Embellishing stuff

Morning, how nice its Friday very much liking the 3 day week I have to say. This morning I wanted to yabber about embellishing stuff, by that I  mean picking up some flea market find, or cheap mass market find and customizing it so it looks and feels unique and personal. In my new book, Decorating with Style  there are (if I say so myself) some very cool tricks for turning something mundane into something fabulous. I'm not just talking furniture I'm talking walls, floors, ceilings even. Nobody wants their  pad to look like its been decorated by numbers with everything from the same recognisable source hence my love of embellishing. I'm halfway through the second series of Million Dollar Decorators - who do exactly the same thing customize and craft bespoke furnishings and furniture  for famous and super rich clients. Bespoke tables costing $50,000, hand made beds with the same amount of zeros added on so we're all doing the same stuff except my way is a little cheaper. It takes a bit of time but nothing you couldn't knock up on a lazy Sunday afternoon. The  most transformative thing you can do to anything is paint it. I went on about this all last year but its true, see something in a flea market that is a great shape with perfect proportions but the colour sucks paint it out! TOP TIP paint it out in an offbeat colour, you will have on your hands one cool piece of furniture that looks like it should be hanging out in a gallery! If you can find a car sprayer even better (I'm on the hunt since my old one has sacked me) because then you get the glossiest most lacquered looking piece in the world - all for next to nothing! Its called taking your pad to the next level and its fun, decorating is such fun. So yes you can do savvy style on a budget, yes you can have the coolest pad in town should you so wish. It takes a bit of effort and the odd bit of elbow grease but that doesn't hurt anyone right? Another idea that I saw in Lonny magazine last year that I am obsessed with, literally obsessed with - marble paper. Sheets of it were hung in this super cool bathroom and yet it looks like large slabs of agate or stone. Luxurious, unique amazingly cool for a loo or bathroom, brilliant. Somewhere in this house not sure where yet I am doing exactly the same thing. Gotta dash new class, pilates. Ugg!