Time to reflect and rejuice creative energies

I know I’ve been out of the design scene over the past year… and many of my wonderful stores across Australia have begun contacting me to find out how I’m going and whats happening with Kahuna Bay’s range.

Well – basically I’ve taken some much needed time out to reflect and gather my creative energies again over the last year. I’ve also returned to my previous professional life as a communications manager. This has been a really good thing as I’ve moved back to the city and have been loving everything the city has to offer as well as being in a professional communications and strategy space again.

I think thats the thing about us as people- we are all many facets and not just “one thing” – for me that means I’m creative in many ways… Even though I’m tempted to put myself in a box of what or who I am – I am many things and choose to do much! Thats really what makes life exciting.

Stepping away from pushing myself to design and create has actually had my desired effect- I’m feeling more creative. And I’ve begun to start designing and decorating the way I did a decade ago just because I loved it… I’m starting to paint again and this is really a great creative outlet. You can still buy my artworks from SeaWeed and Sand stores in Sydney as well as a few other select galleries across Australia.

I won’t be exhibiting at the Melbourne show in August- but I might attend on the weekend to stay in the scene and catch up with some friends and colleagues. Its a wonderful place to stop and reflect… Have you done this in your life before?

Of course you can still shop online at Kahuna Bay- thanks to my wonderful mother who keeps sending out everyone’s orders! I’m going to use this blog to begin exploring my creativity and creative journey again. I think its great I’m living in a tropical city and will begin to approach beach and tropical style design and interiors from a city view point- one of which most of us busy working women are faced with.

I hope you enjoy my journey as well… if you love beach design you might enjoy our Facebook community- seach Kahuna Bay.

Susie xo

Industrial Chic

Lately I’ve been working too hard I think… and am feeling my creative edge slipping.  So I’ve started looking for inspiration.  I’m turning to the outside- to houses that inspire me, to objects, to scents, to words- and to my books and magazines.

Today I’m inspired by Notebook’s feature on “Industrial Chic…”  Its about finding beauty and character in peeling paint, recycled wood, neutral tones and a pared-back look.  These are all some of my favourite things!  Ahh how refreshing and comfy.  It made me instantly feel like creating a new room.

What I love about these images of industrial chic decorating- is there are a couple old bits- mainly the coffee table.  But really when you look closely at the pictures, the couch is designer, the cushions are fresh, white and definately wouldn’t smell like an old cupboard.

There is mainly a heap of mixed textures- woods, numbers, paint, metal, books.  It’s very quirky and very interesting.  Too me- industrial chic is one of the perfect beach styles.  Get this look and add a large chunk of coral to the coffee table and an all white sand white on white canvas art piece and you’ve arrived at your beach house.

Speaking with someone today who spent the weekend on an island… they stayed in a modern holiday home.  I asked this person if the owner decorated it like a beach house… she said “No there wasn’t a shell in site…”

Its the perception of what a beach house is that boxes people in.  Industrial chic could be the perfect beach style decor look- without the cliche fish and boats.  Although in my mind you could add a white vintage sail boat and it would fit right in.

To learn more about how to decorate a beach house- or how I think you can decorate a beach house you might like to check out my book.

Notebook even has a little sea bird in on of their industrial rooms.  They say to make sure you have heaps of texture including knocks and bumps which add character to your furnishings.  Also working with what you’ve got in your possession to begin with makes this exercise more fun as you have to be more creative!

Keep your colour scheme to neutrals- loads of whites, creams, light browns and greys, blacks and silver will work perfectly.

7 Steps to Get the Industrial Look + add a piece of coral to make it a bit beach style meets the factory

1. Use large glass jars & metal lids for storage.
2. Do revamp your furniture using Porter’s Paints.
3. Buy new white cushions.
4. Add white ceramics on top of industrial (factory or office furniture) to contrast.
5. Use big metal lamps.
6. Display old signs, letters and industrial drawings as art.
7. Hang wire hooks (think IKEA or Howard’s Storage for this) and display bits of music, favourite numbers, ripped out pages of a book and black and white images and drawings- again mood art.

 

Beach House: Made by You

When you decorate your beach house style home, creating things made by you is creative, satisfying and fun!

In fact a beach house feels more relaxed when things aren’t perfect. A must have for every beach house is your very own piece of shell art made with shells and bits you’ve found on the shore.

To learn more about how to create your own beach house check out our new beach style decorating how to guide. We sell it on line or you can get the hard copy posted to your home. The website is http://www.beachstyledecorating.com.

The best glue to use when glueing your shells onto wood is liquid nails or hot glue.

Happy Beach Decorating!

Susie
Kahuna Bay

Beach Style… it’s simple

Beach style is just that… simple.

It’s fresh, it’s cheery, it’s no strings attached.  You only own what you love and never feel obligated to keep something.  Your comfortable in your own skin.  You love your home.

That’s what beach style is to me.

To learn more about beach style, you might want to check out my how to decorate a beach house book- step by step.

 

Cushion as Inspiration

Today I loaded on heaps of new cushion designs.  This is really cool if your thinking about decorating tropical style, island style, beach style or surf style… and your looking for impacting fabrics and designs.

We now stock 12 different tropical cushions in different Hawaiian fabrics, a designer range by Escape to Paradise.

What’s great about these cushions is you can take one cushion print and come up with an entire room colour scheme and style design.

New tropical Palm Cushion from Kahuna Bay designed by Escape to Paradise

Using this cushion as a inspiration, you could go with natural colours for your bedding like white, or tan.  If you were worried about dirt, you could match the green for your bedding.  I would suggest using a solid colour without any pattern for the bedding.

