The trim phone - cool retro design from 1970s

Isn't this phone cool? Our sister site WhereDidYouBuyThat.com just received stock and they look fab!

A little bit of history about the Trim Phone - a 1970s Design Classic

Launched by the GPO in 1065 as a fashionable alternative to its regular models, it was in the 1970s that the Trimphome became commonplace. TRIM stands for Tone Ringer Illuminated Model: it was the first phone to ring using a modern electronic warbler rather than the traditional bell mechanism and on the earlier models the dial glowed in the dark. By 1980 there were 1.6 million in use throughout the UK. This replica version has all the style and features of the 1970s original but with modern push button.
Available in 6 colours: green, pink, purple, white, red and turquoise!

Happiness over the weekend was...

A new pink bike that makes me feel free
A cycle through Richmond Park which reminds me how much I love London
Simple, tasty meals made out of tomatoes, salads and beans we've grown on our roof terrace
An exhilarating bike ride from Hammersmith bridge to Chiswick along the river, discovering so many gorgeous houses and gardens
A wonderful, relaxing weekend with the love of my life
Two weeks on holidays (soon!) in our house in France
4 days to go until I see again my little Mila in France

What's a happy weekend for you?

Mibo's gorgeous DIY Paper Owls

Mibo, a UK company I mentioned last year here, has just launched a downloadable set of 4 Paper Owls - all wearing fabulous patterned outfits!
Aren't they super cute? This is a lovely and perfect summer holiday project for the kids.
Each adorable little owl takes about 5-10 minutes to make and will bring a cheerful little of Mibo chic-ness to any little nook/shelf in your home.
For a limited time these little fellas will be going "cheap" at the very reasonable price of £1.00 (approx $1.70) for the whole set of 4.
Have fun!

Sunday am in Bricklane, lunch at Story Deli

On Sunday, Steve & I went to Bricklane with our friends to check out some bikes. I really love East London (Columbia Flower market, Bricklane, Shoreditch, Spitafields). It has a rough, industrial and independent strike to it. It feels alive and creative. There is a lot of great graffiti everywhere, old buidlings with broken windows, old signs and it's a great area to take photos.

Steve used to live on Commercial street years ago so each weekend I just had to cross the road to be in the heart of Spitafields market. Unfortunately property investors took over and the old market was destroyed to be replaced by brand new stores. There is still quite a few stalls allowing small businesses or young designers to sell their stuff (apparently Topshop buyers go there to spot new talents) but the old market had a lot more personality. I don't know what it is with property developers that they have to turn everything into modern spaces with rents so high that only high-street chains can actually afford the retail spaces and then you end up with the same shops everywhere instead of interesting, independent boutiques!
Frankly if I wanted to go to a clinically, cleaned shopping mall, I would go to Westfields. Before its refurbishment, Spitafields had a very distinctive atmosphere about it and now it's...well another re-developed area.

Anyway, we went down Bricklane so I could check out some of my favourite shops in the area: Labour & Wait had some beautiful, handmade wooden chopping boards which were very tempting. Mar Mar Co had also some nice pendant lights from French designers Tse Tse and Shelf (a shop I mentioned in Decor8 when I guest-blogged last week) had some lovely prints and I still think their plaster letters rock.

And lunch at Story Deli.....the love of my life in London...

I hadn't been there for ages and the place has aged but I still love it. If you want to go there and try to take photos of this gorgeous, one of a kind, little organic pizza place, my advice is be there when they open. After 12 (on Sundays), the place fills up quickly and it makes it tricky to shoot anything without having someone's reflection in one of the numerous, distressed mirrors that fill the place. Story Deli place was done by Anne Shore, a fashion stylist who works for Vogue Italia and who has a gorgeous shop called Story on 4, Wilker Street, London E1.

So what is so attractive about Story Deli? Well, besides the delicious, organic pizzas served on wooden boards and the vintage silver cuttlery at your disposal in glass jars, it is the whole atmosphere of the space which makes you feel somewhere where time has stopped. I love the whole family tribe thing so I'm a big fan of their massive communal tables (which is also what I like about Monmouth Cafe in Borough market) and because everything has aged beautifully, you almost feel like it is your space, your home, somewhere you go back to regularly.

