Expand your horizons with interior design books

It never ceases to amaze me how much I learn daily and that is thanks to the amazing range of Interior Design books that are available. Since completing my Diploma in Interior Design last August, I find I am still hooked on chasing the Interior Design files of the deceased, famous and new Interior Designers. Each book I read, new knowledge is taken on board, each Designer has very different ideas when it comes to design.

Which makes me think... Is this due to their own personal influences of history and designers?

We all seem to be taught, and learn the same or similar things when studying Interior Design, but I can't help but think, it's each persons own individual inspirational designer and loves of particular areas within design that makes each one of us take a different direction or gain a knowledge that is so powerful that it is taken on board by that person and passed on through the pages of their own books.

So if you are, or wish to study Interior Design, then I would like to say one thing to help in your study. And that is to read, read, and read some more, both old and new books, the library is a fantastic way to obtain knowledge and read books that perhaps you can't afford. I went through loads of books and in fact still do, sure I buy a lot now, in fact even when I visit the Queensland Art Gallery bookstore I will often look for a new book to purchase, or go to secondhand shops, eBay & garage sales.

I have some favourites of course, don't we all. 

I was also fortunate enough to meet last year at Grand Designs live in Sydney, one of my most inspirational Australian Interior designers and TV personality Shaynna Blaze. And yes she was kind enough to sign my book of hers that I bought and allow me to have a photo taken with her. I think for me this was the highlight of 2013, along with completing my Diploma in Interior Design. 

So what are you waiting for...start your book collection today, it's never to late. They look great stacked on coffee tables, on the floor, even in shelves, but you will always go back to your absolute favourites. Let the inspiration take you where you dream to go.

Here are a few books that would be amongst some of our favourites, if you haven't read them then I suggest you do. Happy Reading & Smi)es TP.

2014 brings Pantone colour of the year Radiant Orchid

Well we have have arrive to the year 2014. New Years Day, and with that comes the release of the ever popular Pantone colour of the Year (along with a many hangovers, something we do not get, pheww).

So the Pantone colour of the Year is Radiant Orchid, the name itself lends to luxury and a little panache. So at TrEnvy Australia we thought it might be worth while showing a little Pintrest and Pantone colour co-ordination using Radiant Orchid. A wonderful array of colours that will compliment this luxe colour. 

Here she is in all her glory....Radiant Orchid, photo by Pantone.com

Pantone colours sourced from: www.pantone.com 

Here are some other colours that will compliment and enhance your home together with Radiant Orchid. Always think outside the box and you will be amazed at just how well this colour can be teamed with Pantone's colour of the year.

Interior loves we have found from various sources on Pintrest for your pleasure, using Radiant Orchid.

This wonderfully eclectic interior gives way to a fabulous array of bold colours of yellow and aqua with hints of Radiant Orchid, it also features our beautiful mid century aqua Fu Dogs. 

Radiant orchid is used as a feature colour to brighten this rustic, almost neutral interior.

Photo sourced via Elle Decor on Pintrest.

Sensitive use of Radiant Orchid in this gorgeous interior, it shows with the use of colour in rugs can create a balanced and harmonious room, don't forget to accessorise accordingly. A few statement pieces will continue the flow. Your eye is not just focusing on the rugs as you look towards the ceiling you will notice the lighting is also balancing out this interior perfectly. And those amazing statement chairs....well say no more. Let's have coffee and chat awhile.

A bright yet cosy, homely beach or countryside cottage provides a luminous living space using Radiant Orchid along with teal, pastel lime, reds, orange and raw wood. Even with Purple roof and beams the spacious windows bringing in natural light creates expanse and not a closed in small interior. If it didn't have large windows allowing natural light in, this room could be very dark and would not work to its full design potential. Again the use of rugs creates balance, and the raw wood adds repetition! Bring the outside in. Charming and rustic chic, we love it.

Photo sourced from Pintrest.

An evocative room.... I personally love this classical look, crisp satins and velvets, with dark Olive Chinoiserie wall paper which highlights hints of Radiant Orchid. The sofa also assists in the repetition of this interior using the Pantone colour of the Year, with unique splashes of Hot Pink, Yellow, Royal Purple and Chocolate. Simple & divine elegance.

Mid Century Modern opulence in regal colours with a statement piece of artwork using Radiant Orchid. Large artwork is sometimes all that is needed to enhance one's interior and reflect a change in the room. A fabulous use of colour in this interior. 

