If you did not know (I did not), David Butler is Amy Butler's husband and the designer behind Parson Gray fabric line (which I used in my Totally Retro Groovy Quilt) .. He also does all the lifestyle inspiration pictures for Amy Butler Designs.
The lecture really spoke to me because I really find it hard to showcase my handmade makes. It is easier in a way to show work-in-progress projects because it does not need styling. Clothes are easier to show as well because you just need to wear them... But how do you make the most of your quilts, cushions etc?
I suppose it never clicked that handmade interiors items could be treated like clothes that I can style, despite the fact that I read a lot of interior design magazines. But why not? I put as much effort in making them as I do for clothes, so why treat them differently?
So here I was on Saturday, Baby MiH asleep upstair changing my whole living room around, pulling out handmade items scattered around my house, and styling it, just for fun and see how I can style a space. There are many areas in the house that I can style differently - without foam board (David talks a lot about foam boards). My living room looked totally different in an hour, which is not too bad considering how long it takes for a quilt to be handmade.
Another thing came out of this styling, I actually want my living room to look like this all the time - and so does Mr MiH. Guess we should start saving as the whole electrics need to be changed to make it happen...
Has a lecture, post or article inspired you recently? How do you style your handmade - do you have a conscious process or you have a preferred space to take pictures? I would love to hear your thoughts.
I need to work on my styling. Yours came out great.
ReplyDeleteI love David's quilt on lecture too - and you've inspired me to think more about styling my quilts rather than photograph them in my garden. Great post Nat (and how cool is your living room!)
ReplyDeleteHi Nat..Im intriegued enough to go take a look thanks...love your shelving unit!
ReplyDeleteYour living room looks great and you have inspired me to go and watch that video. Thanks
ReplyDeleteYour living room looks great and you have inspired me to go and watch that video. Thanks
ReplyDeleteLove your shelf! I do not make many non-garments but I enjoy styling my home...That part is easy because I like it un-cluttered. However, I'm not really good with that. :P I will go watch that video.. Maybe this place will benefit from it!
ReplyDeleteWhen I style garments, I try to find a theme (or a few!) and then build from there, keeping the background plain so the focus is on the garment I style. I tend to be wary of pictures (in a knitting pattern for example) where they throw in a lot of unrelated distractions.
Your living room looks really great. I'd love to see more styling with quilts and cushions on blogs. But I do have a huge problem with light in my house. Our brighter rooms have lots of little lights set in the ceiling and the others have multiple bulbs (so lots of shadows in all directions!) or they are just too dark. I dream of those old 100 watt bulbs! I seriously find it next to impossible to take a decent photo and everywhere I search for advice says 'use natural light' I wish someone could write a post indoor photography that didn't involve lots of expensive equipment.
ReplyDeleteYour living room is soo cozy and thanks for the link to the lectures! You must have so many things you can showcase. We're moving into a new place that's a new build blank canvas so I have a million ideas and none... At least I can say good-bye to my magnolia background wall now :)
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