Roman Blind

While I'm waiting for deliveries of bathroom fittings, I've been busy catching up with my studio work, which has been somewhat neglected while I've been a bit obsessed with this little phase of my renovation. I did make this roman blind for the window........I want to make a number of these for the house, because I really like the look of them, but I'd never made one, so I wasn't sure how to go about it. I found a couple of really clear and well-explained tutorials online and I jumped right in. My thought was that this small bathroom window could be a practice run for the larger blinds I need to make and if it failed miserably, then it would be no great loss.

It took me a while to find a fabric I liked - this grey and white print was the closest thing I found, but it needed red in it, so I hand-painted in parts of the background first. I think the important thing about making a good roman blind is to measure and cut really accurately - take time to do that part properly! Then the rest is quite straightforward. Here's how it looks in the window:

 

I've also used the print fabric (without the red painted background) to back the shelves I put together previously. The leaf print is a perfect foil for the otherwise very geometric look of the room - it adds a softer touch.

While I've been working on this room, I've been thinking increasingly about "design style", having come across various "styles" when I look things up............it's not something I've consciously thought about much before - "style", to me, is something that just happens as you live your life, not a "look" imposed on a living space as an artificial, separate thing. But apparently, there's Scandi style, retro style, industrial style, modernist style, brutalist style.........blah, blah, blah.

If pushed to describe my design style with a label, I would probably call it something like "Designer Frugal".  Having been to Art School in the dim, dark past and having worked as a practising artist my whole working life, I know a thing or two about using colour, shape, line and so forth, so that's where the "designer" part of the label comes in. And the "frugal" - fairly obvious..........I don't have much money to splash around! Here are the basic tenets of

 "Designer Frugal Style":

* Don't replace things just for the sake of it - often a bit of hard work can breathe new life into them. This was the case with my kitchen cabinets. Instead of pulling them all out and replacing them, I repaired, replaced catches, handles and hinges and repainted. Half the time what you are going to replace them with might not be as good as the original (who makes dove-tailed hard-wood drawers any more? That's what I saved.)

* Don't be a slave to trends just for the sake of it - be brave and do what you really like. Today's trend is tomorrow's dated look, but if you go for more timeless looks and avoid this year's

 hot new colour trends, well, they don't date.

  * Be open to serendipity.......sometimes something will pop up that you hadn't thought of, so don't be afraid to change your ideas and go with the flow if that happens. That's what I did when I discovered the hidden tile splashback in my kitchen.....I worked how to use them in a new way.

* Learn new skills - you will surprise yourself at how much you can achieve yourself (excluding electrical and plumbing work, or major structural stuff, of course!) YouTube is your friend.

* If you do anything really quirky or idiosyncratic, make sure it is easily reversible.                     

Designer Frugal: Plenty of dash......not much cash.