Although not orchids, Hydrangea's often have hues very similar to that of the Pantone colour of the Year. This table placement uses the Radiant Orchid colour in small doses, but the entire interior itself, is a statement of luxury and elegance.

An office space with a difference, Radiant Orchid teamed with Royal Blue, White and Magenta brings back the 70's styling and it works.

Be bold in 2014 with the use of Radiant Orchid, Pantone's 2014 Colour of the Year.

We would like to thank www.pantone.com, Elle Decor and www.pintrest.com members and all the fabulous interior designers who have brought these amazing interiors to life using Radiant Orchid. 

We wish all our readers a very successful, inspirational & Happy New Year 2014.

TrEnvy = Trend Envy, something we all get from time to time. Smi)es TP

TrEnvy Australia introduces Joe Vickers to Australia exclusively direct from the OC,USA. Now on-line!

TrEnvy Australia introduces you to - Joe Vickers exclusively Down Under

Prints are now available on-line at

http://trenvyaustralia.weebly.com/trenvy-surf-art-by-joe-vickers.html

 

New Joe Vickers printed Framed

Framed and ready for sale.."Swell Blossoms" 11" x 14" Artist enhanced print and signed by Joe Vickers for TrEnvy Australia. $145.00

Joe Vickers Fine Surf Art comes Down Under to TrEnvy Australia

TrEnvy Australia is extremely excited to introduce to you surfer, and up coming fine artist, Joe Vickers. 

Joe Vickers was born and raised in Florida where his love of the ocean first began, he spent his former younger years surfing, fishing and diving, anything that brought him closer to the water.

   Joe Vickers in his element!

His other passion was drawing and constantly loved experimenting in various styles and media's. 

Joe later on moved to California, where the Pacific Coastline inspired him to combine both his passions of the Ocean and Art. The OC (Orange County, California) is where he now resides and Joe has now developed and fine tuned his own, truly unique, surf art style.

Most of Joe Vickers work is mixed media as Joe explained to me when we skyped, "I use a combination of water color, acrylic, gouache, pen and oil based paint pen. Recently, I've been painting and drawing on pieces of wood that I find and clean up." Joe is real recycler in the sense of the word.

Joes works are bold in colour and simplistic in style, great lines and a fusion of 70's Surf Art, meets Pop Surrealism. Its almost like taking a step back in time with the likes of artist/designer Pucci who is synonymous with geometric prints in a kaleidoscope of colours. Yet Joe's work is more reminiscent of our legendary Australian Surf Artist, Shane Egan. 

We have be given, very graciously from Joe Vickers, exclusivity to his works Down Under. 

We have a range of very Limited Edition Prints on beautiful high quality watercolour paper, which have extra hand embellishments and signed by Joe Vickers himself. 

Along with a few standard prints on the same high quality watercolour paper. 

These prints are taken directly from the originals on wood, reflecting even the wood grain on the print also, which is a unique aspect of Joe's work. 

Print sizes range from 11" x 14", 9" x 12" & 8" x 10" and upon receiving these amazing prints, in conjunction with the release of Joe Vickers Art to Down Under at TrEnvy Australia, we will be having an introductory giveaway with a small print of Joe Vickers Art.

If your interested in being one of the first Aussies to own a Joe Vickers Surf Print, email or inbox me via Facebook, email address is : trenvyaustralia@bigpond.com

We look forward to showcasing Joe Vickers Fine Surf Art at TrEnvy Australia

    Swell Blossoms

   Rad Yellow Sunset

TrEnvy Australia is Repurposing for new Spring Collection

Spring is here and all through Winter we have been designing and creating our newest Spring Collection with a twist. This season we decided it was going to be a re-purpose, recycle season.

And why not.....so much these days is wasted due to our throw away society. So our idea was to collect over Autumn a range of old 60's and 70's Teak/Monkey Pod Bowls and servers to re-purpose.

They were always the highlights at my Nan's parties, she seemed to always put out some really unusual designed bowls, filled with cheese, kabana, crackers, gherkins and even her famed pickled onions.

I think most of us would remember them, and have some amazing stories about these unique little island style platters, bowls and severs. Now of course who could forget the ever popular Pineapple Bowls, probably the most famous of all these retro teak bowls, which also now seem to be the hardest to find, although not impossible.


