Living Room Update with BoConcept

At the end of last year, I shared some of my favourite furniture pieces from the latest BoConcept collection. With a focus on soft, organic designs for creating a home sanctuary, one standout design for me was the Modena sofa. A few weeks ago this stunning piece moved into our main living area, along with the Bermuda footstool, and it’s been like a breath of fresh air!

Refined and elegant, the contemporary lines of the Modena sofa are softened by curved edges, a deliberate decision by designer Morten Georgsen, and one that has resulted in a beautiful visual comfort. The organic expression continues with soft pull-in stitch details, ample seat thickness and the curve of Modena’s refined arm and sloping backrest. Both the sofa and footstool beautifully complement our existing Danish-designed pieces, including our BoConcept Carlton leather sofa, while at the same time injecting a fresh feel to the space.

For a seamless transition, we chose to stick with a three-seater design for our living space, but in keeping with BoConcept’s customisation design ethos, each Modena can comprise any of 18 modules. Along with a choice of 120+ fabrics and leathers, these options provide endless ways to personalise according to lifestyle and space.

When it came to choosing fabric, it was an easy choice. I had been eyeing up the BoConcept Lazio fabric for some time. A beautiful textural bouclé fabric, it goes hand in hand with the sofa’s elegant aesthetic, bringing a warm tactility to the minimalist design. I tested out a few different colours in our space - beige, white and light green. While I loved the beige, it is a very grey-beige, similar to our previous sofa. Wanting a change, I decided on white, which is a lovely warm, slightly off-white colour.

I’m sure some of you will be thinking that’s a brave choice with kids, but they are getting older now and always eat meals at the kitchen island or dining table. I also swear by MicroSeal, which I booked in on the day of the sofa’s arrival, providing permanent protection against stains and sun-fading. 

Still not ready to let go of the greige completely, I chose to upholster our Bermuda footstool in the beige Lazio, and the two pieces make a gorgeous pairing. The ottoman provides a great place to put our feet up, and can even be used as a casual seat or coffee table.

As is customary whenever a new piece of furniture arrives, I end up doing a lot of rearranging. I also have a dark wood coffee table being custom made and planned on changing the artworks around when it gets here, but I decided not to wait. I felt that the wall above the new sofa needed more depth and contrast to balance out the white, and I love how it’s turned out.

If you’ve been following TDC for some time, you will have seen several BoConcept updates over the years, and the reason I keep going back is that their sofas and customer service are exceptional. There is always a design that resonates strongly and really speaks to what I am looking for at the time. They not only look beautiful and enhance our living space aesthetically but they are also designed with the utmost comfort in mind and always deliver years of enjoyment.

Styling and photography by Michelle Halford - Studio TDC 

AD / This is a paid partnership post with BoConcept NZ. I only work with products I love and all opinions are my own. For more information please visit my About Page.

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At Home Feature with LUMIRA

Towards the end of last year, I had the pleasure of working with Australian Fragrance House, LUMIRA, who I have loved collaborating with over the years. Working with their latest offering, including scented candles, hand wash and perfume oils, their beautiful products are a joy to style and photograph. I was also lucky to be able to keep them for our home, and have been enjoying using them every day since.

Following on from this, LUMIRA founder Almira Armstrong asked if she could feature me for their At Home Series and I was honoured to take part. Now live on their journal, I talk about my home and interior aesthetic, some of my most treasured pieces, why incorporating scent is such an important element for me and some of my favourite products and fragrances from the Lumira collection.

Styling and photography by Michelle Halford/Studio TDC

Read the interview here. 

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Bedroom Update with Luxaflex - The Reveal

Last week I shared the first part of our bedroom update with Luxaflex®, The Selection Process, and today I’m excited to share the reveal. In case you missed it, in the first instalment I talked about what we were wanting to achieve in terms of light filtering qualities and privacy during the day, and blockout at night. Following a home visit by Luxaflex to talk through the options, we decided on a combination of two products, the new Luxaflex LumiShade™ and the Duette® shades.

The LumiShades bring a textural softness to the space. 

Visiting the showroom to see how these products would work once installed was a key part of the process, as was testing out fabric swatches in our bedroom throughout the day and night. With three LumiShade fabric varieties on offer, I couldn’t go past the Luxury option, and to create the soft effect I was after I chose Flax, a pale beige colour. Fitting seamlessly alongside our recently painted walls in Dulux Mangaweka Quarter, the decision to install the blinds from the top of the ceiling and wall to wall as recommended to us by Luxaflex was integral to the overall result. By adding an element of textural softness and warmth, the LumiShades have completely changed the look and feel of the room. They also provide a fascinating play on light, achieved by simply rotating the fabric vanes. As we move them from one side to the other, the level of light and even the colour subtly changes. I love that on a particularly bright day when the strong afternoon sun streams in, we can control the brightness while creating beautiful effects with the light. We can also have the sliding doors wide open and walk easily in and out through the LumiShades.

