The Abigail Ahern factor
We all long to be recognised, in some shape or form (and if you don't have this type of worries, how lucky you are!) be that by colleagues, peers, family, our children or husbands/wives, boyfriends/girlfriends. It's lovely when this recognition comes after you've worked hard for something whatever that is (and no matter how small or big).
In my case, recognition came from my design hero - Abigail Ahern - after I designed my very own office space, which weirdly enough, she liked!
How did this happen?!
Back in April 2015 I set myself the task of re-styling my home office after I won a design challenge by Surface View (you can read about that here). The challenge was to show them how you would incorporate one of their wonderful murals in your own home. I had two ideas at the time, one was to install an ethereal mural behind my bed and the other to go for monochrome glory in a home office. I went for the latter.
After I won, Surface View got in touch and we arranged a day for the mural to be installed by a very skilled decorator in their team.
If you want to see all of the photos with the step by step transformation, you better read My Home Office Make-over. There's plenty of imagery in the original posts but here's the before and after photos as a quick reference guide.
I had a pretty clear idea that I wanted to go monochrome in the office so chose a real dark colour on two walls of the room (Farrow & Ball Railings) opposite the mural which made even the IKEA furniture look more expensive than they really are. I was super pleased.
Then in May, I visited one of Abigail's packed design workshops at Anthropologie. What a great time I had - and if you want to read all about it, you can read this post. The workshop gave me extra inspiration to paint the 2nd office in the house also in really dark colours. Perfection achieved!
After installing the mural, I also installed a beautiful 3-arm pendant light from madeindesign.com as well as got a pair of divine Anglepoise lamps for which I dedicated a whole post with some AMAZING photos, which you can see here. I am pretty close to getting the whole look nailed - though still expecting a Beni Ourain style rug to complete the look.
That was then but this is now - so how did my house end up in Abigail Ahern's House Crush?
Last month, my home office kind of got Abigail Ahern's attention on {atmine} and so my home ended up on her House Crush series over at her amazing blog (which I read daily).
So have a look at the photos I shared with her team and her commentary and drop a comment (here or there) to tell me what you think of the look.
And if you like that post, I bet you will also like this:
Of course, I couldn't end this post without properly thanking Abigail for taking the time to look at this interiors lover's home and telling the world she found it cool. I am so chuffed! So I will shamelessly plug in her books here, which are a must-buy, especially for Christmas. Give someone inspiration or simply the motivation to jump over to the dark side!
Follow Abigail Ahern on {atmine} here
