14 Jan 21

New year goals, decorating and trends, Podcast show notes S10 Ep1

So here we are at the start of a rather ‘different’ new year and although we are in another lockdown in the UK, I am pleased to report that Kate  and I are back inside our ‘duvet dens’ for more remote recording to bring you a fresj new new series of the Great Indoors podcast. In this first episode, we chat about the year ahead and ways we have found to cope withe the perpetual lock downs. We look forward to Kate’s very exciting new business venture and finally we give our views on the latest trends for this year. You can catch the full episode here.

Some of you would have seen my last post where I shared how I’m taking on 2021 and in particular my cold water therapy inspired by Wim Hof. Kate’s not quite feeling the urge to plunge into an ice bath and instead invested in a Peloton bike with the money she saved from her gym membership. How are you planning to take on the new year? Do get in touch, I’m @sophierobinsoninteriors on Insta and don’t forget our wonderful Facebook community, The Great Indoors podcast.

New Home Office

Kate will be saying goodbye to the gold ceiling in her current office

With us all now working from home again, Tom is finally in his new green office (oictured at the top of this post). I was keen to find out how the new decorating plans were going for Kate’s new office. The plan is for her 17 year old son Noah  to move into her office as she relates to his much smaller bedroom. But as Kate admits she ‘hot desks’ around the house, this is the perfect solution.

The makeover from office to teenage bedroom is achieved with a new paint colour, this gorgeous Puck by Little Greene.

Kate gave her son an ‘edited’ choice of paint colours that she would find acceptable. He was leaning towards a grey/blue and she wasn’t feeling it! He then spotted the sample of the Puck paint colour (above) and decided that was the one, so she had a paint war on her hands. Until the new Stone collection by Little Greene (launching 25th January) landed on Kate’s desk and she’s gone for Arras, a deep burgundy which she will use on panelling in gloss, just over halfway and then continue above and the ceiling with a very pale pink, Ferdinand. Personally, I think she should just go for it and do all the walls in Arras! What do you think?

The new Stone collection by Little Greene, the Arras colour as inspired Kate’s new office design- which is in progress.

Interior trends

Any normal January we would be talking about the new products and trends we spotted at all the trade shows and press events, but this year it is not to be. Despite still getting a ton of emails with new releases and trend news, I am just not feeling it! As Kate pointed out, the ‘trends’ are more about lifestyle, how we want to live our lives and how we want our homes to feel. We spending more time in our homes a lot more at different times of the day and need to transition through different feelings. From feeling focused in order to work, feeling we can zone our home to perform different tasks. Also, I think there’s is an issue with anxiety and coping with our mental wellbeing and using certain colours within our homes can help manage these issues – green, for instance, is a very soothing and grounding colour.

This is a more heartfelt way of decorating although it does pose some problems. Trends will usually tell us we have to paint our homes a certain colour, but when it comes to deciding what your happy colours are, you have to do a bit more work. I am running my Colour Psychology course this month and it’s already proving very popular as I think people are realising that it’s not a ‘one size fits all’ and perhaps you’re not confident with your relationship to colour and style and perhaps you are swayed by those around you.

The recently announced Pantone Colour of the Year, Ultimate grey and Illuminating yellow was, I thought, quite an interesting mix, balancing an optimistic yellow with a more steady grey. Whereas Kate saw it as an endless road with double yellow parking lines. Just further evidence on how we all react to colour in very different ways. Even though Pantone does not predict colours just for interiors, I think this duo works really within a scheme. You have the calming influence of the grey which is cool and restful and then sliced through the sharp, tangy yellow and is a great opportunity to experiment. No, it’s not a new combo, we’ve seen it revived a few times since the Mid-Century era of design and is still going strong at Mini Moderns. We agreed that this time round trends were more about your lifestyle and how you want to feel and how to make your space work for you, rather than following a colour, pattern or look.

Online shopping

The Design Storey navigation floorplan.

There’s no doubt that the pandemic has made us into a nation of online shoppers and we may have discovered that we actually need more for our homes and all its new uses. Joining the retail world is our very own Kate, who will be launching Design Storey this Saturday (16th Jan) and I am so excited to see it!

The online shop idea sprang out of the frustration of trawling through pages and pages for the one item you want to buy, apparently otherwise known as doomscrolling! So it is essentially an edited collection of the best 50 best… sofas, table lamps, rugs etc., with ten on a page and 5 pages – simple (and genius!). Do check it out at Designstorey.shop, on instagram @designstoreyshop and Kate explains all about it in more detail here.

A huge thanks as ever, to our fab producer Kate Taylor, from Feast Collective. It’s great to be back and honestly our wonderful community of listeners gives us such a boost so thanks for all the likes and DM’s, your shares on social media and of course those raving reviews. We really appreciate the support during these testing times.

Green office credits: Walls painted in Sage & Onion, window in Lamp black, both Little Greene; Blind made by Willow & Bert Interiors, in Textile under Ekvatorn by Joseph Frank, Svenskt Tenn; Vintage Eames chair, Vine Street Vintage; Desk from Ikea, no longer available; Cushion, Fanny Shorter; Seagrass flooring, Alternative Flooring.