stay home & feather
We have spent the last few days drooling over the Littlephant range. Here are our most drool-worthy picks.
CLOCKWISE FROM LEFT Butterfly family print / Dots serving board / Pear keyring / Fruit Garden Yellow fabric / Plum tea towel / Brilla two-sided matches
Not since Arro Home (R.I.P.) have we been so enamoured of a collection of homeware. How this passed us by for so long I don’t know, but we were so pleased to have found (and now celebrate) Littlephant!
The collection comes from the talented Swedish hands of Camilla Lundsten. Talk about a career… graphic designer, creative director, book illustrator and TV host, how this prolific creator has the time to put out such an amazing collection astounds us.
And what a collection! Littlephant is obviously not a quaint take on playful home decor, but a thorough and fantastical lifestyle brand that covers every corner of your interiors life. From fantastic fabrics and tabletop…
…to cushions…
to gorgeous lampshade (still in the works but launching this year) and bold and beautiful wallpaper!
Check out the 2019 Interiors & Accessories catalogue and lap it up!
This quick (okay, maybe not “in 10”, but certainly faster than you think) DIY lampshade makeover elevates a budget buy to bright new heights…
You would think that the fact that a pair of Habitat lamps we scored years ago at 75% off would give us carte blanche to get spendy on the shades, but that really isn’t any fun, and kinda negates the amazing price. So for years they were topped with a simple Ikea shade.
But since moving Social Nesting HQ to Canada and having to rewire the bases, the old shades no longer fit…
Step in Target, and this simple Project 62 rectangular lampshade. Chic in shape and divine in price ($19.99 USD), but a bit plain for us.
Admittedly, the steel-blue lacquer bases were tricky to accommodate. White was too bright, woven neutrals were too “country”, and from a sea of blues, none were quite right.
We needed to add a bit of drama, and aimed to do so with to this stunning marble paper from The Paper Place on Toronto’s Queen Street West.
To cover the shade, we tapped into our dry-mounting skills. Dry mounting involves spray-glueing both the surface you want to paper-cover, and the back of the paper you want to use, waiting for them both to dry, and then carefully sticking them together. Because in this process, when they are stuck, they are stuck.
The paper was only wide enough to cover the front and two sides, but had enough depth for us to cut and secure a cover for the back. The pattern doesn’t match at the back, but they are against a wall so no one will notice…
Plus people will be too busy in awe of the stunning results…
Forget the candy-coated commercial shape of hearts and go for a Valentine gift that is pumping with personality (and anatomical accuracy)…
left to right LOST IN THE WOOD crochet heart brooch / DECEMBER THIEVES porcelain heart wall vase / Ingela P. Arrhenius for KITSCH KITCHEN corazon pillow / MACON & LESQUOY heart in osmosis pin / LIGHT + PAPER SHOPlaser-cut heart
We take a scroll across an Instagram find that channels a stroll across one of our treasured Canadian cities…
As much as we love Instagram, it’s getting a bit ad-rich, and maybe getting it wrong re. targeting (according to Insta, I am a late-20-something yoga-pant wearing mom of two with mild bladder leakage on the hunt for Ritz Cracker-based recipes… close, but no.)
But props are due when they get it right, as in the case of art supply chain DeSerres and their recent posts featuring Stephanie E.M. Coleman, and her studio and shop, Mezari.
The posts about Mezari leapt off the feed and into our design-hearts for their bold and quirky style, and upon a deeper dive, revealed Stephanie’s beautiful toile de jouy prints, applied to home textiles and wallpaper, that are based around landmarks of her hometown of Montreal.
We teeter with a toile… Done badly, it is fussy disaster. Done well, and it draws the viewer in and on a whimsical journey, eyes dancing from pocket to pocket of intricate linework.
What grabbed us about Stephanie’s work is the joyous celebration of Montreal through the familiar. The humble Dépanneur (that’s “corner store” to the non-Québécois) storefront is wrapped in thistle and vines, almost as if the long-time survivor of the cheeriest of apocalypses.
And anyone who has strolled Montreal’s Plateau quickly gets a sense for the uniqueness of their facades, so to see them celebrated on organic cotton tea towels is a treat.
Montreal is explored landmark-for-landmark in her Toile de Ville wallpaper. Statement-making while remaining delicate and delightful.
Peruse and shop Stephanie’s work here, or visit the Mezari bricks-and-mortar shop at 365 Duluth Ave. East in Montreal.
