Day 228 – London Inspiration

Posted by Life with Lizzi on August 19, 2011 · 2 Comments 

After very little sleep but highly excited, my first day back at work after this short holiday was in London.

During the Eurostar trip, I wrote a bit of my blog off-line on the iPad and watched a movie, until arriving at St Pancreas International, with incredibly tired eyes.  I think I’m  currently battling with an eye infection which when I suffer lack of sleep, flares up to irritate me.  A quick stop at Boots solved the problem in the short term, via eye drops, but must book a Doctor’s appointment sometime soon.

First stop with Lieve (equally tired after a weekend in London), was Westfield Shopping Centre…… followed by a dash along Oxford street.

We literally took hundreds of photo’s as the stores staff do not seem in the slightest bit bothered by ‘tourists’ snapping away.  However I am not going to bore you with all my inspiration menswear shots (which I will use at work), but focus on my general inspiration shots.  ie what I personally liked!

 

Firstly, there are still a lot of naive and sketched drawings as graphical elements.  I thought these 2 from Next and M&S could translate beautifully into a boys bedroom or the kitchen…….

and this one from M&S could work well in a dressing room or bedroom……

while Tracey Emin created a cat design on the window at Selfridges, with a photo collage of cats behind it…. (this would be a great one for my daughters bedroom)

 

 

 

Of course another big favourite of mine is lighting, and I love the idea of using quirky everyday objects as lights, such as jam jars or colanders (seen at Superdry and in Selfridges) or jazzing up lighting with coloured bulbs and cords…..

Don’t you just love the vertical garden, now even introduced in shopping centres and perfect for a city backyard garden…….

and a stop for lunch at Jamie’s Italien (Jamie’s Italian – Westfield.) reminded me of my long term dream of a camper van and carefree days (how long until I can retire darling?), and will no doubt fuel my Hubbie and Pieters dream to have a van as an office…….

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bell jars are still a very popular way of displaying objects…..

and knitting is still a very popular pastime……  can’t wait to try some of these ideas out.

and can you believe there are people already shopping for CHRISTMAS!!? (@Selfridges)

This photo gave me some inspiration for Christmas baubles (made out of old fabric?)

I have so many books, this could be a cool storage answer……

and plastic lino photo’s could be the way forward for floor covering…… or maps laminated on top of desks.  Great ways of using stuff that normally sits in my drawers or looks boring on a wall……

and of course glass and wood crates of any sort, start collecting!!

 

We rounded off the day with dinner at Hix’s, surrounded by cool art from the Brit pack Damien Hirst, Tracey Emin and co.  Would have loved to have snapped piccies there but finally we ran into restrictions, so have included a shot from their website.  Do go, the food is great, the art cool, and sitting at the Bar to eat, you can drool over the Bar staff!! (much more inspiring than the one in the photo below I have to add!).  Hope you can join next time Glennis, we missed you!

 

Welcome to Hix.

 

 

Related articles

• Harrods and Selfridges open their Christmas displays with 150 days to go (mirror.co.uk)
• Time Out’s 101 things to do in London Facebook app! Try it out now! (cultlogssg.wordpress.com)

 

Filed under Visual Life · Tagged with Crafts, Damien Hirst, Inspiration, Knitting, London, Oxford Street, postaday2011, Selfridges, Shopping, Tracey Emin, Visual Merchandising