Famille Summerbelle

A mobile for a friend

This morning Téo (aged 5) made a drawing for his friend Finn and wrote 'I miss you' and 'I love you'. It was a nice way to keep in touch with his friend after being away from school for 3 weeks due to the confinement. This new situation has proven to be challenging for children, like us they really miss the interaction with their friends!

The drawings of robots Téo made inspired us to turn it into a fun mobile to hang in his bedroom! This was a fun activity to do this morning while his brother and his sister where doing their homeschooling.

I hope this will inspire you to make something similar with your child. A drawing made by your child is a good place to start! It's great to make something to hang in the bedroom and even better if it reminds you of a dear friend!

For materials we used what we had available in the house like an empty cereal box as it is not too thick for cutting nor too thin to hold the paints. We had some paints (but Téo ended up using watercolour crayons), scissors, a pencil and newspapers (for protecting the table). Téo painted a layer of Gesso acrylic primer as a base but if you don't have some just use white paint as a base.

I invite you to follow the step by step photos and improve it to make it your own project! Téo and I would love to see what you will make so please send us a photo via Instagram and tag @famillesummerbelle

Have fun and more importantly look after yourselves!

Storing Legos pieces with our House Boxes

Our two boys (aged 10 and 5) are at the age where they spend hours on end playing with Legos. They both play very well together which is really sweet.
Today they made this pretty fun art installation on the kitchen bench displaying all the Legos characters (I found out that most have no hands which are most probably lost somewhere in the house!).
As this might sounds familiar, Legos pieces often ends up in every corner of the house. Who hasn't walked in the middle of the night on a sharp piece of Legos cube swearing with an acute pain on the foot!
I found a nice solution with our House Boxes for storing away all these little pieces!
If you are really motivated at tidying up your child's Legos you can also arrange them by colours as the House Boxes comes flat packed in 4 colours: blue, pink, yellow and black!

OUR EASTER BUNNY!

This is Ludo my favorite bunny.
Wishing you all a very Happy Easter!

Hand screen printed bunny, perfect for kids rooms.

Our best selling birch wood tray and our beloved cushion featuring Ludo the bunny on one side and his friend the Maximilien the magician on the reverse.

Do the dishes on Easter Sunday with the colourful bunny tea-towel & be rewarded with a cup of tea in our fine bone China mug.

Paris Deco Ideas for Kid's rooms

I was delighted to receive in the post the new Edition Paumes book: Paris Deco Ideas for Kid's Rooms. The book is full of design details and interior inspiration grouped in different themes such as Walls, Fashion & Textile, Colour, Toys, Little Ideas etc...Ophelia and Lucien's bedroom is featured amongs others beautiful and quircky bedrooms of creative families (Petit Pan, Agence Violette, The Collection, Charlotte Gastaut, Olivelse....)

Homemade dollhouse

Ophelia (our daughter who is 5 and a half - very important the half) has been asking me to make her a dollhouse for a while. So when my mum moved house, she gave Ophelia this little wooden cabinet for her bedroom. We decided to transform it into her own dollhouse. It is now inhabited by Playmobil little people. Ophelia made some artworks for the walls and has kindly included her brother's name on one of her drawing but he is so not allowed to get near the house for now said Ophelia - he is 2 and a half and loves to trash anything his sister owns!

Magical Kingdoms

How stunning are these colourful paintings by San Francisco artist Lisa Congdon. The layout with the bright fluorescent pink tape makes this composition even more vibrant.

colourful cubes

I love these prints by Rock That Horse!

Seen on Hello Polly.

Tas-Ka

I'm loving the beautiful collection of products in Tas-Ka webshop: vintage and new books, a fantastic choice of cushions and fabrics, cute toys, lampshades, chairs and coat hangers....well I could go on for hours...

Shelving Chairs

The Latten Shelving System by Hannes Gumpp at ABR Produccion.
I think it would look great in a child's room.

Have a nice weekend

I'm off to London today for the day (leaving the house at 6am to get an early Eurostar!) so I will leave you with Livette La Suissette, very cute home accessories for the children seen at Maison & Objet.
I wish you all a nice weekend.
I can't wait to relax on saturday and I'm hoping to go to Playtime on Sunday!

The poo poo hut

La Cacabane sounds much nicer in French! A funny short cut name (caca=poo, cabane= hut) for a place to play and be private. Check this little cartoon video to see where the idea came from. Designed by French company Pirouette Cacahouète.
Maybe I should get one to start potty training Lucien, but I think he would only be interested to open and close the door over and over again (that's his big thing at the moment).

Seen on Luvaville.

Home made mobile

I've wanted to make a mobile for a long time, but beating me to it, Ophelia decided that she wanted to create her first mobile for her little brother - to hang above his cot.
So here's how we did it..

1. First we painted the flat colours (of Ophelia's choice!) onto sheets of 270gms paper

2. Then we glued two different colours together

3. Ophelia drew her favourite shapes over one side which I then cut.

4. I used very thin wires to build the mobile shape - which you can buy in any model shop (and some art shops). Some people use a coat-hanger but I find it very difficult to manipulate into shape.

5. After attaching the strings, we used lots of different objects (buttons, jewels, cut-designs) to balance the mobile. This is the most difficult bit, getting the weight right on each side.

Vintage prints

Fun and quirky prints from Present & Correct. I think my favorite is the family sitting high up on the branch tree!

It's raining, it's boring...

...Ophelia is singing...Lucien is sleeping, Simon is in London and I'm enjoying this bank holiday morning with a cup of coffee, Jazz music and looking at my favorite blogs. I came across this delicate and beautiful branch on Cocon-Shop...

Have a nice day!

Playing with space

I have a beautiful book at home of French photographer and installation artist Georges Rousse.
He was born in Paris in 1947. His artistic vision has its roots in the bombed out buildings of World War II where he played as a child.
Rousse's art fuses photography, painting and architecture into one aesthetic discipline; and for over thirty years he has worked in buildings either derelict or scheduled for renovation throughout Europe, Asia, Canada and the US.
The facades and interiors of these structures serve as temporary studios and are the creative focus point of his artwork. As he paints, adds structures, or cuts away walls, vibrant shapes and meditative patterns emerge from the previously barren environment.
These masterful executions of trompe l'oeil coalesce from a single vantage point, captured by Rousse's camera. These site specific works have the rare ability to be both intellectually engaging and complex while being absolutely accessible to a broad audience including those completely outside the world of art. It is in equal measure profound and simple fun.

Book: Georges Rousse 1981-2000 by Bartschi-Salomon Editions
Galerie RX is representing his work.
Also check the Durham project.

Colours

Inspiring Autumnal colours.


Seen on Sandra Jutos.

Re work

Stunning work by designer Huw Griffith who re-works 19th century mirrors with antique fabrics. His work can be seen in Anthropology, Paul Smith, Whistles....

Love the bottle with the red liquid!
Seen on Blue Sky Butterfly Studio.

Vinyl laser cut carpets

By Arzu Firuz.

Alphabet cushions

By Elsie Dodds.

New colours for Paris map

We've selected Cerulean Blue and Coral Pink as the new colours for our Paris maps which are available now from the Famille Summerbelle site.

We hope you like the colours...it always takes me absolutely ages to make a final choice on colours, trying to mix complimentary colours and retain an overall palette for Famille Summerbelle.

Let me know what you think!