Famille Summerbelle

Inspiring 48h in London

I wanted to share with you some inspiring photos I took while I was in London last week. I was there to work in the Famille Summerbelle studio in Finsbury park. On Saturday I met with my younger sister Emeline (we call her Milou!) who lives in Shoreditch for a nice breaksfast at Albion. She took me in all the cool shops in the area. Oh and I also went on Regent street to Anthropologie and J Crew. There were so many nice things to buy!

The Handweavers Studio on Seven Sisters Road.

Anthropologie, Regent Street.

J Crew, opposite Anthropologie on Regent Street.

Albion on Boundary Street.

Nice pattern on the front of the building Forge & Co on Shoreditch High Street

Opposite, Ace Hotel and Hoi Polloi restaurant with the pretty That Flower Shop.

Custom made umbrellas at Lockwood Umbrellas on Shoreditch High Street.

You Can Now shop on Rivington Street and I really recommend reading their magazine.

Labour and Wait on Redchurch Street.

The Creative Guide to Amsterdam

Dutch graphic designer Naomi den Besten from Pretty Unexpected has created this beautiful Creative Guide to Amsterdam packed with her favourite addresses: design book stores, concept stores, restaurants, art supplies shops and many more cool things to do in Amsterdam. Her creative guide is available here.
A new excuse to go on my bike to explore this city!

Letterpress Amsterdam

This morning I met up with Thomas Gravemaker the man behind the creative Letterpress Amsterdam studio in the centre of town. It's a fascinating workspace full of charm, old machines and wooden draws filled with handset metal types. Thomas has an extensive knowledge and experience in letterpress and graphic design. He worked for many years in London and Paris where he set up his own studio. I enjoyed speaking to him in French for an hour (I mainly speak English with everyone in Amsterdam so it was nice to speak with a (Dutch) francophile!)
The Letterpress Amsterdam studio produces bespoke prints, cards and invitations and also two-day intensive workshops or evening classes to learn the skills of letterpress printing.

In search for wallpaper and interior fabrics

Famille Summerbelle is very excited to be part of Patternsnap a newly launched application for iphones and ipads which helps you search, save and share a very large selection of wallpaper and interior fabric patterns. Choose a design and Patternsnap provides detailed samples of similar patterns then links you directly to the stockists and company website where you can purchase your favourite product.It is really fun to use and very useful for searching beautiful patterns (You will find the work of designers like Deborah Bowness, Louise Body, Abigail Edwards, Erika Wakerly, MissPrint, Timorous Beasties and many many more...)

Win a paper cut map of San Francisco!

This month we are very excited to collaborate with Babyccino to offer you the opportunity to win our bright pink paper cut map of San Francisco (worth £120)
You just have to register on their lovely website to participate!
This laser cut map is an exact replica of the original hand paper cut of San Francisco. It shows all the interests and attractions of the City by the Bay, as well as some of the quirky side of San Francisco life.

Watch the making of the map of San Francisco here!

Chez la Famille Summerbelle

Lately on my Instagram...
My little creative corner. I like to pin a mix of inspirational and colourful things on the wall above my desk. The desk lamp is from Jielde.

Leaves pattern paper cut in our bedroom.

There are so many little flower shops here in Amsterdam so on my way back home I spotted these beauties. I just love the colours. In the background you can see some of my paper cut houses.
This is Lucien in the bath, lucky boy he has a good view from there!

Amelie Mancini

I discovered the work of French artist and designer Amélie Mancini on Instagram. Amelie makes all her work by hand in her studio in Brooklyn, NY. She works with a variety of medium be it woodworking (oh I absolutely love her arrow wooden spoons!), lino cutting (check out her Tropical collection pattern!) or painting. She also makes letterpress cards, tee-shirts and prints inspired by her love of baseball.

Create your own paper puppet show

For our second Creative Cutting project, we have this fun and quick activity to do with your children: a little paper puppet show! Just download and print our free PDF here. Take out all your colourful pens and pencils on the table and draw bright tee-shirts and funny faces to the sporty characters. Follow the lines to cut around the shapes and stick them on a bbq wooden stick.