And it's all the little details that count and make a massive difference...the white candles burning on each table, the menu printed on brown, recycled paper, the take-away in eco-friendly boxes, the menu written on blackboards hung on the wall, the cakes beautiful displayed under glass domes, the bottles of olive oil with chili or aromatic herbs.

The only two things that I found a bit disappointing this time is the ugly, catering stainless-steel pots they now put on the tables so one can help oneself to napkins and cutlery and the floorboards....They used to be painted in white with wear and tear marks that made them gorgeous but now all the paint is gone and it's makes this wonderful space darker and tired instead of uplifting and magical as it was before but if this is your first time there, I'm sure you will still be amazed by the place and the pizzas are really nice!

(c) First photo of Story Deli is by Ed Scoble. All the others are mine

House in Morocco

My brother recently came back from two weeks in Morocco and I was really looking forward to seeing his photos but.....well they were all the same....sandy, earthy landscapes, lots of rocks, photos of building in orange and sand hues.....I was a bit puzzled and disappointed :-)
To be fair to him, he had a very basic digital camera and also when we both look at all the photos to search for colours, we actually found some gorgeous blue boats or old road signs and children playing in the street...and all would have make beautiful shots as close-ups so there is colours in Morocco, one just need to know how to photography it.
This is the house of interior stylist Francoise Smilenko, who worked for years with Didier Gomez and now works with the Sonia Rykiel team for Rykiel's home range. She arrived in Essaouira on a Monday and on Wednesday she had bought this lovely ryad from XIX century in Essaouira. With a small budget, Francoise managed to renovate and keep the charm of this ryad mixing colours and objets from the 50s to escape the traditional .

I love the view on the patio... Francoise covered the concrete floor with vintage rugs she found at the Essaouira's flea market and added 5 chairs she brought back from Paris and a Bertoia chair she found on the street.
Below is my favourite photo of the house and the one that tells me 'hello! I'm on holidays'. I bet it must be boiling hot there but I love the softness of the whites and blues

On the ground floor, next to the patio, Francois painted the walls in a mint colour. She covered the sofa with a hard-wearing black piece of fabric and the cushions just have pillow cases on and she added a few 50s accessories like the floor lamp on the right.

The walls of the main bedroom have been painted in blue up to 3/4 of the high to keep the room bright and airy and emphasizes the features of the room like the wooden beams and shutters. I'm loving the floor lamp here (Ikea has a similar pendant light so may be worth looking at converting it into a floor lamp).

Photos: Marie-Claire Maison

'My favorite things' live on Decor8

That's it, we are live on Decor8 as part of the series: 'My favourite Things'. Holly kindly said it was to fill in her shoes while she was moving to Germany but I'm pretty sure she must have been super busy reading, editing, posting all of them while relocating to Europe at the same time! I've read most of them and each of them was different and inspiring...It feels a bit odd to read my bits again, I was obviously on a very deep, personal wave but there you go (the photos on Decor8 are a lot larger...I still cant work out how to do this)....

A few of my favorite things with Karine Kong, Bodie and Fou, England.

Bonjour… I’m Karine, co-founder of chic online boutique BODIE and FOU and writer of the Bodie and Fou Blog. I’m visiting as part of decor8’s August guests series “A few of my favorite things” while Holly is moving to Europe. When I started working on this I never expected the result to be so personal, but I guess if you really spend some time thinking about the things that you love the most at home, then it is bound to become very personal. So this is it — I hope you enjoy it!

Some of my favorite things at home…

1. I like this photo a lot because it’s representative of all the things I love – my family, B&W photography and family portraits, colourful toys, crosses, vintage objects and inspiring books about interiors and design. So here is a little tour clockwise from the top left. The large B&W photo is a portrait of French singer/actress/fashion icon & Johnny Depp’s wife Vanessa Paradis, which I got when I was working at Universal Music International; a B&W photo of my sister Elodie, which I took when she was 15 years old. I bought myself the orange robot in Lille (north of France) because its shape and colour cheered me up and I thought it would be perfect to sit on my desk and send me good vibes each day. Next is a photo of my daughter Mila taken at the beach near our holiday home in France when she was two; beside this, are 3 orange notebooks which I initially bought for her, but which never fulfilled their original purpose because they just look perfect where they are! There are also four books from Paumes, the Japanese Publishing house which are the most inexpensive and inspiring interior books (we will have them on our website soon). Below these is a portrait a friend of mine did for me 20 years ago, a vintage French box of sweets I bought at Petersham Nurseries in London because I loved the colour; photos of Mila, my partner, Steve, and I, and a bunch of crosses I hung together – I have a thing for crosses, especially if they are very simple. Finally, in the apple crate at the bottom (the one you can’t see), I’ve stored interiors books.

