At home with artist Jasmine Mansbridge

Jasmine Mansbridge’s home is exactly how I’d imagine an artist’s home to be: colourful, eclectic and a little bit whimsical. And of course, there’s plenty going on on the walls.

Jasmine Mansbridge main bedroom

Jasmine and her family have lived in this 1930s weatherboard in Hamilton, a three-hour drive from Melbourne, for four months. “We rented for almost two years and were wondering if we would ever find a home which suited us when we found this baby,” she says. “It was lovingly extended from the original two bedrooms by the previous owners and they used reclaimed floorboards, dado rail, doors and other pieces to keep the house true to its original form. This sympathetic renovation is one of the things we love about it. It now has five separate rooms (one being my studio) and the layout works perfectly for our family.” With 4 children, it’s a busy home!

Lorna Napurula fencer painting & older works by Jasmine Mansbridge

“I have spent so much of my life moving around, so much so that everything that has stayed with me on the journey so far has had to have had a certain significance,” says Jasmine. “All the items around my home have stories and this is important to me. I am sentimental about the past and the importance of things to evoke the memories of places important to me, but gone in the physical sense. I do think if you are an artist there is a presumption that you will have good taste, but taste and creativity surely are two very different things.” [Read more...]

Samantha Wills launches stationery and homewares ranges as beautiful as her jewellery

Seasonal Concepts in Redfern was the picture perfect venue for the launch of Samantha Wills’ new homewares and stationery ranges yesterday. The glamorous former model, who now lives in New York, revealed hand carved wooden place mats, display domes and glass museum boxes as well as pretty stationery with illustrations by Kelly Smith of Birdy & Me.

Samantha Wills at the launch of her new ranges yesterday

Glass domes on top of the round version of the placemats

Jewellery designer Samantha, who started with costume jewellery before moving onto bridal and fine jewellery, launched a jewellery chest earlier this year, which started something! She said the extension of the brand into stationery and homewares was very organic and came largely as a result of customer feedback, which she is known for embracing via social media. She has long been obsessed with stationery (bring back handwritten letters in the mail, yeah!) and collaborated with Kelly Smith to create the three card designs with feminine, yet empowered, imagery.

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When a candle’s this good, a girl’s gotta blog it

This is one of those candles. I am lucky enough to get sent a LOT of candles and this was another of those gifts. Nest Fragrances is a New York candle brand. When I Instagramed it (is that a verb now?), an American friend was like “Oh my GOD, I didn’t know you could get that brand here, where can I get one?” in such an excited way I thought I must be in for something good. I was right.

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Samantha Wills to branch into homewares plus win your own beautiful mirrored jewellery chest

Creating beautiful things is second nature to jewellery designer Samantha Wills, who lives between Sydney and New York. And it’s no surprise she loves her own homes to be gorgeous too. I was so excited when she told me recently that a move into homewares is on the agenda, following the success of her divine mirrored jewellery chest.

(Above: Samantha’s first foray into homewares has been this beautiful jewellery chest)

(Above: My very own chest, which I was lucky enough to be gifted)

SW loves nothing more than creating little vignettes in her homes, which are full of fresh flowers and candles. “I think my style is a fusion of bohemian meets luxury, so my interior reflects this. Mixing French mirrors with carved Balinese wood, flowers and faux furs with skull prints and sculptures!”

Living between two amazing cities, it was hard at first for her to feel at home in either of them. “For about two years, I could truly say I did not know where home was. This sounds stupid but I was travelling so much, I didn’t really have an anchor to a place. It is not good for the soul when you feel most at home in an airport lounge! So I made a conscious effort to  invest time, money and energy into both my NYC and Sydney homes to ensure they did not feel like a hotel room, but very homely.

“I have mementoes in both homes. I know I won’t have two apartments forever, but I don’t think about this when I’m decorating otherwise I wouldn’t be true to my style. I’d also be thinking, ‘I love this (say a piece of furniture) but if I have to ship it around the world in a few years, that’s going to be difficult’. The way in which I build my home now is very much in the moment and I think there is importance in living that way, rather than assuming what you think might happen in the future.” (Having moved to Australia from the UK myself, this really resonates with me. I remember the time I decided to sell everything I had in storage in London and start spending money on Sydney furniture, it was a big deal psychologically.)

And now for a bit of an exclusive! Samantha revealed to me she is going to be making a move into homewares. “Absolutely! Jewellery just happened to be the medium I worked with when I launched the brand, but my love of all things creative is the passion behind it. SW STYLE  (her new online magazine) is a very good example of other creative projects I enjoy doing and an extension of our signature style. I’m currently working with my team on both a homewares offering and a small leather collection that will look to be released early next year. The homewares category is one I am very excited about. I think our homes are such a canvas to portray our personal style.”

The ridiculously gorgeous jewellery chest was 18 months in development. And before you say $399 is too expensive, you want to try carrying this thing. It is heavy and huge (there’s a story about me trying to get it into a cab with one arm while opening the door with another, but you don’t need to know about it) and mirrored, lined and BEAUTIFUL. It’s almost a piece of furniture in its own right. You can even fit your wooden SW boxes inside it.

