Morning in Manhattan wallpaper | Famille Summerbelle

My posts were not meant to be all about beautiful, striking wallpapers this week but the truth is, we've recently added a lot of new wallpapers which I really need to tell you about!
My new favourite to decorate a kid bedroom is this Morning in Manhattan wallpaper by Famille Summerbelle - who also designs these beautiful city maps.
I've recently taken down the Nelly print from Mila's room to replace it with this beautiful map of Paris in coral pink to match her newly painted pink desk - she loves it!
Do you recognise the stylist behind these photos?

It is the lovely Aurelie Lecuyer who I wrote about a few days ago when she launched Sunday Market with her friend Anne Millet - and the more I see photos of this half-painted grey wall, the more I want to do the same in our guest bedroom. What do you think? Tell me please bises

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MERCI | Brookly Tins wallpapers

Following the huge success of the Scrapwood wallpaper collection by Piet Hein Eek, NLXL have teamed up with Parisian concept store MERCI (my favourite concept store in Paris) to design the striking and very unique Brooklyn Tins wallpaper collection 

Easier to apply than most wallpapers - and I can vouch for that having used the Scrapwood wallpaper in my home in France - the Brooklyn Tins wallpaper collection by MERCI is the perfect solution to create a striking feature wall at home, or re-invent a commercial space while adding a chic industrial feel to any space.  

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My latest DIY project with the Scrapwood wallpaper

I have wallpapered twice in my whole life. 

Mostly, because the task has always seemed more daunting and difficult that it really is and I tend to paint walls in my home in white or Farrow & Ball grey paint anyway. 

However, since we added the Scrapwood wallpaper collection by Dutch designer Piet Hein Eek to BODIE and FOU, I have been dying to do a feature wall with either the PHE-2 design or the PHE-3 in our holiday home in France. So last month, after spending a week on the boat doing nothing, I started a bit of DIY the second week.

The last time, I wallpapered our bedroom, it was with this lovely wallpaper (which we no longer carry) and while I managed to do a fairly good job for a first time, I was hugely disappointed that the glue stained the wallpaper.

There was no chance, this would happen with the Scrapwood wallpaper because the quality was way better and there are really two things that did for me:

First, you don't need a pasting table because you just have to apply the paste on the wall (which is a lot easier) and there is no repeat pattern (pure bliss!) so wallpapering our wall was a breeze. 

I think I did the wall in about 2/3 hours. My mum and I just measured each lay on the big Ikea table we have in the lounge, I then applied the paste on the wall, then the paper, leaving 1 cm down to the bottom to cut when everything was dried and that was it. The tricky thing was cutting around the sockets and wire but that's not difficult.

I'm really pleased with the outcome. It has completely changed the look of the room, making it looking fresher and wider. I hope you like it...

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Wallpaper "Cahier d'ecriture"

My latest coup de coeur is this Cahier d'ecriture wallpaper. I met the designer Genevieve at the party organised by Paumes for the launch of London Family Style in which Genevieve and I both featured. As we got talking in French (she is Swiss), she was telling me about the new wallpaper she was working on and without having seen anything, I had the feeling that I would like it. That was back in September 2010...
Fast-forward 10 months later and here we go! Genevieve's wallpaper is ready! She found a supplier that could finally do it on a durable, washable material and the result is fantastic and pretty much what I had in mind! Guts feelings huh!
So, I'm very happy to add this to our collection of wallpapers which are great to create feature walls because I really like how this wallpaper creates a feature on top of the stairs, or a cupboard and makes something visually more interesting without being overpowering.
I also love the retro look of these letters. My mum has a few old school notebooks where she was practising writing like this. It's just so much nicer. I think I have been on computer since my twenties and frankly as a result, my writing is getting really awful...and I get impatient how slow I'm writing compared to how quickly I can type! Do you get that?
Anyway...the Cahier d'ecriture wallpaper comes in two widths and I hope you'll like it!

