26/07/2009 by admin.

After last week’s rant about the merits of cheap design, I ranted so much I gave myself a migraine! So this week, I will go back to being my happy carefree self and try my best to look at all areas, whether they be bargain or gold-plated.

Ideal Home have sent through a rather interesting guide to dining chairs including these 2 lovely beauties…

[caption id=”attachment_163″ align=”alignnone” width=”160″ caption=”Nordmyra chair - £29.90 from Ikea”][/caption]

[caption id=”attachment_164″ align=”alignnone” width=”160″ caption=”Rowan Multi-stem chair - £250 from Heal's”][/caption]

Only Ideal Home could put 2 chairs from deeply differing price ranges, right next to each other on a page. Congrats! Incidentally, I like them both, but what with my budget being rather constrained these days, I’m going to end up buying neither.

Oh and if you hadn’t already guessed, the second chair is from the Orla Kiely range. And worse still, it’s £45 more expensive on the Heal’s website…

Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in Studies, New product, Exhibitions | Print | No Comments »

05/05/2009 by admin.

What a fabulous day I had. It started off well, visiting an old friend in Tunbridge Wells for a coffee only to find out that he and the other half were making their way up to Grand Designs Live (GDL) later that day!

I’d made my best effort to look decent for the event, wearing a linen dress. Anyone who knows me, knows I tend to live in jeans and trainers, but on occasion it’s nice to feel girly and somehow look like a grown up. I figured a dress plus glasses may forge be into a human being that could pass herself off as a designer of some sort! You have to bear in mind that despite my 28 years and the beginnings of grey hair, I have been ID’d three times in the past week and a half, so anything that helps advance my years can become quiet handy in these situations.

After taking a ridiculous route to the show (Jubilee line was shut, damn you TFL) I arrived feeling slightly tired/sweaty/nervous. I made may way straight into the Grand Interiors section to be greeted by…well…not that many people. It was after 3pm, but I really expected to have to fight my way round!

I headed straight up to the seminar area to bump into non other than the gorgeous George Clarke!

[caption id=”attachment_97″ align=”aligncenter” width=”480″ caption=”All the other pics I have are blurry. You'd be shaking too!”][/caption]

Ok, so he’s no Kevin McCloud, but warm, funny and highly knowledgeable all the same. George is actually an architect (and presenter of the oddly received ‘The Home Show’), where as Kevin is a lighting designer by trade, so he does actually know what he is talking about. I did go back to see George in action at his seminar, sketching away on the big screen

[caption id=”attachment_99″ align=”aligncenter” width=”480″ caption=”Sketching for millions.”][/caption]

As a student, I dream of being able to sketch that fast AND in front of people (here’s hoping)

Strangely enough, I then came across the Sketch It stand.

[caption id=”attachment_100″ align=”aligncenter” width=”480″ caption=”As cheeky as he looks.”][/caption]

They were claiming to sell this special clipboard that helps you draw perfect straight lines without the aid of a ruler. I had to have a go and was very quickly impressed. You can find more info about this amazing product here.

I also had the opportunity to meet the lovely Gretchen.  She and her best friend Melissa create custom text artworks using vintage printing blocks and they end up looking something like this.

[caption id=”attachment_101″ align=”aligncenter” width=”480″ caption=”Gretchen from G&M Design”][/caption]

You have to choose 20 words or so, that are personal to you (or they will help you) and then pick the colours you’re after and hey presto!. For more info, please go to G&M Design here.

Last but not least, I had a good old chat with the guy from Jali (George I think..memory fails me…sorry!) They create custom shutters, radiator covers, bookcases and other woodwork to your spec. They have a fantastic online tool at http://www.jali.co.uk here you add in all the dimensions and the finish required and would receive your pieces in 3 days to 2 weeks.

All the walking and talking was rather knackering, so I had a quick wine (shame about the surly bar staff) and headed home. My friends made it up there a bit later than me and remarked on just how small the show is. Quite frankly, it’s a much better size than the Ideal Home exhibition, much more manageable, but you think they’d adjust the ticket price accordingly.

It was another fantastic year at GDL but I do wonder who came up with their crazy subscription offer. 2 years for the price of 1 or 1 year and a half case of wine. I love my wine, and recently spent a few days down in Margaret River wine tasting. Thing is, you had to take the case of wine with you at the end of the show! No chance of me lugging that back on the DLR with me obviously. I can’t help thinking it was deliberate and that the show organisers had a massive party after we all left…

Posted in News, New product, Exhibitions | Print | No Comments »

30/04/2009 by admin.

Think of this like a first date. We’re both a bit nervous about what we’re wearing, what we’re saying and if we like the other person or not. As we don’t know each other, we’ll tell each other a bit about ourselves and hope that we share some common interests.

I’m a 28 year old mature student studying a Professional Diploma in Interior Design in London. I’m lucky enough to be experiencing a method of learning called ‘Blended Learning’ which means I can keep working full-time, but also go into school throughout the year for special workshops and interact with other students. The projects that we do are very practical and we have to do a lot of research to carry them out. Thing is, having a full time job, working an extra 15 hours a week studying and trying to have a life in-between, I tend to forget about all the lovely articles I have read, or new products I’ve seen in the mountains of magazines and emails I have to read, which is why I’ve decided to write this blog.

Phew! That wasn’t too hard now was it? Now tell me about you. Oh, so you’re obsessed with buying 12 interiors magazines each month and signing up to every interiors related email service you can get too eh? What a coincidence! You have trouble remembering all that wonderful information you read, even though your spare room have got 3 years of back issues of Elle Decoration categorised by special features? Wow. Sounds this is going to be the beginning of a beautiful friendship.

I should probably mention at this point that I’m married, which may make the rest of our date a little awkward, but do not fear my husband is happy for me to see other people to help further my personal/professional development, so don’t worry! He’s been incredibly supportive so far, learning to knock instead of creeping up on me when I’m inking in my plans, learning not to speak to me when I’ve been up for 19 hours straight from 2am on a Sunday trying to finish a project and forcing me to take breaks when I start to lose the plot. You’re probably also wondering about that name of this blog. Firstly, Peachey is not spelt wrong, it’s my surname! So you can thank my husband for that too.

Thanks to the most excellent ‘Blogging for Dummies’ I managed to set myself some aims for this potentially amazing blog. I aim to:

• Round up the best articles from as many interiors magazines and emails services as I possibly can
• Point you in the right direction to any interesting interiors related competitions, discounts and sales, (for consumers, student or otherwise)
• Try and give you a bit of interiors history, because one, it’s interesting and two, it’ll help me with one of my research projects
• Tell you about all the upcoming shows, exhibitions, launches etc in advance, and hopefully report back on my visits to some of them
• Maybe even add an dictionary definition of something interiors related to help everyone with their studies/general knowledge.
• Share any techie shortcuts I can find (I have an iPhone and the interiors apps are amazing)
• Write a glowing report on how my studies are going!

Is there anything else you think I should do? Please let me know by making a comment below.

I’m off to 

this weekend armed with some optimism, business cards and hopefully some confidence to kidnap Kevin McCloud and force him to tell me all his secrets. Would you like to join me? Oh shame. Off to see the family? That’s Bank Holiday weekends for you! No matter, if all goes according to plan, I’ll have some lovely video to show and tell you all about it on our next date.

Till next week…

Posted in News, Exhibitions | Print | 2 Comments »