One of the things I love about my flat, despite in being a small one-bedroom, is that there is a good-size hallway and entrance inside. I love having this space to separate the public living areas with the private bedroom in the back.

It’s very narrow, however, so a lot of things – like furniture – just won’t fit but since it’s the first thing when you come in something has got to be here. Currently there’s just three pieces of artwork hanging and one ginourmous floor to ceiling framed Pottery Barn mirror. It’s kind of generic, not-fun and definitely doesn’t reflect set the tone for coming into my home.

I’ve been wanting to use chalkboard paint on the wall ever since I it done at the amazing Front Hotel in Copenhagen (pictured above) where guests (including myself!) left notes and drawings. And then when I saw another great example but with magnetic primer, I was smitten with the idea.

For one wall in my little entrance (where the arrows are pointing in the photos below), I am thinking of giving it a go. This way I can have an easy art-gallery by using magnets to hang up lots of art instead of expensive frames (no more leveling!) and friends can leave colourful notes and doodles. I think it’s a great art statement, fun and practical without being pretentious! Perfect!

I am a little nervous about a huge black wall feeling over-powering or making the area really dark. I’m also concerned about finding a good magnetic primer or paint as it seems like a lot of them require 6 coats and even then have challenges with magnetizing (Rustoleoms is said to have very poor magnetization even after 6 coats) or primers having a rough texture.

Other concerns include being able to easily paint it white before I move out since I’m a renter and easily cleaning the walls without chalkboard residue sticking, finding a good low VOC chalkboard paint (although I think Benjamin Moore’s Chalkboard Paint can be made low VOC).

Apartment Therapy has a good thread on this where others talk about the same concerns but there doesn’t seem to be a lot of answers in there yet so it’s more Googling for me unless anyone has any ideas, suggestions or feedback (always appreciated!).

Soon The Duchess will premiere and I can’t wait to see it – especially the set since details about its location and costume has been heavily dished in the industry. With Michael Carlin as the production designer and Michael O’Connor as the costume designer, I’m sure this will be a visual movie to inspire.

Based on the incredible historical biography by Amanda Foreman, the movie is about Georgiana Spencer who, in 1774 at the age of 17, becomes Duchess of Devonshire. The set is both lavish from the fabrics to architecture with lots of information and sneak peaks on the films official web site.

For the past fifteen minutes or so I’ve been pursuing the “Discover” and “Costumes” area of the site and have developed a craving for a three foot wig ans several gowns with fabulous underpinnings. However, that all comes at a cost and Georgiana, despite having wealth, celebrity and a title, was extraordinarily in debt. The current Duke and Duchess of Devonshire (who live in the home Chastworth where parts of the movie were filmed) still have many of the letters from creditors seeking to collect.

Georgiana was probably first celebrity in the way that we perceive celebrity today. When she appeared in the papers they sold out, she was followed around by cartoonists (the equivalent of the paparazzi). She was a fashion icon and she captured people’s imagination. And that took money.

Keira Knightly who plays Georgiana has said of her character’s debt, “When she died she had been terrified of disclosing to her husband the amount of she owed, because she was convinced he was going to divorce her or send her away and actually when she died he found out how much she was in debt and said is that all. There’s something incredibly sad about her, I think that she’s a victim of herself, of her own innocence. She’s a victim of people using her for their own gain, but what is rather wonderful about this story is she finds a way to live with this. She finds a way to triumph over something and to regain some power in a time when women really had very little.”

That doesn’t sound like only a 1774 problem, does it? The other way in which this movie sometimes parallels the present is the way in which Georgiana’s life resembles that of her great-great-great-great niece, Princess Diana Spencer. Both she and Georgiana were intelligent, powerful women who were almost ripped to shreds by the press and then fought to remake themselves to finally be the women they wanted to be. One of the aspects of Georgiana’s life that makes it so relevant today is that she had to live under the intense glare of public scrutiny. And although I often have a hard time with Keira Knightly, I think the scrutiny in which she’s lived under will perhaps help her with this movie, too.

