Mini Moderns' new eco paint (in project-sized tins)

I've got some painting to do round my place, so paint is on my mind. There is a paint that I'm really excited to try, which I shall post about shortly, that may be the answer to my two-year procrastination about repainting a vast set of box-shelves in my bedroom. Stay tuned. Meanwhile...

...also exciting was the news, yesterday, that Mini Moderns – thus far, purveyors chiefly of beautiful prints on wallpaper and things – are launching their own 12-colour range of environmentally-responsible paints. Here is a little preview (the range has yet to go on sale):

'Environmentally responsible' could mean almost anything. In this case, I really like the concept behind it: the company is working with an award-winning brand called Newlife Paints, which salvages discarded paint from landfill and incineration; revives and treats it and repackages it, good as new. I intend to find out more about quite how they take a zillion different colours and turn them into clean, fresh, white emulsion – as the online explanation is frustratingly brief if, like me, you need to know the 'how'.

The Mini Moderns paints have been created to match their wallpapers (very mid-century, as you can see), and cleverly comes in a small-but-double-the-amount-of-a-sampler-pot size (250ml), for just £5, so you can buy just the right amount to perk up a chest of drawers or a chair. The regular size tins, 2.5 litres, will be £32.

Colouful recycled art

Seeing as it's so sunny outside (if you're in the southeast of England, at least), I thought I'd share some sunshine-y new artwork today. Each piece is not only gloriously colourful and aesthetically uplifting, but also made entirely from found rubbish on the street, in recycling bins or on the beach...

I've featured the unusual work of artist, Ella Robinson, here before. She lives near the seaside and began making work like this by collecting brightly hued bits of plastic washed up on her local beach.

Now she's doing more of the same but also – as above – collecting bottle tops from other people's recycling. Accordingly, this one is called 'Ice and a Slice'.

'David'

'Blue'

'Lucky'

See more of Ella's work on her blog and on her website.

Trompe L'oeil interiors

I'm not sure if I love or hate this new Dutch Design Stool from Utility. What do you think?

The "Beechwood" stool, £25, from Utility, is not what it seems: it is made, not from wood at all, but from FSC corrugated cardboard, trompe l'oeil style. So the self-assembly stool is super eco-friendly (it  comes flat-packed) and is surprisingly sturdy – your largest friend (unless they are in the crane-lift out of bed arena) could comfortably sit on it, as it supports up to 200 kilos of person.

Do you love or hate its cardboard deception?



There's a lot of it about. It started with Piet Hien Eek's "Scrapwood" wallpaper, and now the idea has mushroomed...

This  Kapyton Linen Beige wallpaper paper looks so tactile and sumptuous. Couture Deco, $89 (£56) per roll, plus $9.99 (£6.30) UK delivery.

And while  this Boua Drift wallpaper doesn't have the variety of pattern that the Piet Hien Eek designs have, the price tag is much more accessible. It'd go well with the deliciously dusky, leathery scent of True Grace's Library scented candle or diffuser.

The fabric printed Montmartre stairs, $199 (£125) is the trompe l'oeil to trump them all.

Interior design with pallets at Deptford Project and Start London

Delivery pallets: I once made a student bed out of some but never got as adventurous as the Pallet House...

...seen below with my friend Holly. It was at last weekend's Start London, a new eco event at Clarence House, London (rather disappointing apart from this and one other highlight - a swish and sexy garden that managed to be edible by Urquhart and Hunt - more of which later). 

At Start, the Pallet House was also filled with green interior design, see below, by an editor at Wallpaper* magazine. Nice.

In a bit of a pallet coincidence, the same day I also went to the wonderful Deptford Project's Silent Cinema event in the yard out the back of their sweet, southeast London cafe/bar, housed in a whitewashed, stylishly furnished railway carriage (see some lovely photos of it over at Dezeen). 

Quite apart from the brilliance of the film menu (Saturday night was part of an 80s three-dayer - Heathers, Ferris Bueller's Day Off and, our pick, The Breakfast Club: "five total strangers, a brain, a beauty, a jock, a rebel and a recluse. Before the day was over they broke the rules, bared their souls and touched each other in a way they never dreamed possible". Hilariously brilliant retro heaven) there was amazing food at the barbecue, the previously mentioned coat hanger display and this super stylish impromptu screening area, above, complete with ingeniously designed furniture, by Jail Make, and colourful hand-made cushions, by Crafty Bitches – both companies operate from the arches at Deptford.