By simply rotating the fabric vanes, we can filter the light and add privacy. I love seeing how small adjustments make subtle differences to the light and colours in the room.  

I chose Flax, a soft beige colour for the LumiShades and I love how it blends seamlessly with the wall colour. 

Here the fabric vanes are rotated closed, providing room darkening functionality. 

With summer heading our way that bright sun can also overheat the room, which is where the second product we installed comes in to play. Chosen as the ideal blockout solution for night time, the Duette shades also filter unwanted glare while defecting heat. So if for example, we are heading out for the afternoon on a hot summer’s day, we can drop the Duette blinds to keep our room significantly cooler. When it comes to winter, the Duette shades will dramatically insulate the room.

A combination of LumiShades and Duette Shades has provided the perfect solution. 

The Powerview Pebble is an added feature that makes the Duette Shades so easy to use. 

In addition to blockout, the Duette Shades provide the ultimate in energy efficiency by defecting heat in summer and insulating in winter.  

The colour I chose for our Duette Shades is Birch, a slightly darker beige than the LumiShades and walls to create a little more warmth, depth and contrast. In terms of blockout, they are the ideal solution - perfect for those Sunday morning sleep-ins!

In addition to the PowerView Pebble, we have installed the PowerView Automation Hub to activate both the Duettes in the bedroom and Silhouettes in our dining room with voice control.  

Available in different colourways, I chose an Oyster Pebble and White Remote to match the room. 

The Powerview Automation for the Luxaflex Silhouette® shades in our dining area has been such a dream, I knew I wanted the same for the Duettes. A completely cordless battery operated system, allowing you to open and close the blinds with the press of a button on the remote - the PowerView Pebble - I was excited to learn that we could install the Powerview Automation Hub to integrate with the upstairs dining room Silhouette Shades. Using the app on our phone, we can now use voice control to automatically control the shades no matter where we are!

My morning routine. The PowerView Pebble is programmed to operate both the Duettes and the Luxaflex Silhouette shades in the dining area upstairs.  

 

I love being able to have the LumiShades closed for privacy and to filter the bright light, while leaving the doors open to allow for a cool breeze.  

From start to finish, working with Luxaflex been a completely seamless and thoroughly enjoyable process. Once again, the products have completely elevated the space in terms of both aesthetics and functionality, and we are thrilled with the results.

Styling by Michelle Halford-Studio TDC / Photography by Helen Bankers / Assisted by Anton Maurer

Bordeaux Night Stands from BoConcept (gifted)

Still book by Natalie Walton (gifted)

Clothing by Juliette Hogan (brand partner)  

AD / This is a paid partnership post. I only work with products I love and all opinions are my own. For more information please visit my About Page.

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noho move: Delivering Healthy Comfort without Costing the Earth

As someone with a history of back issues and a natural aversion to sitting still in one place for long, I was intrigued when news of the noho move™ chair came across my desk. Promising to bring a new kind of comfort to everyday life - which this year has seen many of us working from home, often at the dining table - through a uniquely versatile and dynamic, earth-friendly design, I was keen to give it a try. To say it has been a game-changer would be an understatement! Keep reading to find out why.

Created from thousands of hours of research into how we live our dynamic modern lives, noho move features a patented auxetic mesh seat that provides a four-way flex and form-fitting support that cradles your body. As you move in your chair - reclining back, or tilting forward - the chair moves with you to deliver a uniquely fluid motion and ergonomic support, intuitively responding to your every activity and posture, eliminating pressure points, and improving your body's circulation. Adding to the overall comfort, noho move breaths to modulate temperature, preventing heat build-up and loss, so you're always right in your thermal comfort zone. After using my noho move chair for a couple of weeks, I’m finding I can sit comfortably for much longer periods of time and my productivity has increased. Being able to move and stretch while I sit - I find the chair actually encourages me to do this - allows me to work much more effectively, and as a result, I'm finding a better balance in my day to day life.

Noho - meaning to sit or to dwell in Te Reo Maori - is a new New Zealand furniture brand driven by a team of doers, dreamers and self-confessed design geeks. To gain more insight into how their first product, noho move, came about, I jumped on a zoom call with CEO Richard Shirtcliffe - former boss of much-loved kiwi brands Phil & Teds, Coffee Supreme and Tuatara Beer - who currently resides in the US with his wife Sarah and their two young kids.