What also helps the actors in this movie is that director Saul Dibb demanded that all scenes be shot on location. This lead to the incredible task of finding current places to represent real life past homes that were no longer in existence, such as the main residence of the Duke and Duchess, the Devonshire House.

For that home, rooms from Kedleston Hall, Clandon Park in Surrey and Holkham in Norfolk were combined for interiors whilst the exterior was shot at the Somerset House in London. Robert Adam designed Kedleston Hall which is one of the most intact of Adam’s houses in England. Yet there were still challenges with transforming modern updates such as switching out electrical lighting for candles and putting in massive chandeliers. Said Carlin of the task, “Here was an enormous amount of time and work spent on the structural engineering of how we could hang huge chandeliers, especially when you’re working in homes where sometimes things haven’t been moved in hundreds of years.” Kedleston was also depicted as a rented villa in Bath.

Other places used include:

• Basildon Park in Berkshire entertained dining scenes
• The Naval College at Greenwich was transformed into the hustings scene at Covent Garden, where Georgiana introduces her lover Charles Grey, a parliamentary candidate, to a huge crowd. Carlin has said of the college, “‘It’s a 360-degree environment. Point the camera anywhere, and it’s still in period. We built stalls and timber structures to make it believable as a market.’”
• The Bristol Old Vic theatre
• Bath Assembly Rooms
• Osterley Park,

And if you happen to be in Derbyshire, you can see the amazing exhibition of costumes and accessorites at the Duchess Film Exhibition at Kedleston Hall.

I can sometimes love a movie just for its decor though with Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day I confess I fell in love everything!

Maybe it’s because I’ve been spending a lot of time with my BFF, Jessica, who is one of the most glamourous yet down to earth girls I know, but my style (both home and clothing) has been changing. And after seeing this movie, all I want is more hats, under pinnings, dresses and chandeliers!

Amy Adams fashion in the movie is amazing though I have to say the item I fell most in-love with was the pink bow she used in the bathtub scene in her hair. Although I do want to get more silk gowns and robes like the ones in the movie and in this Frou Four Fashionista blog post. Just for washing dishes, you know.

There seems to be a pattern of my favourite sets involving wall paper. This was the case in Antonement and now in the bedroom scenes in this movie. Did you see the doors were even wall papered? I’ve got to find a reason to buy some wall paper.

And as much as I loved the set, I loved the sound track. Just a good bit of inspiration all around for someone who’s trying to get a little more polished and have a lot of fun in the process.

One of my first flats “grown up” flats (in which I signed a lease and bought furniture) had the option of having any and every wall pained in any colour I wanted. And, being in Seattle WA at the time, I chose some bright but dark, cosy colours to offset the dark, cold outside. So I chose a bold mix from Ralph Lauren paint:

The gray was in my office, the khaki in the living room, the red in the bedroom and the orange in the music/creative room. And, for the area and the time, these colours really worked – especially since I really didn’t own anything and needed colour.

However, when I moved to Santa Monica, colour didn’t really seem appropriate for the beach side town. And my flat was so structurally charming that I felt it didn’t need anything – I was lighter, too, and didn’t feel as thought I needed something heavy on the walls to feel cosy. I wanted light and breezy so I just kept the white and ended up loving it.

When I purchased my home in Austin Texas, it had painted walls in dark beiges and bright, annoying yellows. I kept most of the colours since I knew it wouldn’t be a long term thing and worth the effort but that yellow in the office and bedroom had to go – it was too much. And so I chose a really soothing blue gray which worked really well in my office:

But then I moved back to Santa Monica, in the same building but just a bigger flat. And again the bright place with charming walls just did not call for colour. And by this time I was truly a smitten kitten for white. So I kept every wall bare and it worked with my furniture and accessories which tended to be on the more colourful side.

