Bringing gold accents to your space with gold and white pillows

Danielle's charming classic walk up via Apartment Therapy

Adding metallic gold accents to your home is a great way to bring in warmth and visual texture. And gold can be remarkably versatile too: it brings a hint of luxury and glam but it also complements perfectly natural elements like wood or wicker.

Elle Decor, via Apartment Therapy

Gold also works beautifully with a variety of colours: think bright red, rich green, aqua or hot pink.

Modern Bedroom via Houzz

It can become a focal point to offset the simplest of designs.

Contemporary Living Room by Seattle Interior Designers & Decorators Beth Dotolo, RID, ASID via Houzz

Or part of a layering of rich textures and patterns.

Earthlab's gold and cream pillows
Pillows of course are a great way to experiment with colour and design trends without making a the kind of commitment involved in buying new furniture or repainting your walls. I love the combination of gold on cream, and when I  found this beautiful nubbly ivory silk noile I thought it cried out for some gold. On silk it seemed natural to print my Indian inspired tile design.
Indian inspired gold print on ivory silk pillow

My second gold and cream pillow is printed on slightly more robust organic cotton twill with a playful star design. This really is a pillow that will fit in just about anywhere, I have a sage green sofa which is rather fussy about the pillows it mixes with and this pillow looks great on it, although at the moment it's hanging out on a burgundy art deco chair from the 30s.


Gold on cream star print pillow by Earthlab

Cosy sofa

It's always fun to show off my cushions in their natural habitat, in this case my living room!

I tried my best this winter to have the soft furnishings compensate for the heating system's lack of oopmh, which meant pulling out  the wooly throws and rugs. The velvet stripes in these two organic cotton cushions add to the warm cosy vibe of the sofa, and the neutral palette works well with the woolen rug and the African kuba cloth wall hanging.

The neutral stripes pillow is one of my best sellers and a personal favourite, I have several in my living room, as it is so versatile and easy to live with.

Indian inspired printed pillows

Last week I wrote about my African inspired pillows, made using printing blocks carved in Namibia. This week it's the turn of my Indian pillows.

When I began making my own printng blocks I happened to be at my parent's house and my Mum pulled some old Indian printing blocks out of her lifetime's accumulation of arts and crafts supplies, and asked if I could do anything with them. I'm not sure how or when she aquired them, or how old they are!

Originally these blocks were used for applying wax in batik work, as well as for printing. They include some lovely circle designs as well as some birds and plant motifs.

I love the simple charm of these designs, and I've used them to produce my range of Indian inspired pillows, in bright happy colours.

Although I'm not usually a great fan of pink I love the combination of raspberry  and lighter pink used in the Indian birds and circles pillow and again in the Indian pink throw pillow. The other pillow features the same circle design: Indian blue and green print pillow.

All of these designs are printed on fairtrade organic cotton produced by Indian artisans. Check my Etsy pillow shop for future variations on these designs.

African inspired printed pillows

I've always been inspired by African art, and I own a number of beautiful examples, from sculpture to cloth. I love the boldness and simplicity of it, and I think it complements modern design perfectly.

So when I was getting into block printing and saw the beautiful Oshiwa printing blocks I was immediatly hooked. The Oshiwa designs were produced at their workshop in Namibia by three local craftsmen, and you can buy their hand carved wooden printing blocks from the Oshiwa shop on Etsy.

I have used my blocks to produce African inspired pillows, the first pillow is a bird and lizard design on natural linen, and the second features lizards and turtles, it's printed on fairtrade organic cotton from India.

I'm kind of proud of the fact that these pillows combine the skills of craftspeople from three continents, African woodcarvers, Indian weavers, and myself!

Organic cotton collection

I seem to have been so busy making cushions this autumn that I've had no time to talk about it! So here it is, my new organic cotton collection, using fairtrade organic cotton made in India.

I've had a lot of fun combining the different fabrics in my pillow / cushion designs, I love the interplay of textures and the natural, rustic feel given by the small imperfections in the fabric.

These are just two of the designs which use natural earth tones in geometric patterns which fit well into just about any interior. They all use the same range of fabrics, meaning you can mix and match between them and be sure of getting a coordinated look. To see the full range visit my shop