Then do some Euro size cushions in a solid colour matching one of the colours in the palm cushion.  Then depending on your bed size, use several palm cushions to create an impactful and luxurious look on the bed.

Stick to these colours exactly in the cushion.  When your shopping for rugs, lamps, candles or art, take the cushion with you so you can match the tones of colour.  Why don’t you have a go at picking your own inspiration for your bedroom tropical decorating… you might be interested in our new beach house decorating book.

You can buy this cushion from Kahuna Bay online if you like for 69.95

5 Ways to Decorate with Palm Tree Decor

We all love palm trees- me included! I went through a very big “palm tree” phase a couple years ago. Sometimes palm tree decor and palm tree bedding is really hard to find.

I notice a lot of people want to decorate with a palm tree look in their bedroom. This look could be surf style, tropical style, beach style or Hawaiian style. Each style would be slightly different- but all use palm trees.

To incorporate the essence of palm tree in your decorating, do this:

1. Get inspired by palm tree colours- greens, (different variety and hues), browns, golds, rusts
2. Bring in some texture like a palm
3. Bring out the different types of palms in your decorating- like date palm, coconut palm or the location where you most likely see that palm style.
4. If you can’t find palm tree bedding you like or that is stylish, stick to a basic sold colour of your choice and add scatter cushions with layered texture.
5. Embrace art- like palm prints, original art on canvas, old vintage signs, fabrics of palm fronds on canvas, or even frame and press a palm frond!

To get more ideas about mixing styles like beach style compared to tropical style and how to get the look without making it tacky- you’ll want to check out my new book all about decorating a beach house step by step.

Basically… get creative. Don’t overtheme your room so it’s tacky. Keep the colours simple. And bring in a few elements of palm, texture and style.

To buy palm tree decor check out the Kahuna Bay online beach shop. We’ve got palm trees that are hand carved for the wall, palm tree hooks, palm tree original art and coming soon… tropical cushions!

Less is More when Beach Style Decorating

When decorating a beach house… always remember less is more!

Try and stick with one colour and one neutral as a rule of thumb.  Create interest in your beach decorating style with :

1. Textures
2. Fabrics
3. Interesting Objects
4. Art

Keep your look simple with great storage.  Making sure things are clean and organised goes a long way to your overall room style.

Objects should be grouped- for example if your collecting a type of object, then put similar things together by type or by colour.  For an effective display, use the triangle method designers use.

That means imagine the height of a triangle.  Put the tallest item at the back and work your way downwards.  Remember objects look better if you group them close together.  Unless your are grouping objects in a row, like 3 lanterns, or five candles, then you can evenly space them with a couple inches apart in a line and so on…

To learn more about how to decorate beach style check out my new book How to Decorate a Beach House Step by Step.

Design Diary 7

Sacha e-mailed me today and our design set is coming together with a fabulous new look for the 5th Kahuna Bay trade showing.

She has bought a lovely table from Freedom as well as a 2nd table to form a layered effect in the display.  We’ve also got a series of 12 movable clean looking white shelving on white walls.  This is really important as the display can be altered once we bring the two branded products together.

Sacha is painting an older ladder white to display the silk on so I can leave the commercial clothes rack on wheels (or the folding one) at home– this way we’ll keep to the clean lined modern white look with textured accents.

I’m finalising our digital wholesale pricelist… which I’m sure will have last minute changes.  Plus need to get printed more business cards, postcards and pricelists.

It seems to be all coming together!  Seems like I just needed to relax and the shell samples (new product range) from the Philippines arrived Friday.  Our Bangkok manufacture of a jewellery category has finally responded to my e-mail and 10 phone calls.  And my Bali manufacture has also e-mailed.

Maybe relaxing is the key?

Room Recipes on the Way

I’d love to see decorating migrate into the scene of something a bit more like Masterchef.  I know the days of Changing Rooms are gone- frankly that show was done.  Wouldn’t it be cool if decorating was as easy as flipping to a recipe in a book with the look you want with the ingredients, the measurements and so on?

This is what I’m beginning to create.

Slowly slowly you’ll start to see Kahuna Bay beach decorating “recipes” emerge on our site.  Can’t wait!

Until then to learn more about how to decorate a beach house step by step, check out the new book which is selling really well online and in the printed version.

Green Bedroom

What is the deal with everyone wanting a green bedroom?  Just going over my stats on the website- it seems that the “green bedroom” is searched for every day…

So I thought I might help give you some tips on how to create a green bedroom:

1. You don’t have to paint the walls green- you can stick to neutral as next season you might tire of green… so try green accents.
2. Get a “hook” something your going for– what’s your look?  Is it a palm tree green?  An inspiration of a green forest?  The green you see in the country of fresh grass for miles?  Or is it modern and clean with an “eco” feel?
3. So get your feel- get your accents- get your colour- yes you can mix greens- in fact it might be more interesting if you do mix greens.  Start with one inspiration piece for colour- like a pineapple and steal the colours 2 of the greens you see in your inspiration.  Somehow create a colour “swatch.”  Take this swatch with you when your shopping for accessories to make sure it will “work.”
4. Less is more- less stuff- think bigger items, pairs of items and artwork suitably sized and hung for the wall.
5. Work with the room not against it in layout- create a space that “makes sense” and reflects what your about right now… also what is your rooms purpose?

Hope this helps with green inspirations…

Susie