But lately, the pendulum has been swinging a back. It’s mostly due to Domino Magazine’s August 2008 issue featuring Katie Ukrop’s home. All her walls are all very light pale ice-cream colour shades. It’s almost too girly for me but a few of the Benjamin Moore colours she uses really caught my eye:

I can just imagine my bedroom in either of those colours since they’re soft enough to still feel beachy but a little more cosy than white. And I have a wonderful little hallways in which I can totally see a bright pop of orange or even the colour from one of my favourite rooms ever (the washroom in my room at Hotel Particulier):

After moving in this weekend and then spending some time in it, I’ll have a better feeling for painting or not. I might just like it as is or be far too lazy to take up the task. But in the meantime, it’s sure been fun collecting swatches and browse through Domino Magazine’s online paint inspiration slideshow.

The feel of the photo is definitely more French than Chinese yet those images, and where they’re located in my room is strategically placed in my “Creative Area” because of my belief in Feng Shui. However, when you’re in my home, you’d probably never guess it because you wouldn’t see things traditionally associated with this practice like crystals, Asian decor, fountains, wind chimes, etc..

Feng Shui is a practice of arranging objects to help people achieve their goals. I use it as a way to be conscious of my entire life, make sure all my areas are balanced and most importantly, to help me decorate! Although it’s not really used for decorating purposes, that’s how I came to use it when, around 2000, I innocently picked up a book called, “Move Your Stuff, Change Your Life : How to Use Feng Shui to Get Love, Money, Respect and Happiness”. At the time I had just immigrated to America and, with very little money, took on my first American flat and decorated it with everything Ikea – wood, wood and some more wood. I knew I had a problem because when people would come visit the first thing they’d say is, “Oh, I got that at Ikea, too!” My home had zero personality, I had no idea how to make it my own, I owned things I didn’t know what to do with and personally I was overwhelmed at all the personal transitions I was going through (new country, new legal steps, new job, new man, new home). So this book seemed like the right read and it turned out to actually really change my life.

Although there’s much cheek to the book, it’s a very informative, easy read that really breaks down the areas of life (reputation, creativity, family, prosperity, helpful people/travel/health, career, knowledge) and helps you become conscious of them by really thinking about their placement in your home and the things you then put into each of these areas. It talks easily about materials that are good and colours that are bad. There’s a flow to it that just really spoke to me at the time (someone with no money, no decorating sense, and in need of some major uplifting!).

With help from the book, I sketched out my flat and placed the bagua (the “map” of the different life areas) on top of my drawing and then made notes about the good and bad things for each area. I then began to take away the bad and replace them with good things. If I couldn’t add things, I just thought about them until I could. Now, whether or not adding red to my reputation area helped me actually get a great reputation (which is what happened to me at the time with my company, Girl at Play), I can’t say. But what it did do was make me really think about this area. When I entered a room, an object would trigger a thought about creating positive cash flow. Or the colours blended from one room to the next instead of being a crazy, uncomfortable mishmash from before.

So although my style is very French/minimal/Shabby Chic/Boho modern, I practice Feng Shui and use it for every flat I move into (and have actually said no to a few when I saw the “Prosperity” area was in the washroom. I can’t afford to have money going down the drain!) Feng Shui has also just really helped me to connect with the energy and layout of a home, to keep colour working for me instead of against me, and from keeping impulse buying at bay. No use in buying that beautiful wooden table if wood is a bad object to have in a particular area, right? Well, perhaps I don’t go that far (I’d probably cover it up with a table cloth in the right colours just to be safe!) and that’s not to say I live 100% by it, but it’s just another useful tool, for me, in keeping my home feeling good and me from going crazy with decorating.

Another great example of using feng shui in this way is the book Feng Shui Your Life by Jayme Barrettt. Her book shows beautiful examples of feng shui homes that use a lot of the decor/colour schemes I love.

And here’s my new flat’s bagua: