Lighten Up

The thing I love about this neighborhood is all the cool places cropping up all over the place. You can’t go a month without some cool new hangout opening it’s doors. Yesterday on a sweltering afternoons walk back from the park with the two M’s we ran into a place called Lardo, Less than 5 mins from home its the most perfect place to hang out after a 13 hour day at the desk, sip a cocktail and eat a pizza. Summer in the city pretty, pretty darn cool. Talking of cities on Sunday morning I fly out to NYC so limited blog posts next week as I have a fairly busy one work wise. Will attempt to write the odd post, usually jet lagged and awake and jogging round the streets at 3am, so it should work out. Do you know that NY has the fattest rats; last summer they completely freaked me out zooming and darting across the pavement as I pounded by. Anyways apart from the plane journey (which I dread) very excited to be going and launching the DESIGN SCHOOL Stateside. We have a whole bunch of press; a camera crew and I cannot wait to meet all those attending. BTW almost forgot to say on the day  I'm taking lunch at The Breslin (most likely at the chiefs table, just in the middle of co-ordinting that part) so  if any of you guys fancy joining me do let us know, the guys will be emailing you all the info today (re prices, menus etc  to co-ordinate) oh and to celebrate the launch of the school in NYC at the very end of  our day some sparkling vino for us all to drink. Exciting! Not so exciting is the fact I am about to leave Mung’s,   we are rarely separated and because of his problems (he was a rescue and has separation issues) he literally follows me everywhere. Can’t leave the room without him following, to the loo, to answer the door, to just literally cross from one side of the studio to the other , up he gets and follows me. Being still a baby (just over one year) and the hugest Mummy’s boy on earth, not quite sure how he, or I for that matter will cope (now who’s the baby hey)! Enough about my worries and dilemmas ,could keep you here all day with them. Down to biz, one of the easiest peasiet decorating tools around and one of the most transformative things you can do to a place is get the lighting right. Accessorize with more lights than you think you need, floor, table, pendant, wall not to mention a ton of candlelight to ramp up the style ratings! Don’t eliminate shadows (they add intrigue)_ and don’t use low energy bulbs. if you’re worried about the whole eco, green, pc thing – do a trade off  with something else like not eating meat, or biking instead of driving, or sharing the bath water WHATEVER you need to do!  Little pools of soft glow are what we after, vary the heights, vary the style, play around with scale and you will have on your hands one pretty handsome interior as seen below. Various lamps at various heights are essential, no matter what the paint colour, be that dark, cocooning and beautiful or pale and boring (whoops sorry) I  mean pale and simple, lighting is key. [caption id="attachment_3549" align="aligncenter" width="474"] Photography Rick Schltz[/caption] Gotta run being photographed this morn and there is a ton of clearing up to do to get this house in order. Wasn’t that the name of a TV programme and didn’t I co-present it? Whatta you know!