While surfing in Indonesia with his family, Richard was shocked by the amount of plastic waste in the water. Igniting discussions with Sarah around creating a product from reclaimed ocean waste, Richard teamed up with the Wellington-based, internationally renowned design studio Formway. Known for their groundbreaking designs of office furniture for leading global design brands such as Knoll and Natuzzi, it just so happens that they had spent the last four years working on a home furniture concept. Fusing this with Richard’s vision, they spent two years bringing the brand noho, and noho move to life.

Reflecting the brand’s core values, the innovative design by Formway is the result of the studio’s deep understanding of human behaviour, physiology and movement, as well as deep expertise in ergonomic and sustainable design. Every chair is made almost entirely from waste plastic, like ECONYL® regenerated nylon, sourced 100% from reclaimed fishing nets and end-of-use carpets - to help nurture our oceans and environment. And to ensure sustainability throughout the supply chain, the chairs are made here in NZ using 82% renewable energy.

Styling and Photography by Michelle Halford/Studio TDC

In terms of aesthetics, noho move gets a big tick of approval from me. Clean and minimalist, the mesh seat provides a unique textural touch, while the Cloud colour (it also comes in Ironsand) is the perfect neutral tone, making the chair fit like a dream in my pared-back office. I also opted for one of the Toppers, made from naturally soft and durable, sustainably sourced New Zealand wool. I like that it provides an added level of comfort, especially against my spine. I chose the Cloud for a seamless look, but the Toppers come in a range of colours drawn from nature to suit your personal interior style. The chair and Toppers are super easy to assemble, and I love that the chair is lightweight, making it easy to transition from room to room. 

To find out more about the noho move chairs visit the noho website, which currently offers free shipping across New Zealand and the US, with further destinations coming soon. 

AD / This is a paid partnership post. I only work with products I love and all opinions are my own. For more information please visit my About Page.

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Bedroom Update with Luxaflex - The Selection Process

Following on from the first bedroom update with Dulux, the next step has been to decide on new blinds for the space. Having teamed up with Luxaflex® back in 2018 when we installed beautiful Silhouette® shades in our dining area, I was excited to work with them once again. A world-renowned brand, their window solutions are the most stylish and innovative, and they provide an amazing service. They also specialise in designs that have been rigorously tested to withstand the varying New Zealand climate as well as the demands of busy, everyday life. Having learned a lot about their product range during the first collaboration, I was keen to revisit some of the options and find out about their newly launched product, Luxaflex LumiShade™.

My first mood board with some of the Luxaflex swatches I brought home to test out 

To start, one of the Luxaflex team visited our home to look at the bedroom. An important step in the process, it gave us the opportunity to identify and discuss key issues and hone in on what we wanted to achieve. On one side of the room, there are sliding doors that open up to the outdoor area, and there is also a horizontal window on the wall behind the bed. When we built, we installed simple blockout rollershades in all the bedrooms, but I now wanted to look at ways of visually enhancing our space at all times of the day. The ideal solution would be to create a softer effect during the day by filtering out some of the strong afternoon light and providing some privacy, while also creating a cosy retreat at night.

The first product presented to us was the new LumiShade. I was immediately drawn in by the look of the vertical curtain vanes which I thought would go hand in hand with our sliding doors. A contemporary take on a classic window covering, LumiShade strikes the perfect balance between versatility and elegance. Designed to offer beautiful light control, the individually curved fabric vanes feature an alternating light filtering and room darkening fabric panel. When opened, they provide daytime privacy with a soft view, which is exactly what we were looking for. What’s more, the level of privacy and light can be easily adjusted by rotating the fabric vanes to angle the amount of light entering the room. For room darkening, you simply tilt the shades completely.

Luxaflex LumiShade

Another key feature of the functional design is that it allows you to walk through the individual fabric vanes – whether they are opened or closed – providing for seamless indoor-outdoor living. Free from noisy connecting chains and bottom weights, LumiShade operates quietly and softly settles back into position. Ideal for our sliding doors, they would also stack to one side for complete access to the doors.

Luxaflex LumiShade 

Luxaflex LumiShade 

With the LumiShade ticking all the boxes in terms of aesthetics and light filtering functionality, our focus turned to the issue of blockout. A non-negotiable for my husband, we also needed to find a solution for the window behind the bed. When we chose our beautiful Silhouettes for our dining room space, the Duette® shades were a strong contender, so we decided to revisit this option.

