Year: 2018

A garage converted into a Summer house

A garage converted into a Summer house is an old dream of mine… We have 2 garages and a workshop filled with junk at the back of our home in France and every now and then, I long for the space to be converted into a Summer house. A place where we could host friends, a space I could use as a photography studio in Winter time, and somewhere where my growing teen Mila could hang out with her cousin and her friends. However, whether or not you have space at the back of your home, this inspiring garage converted into a Summer house is one to bear in mind for future projects. This converted garage has the same long rectangular shape than ours which makes visualisation easy. It has also a lot of features that I’m sure you will love too. Simple, modern lines and high-ceiling. Open-plan living, plywood walls (check these other amazing plywood kitchens projects). Large bay windows and consequently lots of natural light. Last but not least, views of the ocean… Dreamy, isn’t …

BEFORE & AFTER: Our minimalist, beachy hallway makeover

Published by BODIE and FOU Style Blog

I’m excited to finally show you some of the renovations I started in our home in France before our Summer holidays. As some of you know, our holidays home became our main residence when we relocated to the beach in France after twenty-three years in London. When we bought the house about twelve years ago, it was really in a sorry state. Yet, both of us could see the potential of the house which had a good layout and came with a 2175 m2 private garden. For Steve, who grew up on a farm in New-Zealand with a lot of space, the garden was everything. To this day, the outdoor space we have is one of the things I appreciate the most (that and living close to the beach!). Since it was 12 years since we renovated the house, it was time to freshen up a few corners… THE BRIEF: Turn our entrance and hallway into a welcoming, summery space with a beachy feel, Add storage to put away things we use often, Make it easy to clean THE …

The neutral tones home of Kaja Møller, head of Danish furniture brand Fredericia

Published by BODIE and FOU Style Blog

Four days away from Mila going back to school and myself “officially” going back to work, I’m slowly getting back into the swing of things. I have started a few comprehensive articles on our recent kitchen, bathroom & bedrooms renovations in our home in France (see #bodieandfourenovations on my Instagram) but none of them are finished. So today I’m showing you the home of Kaja Møller, head of Danish furniture brand Fredericia, decorated with Scandi-inspired neutral tones – a look that at the best of times I find soothing and at its worst, a bit too classical. How about you!? What’s your take on neutral tones!? Kaja Møller, who lives there with her husband and two children, designed the interior herself and creating a succession of rooms in neutral tones, drawing inspiration from French and Italian interior design. In the dining area, the walls are painted in a light shade of grey which contrasts nicely with the black timber ceiling beams and the steel cabinet. I wish we could see more of this steel cabinet as it …

US road trip: 2 days in Wrightsville Beach

Published by BODIE and FOU Style Blog

We are 4 days into our road trip from North Carolina to South Carolina and already I feel again that I could spend months on the road with my two favorite people. I regularly bring up the idea of touring the world to Mila and Steve but until now Mila was against being homeschooled and leaving her friends. Now she is warming up slowly to the idea. Temperamental wifi and time zone difference have also made this trip so far very chilled. I mostly open my emails to mass delete newsletters I won’t read and respond to my mum. The OOO is on and the weather is so nice here that by the time, we’ve spent 4 hours in the water surfing, the last thing I have energy for is to sit in front of my laptop so this post will be short. I loved Nags Head beach. It was unpretentious and some food places felt tucked in the 70-80s with had its charm from a photography point of view. No fancy, modern coffee places …

Bensimon x Nils Inne + Giveaway

Published by BODIE and FOU Style Blog

If you were a French kid growing up in the 80s, it is very likely that you would have owned at least once a pair of Bensimon. My sister and I lived our Summers in Bensimon… At the start of each Summer, we would pick a new colour and wear them in and out during the next Summer months at the beach. As a mother now, I realised how convenient it was to get your kids a pair of Bensimon. It was the perfect, light, easy-to-care-for pair of shoes to pack for the holidays with the added value that it looked great with a pretty dress or a pair of shorts. A no-brainer really! Like my mum, I kept on the family tradition by getting Mila her own pairs of Bensimon as the start of the Summer. Recently, Bensimon did a collab’ with Nils Inne, a French Artist born in Nice (south of France) who is greatly inspired by Artists like Mark Gonzales, Dave Kinsey, Jean-Michel Basquiat and Keith Haring. A great skater too, Nils designed a …

How to create a gallery wall without damaging your walls

Published by BODIE and FOU Style Blog

As some of you guys know, I’m a Brand Ambassador for Command and a big fan of their products that I use regularly around our home to hang picture frames (see Mila’s desk makeover) or lighter items like this beautiful Lappalainen brass mobile which I hung from the ceiling in our lounge. Discovering products that would allow me to hang all my photos without having to drill into our new painted walls was a major lightbulb moment when we renovated our home in London and I’ve never looked back since then! So today, let me show you how you can create a beautiful gallery wall in your home with this series I photographed on the beach near our home in France.Command has a range of different products to hang picture frames but my favourite are by far, their picture hanging strips, which are super easy to use and can hold up to 7.2 kg. They are super quick to use, allowing you to display your frames on your walls in less than 10 min. without pulling the drill out of …

My first photo exhibition (bucket list #15)

Published by BODIE and FOU Style Blog

My first photo exhibition is kicking off on Monday and as I’m sitting on my bed in a bedroom far from being finished and the rest of the house looking like a building site (see Instagram stories), wondering if our home will be ready by the 14th July when we have people staying over, I can’t help smiling. Doing a photo exhibition was on my bucket list but not before 4 or 5 years so when the city of La Ville de La Teste asked me to take part in their Summer exhibitions which feature numerous Artists from June to August, I got excited and then freaked out. In fact, during my meeting with the city’s Communication Director, which, funnily enough, was on International Women’s Day (how is that for an omen!?) my reaction was to say that I needed to think about it. What is there to think about!? you are going to tell me… Well, a few things like budget as the city takes care of the marketing and communication but production costs are …

Effortlessly chic & natural style bedroom

Published by BODIE and FOU Style Blog

I recently re-decorated our bedroom to create a more natural style bedroom and found out that our home in London will soon be featured in the UK edition of Grazia magazine (mid-July issue 688). News that, in the middle of the renovations of our home in France, got me super excited. When I left London a few months ago, I was feeling extremely tearful and grateful at the same time. We had so many happy years there as a family… To the extent that I ended up kissing our walls. Have you done this before!? If not, you should try, it’s good karma :-) Here I was saying goodbye to a home, I had loved and cherished. Our first family home. It was where I first painted Mila’s bedroom walls in dark grey when no-one was using dark colours in a child’s bedroom. Where I finally designed our first (and probably not the last) Tadelakt bathroom. We also completely transformed the old 80s kitchen to create an inviting and open-plan kitchen filled with natural light. Last but not least, …