Original Retro Teak Pineapple Bowl

So with an array of newly sourced Retro Bowls, Servers and Plates it was time to sand them back to their original state...plain, no oils or varnish.

Once sanded back the planned design was to paint them, but an added feature to the design, was to leave either the top or bottom of these retro beauties, in their original & organic state. To highlight, not only their age, but their former glorious craftsmanship. (Remembering these were handcrafted in the hundreds of thousands, by island villagers in places like the Philippines and Hawaii).

 

 

So sanding begins, washing off some of the original patina but not too much as I still wanted that unique retro quality to shine through when finished.
                                                    
Painting the bowls was to follow, now you think this would be a simple task. Well to most it would be, but being a perfectionist, as I am, (OK, perhaps a tad anal, if I'm being absolutely honest). This proved to be quite the challenge. Colours changed several times, which meant sanding back many times, then when I thought they were perfect after spraying them outside, either a bug or small leaf would get stuck in the paint.. therefore another sand-back and re-coat began. Oh the trials and tribulations of not having a spraying room. Here is a few looks from some of the same bowls, just to give you an idea of these trials.

 

                                   





                   
                                   









From the finished paint jobs, I then decided to continue the recycled/re-purpose theme, by adding off-cut vinyl, which was graciously donated by my sister Niki, she is a vinyl sign writer, her business MySigns located west of the Gold Coast in the small country town of Boonah. (If you need your car decal'd or wall/windows, perhaps even a sign done, Niki is your girl, check out her FBpage),
https://www.facebook.com/mysignsaustralia?fref=ts

We thank Niki, as she was happy to supply me with a large amount of off-cuts, which I then sliced to prepare for the next stage of my re-purposed retro teak dishes.

  MySigns FB page
A vast array of coloured vinyl supplied by MySigns

With vinyl cut, dishes painted its time to decide colour choices and design...this is always the fun part. And here's a few pics of the design process and outcome.









So we come to a conclusion after a few trial and errors, actually...as always, Less is More!

Then placement begins, to complete.

 

The TrEnvy Australia Design process in block shots

  TrEnvy Australia Living Collection

Once the design process is complete it is time to finish off with our logo, again these are printed right here at TrEnvy HQ and each piece will receive its own unique TrEnvy Australia logo, we then high gloss coat in a waterproof varnish.

  

There you have it, our very own re-purposed TrEnvy Australia Retro Teak Dishes for our new Spring Collection. Each one as unique as you are. These will be uploaded to our TrEnvy Australia site very shortly for sale, please remember these are one of a kind and made by hand.

  TrEnvy Australia FB page
We hope you will appreciate our effort to maintain a little of the original teak mixed with our own personal TrEnvy - Trend Envy touch.

All rights reserved, copyright - TeePs (Trent) Firmin & TrEnvy Australia 2013

nettle+fin...our latest Textile designer loves at TrEnvy Australia

TrEnvyAustraliaSundayArts is on..and today we wanted to introduce you all to our latest liking...Textile designers nettle+fin, their latest look is highly publicised and we are very excited about it. Spring/Summer is shaping up to be filled with gorgeous colourings and loads of Ocean Botanic's. Longtime friends Kate (who studied marine biology, and later travelled to study the reefs of Hawaii) & Molly (who studied graphic design) have joined and combined both their passions to create this truly magnificent and colourfully printed 100% Eco Linen collection, adorned with blown up microscopic algae's and seaweed amongst other unique sea plants, native to both the Indian & Pacific Ocean. 

One of Kate's friends, Peter,  who had for years been cataloguing both large and small sea life from the warm waters of the Hawaiian Archipelago also helped to create this unique and exciting Textile Collection. Together their colour palette brings to life the essence of the Sea, Reefs and Underwater plant life a of the Hawaiian Archipelago. 

This creative team have brought a new sense of life, crispness and design to the world of Interior Textiles.  We love the look and thank you for doing so nettle+fin.

This is TrEnvyTropicalLove at its best!

         nettle+fin Textiles

 

Their website is: http://www.nettleandfin.com/home

They are also on Facebook, Pintrest & Twitter.

To order a fabric sample $7 please email us atmemos@nettleandfin.com

Their textiles are available through Holly Hunt DC

Washington DC

Holly Hunt 

Washington Design Center 

300 D Street SW 

Suite 619 

Washington, DC 20024 

202.554.2910

Outside the DC metro area

Please contact us at 

443.603.3116 or 

info@nettleandfin.com