2. This is a plaster head that my mum bought for my bedroom when I was 16 or so and which now sits on top of the shelves in Mila’s bedroom (out of reach of little hands). I’ve always thought it was beautiful and when I looked at the things my mum bought me when I was young, I realized that she had fantastic taste. Like most teens, I had a troublesome relationship with my mum but now we are extremely close and I can talk about everything with her. Now that I’m older and wiser & a mother myself, I realize that my mum would have fought like a tiger for us if she had to. It saddens me when I hear that people are not close to their family or siblings because, like anything, it takes work, understanding and forgiveness. My parents do things that still frustrate me and I know I drive them nuts when I go back to France with thousands of DIY projects in my head but I’ve learnt to accept that as parents you only do your best, nothing is written in stone and really you learn as you go along. I wouldn’t change any of the deliciously passionate, often funny and sometimes heated conversations we have when we are all together in France.

3. This is a photo of my dad (the one with the ball), taken by a professional journalist. My dad was a rugby hero in South West France in the 70s. I remember going back to school on Mondays after he had played on Sundays and all my friends would congratulate me on his game. I have another photo of him tackling the ball, which won the photographer the Pernod Ricard Prize for the best sports photo in 1971. My father still lives and breathes rugby. We’ve all learnt to switch off when he tells the same story over and over, but that doesn’t seem to bother him. He is an incredibly passionate person, especially where human rights are concerned. He is very much into the French ‘Liberte, Egalite, Fraternite’ and has no fear about speaking his mind even if he is going to upset people. He doesn’t really do the ‘politically correct’ thing and in fact I think he just enjoys provoking people. He used to enjoy challenging me about some of my own life decisions and I would react to it straight away, but then I eventually found out that he would tell other people how proud he was of what I had achieved, so now I just agree with him….

This is Mila!

4. These are Mila’s first shoes, I’ve also kept her first pink converse and anything small and cute she was wearing when she was a baby. I love her to bits. She is my first child and I hope that as she grows up, our relationship deepens and that she becomes a wonderful, balanced, healthy and happy young woman. She is only 4 and already bilingual which amazes me. She is very social and smart and always amuses me. She will hide things that she has broken at the bottom of her basket of toys where I will find them eventually or tell me to skype my grandmother who is 90 years old! She is in France at the moment on holidays with her 5 year old cousin Lily and neither of them are missing us! Each time I call, she talks for about 10 min, then tell me to count to 3 and ‘un, deux, trois’ she puts the phone down… no tears…job done!

5. These shelves are in Mila’s bedroom. I found them when we were relocating BODIE and FOU from our Bristol warehouse to London. It’s a mail sorting shelf unit and it fits perfectly in her bedroom. It looks a bit messy but it’s in fact super organised. At the bottom, there are Mila’s books and games. Then in the middle anything to do crafts: her pens, playdo, chalks, pearls and her kitchenware. The two top shelves are mine where I store notebooks & sculptures I did a few years ago or things Mila broke that I need to fix/glue. The family’s straw hats when we hang out on our roof terrace, a vintage globe I bought in London’s Bricklane, photo albums, interiors books & my collection of retro cars. Her bedroom is white with gorgeous, distressed white floorboards, white walls and the best natural light so these shelves are where colours, emotions & loving things go. It’s like a mood board in 3D!

