Decoration + Design

The new year always brings a feeling of fresh beginnings, a time for change, a clean slate so to speak. This refers to many things in our lives, but one of the best places to start is your surrounding space, your personal habitat, this is where you can seek solace from stressful situations or freedom in solidarity. So it makes sense to clear a space in your home that acts as a refuge from the world and a chance to indulge in some time-out and unwind from it all.

We are constantly inspired at Decoartion + Design Blog by the shabby chic designs at Dreamy Whites blog. It’s homespun, cosy and immediately comforting in it’s organic state with slightly chipping paint and imperfections that make it feel more like home.

We’d love to know what interiors and stylish decors you are into, please share your favourite blogs with us at Decoration + Design on Facebook.

For more, visit www.dreamywhites.blogspot.com

International trainer and coach, Mark Davis delivered several FREE workshops over the course of the recent Australian International Furniture Fair co-located with Decoration + Design. Held in the Seminar Room, the workshops offered essential information on the hot topics of social media, pricing strategies, growing your business through Facebook, the psychology of why people buy, and managing staff retention.

Mark has generously offered each of his workshop presentations for FREE download, just click the link below each header;

How to integrate social media into your marketing mix for low cost
AIFF Social Media Presentation

Pricing Strategies to create interest from old customers and attract new ones
Pricing Strategies

Why having your staff on Facebook can be the fastest way to grow your business
Staff Facebook

The psychology of why people buy – how to structure your merchandising and point of sale displays
Why people buy

Managing staff retention – how to get good staff and keep them
Staff

Follow Mark on Twitter and Facebook.

As promised, here is the second installment of the Moderated Panel Discussion on Friday Feb 4 at Decoration + Design, Sydney. Former Vogue Living editor-in-chief, Robyn Holt moderated a talented panel of interior designers from international celebrity designer, Martyn Lawrence Bullard to celebrated interior stylist Thomas Hamel, Marco Meneguzzi and Greg Natale.

Here is the opening segment to the panel:

Robyn talks to the panel about turning the design tool on their own homes. Martyn uses his home as an experiment pad and it’s constantly evolving, whereas Greg Natale is the complete opposite. Once he completes his home it becomes a museum, it doesn’t change and he simply moves on to the next place. Watch below for more interesting tid bits from the expert interior panel.

We were so thrilled to host international celebrity designer, Martyn Lawrence Bullard at the recent Decoration + Design trade show, Sydney as a guest speaker of the International Industry Seminar Series. His expertise, industry nous, and charm won over the interior design crowd and it seems our local media. Martyn appeared on Channel Seven’s The Morning Show where he discussed his successful cable television series, Million Dollar Decorators.

As promised here is Part 1 of the video we took from the Moderated Panel Discussion – Martyn Lawrence Bullard, Thomas Hamel, Marco Meneguzzi and Greg Natale with moderator Robyn Holt – on the final day of Decoration + Design, Sydney last week. We will post the second segment shortly.

(please note – if you wish to re-post this video on your website or blog, please ensure you have a working link back to Decoration + Design blog. Thank you in advance)

Thomas Hamel, Martyn Bullard, Robyn Holt, Marco Meneguzzi & Greg Natale

Some of the industry’s most influential design minds joined forces this morning to discuss their personal interior insights, career highlights, love affair with travel, and thoughts on the future of design from 2012 and beyond.
Held on the final day of Decoration + Design trade show, the panel was moderated by former Vogue Living Editor-in-Chief and mentor on The Renovators, Robyn Holt along with international designer Thomas Hamel, designer to the stars Martyn Bullard, Marco Meneguzzi and Greg Natale.

We took a couple of video segments from the discussion which will be posted shortly, but please enjoy these great snapshots of the morning until then.

House & Garden magazine is the official sponsor of the International Industry Seminar Series at Australian International Furniture Fair co-located with Decoration + Design. Here are some snapshots of their stunning visual display opposite the seminar room showcasing Cadrys handwoven rugs, Porters Original Paints, Flowers by Teresa, Publisher Textiles native-inspired wallpaper, and Orson & Blake interior collection.

Editor-in-Chief Lisa Green was a gracious host of the seminar series, introducing each of the international and Australian speakers before an eager crowd of industry figureheads soaking up their interior insights.

Be sure to have a look before the show closes today at Hall 2, opposite J16.
Visit them on Facebook.

Resident trend forecaster, Genty Marshall of New Black Global Trends

“A new era of social networking is challenging our traditional definitions of public and private, how much access we have into other people’s lives and heightened our fascination with the individual and authentic. Gen Y are championing transparency and pushing for new technology that delivers what it promises, that being real connections.” – Genty Marshall.

Australian trend forecaster, Genty Marshall explored this new phenomenon today with her International Industry Seminar, The Collector, The Creator and The Connoisseur. She took us behind closed doors to show us our obsession with private spaces and how that is influencing interior trends for 2012/13. With the success of online publishing ie. The Selby and Design Sponge, we are all editors, photographers and stylists with no brief, no client and no style guide, inviting us into their world, thoughts and spaces with personal filters that have seduced us. We are witnessing the influence of raw and personal insights and how they are broadening the context of design. The private homes featured on these new design sites and blogs offer a considered appreciation of the place of design in a broader social context.

We took five with Marshall post-seminar at Decoration + Design to discuss her global network and travels when compiling trend reports; the continuing influence of fashion design on interior trends and vice versa; and the state of Australian design.

Be sure to visit the third installment of her Design Futures installation showcasing a visual feast of the various trends, 2012/13 colour palate and curios in The Collector, The Creator and The Connoisseur.

Lamp 103 is the award winning design by Christopher Vincent of the Central Institute of Technology who took out The EDGE design competition at Decoration + Design today. A pleasing table/work lamp combining simple components for a simple assembly. Brass, steel and polypropylene.
Chris is an inspiring designer who emphasizes originality, form and personality in his work.

Here are some of the other inspiring designs from the collection artfully curated centre stage at Australian International Furniture Fair. Don’t miss out on seeing these inspiring creations.

For more information, visit www.aiff.net.au

Part One

Part Two

Suzanne Trocme believes in logical design that becomes emotional design. The rule`a dress should never wear its owner’ relates just as much to the fashion world as it does to the interior and furniture design industry. ‘If there’s too much information, you don’t see clearly anymore. Make sure you edit a little bit to create a truly elegant interior. The point of Classic Chic interiors is it has to be visually durable’.

Trocme is all about seeing classicism with new eyes, injecting contemporary ideas into old interiors, and stripping a room back to its bare bones before slowly adding your poetry. ‘Timeless classic interiors are not about being concerned with the elements inside but the space between the elements. It’s about numbers, shape and form, how much the brain can take and how much it cannot take’.

We caught up with the esteemed authority after her thought provoking presentation `Classic Chic – The Little Black Dress of Interior Design’ at Australian International Furniture Fair co-located with Decoration + Design.