Ophelia and Lucien made a little puppet show for us before bedtime yesterday, it was really funny to hear their silly stories!

We like a nice packaging

I hope you all had a good week. For the weekend I wanted to share with you some images of our packaging we use to pack all our tea towels and cushion covers. It features Famille Summerbelle triangle patterns and has a nice fold at the back. Hope you like it!

I'm really looking forward to this weekend. At last it is getting warm and sunny in Amsterdam!

La Villa Noailles

I wanted to share with you some photos of the Villa Noailles we visited during the Easter holidays for the International Festival of Fashion and Photography (click here to see more on this subject).
Built in the early 1920's by French architect Robert Mallet-Stevens for Charles and Marie-Laure de Noailles, the villa was one of the very first modernist style buildings constructed in France. The couple Charles and Marie-Laure were both from prestigious families and became well known art collectors and enthusiasts of modernism.
The villa was their holiday home located on top of a hill overlooking the bay, offering stunning views of the mediterranean sea.

Wire furniture

Hello. Today I wanted to share with you a small selection of colourful wire products for the home. Do you know of Bend? Bend is a design and manufacturing studio based in Los Angeles making playful lampshades and furniture.
From top: Bar Stool from Bend, Timber and ore bar stool from Woodsmithe, Origami Coffee table from West Elm.


Bright yellow lampshade and basket by Bend:

Ferm Living basket/table:

Garden shelves and storage by Kilian Schindler.

A break in the sun

So far this week in the South of France...


1. Paulette, an authentic French café in the Provencal village of Cotignac.
2. Lucien at the Cistercian Abbey of Le Thoronet
3. The best afternoon playing on the beach of Le Lavandou
4. Apéro on the beach at Le Marais Plage in Hyères

All eyes on Hyères

Yesterday was a wonderful Sunday full of sunshine, creativity and surprises.

All my family met in the South of France, in Hyères to support my sister Coralie, one of the 10 young fashion designers shortlisted at the prestigious Festival of Fashion and Photography of Hyères, organized by the Villa Noailles.

We went last night to view the third and final incredible catwalk, after which the winners were announced. Coralie won the Prix du Public (winning the most votes from visitors across the week and from the visitors at the Palais de Tokyo in Paris). We are so incredibly proud of her!

Coralie's collection is inspired by the traditional sheep herders from 1950s Iran, moving from the mens wardrobe to an incredibly crafted and structured women's silhouette. The details on each of her 10 outfits were astonishing, all patiently cut, dyed and sewn by hand. It represented hours and hours of incredibly dedicated work.

For this 29th edition, members of the jury included Carol Lim and Humberto Leon, artistic directors of Kenzo, film director Spike Jonze, Jamie Perlman artistic director of English Vogue, artist Maurizio Cattelan or the actress Chloe Sevigny amongst others.

The first prize was awarded to Kenta Matsushige who designed a beautiful womens collection inspired by the architecture of Japanese museums. The Chloé prize was awarded jointly to two designers Liselore Rowjin (Netherlands) and Roshi Porkar (Austria).

The festival offers a great exposure for the 10 participants , giving them visibility and a chance to be spotted by the top of the fashion industry. I think it's fair to say that the standard was incredibly high; both in level of imagination and craftsmanship.

One of the outfit with Swarovski sequins


The dress Coralie designed for Chloé.

Hello

I'm happy to be back! How was your Easter weekend? I'm in Paris with the children after spending the weekend visiting my grand mother in the South West of France. It was so nice to spend time with my brother, sisters and all the family.
Here are some of my Instagram photos of the week in Amsterdam before we left for France:
After school activity, Ophelia's painting Mount Fuji!


From top left to bottom right:Snapshot of Starch café in Amsterdam, children drawing with thick chalks on the pavement in front of our house, Lucien helping me taking photographs and a very pretty flower shop in Amsterdam.

Creative cutting ideas for Easter with Famille Summerbelle

Hello, we're really excited to share with you some creative cutting ideas for Easter to do at home. This is the first of a serie of Creative Cutting ideas that we will share with you an will become a regular feature on Famille Summerbelle blog and website.
You can download and print our free PDF, follow the instructions to make your own colourful paper cut table decorations. I hope you will enjoy it as much as I did!