Mon dernier coup de coeur est le papier peint Cahier d'ecriture. J'ai rencontre la designer Genevieve au lancement de London Family Style organise par Edition Paumes (nos maisons sont dans le livre). Et alors que nous papotions en Francais (elle est Suisse), Genevieve me parlait de ce nouveau papier-peint sur lequel elle travaillait et sans avoir rien vu, j'ai eu le sentiment que ca me plairait. C'etait en Septembre dernier...
Fast-forward 10 mois plus tard et voila! le papier peint de Genevieve est pret! Elle a enfin pu trouve un fabricant qui pouvait fabriquer ce design sur un support durable et lavable et le resultat est fantastic et a peu pres ce que javais en tete! Guts feelings huh!
Donc je suis ravie d'ajouter ce design a notre collection de papiers peints parce que j'aime beaucoup comment le papier peint Cahier d'ecriture cree un feature wall en haut des escaliers, sur un placard et ajoute quelque chose de visuellement interessant sans en mettre plein la tete.
J'aime beaucoup aussi le look retro de ces lettres. Ma mere a des vieux cahiers d'ecole ou elle apprenait a ecrire comme cela. C'est beaucoup plus joli. Moi ca fait 20 ans que je travaille sur ordi et franchement mon ecriture devient tres moche ...et en plus ca m'agace d'ecrire parce que je tape beaucoup plus vite! Ca vous arrive aussi?
Donc en bref..le papier peint Cahier d'ecriture est dispo en 2 largeurs et j'espere qu'il vous plaira!

This post is brought to you by Allianz.com.au – Home Insurance in Australia

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Scrapwood wallpaper by Piet Hein Eek

I've been a fan of Piet Hein Eek's work since I spotted his designs in Elle Decoration a couple of years ago. I really admire the fact that someone can actually create something so beautiful out of reclaimed wood (like this headboard made by House Tweaking) or this Pallet chair by Studiomama which one day I'm hoping to make for our Summer house.
Piet Hein Eek's designs are unique and merge artisan handcraft with skilled design but I also feel (and that's me believing in good karma) that this whole approach to a more eco-friendly design, his commitment to use reclaimed wood and his handcraft can only have a positive impact on our lives, our homes and the world of design in general.
So I can't tell you how happy I am to have his amazing and unique collection of Scrapwood wallpaper on BODIE and FOU.
The Scrapwood wallpaper by Piet Hein Eek has the warm, rustic feel that real wood brings to a room. Like the Bookshelf wallpaper, this is the kind of wallpaper design that is simply perfect to create a feature wall and this one has an industrial vibe that I love very much.
Think about this Dutch home and more specifically their kitchen (which is my inspiration for our kitchen in London) and how great just one wall would look with low-level kitchen units, the other walls painted in white, maybe a couple of floating shelves from Ikea to display handmade ceramics....
With just one roll, you can easily cover up to 4 sqm which should be enough to re-invent a corner of your home, an office space, kitchen, a beach house or a kids bedroom like the photo below.

Scrapwood wallpapaper at BODIE and FOU

Je suis fan du travail de Piet Hein Eek depuis que j'ai vu ses designs dans un numero de Elle Decoration il y a a peu pres deux ans. J'admire vraiment le fait que quelqu'un puisse creer quelque chose d'aussi beau a partir de bois de recup' (comme cette tete de lit realisee par House Tweaking) ou cette chaise faite a partir de bois de palettes de Studiomama que j'espere arriver a faire un jour pour notre maison de vacances.

Les designs de Piet Hein Eek sont uniques et ont ce doux melange d'artisanat et design de pointe mais j'ai aussi l'impression (et ca c'est moi qui croit au karma positif) que son approche du design, son engagement a n'utiliser que du bois de recup', son talent a creer quelque chose des ses mains ne peuvent avoir q'un impact positif sur nos vies, nos maisons et le design en general.
Du coup, vous imaginez a quel point, je suis super excitee d'avoir sa collection de papier peint Bois de recup' sur BODIE and FOU.
Le papier peint Bois de Recup de Piet Hein Eek a le meme charme rustique et chaleureux que le vrai bois apporte a une piece. Comme le Bookshelf wallpaper, c'est aussi un papier-peint qui est simplement parfait pour creer un impact visuel (feature wall...je ne sais pas comment le traduire) et celui-ci a un petit cote industriel que j'affectionne particulierement.
Prenez cette maison en Hollande et plus particulierement leur cuisine (qui est mon inspiration pour notre cuisine a Londres) et imaginez a quel point ce papier peint aurait l'air parfait juste sur un mur, avec des unites de cuisine basses, les autres murs peints en blanc, quelques etageres flotantes de chez Ikea pour mettre en valeur quelques ceramiques...
Avec juste un rouleau, vous couvrez jusqu'a 4 m2, ce qui suffisant pour refaire un bureau a la maison, un mur de cuisine, une maison de vacances ou meme une chambre d'enfant.

Psssttt: Until 05/03/2011, you can also win one roll on my friend's fabulous blog Vosges Paris

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