my dollhouse design board

I contribute writing {and sometimes develop DIY projects} to a variety of home and lifestyle magazines, and I love love love it! I still pinch myself with each new assignment and finding my work on the newsstand still makes me as giddy as ever. It's always a pleasure to interview homeowners and inquire about the origin of every big and small decor choice. I'm always inspired to look around my own home with fresh eyes for ideas to explore, but some are just not possible either structurally or financially and that's where my curbside-scored dollhouses come into play!

When I'm not writing for magazines, I'm reading them! And one of my favorites is Country Living, which inspired this rustic bedroom in dollhouse no. 2. As you can see, I'm not overly obsessed with scale or perfection. The ceiling beams are painted coffee stirrers, the chair and TV were gifts from my longtime blogging friend Mercedes aka LibertyBiberty who is a magician when it comes to miniatures. 

Coffee stirrers played a big part in this room -- I used them to construct the bistro chairs and for bead-board paneling. I even mixed a tiny batch of Saltwash to give the green console table a layered look. Inspired by Maria of Dreamy Whites, twigs serve as curtain rods for pieces of lace trim.

Recently I did some spring zhushing around my home which lead to doing the same to my two dollhouses, both frozen in a state of decor-dormancy since November! A Shabby Chic fabric swatch tablecloth sets the stage for a guilt-free treat!

After completing articles for Boho Style I wanted to play with bolder patterns and black accents. At over $400 per roll, this Bloomsbury wallpaper from Anthropologie isn't in my budget but printing it out to estimated-scale works. This room is still very much a work-in-progress.

Boho meets Prairie in this little studio at the top of the stairs. The chair is from childhood -- anyone remember Japanese wooden apple tea sets? 

Selina Lake's latest book Garden Style, which I recently blogged about, has me slightly obsessed with botanical prints. Visit this post on my Instagram page to view an easy project.

This ode to Cath Kidston from dollhouse no. 1 featuring bits of stationery was lightened for Spring by swapping out dark furniture with a white slipcover sofa I constructed from cardboard and the cut-up cloth bag from a set of sheets (no-sew, of course).

I'm hoping to explore this concept more fully in a book. Wish me luck!

Thanks for reading!

xo

elyse

8 questions with selina lake about book 8

Spring is such a fickle season. One day it's cold, the next day it's not; the shovels are still accessible but so are the rakes. It's always during this chilly-bright season that I start thinking about making the yard pretty so the timing of Selina Lake's new book Garden Style couldn't be better. Inspired scenes, photographed to perfection by Rachel Whiting, are already filling my head with all kinds of plans! I'm a longtime admirer of Selina's work and can spot her editorial styling in an instant on the covers of magazines like Country Living UK and Country Homes & Interiors. When I visited London Selina and I met for tea, and she later penned the foreword to my second book Seaside Tinkered Treasures. She's a hero, and a friend.

This is Selina's eighth book so rather than the typical review, I thought it would be fun to ask her eight questions about book eight. Here we go!

1. What was your favorite flower as a child?
I loved roses and still do. My sister Aimee and I used to make our own ‘perfume’ with the roses petals we picked from our mum's roses bushes in the garden. (We mixed rose petals and water and decanted into glass bottles).

2. Favorite flower at this moment:
Right now it's blossom flowers. The trees here in the UK are blossoming -- it's been a late start to spring due to the weather this year but slowly the flowers are emerging. We have a white magnolia and a plum tree in our garden which both have beautiful flowers and I can see them from my office window. They won’t last long but while they do, I will enjoy them.

3. Favorite object to use as a vase:
I like to recycle glass bottles and jars and make displays with lots of them grouped together holding single stems of flowers and greenery.

4. Favorite flower combination for a spring bouquet in a vase:

I’m growing a few of my favourite spring bulbs in my garden at the moment and when they bloom I intend to harvest a few for a bouquet to display on our mantlepiece. These include ivory white thalia and scented sweet smiles narcissus with danceline tulips. I will mix them with  a few branches of tree blossoms.

