Well, I got it!  Had no idea what to expect, which was a good thing because it was a total surprise.  Gorgeous Asian women up to their eyes in furs, wearing the latest Chanel, Armani, Versace… yes, the posh shops are all there.  No sign of Borat though! 

I was in Kazakhstan to speak at a design conference about Art Deco in Contemporary Interiors.  I managed to put in some of my photos of Miami’s Art Deco hotels in all their ice cream colours — they seemed impressed!  On the second day I walked around the snowy city taking pictures and visiting the Museum of Kazakhstan which had obviously been built during the Soviet era of the 60s as nothing much about or inside the building appears to have changed.  A fascinating day in a fascinating place.  Here are some photos:

I was amazed to see how much of the West had infiltrated the country.

Headed down to the Art Deco district on South Beach for Thanksgiving.  I love the gorgeous colours and curves of the buildings lined up along the beach – my client Lucille and I joined the “see and be seen” crowd sipping drinks (strawberry mojitos) at Starck-designed Delano, sipping out drinks slowly as they were bloody expensive.  We headed off for some pizza and salad at an outside cafe for our Thanksgiving lunch and enjoyed a spot of people-watching.

Here are some photos!

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I specify her work whenever I can, and am saving up for my own Kelly Washbourne!  Here are a couple of her paintings in a penthouse I designed in London.

I’m very excited to be representing a selection of Kelly’s work exclusively on the Guest Artist Gallery on my website www.adriennechinn.co.uk for the next four months.  Prices are on the website.  Do have a look and get in touch if you want own your own Kelly Washbourne  painting too!

One more taster!

And the artist herself:

Good grief!  I can’t believe it’s been over two months since I’ve posted a blog.  It’s been a hectic summer, mostly wrapped up with pulling together the Urban London stand for the 100% Design fair in London at the end of September.  The stand looked fab thanks to wallpaper & fabric designer Annette Taylor-Anderson‘s (www.atadesigns.com) amazing wallpapering skills, operations manager Melvyn Fickling‘s (www.adriennechinn.co.uk) acerbic wit, glass designer Sue King‘s (www.suekingglass.co.uk) cheerfulness and interior designer Celia James‘s (www.celiajamesinteriors.co.uk) teacherly abilities with our student visitors.  Here’s that stand looking pristine just before the show opened:

Annette and I were delighted to have just won the Best Wallpaper Award for our Mind the Gap and Made in Britain wallpapers at the International Design & Architecture Awards, and I was very pleased to be listed as a Finalist in the New Product category for my Grille rug in the Blueprint Magazine Awards at 100% Design.

Our stand was listed in the recommended Design Trail at 100% Design by journalist Barbara Chandler of the London Evening Standard newspaper and Blueprint Magazine, so this guaranteed a constant stream of visitors to the stand.

Here’s Annette and me having a well-earned sit down on the stand:

And me and Sue King:

And a very special visitor, my nephew Henry, who approved of the chair and loved the scaffolding tower:

We couldn’t have pulled the stand together without the help of some great collaborators, including Mohammed Rahman of www.lumenahome.co.uk who made the prototype chairs and stool for us based on a design by high school student Omar Cham in a project I participated in with the after-school furniture club at St. Paul’s Way Trust School in London’s East End.

The full range of Urban London rugs, tiebacks, wallpapers and fabrics was on show, with the wallpaper murals proving a big hit with everyone.  Sue King delivered her gorgeous Urban London glass, which I’d specially commissioned to compliment the range — it’s all for sale by contacting me at adrienne@adriennechinn.co.uk .

Other new arrivals in the Urban London collection are lampshades

cushions…..

clever storage stools on wheels designed by student Abdul Tahir at St. Paul’s Way Trust School….

and a fabulous Urban London neon coffee table by neon artist Darren West.