“As all our pieces come in hand carved wooden boxes, the response to this was, and continues to be, overwhelming. I was receiving loads of photographs of how SW fans would display their boxes. Some had so many they were playing life size Jenga with them, some burning candles in them, it was just really inspiring to see the packaging playing such a large role in people’s homes,” says Samantha. “I personally like the concept of a woman’s dressing table looking like a display from an exquisite boutique. I also love a vintage/smoked mirror so thought that an oversized chest would be a great extension for SW lovers to not only house their growing collections, but also as a beautiful addition to their homes.”

Samantha wanted the chest to be both functional and a beautiful piece on its own. “I’m currently working on some new designs with the original mirrored one in mind and designed to be displayed all together. I am looking at incorporating new materials that really personify our signature bohemian luxe style, mixing wood with mirror, turquoise embellishments with gold metal overlays and mother of pearl inlays. I cannot wait until they are finished to show you!”

WOW. How gorgeous do they sound?!

Would you like one for yourself? Seriously! It’s currently sold out but Samantha is giving one away to a very lucky Interiors Addict reader in a Pinterest competition I’ll be announcing tomorrow. Perhaps even more exciting, Samantha has promised Interiors Addict the first glimpse inside her New York apartment soon!

Check out Samantha’s jewellery collection at her website.

Sydney architects bring the best of New York homewares home

It seems no sooner than I “discovered” Dunlin while searching for metallics for a magazine article, I started seeing them EVERYWHERE. A fabulous homewares secret does not stay secret for long in this industry! But I wanted to know more, and was delighted to find a lovely story behind Australia’s latest online offering.

Alexandra Bond and Nicholas Barber studied architecture at the University of Sydney and always dreamed of moving to New York, so they did. “It is such a wonderful city to live in as a designer,” says Nicholas. “It’s an old cliche but so true that you learn so much just walking around New York streets. We lived in New York for six years, during which time we started our own firm and designed a number of projects in New York City, Latin America and Australia. It was while we were working as architects in New York that the genesis for Dunlin emerged. We were working with wonderful firms, suppliers and craftspeople whose work we thought would really suit Australian style.”

So, less than a year ago, they started selling the best of New York to Australia, through their online store. “Dunlin really is informed by our design work and our design work is very much informed by Dunlin, they complement each really well. It’s amazing how quickly it has grown and we have loved every minute of it.”

US brands Matteo, West Third, Original BTC and Davey Lighting are all exclusive to Dunlin in Australia and the pair have loved seeing local architects and interior designers get excited by the range. “What has become a real joy has been seeing projects open where interior designers and architects have specified Dunlin pieces,” says Nicholas.

“When we were designing Australian projects we would always struggle to find great products locally. You could often find terrible quality items, or really expensive European pieces. We always felt that quality and value did not have to be mutually exclusive, and that there was a real opportunity for a collection that was of great quality, but accessibly priced,” says Nicholas.

A whole range of elements come together to form the Dunlin ‘look’. “Working and living in New York has certainly influenced us, especially building houses in Long Island and Manhattan. We are also very much driven by the quality of our products, we are always looking for pieces that have a real integrity, be it how they are made or from what they are made from. Finally, we look always for products where the process of high quality hand fabrication is still evident in the product. Matteo, for example, is stitched, cut and dyed for Dunlin in Los Angeles, so no two pieces will ever be the same.”

Rather than  trying to recreate their Tribeca home on moving back to Sydney, the couple have gone for the complete opposite, settling near the beach in Avalon on the Northern Beaches. They’re also renovating a terrace in Surry Hills which “needs a lot of love”. They continue to work as interior architects as well. They recently finished the Jekyll & Hyde restaurant in Sydney’s Darlinghurst and a new Lisa Ho store in Brisbane that opened last week.

“Being overseas actually made both Alix and I realise just how incredible Australian residential architecture is, it is practised here at such a high level. The interiors world is maturing as well,” says Nicholas, who thinks Australian interior designers are perhaps underrated. “There are some amazing talented designers and stylists here, they desire more opportunities than they are afforded. The local homewares world has also really changed for the better. Everyone seems far more focused on quality, integrity and the story of the pieces in their homes. I think this has been informed by what we have seen in fashion with heritage brands over the last few years, it’s a great and welcome change!”

A huge fan of New York myself (it’s about time I visited again), I am in love with everything for sale on Dunlin, and the $9.90 flat rate shipping rates a mention too.

I have Bold & Noble’s London print and now they’ve brought out a New York one! Love

I have Bold & Noble’s London print and now they’ve brought out a New York one! Love

Like I need a reason to post a photo of Carrie Bradshaw’s bedroom?! I was being a little nosta

Like I need a reason to post a photo of Carrie Bradshaw’s bedroom?! I was being a little nosta