What we loved in March

Shades of Grey by Kate Watson

Grey has long been a favourite of ours in an interior scheme. It makes an excellent neutral both on the walls and as a colour base for a rug design too, so it was great to come across this book recently.

Kate Watson-Smyth who writes the brilliant MadAboutTheHouse blog, has dedicated an entire book to decorating with grey, ‘the most elegant of neutrals’.

It’s a fantastic read. She talks about why we all love grey, touching on the psychology and history of colour, and explains how it has taken over magnolia as the most popular neutral.  Did you know it’s all to do with halogen bulbs and IKEA is to blame?!  Well, thank you IKEA!

There are expert opinions and ‘fancy that’ facts and she shares plenty of information about different paint companies and what they offer.  Who knew Dulux has 557 shades of grey?  To them it is a ‘complex neutral’.  If this fills you with fear, be reassured that Kate Watson-Smyth does not advocate getting to know this many shades.  She is reassuringly down to earth in her attitude to Interior Design and her writing style follows suit.

There is advice on how to choose the right shade of grey according to factors such as orientation of room, hemisphere and room usage so you can be sure to find your right shade of grey having curled up on your sofa reading this.

She quotes David Mottershead of The Little Greene Paint Company who says “Grey doesn’t need to be the star of the show.  It is the perfect blank canvas that shows off everything else in the room”.  With this in mind maybe its time to work that grey with one of our rugs?  Brights will pop out against a grey background so if you’re feeling daring try Aster, Crochet, or Tree.

Aster

Crochet

Tree

Or maybe you want to just use a couple of colours in your scheme for a more restful feel – try our Peacock rug or Peaock Tree rug and stick to greys and blues.

Peacock

Peacock Tree

Or how about black?  Black with grey?  It works.  As Kate points out in her book.  Try Chinese Deco or Infinity.  Use natural materials in your scheme to warm it up a bit like wood, brass or copper.

Chinese Deco

Infinity

Wendy’s trip last month to India has filled her with inspiration. She had to get it all down on paper in an image board (below).  The trip proved to be a successful one for the business as she has come back with a new product to add to the Wendy Morrison Design range.  Something we’re very excited about. More details soon!  Another exciting offering will be a new ‘recommended by Wendy’ section on our website, where we sell some exquisite rugs from other designers, personally sourced and selected by Wendy.

India

Whilst flicking through the recent ‘Fraser Home’ magazine, we were taken by Christiane Lemiuex’s Heron Dinnerware Range.  This flora and fauna inspired range is finished off with a gold rim which adds a touch of decadence.  According to Christiana metallics are going to be huge for 2016.  We hope so.  Wendy is a huge fan and her rug designs often incorporate shimmering gold threads of viscose, and are never short on decadence!

The exquisite heron range design is translated to bedding, Hiroto Print, which looks absolutely fabulous.  What’s more, at the time of writing, the range is on sale at House of Fraser.

Heron Dinnerware, Christiane Lemieux

Hirito Print Bedding, Christiane Lemieux for House of Fraser

These vintage style rugs made us smile – we’re particularly loving the flash of turquoise in this rug and their popular poppy field rug of subtle pink and dark grey, which is now also available as a runner – available at French Connection.  Oh, and there’s a reason we’re researching flat woven rugs at the moment….

French Connection Rug

French Connection Rug

We hope you like this eye candy.  Again we’re very much looking forward to what this month has in store.

Wendy

& The Team.