Inspiration profile - Talia O'Connor and Ella Murdoch

Lately I have been regularly hearing about new home wares stores popping up all over New Zealand, which is positive to hear, especially after the tough economic climate from the last few years.
This week's profile opened one recently in Dunedin after having an online store since March. Enjoy and have a great weekend all!

Ella Murdoch and Talia O'Connor

Styling by MintSix

Name: Talia O'Connor & Ella Murdoch

What do you do: We co-own our home wares & lifestyle business, MintSix. We also do interior styling both locally and online. Our business has been online since March and we have we have just opened our first store in Dunedin. 

Where do you live: We live in Dunedin, New Zealand. 

What are you working on: Lately, we've mostly been working on getting our new store up and running, as well as continuing with our online business and working with clients on interior projects.

MintSix store, Dunedin

Colour:Such a hard one, we love colour! Talia: Chartreuse. Ella: Mint & at the moment anything Fuchsia 

Plant/Flowers:T: Currently loving our fiddle leaf fig trees Ficus Lyrata) & I'm very partial to a big beautiful bunch of peonies. E: Lilies

Food: T: Vietnamese E: Dumplings

Smell: T: The smell of summer or my Stella MCartney perfume I can't live without!  E: Jasmine 

Style:  Fashion:   T: Can't beat H&M & Topshop for affordable items and I love anything from Gorman & Mr Zimi. E: Zara, I miss Zara! (Zara was about 100 metres from our apartment in Beijing). We are both also big fans of Isabel Marant and Alexander Wang although unfortunately don't have a huge amount of their pieces in our wardrobe... one day hopefully!

Home: We like an eclectic mix of stylish and functional home wares, quite often with a bit of a twist. At the moment we love brands such as HK Living, Pony Rider, Kip & Co & Brita Sweden. We're also still huge fans of the original items we started importing, our Bamileke Juju Hats and Moroccan Pouffes. These can all be found at MintSix!

Who/what inspires me: Talia: I try and grab at least ten minutes (more like half and hour if I'm honest!) a day on Pinterest & Instagram and try and squeeze in some blog reading once a week. I'm also always inspired when I'm in Melbourne where I lived for eight years, I'm completely obsessed with the place!

I work best:During the day when my children are at school and kindy but also often find myself on the computer again in the evening.

What I do when I’m stuck for inspiration: There's nothing quite like a sneak peek into someone else's home. The Design Files showcases some amazing Australian homes weekly on their blog and it's one of the few emails that gets opened immediately when it arrives into my inbox. Being a hoarder, I also never throw away magazines, so I often dip back into old issues of my favourites if I'm lacking inspiration for a particular project.

The best advice I have been given is: To do what you love, work hard and trust your instincts. 

My latest discovery is:All the great Kiwi designers & creatives that I'm discovering now that I'm home. 

Mood boards by Talia - Black

Mood board - yellow and caramel

 Books that I get inspiration from: A range of interiors books. I especially love Todd Selby's books & more recently Megan Morton's, Things I love. 

Magazines that inspire me: Living Etc, Inside Out & Real Living are favourites

Blogs that I enjoy:The Design Files, The Design Chaser, Dos Family, Lovenordic Design Blog, Ascot Friday, Bluebird Vintage, Studio Home, Stylizimo, Desire to Inspire, Emmas Design Blog, Cush &Nooks, Elsass, Sincerely Jules, 79 Ideas, Caroline's Mode, Planete Deco, Fashion me Now, After DRK, The Fashion Guitar, My Scandinavian Home, Milo&Mitzy, Table Tonic...I'll stop now but could go on and on! 

My favourite room at home is:  Probably my living room as that's where we all hang out together. We get the fire cranked up in the winter & it's gets nice and cosy, which is essential here down South!

My office has:Been used as the MintSix headquarters during the last few months. Now that we have moved into our new shop it's looking very empty apart from my beloved mid-century desk and iMac.

What am I looking forward to:I'm looking forward to watching our business grow and diversifying our range. I also can't wait to explore more of New Zealand with my family. My husband is British and my kids were born in Australia so they haven't seen much of our beautiful country. 

MintSix styling work.



Photographs are used with permission from MintSix.

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Table Manners

Just some gorgeous eye candy for a miserable Monday - feast your eyes on this tableware series, 'Table Manners' which was featured in Elle Decoration NL earlier this year. Styled and photographed by Mirella Sahetapy who is from the Netherlands - I am inspired by her use of colour, arrangement and textures.

Photographs via Mirella Sahetapy.

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Flowers from the Quintessential Magazine

Have you come across the Quintessential magazine yet? It is a online magazine curated by Sydney based Leanne Carter-Taylor and it is a visual feast!
The latest edition is all things flowers to celebrate the arrival of Spring and my favourite is 'The Portrait of a Flower' (as seen above and below). These scenes were styled by John Mangila and the photographs were taken by Sharyn Cairns - you will need to subscribe to the magazine (it's free!) to get access to these stunning shots and more.
Carter-Taylor is the creative mind and retailer behind Australia stores duckeggBLUE, a woman's clothing store; Quinessential duckegg BLUE, an antique and industrial furniture store as well as The Man Next Door, a men's clothing store. They all look amazing - on the list for when I eventually make my way to Sydney. And to top it off, she also has an amazing home - check it out on The Design Files.

Photographs by Sharyn Cairns via the Quintessential magazine.

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Spring at Capital Magazine

It's September and Spring is upon us! We celebrate the changing of the season with 'Fresh Florals, Bright Pastels and Spring Clean' in the latest Capital magazine. Last month I had the pleasure to be the guest stylist for their 'Indoor' section and here is the result.

Photographs by Harry Culy and styled by Charlotte Minty.

