katy – Page 52 – Apartment Apothecary

I’m really excited about this month’s Styling the Seasons because both Charlotte and I have really challenged ourselves to do something that we don’t normally do and I, for one, found it really difficult! We wanted to make November special before all the glitz and festive fun of December so we are thrilled to be teaming up with Emily Quinton of Makelight this month. Emily runs photography workshops and courses and is the master of beautifully detailed flat lays so we decided to make this month all about seasonal flat lays. Our favourite November flat lay chosen by me, Charlotte, Emily and Ruth, who also works with Emily in the Makelight studio, will win a place on one of Emily’s workshops in her London studio or on one of her online courses.

In principle the idea of doing a seasonal flat lay sounded wonderful until I realised that I don’t really know how to do them – oops! My issue is that I don’t really know how to do ‘whimsical’; you know, arranging flowers and pretty things for the sake of it. In contrast, I love styling interiors because I know they serve a purpose and they won’t be tidied up as soon as I have finished taking the photos.

I tried five different things, then asked Charlotte for help and still couldn’t figure out what to do. So, I decided to get inspiration from a big, beautiful bunch of flowers and even though I only used three roses from the bunch they did help me come up with an idea.

Styling the Seasons - November | Seasonal flat lay | Apartment Apothecary

Marble cake stand from John Lewis’s Croft collection.

Whenever I think about November, the first thing that comes to mind is falling leaves and walks crunching through them. However, I am not keen on Autumnal colours so I sprayed some leaves gold and scattered dead rose petals to represent dead leaves on the ground. I then used a beautiful marble cake stand that my Aunty Lucy bought me for my birthday and placed three fresh pink roses to represent the last few remaining leaves on the trees, ready to fall.

I hope you like my November flat lay, I have to say I really enjoyed doing it once I had an idea. Maybe I’ll try a few more! Do pop over to Emily’s blog, Ruth’s blog and Charlotte’s blog to see their posts.

We would love to see your November styling either on your own blog or post a picture of it on Instagram using the hashtag #STSxMakelight so we can see it. Entries are open from today until November 29th. We will announce the winner on November 30th and they can choose which of Emily’s workshops or online courses they would like as their prize! SO exciting!

Katy x

As you know, last year I embarked on transforming our guest room into a home office and I wanted it to be a bright, motivating space with white walls, floors and furniture to allow the light to bounce around the room. Over the last year I have loved this space but I woke up last Saturday morning and had an intense desire to start adding more pastel colours to my home to make it feel more cohesive as my bedroom and office have a lot of pastels (I warn you, I can feel a whole sitting room makeover coming on – be gone dark colours!).

I decided to start the process by adding a bit of colour to my home office with a quick and easy paint project. There is one corner of my office that has never felt quite right. It feels lifeless and cold with no definition. Here is how it looked before…

I wanted to paint the drawers a pastel colour to bring a bit of warmth to this corner but I couldn’t decide between a dusty pastel pink, blue, green or grey (all these colours thread throughout the office and bedroom at the moment – watch out sitting room, they are coming for you!). I used Dulux’s free Vizualizer app to help me make my colour decision. As I’ve said before, it can be so difficult to picture the end result when you are decorating so this app is a brilliant tool to help you feel more confident to make colour decisions. All you have to do is hold your phone up in front of the piece of furniture or wall that you want to paint and pick from their huge range of colours and the app will virtually paint the wall/furniture with the colour you choose. You can then save the image and share it directly. I don’t know about you, but I always like to get a bit of feedback from friends. I quickly realised that pink gave the most warmth and tied in well with the bits and bobs that I have on the shelves. I tried out a few different pinks with the app and finally settled on Dulux’s Pink Nevada 6 that is a soft pastel pink – not too sugary.

The app even told me where my nearest Dulux stockist was so I popped to the hardware store and bought a tin of the paint in satinwood and I was confident enough, after using the app, to buy a tin without getting loads of paint samples. This saved loads of time and faffing and didn’t consume my whole weekend.

And here is what this corner of my home office looks like now; much warmer and more cohesive as the pink of the drawers pulls all of the pink around it together. It is now much more of a feature than it was before. Pretty in pink!

I used this vase, flowers and book as colour inspiration and the app also allowed me to colour match the vase to the nearest Dulux shade of pink, which was incredibly helpful as I love this colour.

I’m really pleased with how bringing more colour into this room has worked out and the process was made so much easier using the Dulux Visualizer app. You can download the app here.

What do you think (please don’t say you like the ‘before’ better than the ‘after’ – ha!)?