This is a close up from things on these shelves I really like… A B&W photo of Mila at the beach in France (where obviously the water was far too cold for her), a wedding thank you card from my friend Mandy (Mila was her flower girl). I bought the plaster letters from a shop called Shelf in Bricklane to make up Steve and my nicknames. He is Vert (for Vertigo, a nickname I gave him after reading Paul Auster’s book) and I’m Fou (well I also need to fix the F there). Fou means mad in French and this was what Steve called me when we first met. Four years ago when Elodie & I were looking for a brand name for our chic online boutique, we decided very quickly that BODIE (which is what we’ve called Elodie since she was little) and FOU was perfect and personal. Last but not least, the 3 little feet are plastercasts that Steve made of Mila’s foot when she was a baby.

The things that inspire me…. are mostly visual things. I have the memory of a goldfish for mundane things, phone numbers or what I did 3 days ago but I’m a sponge when it comes to interiors, photography, design and typography. I need to be visually inspired and stimulated so I like going to places that have something to them like Story Deli in Bricklane, Daylesford Organic farm in the Cotswolds or concept store Merci in Paris and of course NYC, Amsterdam, basically anywhere I can go, discover new things and open my eyes. And it’s really not about expensive designer spaces or pieces. I need places that are going to make me feel something inside, something that I want to take with me and re-create in my personal life and sometimes it’s just a beautiful and inspiring way of displaying some objects, a decorative idea and other times, it is an emotion, it’s something that I want to become as an individual, as a mother to Mila, as a partner and as a woman. I cut out magazines a lot to keep my favourite shots, styling, interiors, page layout or font at hand and I take a lot of photos, mostly of my family because getting inspiration is also surrounding yourself with people you love.

Blogging and setting up my own interior shop have also been a tremendous source of inspiration and widely opened up my tastes. I think blogging nowadays is a huge haven of inspiration and creativity. I have come across so many stunning designs and talented designers from all over the world, which I may have never heard of if I was just reading interior magazines. And the people who inspire me the most in no specific order are: my sister Elodie – I can’t describe well enough how much I love her – her style, her outlook on life, her personality and how happy and proud it makes me that we have made our dream come true with BODIE and FOU. Steve the father of my little girl Mila and my soulmate but also the necessary pain in the bum who will tell me what to do, mainly to achieve balance between the business & our family! My mum for making my childhood full of holidays at the beach, flea markets and sewing, and for being liberal enough to let me do my own things and never pressurizing me into anything.

My design hero is French interior designer Jacqueline Morabito who always blends beautifully, contemporary interiors and furniture with vintage and antique pieces. Finally, although I’m not a star-truck person, my heart will always belong to Vanessa Paradis and Charlotte Gainsbourg. Two beautiful, talented French women that got it right from an early age, and are living their public lives on their terms and continuing to work with amazingly talented photographers, designers and musicians.

The favorite advice I’ve heard….. Well because of my ’selective/deficient’ memory, I can’t remember anything someone would have told me, but the things that worked for me are ‘never give up on something you believe in because friends/family don’t share your vision’ and also ‘don’t spend your time checking out the competition and freaking out’ - focus on your thing, your vision of what you want your business to be about and if you put your heart into it, people will follow. Finally, ‘be patient’. I’m not but I wish I had been the first two years of setting up our business because I would have probably enjoyed the journey as much as I love it now! -Karine

(images: karine kong)

A big thank you again to Holly and a a great weekend to everyone!

Coming soon.....Paumes at BODIE and FOU

We are currently working on the new look of our little chic online boutique which will be launched early September and I can't tell you how excited I am. Besides heaps of new, user-friendly functions to make online shopping a piece of cake, we've added a lots of really cool and creative designs and I can't wait to share them with you. I really hope you like them but also that you will LOVE our new look.
Today, we've been working on adding the collection from Paumes...If you don't know Paumes, it is a family-run business from Japan founded by Hisashi Tokuyoshi, a photographer & Art Director and Fumie Shimoji who represents French designers and illustrators like Tse Tse and maison Georgette in Japan. They also have a gorgeous boutique in Japan.

Elodie had mentioned Paumes to me ages ago and one weekend in Lille (north of France), she took me to one of her favourite interior shops (which sadly has now closed down) and boum! I fell in love with Paumes and bought 4 books at once...and frankly I think is the most inspiring, affordable and addictive collection of interiors books.
Once you get one, you will simply come back for more....Each book is a goldmine of creativity, inspiration and colours from children bedrooms in London, Paris, Copenhagen, London Ateliers, Paris Brocante, London Vintage....

