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.

Posted in Tips, New product, iPhone Apps | Print | No Comments »

02/08/2009 by admin.

When you’re in training to be a designer, part of the journey involves discovering your style, what areas of the industry you eventually want to go into etc.

Now the first year of my studies have come to an end, I have found myself becoming increasingly interested in the world of eco design.

Eco has come a long way since the days of the hippies and hemp rugs!

There are now so many ecologically sound designs available, there’s no reason not to indulge and help save the planet at the same time. But it’s not just about the products we buy, it’s a way of life.

Britain first and foremost eco-designer is Oliver Heath. Heath believes that ‘We can’t all hope to live in shiny new wind turbine powered eco houses but there is much that we can do in our homes, lives and working environments that can make a real difference.’

In his latest book release Urban Eco Chic, Heath breaks down eco design into the three basic elements of Technology, Nature and Vintage.

Technology

There are two ways you can look at this area.

1. Don’t buy any new technology, therefore saving the energy and materials produced whilst manufacturing new TVs, washings machines etc, or*

2. Buy the latest in efficient technology. This will not only help save money on your energy bills, it is likely to have been produced from renewable or managed materials.*

Nature

Nature, in the broadest sense, is equivalent to the natural world, physical world or material world. It a product comes from nature, it is more likely to come from a renewable source and therefore ecologically sound. What you have to watch out for is the amount of energy used to produce the product, as this may counteract eco-friendliness of the natural material and therefore pointless!

Vintage

This is undoubtedly my favourite area of the three! I spent a great of my childhood scouring charity shops for a variety of things (albeit slightly against my will, as I thought they all smelt of mothballs) but the older I have become, the more likely I am to look for homeware rather than piles of ‘Choose Your Own Adventure’ books! Looking for vintage (or basically secondhand) goods is undoubtedly the best way to obtain the ‘eco chic’ style and way of life. The only energy used is your own (or maybe a little bit of petrol if the item is too heavy) and you can feel smug about the fact that the item was a bargain too!

Under the area of vintage also comes customisation. Regular readers will be familiar with my dodgy old pine sideboard that I’ve been trying to get rid of for the best part of 3 years. It’s lovely in the fact that it’s solid wood, but I do harbour and unnatural dislike of all things pine. So, I’ve finally come to the conclusion that instead of flogging it on eBay, I’m going it paint it instead!

Fingers crossed it will go as well as the painting of the fireplace (well done hubby). All I need to do now is to magic up some money for a new carpet and then I can rest…

Speaking of carpet and in the spirit of all things eco, I have been seriously investigating natural carpet. It’s becoming so popular, even Next have started supplying it. The best selection of natural flooring though, would be from the Alternative Flooring Company. They’ve got Coir, Jute, Seagrass, Sisal…Anyway, I’ve ordered a bunch of samples to test on the hubby and will share the results soon. I have to try these things on him first, as like all men, gets a little scared of things he doesn’t know, like natural materials, colour, massages etc but ends up loving them eventually.

Enough of me waffling on, I must get on with my textiles notebook for college!

*Please bear in mind, these descriptions barely touch the surface, so check out Urban Eco Chic for more info. By the way, this is an Amazon affiliate link, so if you click and buy, I may get a few pence towards the new carpet…

Posted in Tips, Uncategorized | Print | 2 Comments »

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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