mood. With over 3,000 different light bulbs on the market, Laurence asks why most people in Britain still remain loyal to the standard bulb.

In this fourth series about design advice rules on Texture and Pattern by the BBC, Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen explains how texture and pattern both have a major fundamental role in creating the right mood atmosphere in a room. “There is something inherently satisfying about a repeated design, and every culture has evolved different ways of making patterns,” says Laurence.

But Laurence feels that , despite the British home owner who love  decorating their homes, they  have lost their confidence, especially in motifs,  and that flat colours are still the most popular choice of wall covering!.

Laurence looks back to the Victorians and their bold decorating style, which embraced the new patterned and textured wallpapers. “From the 1840s to the 1960s, Britain had a love affair with pattern … indeed, most of our houses were designed with pattern in mind,” he says.

In the BBC laboratory studio, Laurence demonstrates the fundamental rules of pattern such as how to choose the right size and type of pattern for a room; how too large a repeat will make a room appear smaller; and how to visually extend a pokey room.

This video number four is a must watch if you are trying to plan a makeover of your home or a new property, and if you have a classic small or large classic house then watch this and learn.

Meet Emma Mawston, our Head Designer at Liberty Art Fabrics as she talks us through each design group in the new SS12 collection. Find out the inspiration behind each one, plus meet the Liberty Design Team as they share their favourite print from the collection with us.

The Spring Summer 2012 Liberty Art Fabrics collection was inspired by archives, antiques and costume. Colour palettes were based around mood boards created by eminent contributors to fashion, art and antiques, with prints giving a nod to the beautiful Glencot House in Somerset as well as Olympic motifs.

More on Liberty London HERE

We just had to put this great video up on our new website here at “HomeandInteriors.co.uk”, great filming, lovely music and very informative of the Artisan Manufacturing process in this country. The following is straight from Susie’s overview about this particular factory owned by Mr Ravi:

We have been very fortunate to find the perfect partner in Mr Ravi. His family-run business in rural Southern India is home to a multitude of talented artists. We’re thrilled to be able to show people where our products are made and how much work goes into every item…

All of our textiles are traditionally dyed and woven. A process that is overseen by Mr Ravi, a master weaver. He is recognised for his beautiful colours and an enormous amount of effort goes into creating every shade. Kartik, an artisan in embroidery, supervises the cutting & stitching of every item. Each heart, flower and bird are cut out individually. Each piece is entirely handmade with a huge amount of skill and care.

All the expertise, coupled with lots of enthusiasm, makes the workshop an ideal setting for origination. Susie spends at least four weeks a year there creating first samples of new designs.

We hope you enjoy the film – let us know what you think.

www.susiewatsondesigns.co.uk