As an interior designer I am always on the lookout for products designed with environmental consideration in mind. What better place to find such products than to visit the “ecobuild” exhibition held annually at the Excel, London.
This year again the event was buzzing with manufacturers showcasing their sustainable designs of new and innovative products and technologies, for the construction industry, lighting design, interior design and garden design.
Two products caught my attention this year as I wandered around the exhibition.
Beautiful hand made decorative lighting designed by Sarah Turner.
Sarah hand makes these decorative lights from every day waste plastic drinking bottles collected locally. You would not be able to tell where they originate from once the lighting had been created. They looked magnificent. After cleaning the bottles she sand blasts them to give the opaque look. They are then hand cut and sculpted in to decorative forms. Sarah uses her talent to help recycle just a few plastic bottles and thus contribute towards resolving problems of landfill site.
Timco wood is a wood plastic composite product made from 100% recycled wood chip and high-density plastics. This eco-friendly product is used for decking, cladding, fencing and balustrade system. It has the warm feel of wood with durability and water resistance of polyethylene plastic. As such the product is easy to install and it doesn’t splinter, rot or warp. It is also low maintenance and will look good for years to come.
The availability of the range of colours, materials and textures allows you to create many stunning contemporary as well as conventional looks.
The product is readily used in commercial environment but I would specify this product for busy, budget and time discerning families who prefer to spend their time enjoying the garden and family rather than worry about the maintenance and the condition of the decking, time and cost.
Written by interior designer Sangeeta Goyal
An excellent example of paint being a more adaptable choice than wallpaper occurred when the owner of a Grade I listed Mayfair Mansion wanted a very elegant, expensive, handmade wallpaper applied in the 44 foot stairwell, which had sweeping vertiginous curves.
Applying wallpaper would have proved to be an impossible task, due to the curves and the irregular surface. In the skilled hands of SBID accredited Glaze artists a pattern was created, inspired by paper found in the Victoria and Albert archive. The result was simply stunning. All the motifs, each one a 22 stage process, fit the 2,500 feet perfectly with not a join in sight.
Glaze Specialist Decoration have recently completed a fabulous project at The Dorchester Hotel in Park Lane, London. Ten highly skilled specialist decorators worked throughout the summer to bring the historic Gold Room back to its 1930’s glory.
Glaze artists recreated a beautiful summer sky using a fresh palate; this involved soft clouds, birds, and vines twisting around the gilded moon gold fretwork. The ruched curtains are in fact a trick of the eye, all painstakingly hand painted by one of their talented team. To complete the effect the cornice and pillar mouldings were decorated using moon gold leaf after a faux Verde Borgogna Lastra marble effect had been painted onto the original surfaces. The interior designer Alex Kravetz said at the end of the project: ‘Amazing work – I am very happy indeed and I hope to be working with the Glaze team again soon’.
One service that Glaze Specialist Decoration offers is historic conservation. One of their artists was responsible for recreating Queen Victoria’s hand painted Chinese silk wall paper. Needless to say this was a very unique request and they are more likely to be working on projects such as the Mayfair Mansion and the Dorchester Hotel.
As well as completing grand projects such as the Mayfair Mansion, Glaze have also had some amusing and slightly unusual requests. Recently, an artist was commissioned to disguise a bicycle shed in a stylish Westbourne Park Villa - a beautiful bamboo tree with falling leaves now disguises the bike shed, which is hidden beneath a set of stairs, creating a unique yet functional piece of art. This just goes to show that with the right product specification, all kinds of problems can be solved.
Glaze Specialist Decoration offer a first class service to Interior Designers, for both traditional and contemporary finishes as well as polished plaster.
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