PRETTY IN PINK

Pink is not my favourite colour at all and I always think of it in terms of being really girly and not really one that you want to find in your interior, other than a little girls room. However, it is making a really large appearance on the colour front at the moment and is being seen increasingly in homewares throughout summer. Especially as it is great colour to contrast with botanical greens.

It allows for a really soft and feminine feel to a colour palette, especially contrasted with a grey neutral palette. It works well against light timber and metal finishes that allow for a really subtle sophisticated look.
Another colour that is directly related to pink but heading more into the orange zone is coral. It is softer than a bright orange but also a little bolder than a soft pink. Ideally coral works well for accents around the home where as I feel the soft pink allows for one to explore colour in a really bold yet safe way. A contradiction I know!

It also works well with a great scandinavian look for a home and I think we will be seeing a lot more of it in the coming months as summer comes to an end.

You can find these images via my Pinterest. 

Make sure to follow me here.

PALETTES: MOODY INTERIORS

With all this gloomy weather it is already making me want to curl up into a ball with a really thick blanket, anyone else feeling the same way? On Friday's guest blog post for Men Behaving Handy I gave my top tips for changing up your interiors to suit the cool front coming through. Today I wanted to share a moody palette that captures the essence and beauty of really dark interiors. I am a lover of black and dark joinery, which I feel always makes a space feel very rich, warm, intimate and high end. Take a look and see what you think? Are you a fan of dark interiors? Would you be so bold as to embrace dark tones in your home?

PALETTE: STONE LOVIN' PART 1

I love a bit of marble for a feature material, its natural and beautiful utilised in the right can make for an edgy as well as classic look. Today I am sharing some fierce marble inspiration as I am going to begin shortly on a kitchen renovation... exciting and something I have been waiting to do for ages.
This is one material I am slightly obsessed with at the moment and cannot wait to get the right brief to use some.

Images sourced via My Pinterest. Connect with me and

follow me right HERE. 

COLOUR PALETTE: BED HEADS

Having a beautiful frame for the top of the bed allows for you to really create a statement in a bedroom. I am a big believer in having a bed head for your bed, which means that I do not particularly  like the idea of buying beds that come with pre made headboards or all in ones. Don't get me wrong though, sometimes you can come across some really great all in ones but generally I think that if you have the chance to create your own bed head of get one made, why wouldn't you? It really allows you to play with pattern in a room and create your own individual look that frames the centre piece of a bed room, where you sleep.

I have been furniture sourcing lately and designing some features for bedrooms, so when I came across this DIY bed head post... I just had to share it with you. Where does the colour palette come into play? Well, with the emerald and earthy tones of course. I thought why not combine the two together, as I normally would not gravitate towards this colour for a bed head, but it works so well in creating a very fresh, calming but vibrant look.

I found all the information regarding this awesome DIY bed head via this great blog Fabric, Paper, Glue and Adore Home Blog. You can find both by clicking directly on their names <----------------

All the DIY information can be found here and the colour inspiration from my Pinterest, so make sure to click and follow me.

Are you renovating and have a DIY project you are proud of and want to share?! Make sure you do by commenting below. If you require any assistance with furniture and colour choices, make sure to contact me through my website or email me at info@jdzdesigns.com.au .... we would love to hear from you! 

BTS: WHAT A HINT OF ORANGE, AQUA AND WHITE CAN DO

As I have been mentioning over the past couple of weeks, I had been helping some lovely friends prepare for their engagement party! It was lots of fun and was so excited to help them make it into the special night that they wanted it to be. It had a summer nights theme and to our surprise the weather held up and really made the theme come to life, as well as all the beautiful decorations my lovely friend put together herself and all my little designed elements that assisted to bring the theme together. It was such a success and the way they set it out, zoned the space and organised everything turned out fabulously! It looked great and it was lots of fun! To top it off, they even made their own DIY BAR!!! It is absolutely awesome, such a great job and it was a hit. Well done on getting it all together, so happy I could help you make your vision come to life, it looked amazing and worked really well.

The colour palette was an elegant mix of soft colours to really bring the vibe of Summer into the back garden as well as make it feel classy and fun at the same time. By using such a colour combo we brought a little of the Greek Islands vs Ivy Pool into the backyard! Orange, Aqua and White seem like an odd combination but mixed together softly and in the right way really made for a winning palette. Little touches and details of soft pinks in the flowers and white also added that extra softness and layered the cocktail tables. Lots of little jam jars, milk jars with string and tags as well as a fresh looking cocktail menu tied everything together nicely.

It also is a great example of how you can really utilise your outdoor space and bring it to life for any particular event you may have over the festive season.

Hope you enjoy your sneak peak and a look into the DIY behind the bar as well as the party!