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Natalie Schwer and Broste

Images from Broste AW 2013 catalogue

To continue from yesterday, here is more work by stylist Natalie Schwer for Broste Copenhagen, a Danish home wares company.
I received an email yesterday from Maytime, who after seeing my Copper and Coral posting, let me know that they represent Broste Copenhagen in New Zealand and Australia. They mentioned that these products we see here will be launched next year in February 2014 as part of the winter range. Exciting!

This was from Broste Press day in Copenhagen - love the still life painting.

Photographs by Line Klein via Natalie Schwer.

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Happy Valentines Day

Happy Valentines Day all - have a great day with your loved ones.
I've already posted this photo on my FB page, however, it seemed most appropriate to have it appear here for today's occasion. This is Australian stylist, Vanessa Colyer Tay doing a retail window display, using alphabet notebooks to get the message across. It looks great.
Photograph via Vanessa Colyer Tay.

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Inspiration Profile: Marcus Hay

Ah, Winter has arrived with a vengeance here in New Zealand and sometimes, in these cold and dark days, it can be hard to get inspired.
So here we go with a lovely Inspiration Profile from stylist and creative director, Marcus Hay. He is an expat Australian living in New York and I have featured his work here on my blog several times. Enjoy - have a great and warm weekend everyone.

Marcus Hay - Photo: Jonny Valiant.

Blue/Green Trend Story - Photo: Kat Teutsch.

Name: Marcus Hay

What do you do: I am a style and creative director, interior designer and writer. My company is called Studio Hay + Co and we work out of my home/studio in Chelsea. It's a busy hub of activity as there is always a multitude of varied projects going on - anything from photo shoots to apartment fit outs.

Where do you live: New York, USA

What are you working on: I work freelance so on a variety of projects, including my own personal ones. I just did a whole lot of work for Bloomingdales, styling tablescapes. This week I am working on a kids fashion shoot, designing the sets and sourcing props.

Elle Decoration - Photo: Jonny Valiant

Left: Inside Out magazine - Photo: Jonny Valiant. Right: Decorating with Fabric - Photo: William Geddes.

Who/what inspires me:  I find inspiration everywhere - as a visual person your eyes are always wide open. I see a lot of exhibitions as I live in the art gallery district of Manhattan.
I love walking the streets and see inspiration for color stories everywhere - especially unexpected color combinations. It could be in street art, signage or even something random on the side of the road.
I love travelling and gather much inspiration from the countries I visit - in particular Japan, China and Scandanavia.
Flea markets and antique stores are also a great resource for me. You can learn a lot about a culture by their markets - often there are history lessons if you talk to the dealers or make note of items to research later. 

I am also inspired by the following people - Artists: John Chamberlain, Cindy Sherman, David Hockney, Andy Warhol
Designers: Eva Zeisel, Aero Saarinen and Paul Rand.
Musicians: Grace Jones, Marilyn Monroe and Blosson Dearie.

I work best: I work all the time so don’t really have a designated best time : )

What I do when I’m stuck for inspiration: I am never stuck. The world is a big place - how could you ever not find something to trigger an idea?

The best advice I have been given is: Never give up. Fall, get up again and dust yourself off. Mistakes are just mis-takes. Take 1, Take 2...

My latest discovery is: Pinterest - hate to admit it but I love it. It helps me edit my visual thoughts.

Marcus' apartment, Elle Decoration Sweden - Photo: Jonny Valiant.

Left: Interior Project - Photo: Jonny Valiant.    Right: Marie Claire - Photo: Lucas Allen.

Books that I get inspiration from: Always autobigraphies as I love reading about other peoples lives. Right now, in terms of a visual book, I love Martyn Thompson’s book'Interiors' - he is an amazing photographer.

Magazines that inspire me: Elle Decoration, U.K, Casa Da Abataire, Italian Vogue, Apartmento, and Milk.

Blogs that I enjoy: Design Sponge, Daily Imprint, The Modern Sybarite, Spotted by Normann Copenhagen, PJ Mehaffey, The Food Dept, Bespoke Press, Mr Jason Grant, The Bedlam of Beefy, Design Buzz, Style Rookie and Elephant Ceramics        

My favourite room at home is: My Living room. It is a room I multi task in - I hold meetings, entertain, work and even use it for photo shoots when I need to. It also has my favorite chair to lounge in - when I sit in my Womb chair I know I can finally relax.

My office is: Everywhere. Home, on the street, the local café, my storage space and on the subway. I am always writing every second I have.

What am I looking forward to: Christmas with my family in Sydney in December. It’s been nearly 8 years since I spent the holidays with them!

Want to find out more about Marcus and his work? Check out his website here and his blog Fluff'n'Stuff here.

CB2 catalog - Photo: Andy Barnes.

All photographs used with permission from Marcus Hay.

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Lovely Light Grey

I was out with friends for dinner last night and one has asked for my help with her apartment. She mentioned that she would be re-painting the walls - which are at present white. She suggested doing something different, maybe adding a colour. We talked about the possibility of greys, which is a nice step up from white. Here are some lovely scenes styled by Hilary Robertson (as spotted on Emma's Design Blog) that has soft light grey on the walls. Looks gorgeous.

Photographs via Emma's Design Blog.

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Fresh and Pretty for Ikea.

 

Here is some pretty interior styling work done by Stella Nicolaisen for Ikea.
Photogrpahs via Agent Bauer.

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Great Styling by Anthropologie

Check out the olive green leather Chesterfield sofa - nice.

This chair looks inviting.

So does this hammock.

To help get through the winter blues, it helps and inspires me to have a look at all the summer colour happening in the northern hemisphere and Anthropologie has done this so well. Here are some great interior styles from them using their eclectic range of homewares.
Photographs via Anthropologie.

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