5. Pick one pot and why: terra cotta or galvanized metal?
Galvanised metal every time. I love using old buckets as planters and in my book I share an idea for stencilling fleurs on them. {See above, Garden Style, page 54}

6. Favorite piece of gardening gear:
Definitely gardening gloves. I used to buy pretty ones but after all the weeding we did in our garden when we bought our house, I now use only heavy-duty gloves to protect my hands from thorns and stinging nettles.

7. Your go-to gardening tool:
I like tools with wooden handles and buy second-hand ones at vintage fairs and boot sales. I like to use spades and forks as decoration in the middle of our borders. {See above, Garden Style, page 61}

8. Favorite shade of green:
Oooh, tough one! I love green … I just painted a feature wall in our bedroom a really dark almost black green but I also love the pastel shade of green the shed on my book's cover is painted!
~*~

Thank you to Selina for contributing to this blog post and to Ryland Peters and Small for my review copy of Selina Lake: Garden Style: Inspirational Styling for your Outside Space. Well, I'm off to round-up some tin pots and wood crates, and tape some botanical prints to my shed window!

Thanks for reading!

xo
elyse

torie jayne homeware interview

Torie Jayne and I somehow found one another years ago via blogging and connected instantly over our shared preferences for faded pastels and simple crafts. I'm even featured in her first book, How to Show & Sell Your Crafts. So when Torie Jayne asked if I could help announce her first homeware product line which recently launched at Kickstarter, I didn't hesitate to say yes! I'm so excited and proud of her for taking the steps to make this happen {steps which I've been following at TorieJayneDesign on Instagram}. Torie's line includes fine bone china, kitchen textiles, melamine, and more. It's all made in the UK and features a fresh open-lace motif on a limited palette of silver grey, opal blue, blue haze, and cloud pink. So fascinated by this venture, I thought it be fun to interview Torie about her process and product line!

Hello, Torie! So, how did you decide on Kickstarter to launch your product line?
Hello, Elyse! I wanted to launch my homeware range on a platform that would be accessible to all my blog readers around the world. Somewhere I could do a hard launch and focus my attention, take pre-orders on my homeware range and get valuable feedback from a broad range of potential customers.

What I loved about Kickstarter was that it was an inspiring platform; where creatives can share their projects to an audience of people who believe, respect, and want to see the vision. I also loved the idea that you could start with one or two products or in my case three and once you reached certain targets you could introduce new products in the form of stretch goals.

Was it a long process from design to finished products?
Yes! It took much longer than I thought to get the samples perfect and working with three different manufacturers complicated the process. However, I was passionate that I wanted to offer a range of products at launch so it was key to work with multiple manufacturers from the beginning. The most difficult part was getting the colours right across three different mediums: fine bone china, textiles and melamine. I went to the manufacturers’ factories on several occasions to learn more about their processes and to see what I could do to help get the colours to match.

What was the most fun part?
Oooh! That’s a tricky one, I had so much fun along the way! I guess I was the most excited when I had finally approved all the samples in the full range and they were laid out on my kitchen table ready to be photographed.

I live in the South of England and all the factories were hours and hours away from where I live so I got to go on lots of fun mini adventures staying at friends and family while I visited the factories.

Don’t get me wrong, it wasn’t all fun. There were of course times when I was really stressing out about how I would get it all done. Like how I would make a video never having done anything like that! But the overwhelming support from friends and family who I shared the products with pre-launch kept me going.

What was the biggest lesson or take-away for you from this process?
That it is best to get the colour correct on one product first rather than trying to do it simultaneously on all of them! The biggest personal lesson I learned is that I can’t do everything by myself and it is ok to ask for help.

What are your next steps?
During the Kickstarter campaign I am hoping to smash through the target which will let me start introducing stretch goals of more of the products that I have ready to go… I’m dying to share more of the range!

After my Kickstarter campaign finishes and I get to send all my wonderful backers their products I will be launching my online store on www.toriejayne.design.

My biggest aim this year is to show my product range at a retail show; I really want to meet my potential customers in person and get their feedback on the range.

I wish Torie all the very best of luck on this project! Be sure to visit Torie Jayne's Kickstarter page for product details and a charming video which includes peeks at the manufacturing process!

Thank you for reading and Happy Spring wishes!

xo
elyse