Design Shack

Ok quickly while my partners not looking! I'm the one with the tacky taste around here! I love objects with Stars & Stripes on them! Just check out these items. Aren't they just about the coolest looking bins on the market? Who would have thought a place to put all your rubbish could look so good!

I think until recently people have been afraid to use metal in their gardens. I remember a garden makeover programme a few years back where a designer added a large wall of metal with a round circle through it, and everyone thought he was nuts until they saw the end results! The reflective qualities of shiny metal are amazing, as you can see from above.

Sorry you have to be a teenager to have all the above items!! Ok, you have to act like a teenager to have them! Well it's enough to make you want to be a teenager again anyway! These items are from a company called funkylights.com, and they really do have some great things, not just for teens either! Too many to show on this blog. The Mitt chair also comes in multi coloured fabric as well as just the red shown here.There are Puzzatoo stools, colourful lights and the retro looking Neon mirror. They also make lights that move, chairs and mirrors in the shape of lips and a mobile phone chair. Real funky stuff that kids and teens would love. If this is your thing, check out their website. The bad news for Europeans is they are an American company, but they do talk about international shipping, so if you can't live without a feather lamp that wiggles when you talk to it, start saving up your pennies now! No make that dollars!

Have you noticed how Black and White has made a real comeback? Not just black and white but wallpapers with large stylised black floral prints. It's interesting that for a while wallpaper was so out, and now it's right back in again. I'm a big fan of black and white. It just looks so dramatic. I also love the idea of mixing different things together like plates with different patterns, and then solid areas of just black or white. I personally don't think I could live with my walls covered with flowers though, to me it's just too feminine. I love white walls, because they are a blank canvas onto which you can add what you like. The good thing about this colour scheme is that you don't need to be a interior designer to create it, it avoids having to try and pick colours that work well together. I'm interested to know if this look is popular in the States or is this very much a UK thing?

It you have a tight budget, not much space but want something cool to add a bit of interest to your walls this is it! These are just plain cd cases. You can print an image off the internet or use your own artwork to create a really cool picture. My tip would be to use the same image and cut it up so you have one overall picture divided into each case. If that doesn't appeal or you can't run pictures out bigger than A4 on your printer, use similar looking images so you still get the feel of one large picture, like the example shown above. If you just use the empty cases they shouldn't be too heavy so you should be able to mount them on the wall using sticky pads. Do use a ruler though to make sure the spaces betwen each case are the same.

We've always wanted a round window. And here are some examples of why. They just look so cool. Whether your property is ultra modern or traditional they look good. They aren't as difficult to install as you would imagine either. Window companies can quite quickly produce a round window. You well need a diamond cutting company to cut a hole through the bricks, but hey look at the results!

There is a company called Le Tramac that take old antique furniture, lovingly renovate it and then give it a modern twist. Well you can't get much more modern that this! The above chairs are re-upholstered in shinny multi coloured pvc. So do you love them, or hate them?

What's that expression "It's not what you've got, it's what you do with it"? Staying with Ikea for a moment, and then I'll shut up about the place!! I used this mirror that you can see above (It was simply a mirror surrounded by a tyre). I covered the mirror with a black textured sticky back plastic (Sounds like Blue Peter!). Placed a metal Route 66 sign that I bought on one of my trips to the States, on to the black background and there you have it, a slightly more unusual picture that took half an hour to do, but always gets loads of comments.

A young designer from an art College in Brighton here in the UK won an award for being so creative with items from Ikea. He transformed a chair into a sledge and a coat hanger into a stag wall hanging and a gun. So next time you take a visit to the store think about the amazing things that you could do with a boring old bin or wooden shelving. The great thing about Ikea is that most of their items are so cheap it's worth experimenting.

It's fascinating the way spots can look modern, contemporary, retro but also very traditional as well (eg. polka dots). Here are some examples of when they are used to create a very modern fresh feel. This look is so easy to achieve. Recently I wanted to jazz up a white wall. I went to Ikea and bought some of their brightly coloured mouse mats in red, blue, yellow and green. They only cost 99p each. I mounted them onto a square white piece of mdf and then attached them to the wall. They looked amazing, and were so quick and cheap to do!

Who would of thought that heating a room could look so good. Just check out these radiators! The one on the right is called a Power Plant, the Hot Hoop on the white background and the Hot Spring on the top photo, which just proves how amazing they look in a room. There used to be a time where you'd hide your old fashioned radiators behind those awful cabinets, now they can be a real work of art in a room!