Shabby Scandi

When I decided to get a Stokke high chair for the baby, I didn't think I would end up with one as fabulous as this wonderfully worn-looking blue-washed one, from a line of colours sold about six or seven years ago, now discontinued.  John chose the lime green baby rail for it and together they go fantastically in our connecting sitting and dining rooms with our lime green couch and grey blue armchairs.

A few days ago I featured this picture below of a brightly painted flight of stairs spotted in World of Interiors:

Well, look - more!

These stairs are in the terribly chic and welcoming home of Jim and Chloe Read, owners of Newgate clocks (The Times Magazine, 04/07/2009).  You didn't know this, but I am descended from a long line of horologists (on his more fraught days, my husband threatens to abandon Oxford and apprenctice himself to my uncle), so it is no surprise to me that a the house of couple that spends its time designing, making and selling clocks should beckon to me like the Reads' house does.

In case you had been wondering, shabby scandi is where it's at these days.  Shabby chic is gone, straight scandi might have peaked, but the worn, stripped look of wood washed rather than painted, the pairing of bold textiles with Victorian furniture...  I'm looking out for some suitable fabric to make cushions for my lime green Victorian chesterfield sofa at the moment - they have to be blue, ideally with a touch of green.  Maybe this Agapanthus cushions from Northlight are what I mean?

Comments

[MOUSUMI]

something interesting that I did with stairs in my house was to paint black horizontal stripes on each step going up, so it forms a striped pattern when you look up the stairs - however to trick the eye, I moved the stripes a few inches on each stair, so you could see all the stripes. It adds quite an interest. Going down, I wrote letters on each step, so you are reading a story walking down.

[lapagefrancaise]

That Stokke high chair is my new obsession! Can't wait till bubs can sit up so I can get one for him. Love those colorful steps too.