JDZ x

MY NEW FAVOURITE COLOUR COMBINATION

Blue and Orange are my absolute favourite colour combination for this summer! They are so complementing but contrasting at the same time and for some reason they just really really work. You will be seeing a lot more of this combo popping up around in accessories and furniture right throughout the summer 13' and 14' season. It is a great combo that can really bring a room to life and will go with almost any existing neutral base. It really reminds me of a European summer with lots of bright colours and evokes that feeling of lying on the beach and drinking a cocktail ... which is what this summer is all about.

Here is some seriously good inspiration from my Pinterest page! What do you think? Do you think you could love this combination as much as I do?

Happy Monday,
JDZ

EMERALD CITY

I have been a little missing in action I know, it has been a bit of a crazy couple of days at JDZ HQ, but nothing we cannot handle and no rest for the weak! You all know how I love to spin my own opinion on trends and fads that are coming in and out of the design world, interiors or not, but this one topic I have actually steered clear of on purpose. Why? Because it has been a super hot topic for majority of this year, so why be the 30,000th person to talk about it when it is a hot topic then be the 1 person who talks about when it needs a little attention again. Pantone every year announce and predict what the hot colour is for the year. It was predicted that the hot colour for the year 2013 was EMERALD! It is funny when you do not often think about a topic, object or colour in a particular way until someone makes it very popular. I have not ever really used emerald or green as a colour for any projects and not because I did not think of it but because I have not had the right brief and I usually associate it with outdoor environments rather than interiors.

Well, with this pantone prediction, also came the introduction of the colour into fashion, wallpaper and homewares, which you may have seen around here and there. I did not know this but in some European countries Emerald or Green is to be considered the colour of luck and good fortune. To me it is also a power colour, not green per say but a rich Emerald definitely exudes power. It is also bright, warming and cool, I think all at the same time. How hard is it to get a colour that can be all three? So hard! And I think that hues of it used in different objects gives it the ability to be all those three things at once. I also love it for a good pop of colour for an outfit, accessory or dress and you will see it appearing a lot more this spring and summer through wallpapers and accessories as the theme and trend begins to lean more toward tropics and citrus.

Here are some images from my Pinterest to inspire a little Emerald into your world. Would you be as brave to use it in an interior? Do you like Emerald? Do you not? I'd love to hear from you and what you think.

I promise to post again today to make up for missing yesterday.

JDZ x

GREY IS THE NEW BEIGE PT 2

I mentioned the week before last about my love for the colour grey and how I have called it the new 'beige.' Grey has become such a great way to modernise a space especially if you want to tone down stark whites or a monochrome scheme. Grey to me creates options in interiors that are limitless, it can help create a really moody room and atmosphere without being over powering and it can really make a room warm and inviting. It to me just has more of a wow factor than often a beige wall, a brown couch or  latte coloured wall may have. In saying this, I do not mean the beige should be discounted as a colour and does not create beautiful interiors. Beige still has it's own worth and place in interiors and combined/contrasted with a grey can really give say a really classical space that contemporary edge. It can also really come down to what you want to achieve in your given space.

Grey is such a great base colour and can really assist in making majority of colour palettes really pop or compliment them very softly. With most colours you have a cooler version and a warmer version, which gives you the ability to contrast it with another bold colour. For example, the warmer tones could work really well with your plum colours or deep reds and your cooler tones could work really well with a cooler blue, lighter beiges and bright oranges. The colour has become such a staple when it comes to base options now. You cannot go to a furniture store now without finding some lovely light or dark grey combination in a lounge, chase, ottoman, arm chair or accessories. It is everywhere and in my opinion the trend has grown from the popularity of the industrial and monochrome theme. Industrial concept spaces contrasted with raw materials, metals and concrete, it is so very popular at the moment especially as we begin to see finishes such as polished concrete utilised for flooring and kitchen bench tops. This style used to be a lot more popular I feel for your commercial spaces, bars and coffee shops. It also developed I believe through the old vs new trend, where designers utilise the old facades of buildings or interiors to assist them in developing a new contemporary interior that complemented the old. So now we are seeing this look extended into residential design, lighting, furniture and accessories.

Grey concrete lights are the new in thing as well as the colour itself. I predict that it is a base and staple colour that will stay for a long time as it is such a great modern neutral to work with.

So when you are looking to revamp your space or paint a new feature wall but do not want to be so bold, how about thinking about grey? Your instinct will probably go to beige, but I really think you should all give grey a chance, especially if it works with your existing colour combo and furniture.

Enjoy scrolling through some images sourced via my pinterest. 

Beacon lighting concrete pendants.

Check out these concrete pendants that look great back onto a darker grey backdrop and modern timber table setting. Another great example of the colour grey and how grey matter materials are being

introduced into other furniture elements such as lighting. Who would have ever thought concrete and lights would be a great combination? Find these by clicking here! 

Happy Monday,

JDZ x