Katy x

October has been such a beautiful month: the light, leaves, colours, blue skies and sunshine. I always look forward to October because it is my birthday month and unlike some I love the coming of Autumn with the chance to cosy up at home, cook warming food and take walks in the leaves.

If you are one of those people that dreads the colder months then Charlotte and I have the perfect remedy. Next month, we are teaming up with Emily Quinton of Makelight and Ruth Garner of Gathered Cheer to make Styling the Seasons that extra bit special. Emily runs fabulous photography workshops and if you are familiar with her work you will know that she specialises in the most beautiful flat lays. Therefore, we would like you all to create a seasonal flat lay that represents November and our favourite will win a place on one of Emily’s workshops, either in her London Makelight studio or online so anyone can take part!

However, before I get carried away with the excitement of all of that, I would like to share with you my favourite post from October. I was so drawn to Heather’s stunning French inspired post, Vicky’s beautiful styling and Kelly’s peaceful scene but I couldn’t helped but be wowed by these hand painted chinoiserie pumpkins – so very beautiful! Thank you Lilian for creating such a stunning styled surface.

Styling the Seasons October review | ling young b | blue and white chinoiserie pumpkins

October’s styled surface by ling yeung b

There were so many other wonderful posts this month, as well as a huge number of images on Instagram that you can find by searching the #StylingTheSeasons hashtag. Do make sure you pop over to these blog posts, too:

Growing Spaces / Refreshed Designs / Janice Issitt Lifestyle / Roses and Rolltops / A Quiet Style / Candy Pop / The Ordinary Lovely / Tea with Ruby / ling young b / Inside Out and About / Makelight / The Villa on Mount Pleasant / Camellia Rose / thevintagehousethatcould / little maldod / Geoffrey and Grace / Cate St. Hill / The Lovely Drawer / Owl and Accordion / Seeds and Stitches / Under the Plum blossom Tree / Mummy Limited / The Cabinet Maker’s Love Tale / Lotts and Lots / Apartment Apothecary

I will be back on November 1st with my seasonal flat lay and more information about our #STSxMakelight collaboration.

Katy x

I was invited to Leipzig last weekend, a city in the east of Germany, to join a small group of bloggers to explore the city and the Designers’ Open. The region of Saxony has been undergoing a process of renewal over the last twenty five years, since the fall of the Berlin Wall, and I was honoured to be asked to come and experience it for myself. Having been a history teacher for many years and knowing so much about the German Democratic Republic it was fascinating to not only see this part of Germany but to find out more about its movement and progress. It’s almost unthinkable that twenty five years ago I wouldn’t have been able to enter the city, let alone leave. However, Leipzig has always been a centre of culture, a city of books and fairs with a mix of striking architecture seeped in history – so much to see and do!

I joined Carole, a fellow blogger from London, and Mia, who lives in Leipzig and is the editor of a very successful blogzine, Alabaster Maedchen. We spent our time meeting designers, seeing their work and discovering what lies at the heart of this vibrant cultural hub.

My highlight of the trip was the tour of the Spinnerei: an old cotton factory dating back to 1884 that is now filled with exhibition space and makers’ workshops. The buildings themselves were perfect examples of industrial architecture and as the door opened on studios, workshops and pieces of art I could feel the exciting energy of this special place. The workshop of Saxony Ducks was my dream workspace and their creations in the softest wool were stunning and I couldn’t resist an advent calendar based on the tales of the Brothers Grimm from graphic designer Katja Zwirnmann. The buildings have been beautifully restored to maintain all of the character of the original cotton factory, yet allow the artists to exhibit, make, develop and inspire: such an important project and reflective of the progress and creativity of the city.

Discovering Leipzig | Simply Saxony | Designers' Open 2015 | Spinnerei

Leipzig’s Spinnerei

The space that captured my imagination most was Claudia Biehne’s porcelain studio. Paper-thin porcelain bowls, vases and sculptures whose beauty lay in their fragility and each so unique in its shape and form. Claudia explained the design process, which just added to how precious each creation was. I absolutely love seeing the workspace of creatives so this was such a treat.

Discovering Leipzig | Simply Saxony | Designers' Open 2015 | Handmade ceramics

Porcelain pieces by Claudi Biehne

We spent all of Friday at the Designers’ Open, a great chance to explore and talk to designers to find out more about the concepts behind their designs. The exhibition space was filled with hand made ceramics, furniture, lighting, fashion and graphic design: a stage for new trends and a market place for new designs. I found a few products, including a kitchen unit that I’m still dreaming about, that I would have snapped up there and then if I didn’t have a teeny weeny baggage allowance.

