Year: 2017

Create your own magic

I love the days between Xmas and New Year Eve when we have no real concept of what day of the week it is or how long they will last. It feels like we are in a little bubble, eating good food without feeling guilty and chilling out. I have been listening to a lot of podcasts on positive thinking and visualisation. My favourites are from Louise Hay and Abraham Hicks, both can be found on Youtube but if you have others to recommend, please do share them with me. I also started to meditate using Headspace. I’m only on day 4 but that is something I would like to do regularly in 2018 because I can see how just tuning in for 10 minutes, helps me to get a feel for everything. I don’t have specific resolutions for 2018 other than feeling good and that may take many forms or shapes but that’s all I’m planning to achieve in 2018 and I’m looking forward to this new year which I think it’s going to …

5 petites habitudes à instaurer pour améliorer votre bien-être

5 positive habits that will improve your wellbeing

Published by BODIE and FOU Style Blog

If you always end up feeling exhausted by the end of the year or if you are just interested in doing things that will improve your wellbeing, I think you will enjoy this article. I am, for the first time in over a decade, feeling great, energetic, happy and definitively excited by the year ahead. The fact that it is a state of being I achieved despite a very painful loss, gives me a tremendous amount of joy and pride. It’s quite a good feeling when you finally manage to do something you’ve set yourself to do ages ago, isn’t it!? So what did I do to come to this “blissful” state of mind… Well…I spent the last couple of years reassessing what was working for me and what wasn’t. What made me laugh, feel good Vs what made me feel stressed out. Then I made a few changes. So here are a few positive habits that will improve your wellbeing if you apply them in the forthcoming months… {Have rituals, positive habits} Positive habits can make …

A visit to the Vitra Campus

Published by BODIE and FOU Style Blog

About 16 years ago, I was working for Universal Pictures International when the company started to refurbish the offices. During the renovations, they threw away two brown leather chairs (these). At the time, I wasn’t aware of what they were (Eames Aluminium chairs). I just loved how they looked (beautifully designed) and I thought they would look great with the first ‘grown-up’ piece of furniture I had bought: a Robin Day leather sofa (do you remember when Habitat had it in-store!?) to furnish my flat in Stoke Newington. Little did I know that they were designed by Charles & Ray Eames and produced by Vitra. Since then, I have developed a profound love for Charles & Ray Eames’ designs and consequently for Vitra so I was super excited to fly to a two-day press trip to the Vitra Campus in Weil am Rhein, just outside Basel, Switzerland, which turned out to be pretty full on, very tiring but also very inspiring and interesting. I’m sure most of you have heard of Vitra and Charles & Ray Eames but you …

Grey on grey minimalist speaker

Published by BODIE and FOU Style Blog

There are a few things that fill me with joy when it comes to hanging out at home. One is being surrounded by visually pleasing objects and two, is listening to music and this new minimalist speaker combines both. The new, multi-room speakers Stammen (small) and Baggen (large) from Urbanears are a far cry from the usual, bulky speakers with eyesore cable and if you both love music and design, you are going to love them! Plus they come in 6 colours! The Baggen speaker in concrete grey matches perfectly our grey wall in the lounge and I’m thinking of getting Mila, this pink Stammen to match the hues from her recent bedroom makeover in pink. The Baggen speaker is currently available at £309.99 instead of £399.99 from Selfridges but if they have sold out by the time you read this article, you can find both speakers from Smallable in France and Urban Outfitters in the US. And I also forgot to show you this fab little black notebook I bought in Tiger last time I was in London It only costs only £1!! GET YOURS Disclaimer: …

5 special Christmas moments

Published by BODIE and FOU Style Blog

The few weeks leading to Christmas are the perfect time to build special memories for our children (if you have any) and family members. The kind of memories they will cherish for years to come and maybe pass on. In the past few years, I have tried to be more organised to make sure that Christmas is indeed a special and not a stressful time… {Planning the look of your Christmas table ahead} This year, I wanted to create a very soothing look and introduce textures, warmth and simplicity around a natural palette of off-white, brown and greys. I paired a vintage textured cotton tablecloth with some beautiful linen napkins and these simple but gorgeous Artisan plates from The White Company. For the final touch, I decorated the table with some timeless and stylish glass candle holders and grey candles, which I will be able to use throughout the seasons. “When it comes to styling your table, have as many candle holders as you can afford and mix and match sizes. A cluster will always create more of a WOW …

Industrial stairs in Paris

Published by BODIE and FOU Style Blog

A picture of these industrial stairs was on my fridge in our London home for years. So when French Interior Designer Valérie Mazérat posted it on Facebook, I messaged her to have a bit more background info. It’s a project Valérie re-designed in 2008 . At the time, her clients & their children lived in a 150 sqm2 apartment. Having recently purchased the flat above, they hired Valérie to link the two apartments together. The recently purchased flat was laid bare. Valerie raised indoor partition walls with large windows to let natural light filtering through. She then re-configured the space into three bedrooms, two bathrooms, an office and playroom. Mixing original features and adding new ones… Keen to maintain & restore some original features, she then designed the new flat with raw materials. Polished concrete, wood and iron add various accents around a palette of muted colours. I have been a long time admirer of Valérie’s design style and if you’re not too familiar with her work, she is the Interior Designer behind the inspiring concept store …

How to create a nice Christmas wall display without damaging your walls

Published by BODIE and FOU Style Blog

Since you loved so much this article on how to create a gallery wall without drilling into your walls, I have put together three Christmas stylings to decorate your home without (again!) damaging or drilling into your walls. Christmas styling #1 For this one made in our home in France, I used Command Brand clear hooks (see below) which are great to hang paper balls, garlands or fairy lights. However, should you wish to hang a Christmas lights curtain like the one I’ve hanged in our lounge here, I suggest you use Command Brand clear medium hooks which will be stronger and more suitable to bear the weight of the lights. Either way, both are very easy to fix on the wall and providing your walls are healthy and you follow the instructions when removing them, these little hooks will not damage your walls.To hang my gold NOEL sign, I fixed one of Command Brand plastic hooks on each side of the wall, then I run a clear string through the hooks of the inflatable letters and …

Adding natural touches in your home

Published by BODIE and FOU Style Blog

If you follow me on Instagram, you may have seen (or not… thanks to Instagram’s new algorithm…) that a Photographer came to shoot our home in London last week. Unfortunately, I can’t show you the final look I put together or any beautiful images he shot as they have to be kept under wrap until the feature is out but I wanted to show you these beautiful and inexpensive natural wooden stools and a few other natural touches I added around our lounge. I brought similar versions but much smaller stools for our home in France after my first trip to Marrakech. In fact, I was almost in tears when I came across these stools and these gorgeous baskets in the Souk the first time I visited Marrakech. I think if I had still the e-shop, I would have come back to the UK with a container full of beautiful things but as it happens, I sold it in 2016 to focus on more creative projects like this blog and my portrait photography. The ones I brought back from Marrakech were …