Springtime Inspiration

Spring is the time of plans and projects

- Leo Tolstoy -

With Spring in the air we wanted to share an insider peak into a Devas Designs' project in London. The upstairs drawing room is centred around a colour palette of pastel blues, greens and greys … the perfect colours for a Springtime mood board. 

For this room’s colour scheme Philippa took inspiration from this unusually pale coloured Ziegler carpet. Its pastel tones with hints of earthy red and green instantly caught Philippa’s eye.  With these colours in mind we chose an eclectic selection of cushions that each have their own character whilst following these same colours.

The two terrace windows provide a beautiful, fresh light throughout the day, which perfectly harmonises with the pastel tones. We kept the curtains simple, choosing white linen to maximise the light. The walls were painted with an off-white so that the light softly reflected back onto itself.

Devas Designs loves incorporating antique pieces into modern interiors, especially when they tie in with the colour palette. This green decorated jug is an antique Staffordshire piece. The sea shelled table top was initially a single frame artwork which was later turned into this table.

The room also features several paintings including works by Tim Woolcock and Edward Seago.

Made In Britain at Sotheby's

March’s Made in Britain auction at Sotheby’s was a rather glamorous affair. Alongside artworks from renowned British artists from David Hockney to Tracey Emin, celebrity hangout The Ivy auctioned off its previous contents for charity. The Ivy is currently undergoing a complete contemporary makeover by Martin Brudnizki Design so its classic furnishings needed to find new homes. The items up for auction ranged from its iconic front doors, doormats and stained-glass windows to cloakroom tips trays, cocktail shakers and napkins.

Here are a few of our favourite pieces from the auction ...

Joe Tilson’s painting Dionysus, The Ivy and The Vine was commissioned for the restaurant in 1990. Having been a founding figure of British Pop art in the early 1960s, Tilson’s time in Italy and Greece in the 1970s-80s dramatically changed his style. He began focusing more on Classicism, taking inspiration from ancient mythology to develop his signature style. The bright colours of this painting hark back to his Pop style, while the work’s subject matter is based on Dionysus the Greek god of wine and festivity.

This unique intaglio print by Howard Hodgkin is stunningly rich in colour. It was based on a thick forest canopy and the artist worked over the intaglio print to achieve a richly layered effect.

Future System’s pair of champagne buckets on stands and designed to appear like oversize champagne glasses. Intriguingly, their otherworldly form was instructed by the optimum angle of the bottle lying in ice.

Some pieces from London based glass artist Anthony Stern were also up for auction. Stern was commissioned to make a collection of glasses for the restaurant. These coloured glasses were intended to echo the restaurant’s diamond shaped window panes.