Illustration: Home for Now by Joanna Thornhill

Cico Books

I'm really looking forward to the Launch of Joanna Thornhill's book 'Home for Now'. For one, it's a great idea (especially now I'm renting and nervous of invoking the landlord's wrath with my creative tendencies.

I am also very excited because I illustrated the step by step diagrams in the book!

Upcycled Jewellry Hooks Cico Books

Upcycled Jewellry Hooks Cico Books

Super Stylist and blogger Joanna's book is a beautiful coffee table book even if you're not fussed about doing any projects. It is full of stunning pictures of real renters' houses; wittily written and totally inspiring. There are even a few NO SEW projects like the one below!

Chair Upholstery Project Cico Books

Chair Upholstery Project Cico Books

Here's what Joanna says about her first book on her website:

"My first book, Home for Now: Making your Rented Space or First Home Beautiful, is published in April 2014 by Cico Books. Offering both inspirational and practical solutions to the ever-growing number of people struggling to get on, or move up, the property ladder, it shows that not being in your “forever” home needn’t be a barrier to transforming your house into a home: all that’s needed is a little creative thinking, outside of the box.

Featuring 15 stunning homes, most of which are rented or first-time-owned themselves, the book is broken down by area: Living Spaces, Kitchens, Dining, Bedrooms, Bathrooms, Creative Workspaces and Plants, Outdoor Living, and is packed with styling, craft and DIY tips to inspire both renters and renovators to try out the ideas themselves. Full step-by-step projects feature at the end of each chapter, specifically chosen with inexperienced DIY’ers in mind, whilst renters’ needs are more than taken into account, with landlord-friendly adaptations of many of its DIY and styling ideas.

"Home for Now will be sold worldwide, initially in its English-language edition, with foreign-language editions to follow throughout the year. To purchase online from Amazon or other equivalent booksellers, please click on your relevant country using the links below (live links where available - more coming soon):

Europe: United Kingdom, Italy, Norway, Slovakia, Switzerland, The Netherlands

North America: USA

Asia: Israel, Japan, South Korea, Thailand, United Arab Emirates

Australasia: Australia

From April, I will also be selling copies of the book direct from this site, and can offer signed copies for no additional cost – stay tuned for a live link on this page once the service is available, or email me for further information.

PRESS AND REVIEWS

A selection of coverage on Home for Now – if you have been kind enough to feature Home for Now in your publication, or on your website or blog, please do email to let me know and I will add you to the gallery below. If you are a member of the press or a blogger looking for further information, please email publicity@cicobooks.co.uk"

all taken from  www.joannathornhill.co.uk

Cico Books

 The Launch is in a few weeks and I can't wait to see the book in hard print. I'll be sure to share some photos from the night.

Cico Books

Home is where the art is: How to make a patchwork quilt bedspread from embroidered linens

The tradition of quilting began with army wives waiting for their husbands to return from war, or expectant mothers making a quilt for their new baby. Usually hand-sewn, the quilt evokes a maternal and sentimental feel with each patch signifying a story of its own. I have taught beginner's Patchwork quilting courses over the past few years. I have acquired embroidered linens from various sources with little idea of what to do with them. I love them, but I'm not up for draping doilies around my flat, and there are only so many doily clutch bags I can use. 

I saw a number of quilts using embroidered linens in beautiful big houses in London that we use for photoshoot locations. I was struck by the 'French Chateau' appearance the quilt gave to a simple room and wanted a piece of the action!

You will need

• A range of fabrics for your patches
• Cardboard
• ruler
• Pen 
• Pencil
• Scissors and dress making scissors
• Dress making pins
• Needle and thread
• Double Duvet cover
• Lining fabric the size of your quilt plus a 5cm seam allowance all around the edge
• Long ruler

How to make

1. choose your fabrics and plan your design. I.e. alternating plain and patterns
2. cut out your template square from card. This will be your master template and forms the basis of your patchwork. A double duvet is 2m x 2m, therefore I went for a 25cm square, requiring 8 rows of 8 to completely cover one side of the duvet.
3. place the template onto the wrong side of your fabric and draw around it with a pencil 
4. cut out leaving a 2cm seam allowance.
5. take 2 fabric squares and pin right side together, matching up the corners.
6. join using a running stitch. 
7. Pin the next square to one edge and sew as before, making a row of three.
8. continue adding squares until you have the desired width. 
9. iron seam allowances to one side and continue to pin and sew rows of squares.
10. when you have enough rows you can assemble your quilt by pinning two rows right sides together making sure you match up the squares accurately. Find the centre seam and work your way out to the sides. Join with a running stitch.
11. once you have your complete quilt, press and trim the excess edges on the wrong side of the quilt.
12. Place onto one side of your duvet, right sides up, smooth all the wrinkles out, and work your way around the edges, turning under the raw edge, pinning in place and then hand sew an oversew stitch all around the edge.

Home is where the art is: How to recreate Rob Ryan's Cutout Art.

This is a little something I took a punt at over the weekend. I'm a big fan of Rob Ryan but always felt I needed a really good reason to spend hours with nail scissors and a scalpel painstakingly cutting a message out of paper. I am designing a production of 'The Little Match Girl' for the Family Christmas show at The Wardrobe Theatre this year, and we've been dreaming in paper and pop ups whilst shaping the show.

I hope you like it. It didn't take nearly as long as I thought it would.

Why dont you have a go at creating your own Rob Ryan homage.

You will need:

• scalpel
• cutting mat
• nail scissors
• pencil
• paper

A sneaky trick though...I drew out my design, and however hard I try it is IMPOSSIBLE for me to have a light touch with a pencil. Therefore, when photographing the image, I turned it over to reveal a squaeky clean white side even though the writing was now backwards. All you do is Horizontally Flip it back in your photo editing programme, et voila! 

Belle and Grant Pop up at 40 Alfred Place

 This weekend I had the pleasure of designing 40 Alfred Place for the Pop Up Restaurant 'Belle and Grant'. A sumptuous Spring/Summer Menu that brought out the seasonal freshness in my design inspiration...and it just so happened that I had some of that green wallpaper left over from the Wooden Box Restoration.

I wanted to share some pictures of the space and share a few lightbulb moments I had on the subject of temporary interior design. So many of us rent, but still want to make our mark on our habitats without breaking the bank and upsetting the landlord.

Instead of picture rails the space had high suspended horizontal batons which were easy to hang pictures off. Keeping with the fresh and wild theme, I hung canvases painted all shades of green with hessian string.

For Belle and Grant specifically, I was into a subtle branding of the company to remind the customers who was cooking for them, so I made a scaled up stencil of their logo, a cluster of cooking utensils, and sprayed it onto sporadic canvases. I also printed labels out of the logo and put them onto the assorted jars of flowers on the tables.

                                              

                                             

As well as the canvases, I utilised the remaining wallpaper from the B&Q box project as well as finding another cracking roll in none other than Wilkinsons! I stapled batons to the top and bottom of varying lengths and hung them in and amongst the canvases. I also clipped a square of each onto plain clip boards for an added item to hang.

                                             

Usually, the lights are bare and exposed in the space, so I used wallpaper for a further measure in creating cone lampshades. Stapled into shape and slotted over the existing fixing, just make sure the paper is well away from the bulb.

Wallpaper also featured as a table runner, and the best thing about this is, no matter how messy the customers on the Friday night, there is plenty of wallpaper left to make a new runner for the Saturday night crowd!

Home is where the art is: wooden box restoration

A large number of the items in my flat are the result of upcycling projects and pieces I found in skips, and tips in need of a good home. I felt it would make perfect sense to add these projects to the blog. 

I found this box in a skip in a rather affluent area of town. As well as the box, I acquired a printed wine box, a wooden sewing box complete with full vintage sewing kit, and two ornate terracotta planters. Having a van is a curse as well as a gift, as you have no excuse not to pick these things up and breathe new life into them!

What particularly drew me to this box was it's rather odd curved hinged lid. 

You will need:

• Sand paper
• Wood paint (satin finish)
• Primer in complimentary colour
• Paint brushes
• White spirit if paint is oil based
• Wall paper/lining paper
• Spray mount
• Clear varnish
• Pencil
• Tape measure
• Scissors
• Felt to cover the base
• All purpose glue
• Fixtures and fittings for the box: Hinges, safety latches, handles. I chose ornate brass ones
• Drill for adding fixtures and fittings.

How to do it:

1. Clean and sand the box inside and out. I also removed the rusty hinges and cleaned the area.
2. Paint two coats of primer, leaving to dry in between each coat.
3. Paint two coats of Wood paint, leaving to dry in between each coat.
4. line the inside of the box by carefully measuring each face, cut out your pieces of paper, spray mount and glue in place.
5. trim excess edges. 
6. Seal the lining paper by adding a coat of varnish over the top
7. Measure, mark out and add your fixtures and fittings.

Materials Details

Wood Primer from B&Q: Colour 'Grey'

Satin Base Wood and Metal Paint from Valspar (supplied and mixed by B&Q): Colour 'A Night at Ice Castle'

Wallpaper from B&Q

All fixtures and fittings from B&Q

Felt from Fabricland