The highlight of the show for me was the visit by the St. Paul’s Way Trust furniture club to the show.  All the boys worked really hard on some fantastic designs based on my brief to design a chair or stool which could use my Urban London fabric.  Along with Omar Cham and Abdul Tahir who I’ve already mentioned were Tonny Duong who had designed a clever folding chair:

and Maruf Ahmed who had designed a table that turns into a chair:

They were accompanied by the multi-talented photographer and teacher Magda Plewa-Ould who was the one who’d invited me to get involved with this wonderful project.  I also have to mention “the invisible man”, furniture maker Rick Levene, the co-leader of the furniture club, without whose help the prototypes would never have seen the light of day.

A percentage of the proceeds from the sale of the Abdul’s storage stools and Omar chairs and stools will go back to St. Paul’s Way Trust School to fund further development of their after school furniture club.

We’re in the process of  downloading all the new products to the Shopping Section of www.adriennechinn.co.uk, but in the meantime if you’d like more information about any of the products you’ve seen here, including prices and lead-times (and don’t forget we can do custom sizes!), please contact me on adrienne@adriennechinn.co.uk .

Tom Thompson “Autumn Birches”

Tom Thompson “Jack Pine“

Tom Thompson “West Wind”

Tom Thompson “Red Maple“

Lawren Harris “Algoma”

Lawren Harris “Emarald Lake”

Lawren Harris “Red Maples”

Franklin Carmichael “Mirror Lake”

J.E.H. MacDonald “Mist Fantasy”

A.Y. Jackson “Nellie Lake”

A.J. Casson “White Pine”

Emily Carr “Blue Sky”

Emily Carr “Tree in Autumn”

Emily Carr “Indian Hut”

Emily Carr “Indian Church”

Emily Carr “Scorned as Timber, Beloved of the Sky”

Whatever you do, celebrate your unique point of view.

Contemporary Interior Design

Here’s a taster of her pieces for sale on our Gallery page

Moscow is quite possibly at its most beautiful in May.  Have a look.

The world is being overtaken by technology: Ipods, Ipads, Kindles, Macs, Notebooks, Laptops, Blackberries, downloads…. perhaps this is a good thing.  Perhaps it’s a sign of the inevitability of progress.  But I don’t think I’m the only one to regret the loss of the wild creativity of LP cover art, the pleasure of settling into a comfortable chair with a favourite book with its evocative cover and crisp pages, or thumbing through the colourful pages of a magazine during the commuter rush hour.  The thing all the items of inevitable progress lack is the pleasure of the tactile, of colour and design.  And so, in a time where the new exists in a virtual realm, and equipment giving us access to this virtual world is of the stream-lined and soulless variety, we turn even more to our homes to fill what I believe is an innate need for decoration, comfort and self-expression.

I don’t think it’s any accident that we have entered an era of “nesting”.  We’re all working longer hours, travelling long distances for work and pleasure, and spending an increasing amount of time linked up to the virtual world via emails and social networking (and may I just ask why it is so necessary to be constantly contactable?).  But we are human beings, and we can’t ignore the “being”.  We like to touch, smell, see and feel.  We are sensual creatures, and we take pleasure in things which make us feel good.

And there is an immense pleasure to be had in a comfortable sofa, with room to stretch out your legs; in beautiful artwork, chosen because you love it, and which gives you delight whenever you look at it; in the vintage lamps which your partner found at the market in France during your holiday; at the Moroccan rug you lugged back from the weekend break to Tangier.  These are all representations of the real you.  No one puts these items of delight together quite like you.  Your home is the canvas of your self expression, and like an artist you should be bold in your decoration.  At home you are not judged; at home you are the king and queen of your castle.  Why settle for the blandness of beige and the worry of “what is correct”?  Trust your instincts.  Bring together orange and turquoise; blue and green.  Do it a little at a time to start, if you’re worried.  Ask an interior designer for some guidance if you’re not sure — the best interior designers will help you bring your inherent design preferences to life.  They will help you create the rooms that are all about you, not all about them.

The pleasure of coming home to a place where you feel happy, where clutter is put away, where favourite treasures are displayed for your delight, where furniture is comfortable and well-placed, where you can put your feet up — this is what we all crave.  When you are happy in your home, this is a big step to being happy in life.

Here’s a taster of some of the lovely pieces!

Contemporary Interior Design