Discovering Leipzig | Simply Saxony | Designers' Open 2015 | Concrete furniture

Concrete furniture and homewares by Betoniu

I loved these lamps made of concrete and coloured twine, handmade over several days by Oliver Schilf in his living room. I’d want three of these hanging in my kitchen!

I immediately fell for these stacking bowls painted with a traditional Japanese blue. Aren’t they beautiful in their simplicity?

The clever and sleek design of these milk jugs with a small sugar bowl stacked on top is brilliant.

We saw more designers around the city at a number of design ‘spots’. The Grassimuseum in the centre of the city hosted several projects by university students and more inspiration.

We were incredibly lucky to be shown the city by the lovely Mia, Alex and Anja – there’s nothing better than a bit of insider knowledge when discovering a new place and great to get an insight into daily life in the city. They took us to see the lakes, just a ten minute bike ride from the city centre, that is a popular spot in the summer but incredibly beautiful at this time of the year with the Autumnal colours of the woods that surround the water.

It was so wonderful to spend the weekend with such great people. Mia is one of the most interesting and generous people I have met in a long time and she and her partner, Alex, looked after us so well, taking us to good restaurants (we ate so well), to must-see spots and introduced us to some other local bloggers. Mia and Alex, you must come to London soon! Claudius and Anja were both so warm and went to great lengths to make sure we had the best possible experience. It was also really great to spend time with Carole and we had so much fun together – I can’t wait to come round for dinner, Carole! We also stayed in a hotel that I would highly recommend called Arcona Living Bach 14.

This is a place on the move, an ever-changing scene rich in culture and ready to change people’s perception of this part of the world. I loved meeting such generous people, discovering new designers and absorbing as much of the city as possible; I’m pretty sure it won’t stay the same for long and I look forward to seeing what its future holds.

Katy x

*This post was written in collaboration with Simply Saxony.

I’m off to Germany this morning for the Designers’ Open and I was thinking about what I could take on the plane to keep me occupied. Embroidery came to mind and I remembered a tutorial that I made and Katharine Peachey shot for me ages and ages ago. The tutorial was originally shared over at 91 Magazine but I thought it would be nice to share it here, too, as it is one of my favourites. All you need is an old sheet to make these sweet embroidered napkins so it may be a good weekend project for you, especially now it is colder and the evenings are darker – all the more time for embroidery!

This was my first ever embroidery project so I practised by using a design by Jenny Hart for the Kin Community and I changed the colours to the faded blues of my beloved Hydrangeas. I used their video tutorials to learn how to do French Knots and I found them so helpful whilst learning basic stitches. Once I had gained a bit of confidence and got inspired I designed the other napkin motifs myself.

How to make embroidered napkins | Vintage style Liberty print napkins tutorial | Quick and easy sewing project | Apartment Apothecary

You will need:

A set of four plain napkins OR 40cm x 40cm pieces of white cotton fabric for each napkin (or even an old cotton bed sheet)

Four pieces of Tana Lawn Liberty print of an equal size to your napkins/white cotton

Embroidery hoop, needle and floss in a variety of colours

Sewing machine and thread

Fabric scissors and pins

Pencil

Embroidered napkin tutorial | Liberty print napkins | Sewing tutorial | Photos by KatharinePeachey.co.uk

You will need

Step by step:

1. If you are recycling old napkins, then press well and use fabric scissors to cut four matching pieces of Liberty print fabric – these will form the back of each napkin. If you are using white cotton, cut pieces of this and your Liberty fabric to approx. 40cm x 40cm.

Step 1

2. Get creative! Find inspiration from your favourite flower or floral fabric to help design a floral motif for each napkin. Draw your embroidery design with pencil onto the left hand corner of each piece of white cotton, or wherever you would like to sew it. You can do a different design on each napkin or the same in different colours.

Step 2

3. Decide which embroidery stitch best suits the petals and leaves of each flower. If you are unsure about embroidery stitches, try watching video tutorials online. It’s much easier than it looks, I promise! I used ‘French Knots’ for the petals of this design and a ‘Lazy Daisy’ stitch for the leaves. I took inspiration from one of my favourite flowers, the Hydrangea, so used a variety of faded blues.

Step 3

4. Once you have completed your design, pin the white cotton fabric and Liberty fabric right sides together.

How to make embroidered napkins | Vintage style Liberty print napkins tutorial | Quick and easy sewing project | Apartment Apothecary

Step 4

5. Sew the two pieces of fabric together leaving a 5cm gap open on one side so you can turn it inside out. Turn inside out and press the napkin well. Finally, using a contrasting thread, top stitch around all four sides of the napkin, ensuring to sew up the 5cm gap.