Vintage-dusk | A floral installation
Following on from the Spring theme of yesterday’s photo-post, and in equal celebration of the onset of Spring, I decided to both fill my home with flowers, and share the results with you on The Daily Norm. I find that flowers are such an important part of a home. A different bunch of flowers can transform a room from one season to the next; their scent can bring nature alive within the confines of four walls; and their colour can be used to either enhance or improve an interior scheme. So although having regular flowers is something of an indulgence at £10-£20 per time, I’d rather spend on that and it last a week or more, than an equal spend on wine which disappears in one night (although lets face it, I do plenty of that as well…).
Rationalisation aside, time for me to introduce my latest floral scheme. It’s something of a contemporary design – more of an installation in effect, but I think it looks pretty good in the centre of my dining table. Playing on the vintage theme, I have combined both heavily gilded vintage gold frames with beautiful faded dusky pink roses. Being unable to afford over a dozen of the kind, I opted for 6 showpiece roses, and supplemented with contrasting green thistle and some purple foliage (whose name escapes me). All of these I placed in a variety of sized and shaped glass bottles, one stem in each, and positioned these in various locations within my vintage frame “installation”. I took the idea of single stem bottles from the Hotel Estherea in Amsterdam, where I stayed at the beginning of 2012, and whose daily sprays of fresh flowers made a huge impression on my design sensibilities. It’s a clear departure from the traditional vase, and with all of those different panes of glass standing side by side and reflecting through each other, the grouped bottles have an almost chandelier effect – the perfect degree of decadence for my vintage theme.
A vintage themed contemporary installation, perfect for the modern design-conscious home.
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The Daily Norm 
Dec 10
Christmas comes to Palma: Part 2 – Home decor
With the streets of Palma de Mallorca awash with the sparkle of Christmas, my decorations were never going to be far behind. It’s been a bizarre state of affairs – we only moved to Mallorca 3 weeks ago (although it feels like longer) and have been unpacked for barely 2 weeks, and yet now it is time to change the decor again in order to welcome Christmas through the door. And much are the decorations needed, for with the sun still beating down upon us, it certainly doesn’t feel all that Christmassy otherwise.
Regulars of The Daily Norm will know that I love my Christmas decorations, and that each year they become perhaps more extravagant in their scale and abundance. And being unwilling to lose any of my precious Christmas cargo, I faced the somewhat Herculean task of getting all of my decorations from London to Mallorca in one piece. But transport the load I did, and with some 1,000 glass baubles amongst our collection of decor, I think the angels must have graced our move for there was not a single bauble broken when we unpacked the other end – that is at least until I started decorating and the inevitable breakage or two commenced!
But with the decorations unloaded into the now bigger space of what is our Palma apartment, we have been able to go to town with our decor, even adding a tree ontop of last year’s scheme. I give you the new golden glamour tree! Abundant in its effusion of elegant embellishments, this tree is a homage to all things golden and gorgeous, and the gold offsets to spectacular effect atop a black tinsel tree, and with flashing warm white lights making each golden decoration sparkle.
Golden Glamour
But what of the others? Well as with last year, our favourite Venetian-inspired Eiffel-themed sparkling red and silver scheme makes its return, looking wonderful in this new Mallorcan setting, where the higher ceilings of the 19th century apartment block add extra glamour to this sparkling spectacle.
Venetian-Eiffel Splendour
I’ve also reintroduced the citrus theme of a previous tree, but hung yellow and orange baubles amongst cerulean blue on a tree of white. This modern and fresh Christmas look works wonderfully amongst the paintings and easels of what is my new Mallorcan art studio, reflecting the vibrancy of colours which bounce off my artwork.
Mediterranean Christmas
My grand red and green hallway tree has also made its way over to Mallorca, although the tree which previously needed to be bent at the top in order to squeeze it into my London apartment looks practically dwarfish in this new space.
Traditional Abundance
And finally the bedroom scheme, which this year takes on a much fresher blue and white theme to match the blues of our new moroccan inspired space. Stripped of all tinsel and garlands, this is a much simpler look which nevertheless remains full and abundant because of the sheer number of baubles, and a balanced hang throughout. It was something of a struggle to buy a real tree out here in the Med, but we found this 7ft beauty in a side street florist, and since it comes complete with roots and a pot, we’re hoping that it won’t become crunchy and dry within days of being installed.
Scandinavian Arabia
And of course throughout the flat there are the accessories, the smaller trees, the little scandinavian santas and the sultry comforting sound of Doris Day singing Christmas standards better than anyone before or since. All that remains is the Christmas food and the mulled wine. But it surely won’t be long in coming.
All photos and written content are strictly the copyright of Nicholas de Lacy-Brown © 2014 and The Daily Norm. All rights are reserved.