Luxaflex Duette Shades

Luxaflex Duette Shades

Featuring the ultimate in Honeycomb Cellular Construction and energy efficiency, the Duette Architella Shades have three internal air pockets which dramatically increases the product’s ability to insulate in the winter. They also filter unwanted glare while defecting heat, keeping your room cooler during the summer. Available in a range of blockout fabrics (more on that soon), I could envisage how the Duettes would work in harmony with the LumiShade, providing an all-round solution for our bedroom. An added feature of the Duette Shades is the Powerview Automation. A wireless operating system designed to automatically control the shades via a remote, smart device and voice control, we also learned that we could get the Powerview Automation Hub to integrate with the upstairs dining room Silhouette Shades.

Luxaflex Duette Shades

Having decided on the blinds, the next step was a visit to the Luxaflex showroom to see how they would function once installed. An exciting part of the process, I love getting to see and touch the blinds (I even got to walk through the LumiShade) and test out the Powerview Automation.

Mood board with a shortlist of my favourite LumiShade and Duette fabric swatches 

The three LumiShade fabric variations to choose from

LumiShade fabric swatches

This was also the beginning of the fabric and colour selection, where I always feel very much in my element! Having just painted our bedroom I took in my Dulux colour swatch Mangaweka Quarter and used this as the starting point. Wanting to create a warm, tonal effect, I picked out some complementary colours to take home to test out in our space, along with hardware samples to ensure a seamless finish. Placing them over the windows, I paid close attention to how the LumiShade fabric, which has subtle textures and durable qualities, looked during the different times of day as the light changed. In addition to the wall colour, I also took into account our furniture, lighting and bed linen to ensure there would be an overall sense of cohesion.

Mood board showing my final fabric and colour selections 

With a decision now made on the fabric and colours, Luxaflex visited our house once again to measure up our windows and get the blinds (custom-made to order) underway.

Now installed, I’ll be sharing the full reveal soon. Stay tuned!

Images 1,8,9 & 11 Styling and photography by Michelle Halford/Studio TDC
Other images courtesy of Luxaflex


AD / This is a paid partnership post. I only work with products I love and all opinions are my own. For more information please visit my About Page.

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Living Room Update with the Samsung Serif TV

The open plan living area is a favourite part of our home, and where we spend a lot of time as a family. In keeping with the pared-back but relaxed aesthetic, the space has evolved over the years with several updates in terms of furniture, art, rugs, and an ever-changing shelving display. There has however been an element that I was never happy with — the very outdated TV. In fact, it was such an eyesore that I went to great lengths to hide it when taking photos of the space! In desperate need of an upgrade, we're now thrilled to have welcomed the new Samsung Serif TV into our home.

Renowned French designers Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec are behind The Serif, which they first created for Samsung in 2015. I knew then that this beautiful design — a freestanding work of art in itself — would be the ideal solution for our home when we upgraded the TV. Now available in New Zealand for the first time with the launch of the updated Serif 2.0, my dream has finally come to fruition, and it was well worth the wait.

The Bouroullecs, who have collaborated with some of the design industry’s biggest names such as Vitra, Hay, Kartell and more, are known for moving above and beyond boundaries in design and adding poetic quality to objects, big or small. The Serif, despite being a television, has a beautiful design language and subtle presence. Featuring a distinctive 'I' shape, elegant frame and slim metal stand, it also doubles as a shelf when the legs are removed. I was so happy to do away with our cumbersome TV console unit, and loved the idea of having a versatile, freestanding TV that could be angled to suit the shape of our room, rather than being wall mounted in a permanent spot. As you can tell from the photos I’ve taken, it fits seamlessly with our pared-back interior and looks beautiful from every angle. Even from the back, it has a sleek, minimal appearance due to a woven fabric panel that covers the connectors. I also love that it has a place to hide the cords — they simply run along a line of the leg with a cover that you pop on top — for a clean and tidy finish.

One of my favourite elements of The Serif is the Ambient Mode, which offers a graceful alternative to the black, blank screen. From Relaxation and Mood settings to Artworks, Music and Decor there are so many different options and I love being able to choose content that blends beautifully with our space. There’s also a Special Edition created by Ronan & Erwan Bouroullec, with two exclusive patterns including a textured fabric, and an Info setting so that you can check the date, time and weather.

In terms of technology, The Serif is incredible. The screen quality is QLED (the highest of Samsung standards), it features innovative audio technology, connects easily to mobile phones and devices, and has built-in voice assistants. We're all embracing these new features and discovering new ones everyday! Available in a trio of sizes, 43", 49" and 55", the 55” is perfect for our space.  

Styling and photography by Michelle Halford - TDC 

This year has made us realise how much we value spending time at home, enjoying the comforts of our living space. A joy to use and watch, The Serif has enhanced the space in so many ways, perfectly integrating with the interior. We couldn't be happier. 

To find out more about The Serif and all of its features take a look here.

AD / This is a Paid Partnership post. I only work with products I love and all opinions are my own. For more information please visit my About Page.

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