01/11/2009 by admin.

WARNING - if you don’t have an iPhone, you should get one…

The more I use my fabulous phone, the more apps I find to help me with design. Some are free, and some cost vast amounts (£4.99) but all very handy in their own way.

Mark on Call

I guess the most obvious one to start with is Mark on Call™. Whether you are a professional interior designer searching for a tool that helps you conceptualise, design, store and shop for a client; or just a daydreamer planning your fantasy living space, Mark On Call™ lets you realize your vision…all within the palm of your hand! Seriously, you can actually plan rooms…

My hubby keeps on asking me to stop playing stupid games on my phone, but little does he know, I’m actually redesigning the second bedroom. In fact, it really needs doing now I’ve found our that our mates from Oz are staying with us for 2 weeks next year, so it may happen sooner than he thinks!

As well has the excellent floor planning, you can apply colour, texture and flooring to get a more realistic feel.

There are handy tips on space ‘programming’ and a shopping list feature available.

The Mark in question, also has his own blog and sends regular newsletters, which quite frankly are hilarious. Well worth checking out.

iHandy Level

Funnily enough, iHandy Level does exactly what it says on the tin. A perfect spirit level to help hubby and his dodgy shelving capabilities. Nuff said.

[caption id=”attachment_208″ align=”alignnone” width=”480″ caption=”Simples!”][/caption]

myPANTONE

Undoubtedly the most exciting of the bunch because you can take a picture of ANYTHING, and myPANTONE will pick up the main colours in the picture.

[caption id=”attachment_209″ align=”alignnone” width=”467″ caption=”You can make moodboards too”][/caption]

This is incredibly useful, especially since I am one of those people who see a colour on a random person’s jumper, walks up to them and asks if I can take their picture. I am not weird, I just will not be able to find that colour again and I want it in my kitchen. Not too much to ask is it? And for a whopping £4.99, not only is this the most expensive app on my iPhone, that price gives me the right to use where and whenever I see fit.

Amazon?

Originally the blog was due to end there, until last night I downloaded the new Amazon app. You know them, sell lots of books and other stuff. Quite popular. About time they had their own app.

So, I get to downloading a potentially boring Amazon search engine when I find the Amazon Remembers feature. It’s bloody brilliant!

1. See something you want to remember.

2. Snap photo using the app and press send.

3. Amazon finds it on their website.

No text entry involved, just a picture. I took a picture of the lovely ‘A Girl’s Guide to Decorating’ and it found it. In about 3 seconds.

Today I will mostly be running round my house taking photos at random and seeing what else it can find. Admittedly I won’t be running that fast as I have a kidney infection, so probably just sauntering and occasionally stopping for the back pain. I will be taking pictures nonetheless.

Why is this handy? 2 reasons really

1. I can take pictures of all the hugely expensive books in the RIBA bookshop, then buy them from Amazon. I do this anyway, but at least the app remember stuff for me.

2. Not just handy for books, but home accessories too!

[caption id=”attachment_214″ align=”alignnone” width=”480″ caption=”Simply brilliant”][/caption]

So, if you were hesitating to buy and iPhone, hesitate no more!

You have no excuse.

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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…

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14/07/2009 by admin.

It’s that time of the month again. Not the time where snap at my hubby for no reason and generally keel over in pain unless given chocolate on a drip. No, it’s the time of new magazines!

After my last trip to college, I found that I had been buying irrelevant, inappropriate and sometimes downright dirty magazines…like Ideal Home for example. It seems that the college theory is that if a trend is featured in one of these so called ‘lowly’ publications, it’s already on it’s way out.

As a previous ‘consumer’ buying every interior design magazine under the sun was a perfectly acceptable habit, especially since I preferred this to buying clothes and shoes (much to the hubby’s confusion). Now I have to extract myself from consumerdom and start thinking like a designer.

I’ve remedied this somewhat buying subscribing myself to professional (expensive…) mags such as idfx and the like. I have to say that the products featured in them are infinitely more exciting than my old mags’ offerings but also, unsurprisingly, more expensive.

As I’m not even halfway through my course yet, I haven’t decided what kind if designer I want to be. Are all interior designers high-end? Some would argue that that is the whole point. Hiring a designer us seen as an expensive luxury, a business necessity a bage to show off how much dosh you’ve got. I’m leaning towards the more accessible end of the market. The people who, like me, buy all the magazines but never actually have any time to put the ideas into action. The people who want to go ‘eco’ but don’t know where to start. The people who haven’t really got a lot to spend but want to feel as if they’re living in a home and not just a house where they eat and sleep every night. Am I wrong for wanting to do this? Should I end up designing for both ends of the Market and everything inbetween? Think like Kelly Hoppen who has a raft of celebrity designs under her belt to go with her shiny MBE (congrats!) but has also designed a range of homewares for BHS.

If you’ve got any thoughts on this let me know and comment below.

Anyway, rant over!

Carrying on with the theme of accessible (bargain) design, the Next Sale starts on Saturday. Or at least I think it does, as I’ve received a VIP sale preview invitation that ends on Friday! For those of you who like mirrored furniture btu think it’s a little too pricey, you’ll be pleased to know that the Vienna Standard Chest is half price at £175 (down from £350).

They also appear to have halved the price of some of their glossy items such as the Opus White Gloss Sideboard, again now at £175. But the most notable discount appears in their wallpaper section with this beautiful metallic damask now only £7 (down from £18).

With all these bargains available, I can see my Next account taking a large hit very soon!

I have been quite active on the old Twitter of late, so if you haven’t already signed up, please do and follow me (peacheydesign) for a daily helping a rants and finds!

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