So here is a sneak peak of our category header...I really need to ask Holly how she manages to upload bigger images on Decor8!)

Gorgeous family house in the making...

On Saturday morning, we drove to the West country (Bristol) to go to a friend's birthday party and while Steve and my brother Francois watched the rugby in the afternoon, I had a nice little time going to all my favourite boutiques in Clifton village including 18 - a gorgeous fashion shop, beautifully decorated with grey distressed floorboards, French antique furniture, mixing fashion labels from Paris, Belgium and Italy and fragrance from Miller Harris, accessories for the home from Daybirger and glassware from Henry Dean.

Being slightly hungover on Sunday morning, I was very much looking forward to having breakfast at Bordeaux Quay, a place which I raved about two years ago when we were living in Bristol and where we - being creatures of habit - had brunch every weekend but Sunday was a real let-down... Francois & I ordered the egg benedict but the bacon was so salty that we couldn't taste the Hollandaise sauce (which frankly is the best part about the egg benedict!) and the bagel (normally nicely toasted) was also saggy and fried. Steve's Bordeaux Quay breakfast wasn't great either so that will be the last time for us there which is a real shame because I really liked the place...
Anyway....at lunch time, we went to our friends Peter and Gabrielle's new house and I fell totally in love with their family home! I don't have pictures of the whole house to show you because our time together wasn't meant for me to act like a demented paparrazzi but they were kind enough to let me do so and let me sharing a few shots on the blog and although the house is not finished yet, I thought it looked already amazing enough to share a few of G's decorating ideas.
Gabrielle used to work for world-renowned designer Nina Campbell and she is now a freelance interior designer and as you can see her tastes and style are impeccable. The whole house is so light and airy that one just wants to hang out, bare feet and relax. When they bought the place from Gabrielle's parents, it was quite dark but it had beautiful features like the stairs (below). They got rid of the bathroom which was where I was standing to take this photo and now the staircase stands beautifully between the kitchen and the lounge making the whole landing very luminous with the light flooding from one room to another.

I love this gorgeous Egyptian lampshade that Gabrielle bought from a shop in Amsterdam (about £350) which doesn't look too ethnic but looks just perfect coming down on their beautiful and spacious staircase. Gabrielle thinks she will eventually buy another couple but smaller to create a cluster. They've also painted all the floorboard in white which is a very economic way of freshen up a space but also gives their house an incredible light all day long. It is also very child-friendly as the kids can run around bare feet and if they drop food on the floor, it can easily be cleaned up unlike carpets.
The kitchen is also very airy with natural light coming from a gorgeous sash window. They fitted a black marble top which they bought from the internet for half the price. Gabrielle was really keen to have a white top but was advised against it as it would have stained easily so she went for a gorgeous black top that works better for their family-friendly house and looks perfect with the grey kitchen units painted in Lamp room Grey from Farrow & Ball. They got the unit doors made by a local carpenter but fitted on standard kitchen units (like Ikea's)

Everywhere I looked, I was smitten and I can not pinpoint anything in particular but the whole feel was genuinely warm and beautiful. I love their old kitchen table which was there when they moved in and on which they fitted a stainless-steel sheet. I also like the simplicity of the white shelves with a few pieces mixing vintage English cups with simple, contemporary chinaware and glass water jugs and the vintage chairs painted in 'taupe'...

The lounge is a large, welcoming room painted in a soft beige with french armchair (similar to this one) and a beige sofa with antique table lamps Gabrielle got from a place near Alfies Antique market and I absolutely love these old, scratched and distressed looking French bookcases which Gabrielle plans to paint but I really hope she doesn't because they look amazing just the way they are.

And the garden....well like the rest of the house.....beautiful, beautiful and beautiful....Look at how amazing these old metal stairs are. I mean if you were trying to re-create a shabby chic look, you could not achieve this amazing look in a million years (shame about the branch but I love these 2 shots of Steve)

Well in a nutshell, it was a fabulous weekend so a big thank you to Mandy & Ackland for letting us stay in their home while they were away and Peter and Gabrielle for having us.