Click here to download and print our free PDF templates.

A new kitchen for the holidays

We're planning to build a new kitchen in the old barn of our family home in the south west of France over the next month or so. The house is very old and used to be over the years the village school, a barber (!) and an auberge where the men would meet for a drink after a day working in the fields (in the 1920's). My great grand father lived there, my grand father was born in the annex (where they used to dry tobacco!).
Every year at the end of August we all meet there to spend some time together. That's my brother, his wife and their 4 children, my 3 sisters and their boyfriends, my dad, his wife and the 4 of us. It's a happy and rather chaotic place when we're all together. I love it! This year we're going to build a new kitchen in the renovated barn as the actual kitchen is more than 20 years old and start to be very small when we all cook together.
At the moment my sister is drawing the plans while I'm researching ideas and pin them on Pinterest. I love this part of research! The hard bit is to make this happened in a tight budget and on time before the Summer!

Oh! and today we've been featured in the (free) issue 4 of Enfants Terribles, a really nice Danish online magazine! Check out my interview here. Aurélie Lecuyer our stylist and photographer is also featured with beautiful photos of her house in France.

Enjoy the weekend!

30% off The Performers collection to celebrate the build up to Easter!

Hello, I hope you had a lovely weekend. We had friends from London staying with us so we took them on a cycle ride around Amsterdam. It was so warm and sunny we ended up having a bbq in the garden. Oh I love Spring an I can't wait for the Easter break in a couple of weeks to relax in the park...
Have you started your Easter decoration yet? I am preparing a little surprise for you next week so start to sharpen your scalpel and gather lots of colourful papers!
To celebrate the build up to Easter we are offering 30% off our collection The Performers: mugs, trays, hand screen prints, tea towels and cushion. Enjoy shopping!

The 30% off reduction will appear on the checkout page.

Ludo Le Lapin and Maximilien Le Magicien hand screen prints (size 50x70cm)
The Perfomers cushion (rabbit on one side, magician on the other side)


Clown & Flower tea towels (pack of two tea towels)


Ludo & Maximilien Tea Towels (Pack of two)


Ludo birch wood tray and The Performers fine bone China mug.

Clown fine bone China mug

Flower, birch wood tray

Lukas Peet

Canadian designer Lukas Peet graduated in 2009 from the Design Academy of Eindhoven and has since opened his own design studio in Vancouver. He is a multi talented designer working on everything from desks, lights, clocks and graphic design. I first discovered his Village table on my Pinterest. I love the reflection of mirrored shelf with the bright yellow of the underside table top.


Table Lantern is a table light inspired by oil lanterns.By turning the cork knob of the dimmer you can change the brightness of the bulb, from a subtle orange glow to bright white.

Button Series pendant lights. A LED pendant light that is suspended by nylon rope similar to a button. This suspension system allows the light to be tilted on an angle to change the direction of the light. Available at Andlight.

Slab Series pendant lights are a dimmable LED pendant light covered in 100% industrial grade wool felt which provides acoustic dampening to any space. Available at Andlight.

Snapshots of the week

Some snapshots of our past few days from my Instagram
from top left: Hot chocolate and home made cakes from De Bakkerswinkel, Ophelia's reflection in my favourite Hay's mirror, Lucien trying to break the piñata he made at school, Athenaeum Nieuwscentrum my favourite magazine store in Amsterdam.

A morning cycle ride along the canals in Amsterdam

Craft day at the studio, Lucien playing outside our house, cool barber shop at Hutspot Amsterdam, cutting city names for our short animation.

The Little Bookroom Guide to NYC with Children

I received yesterday a copy of the book The Little Bookroom Guide to New York City with Children with our Morning in Manhattan design illustrating the cover. Isn't it sweet?! This book follows the successful Little Bookroom Guide to Paris and is packed with cool addresses of restaurants, shops and activities to do with children -and adults- in the big apple.

The author Angela Hederman (also editor at the Little Bookroom) knows about entertaining children in NYC, she has 5 children and has been living in Greenwich for the past 30 years!

The Little Bookroom Guide to Paris with Children featuring Un Dimanche à Paris illustration on the cover.