George Clarke’s Old house, New home

Last night the whole family made our TV debut on George Clarke’s Old House New Home show on Channel 4, you can watch the episode on the Channel 4 website.

I wanted to give a shout out to all the companies and people that helped us renovate our beautiful Edwardian home in Addiscombe Croydon. I’ll try and write up something about the whole experience in another post.

Trades

Builder: Perfect Building Solutions
john.f.curran73@gmail.com

Electrician: KEAS Electrical Ltd
info@keaselectical.com

Plumber: M&I Heating and Plumbing
miheating.plumbing@hotmail.com

Front Room

Wall Light and Green Table Lamp Base: Pooky
www.pooky.com

Paint, “Papavera” and “Golden Honey”: Sandersons (Style Library)
www.stylelibrary.com

Yellow Song Armchair: Maker and Son
www.makerandson.com

Kitchen

Kitchen Units: Pluck
www.pluck.kitchen

Worktop installation: Total Tops
www.totaltops.co.uk

Worktop: Tri Stone Surfaces
www.tri-stone-surfaces.co.uk

Apple green tiles: Johnson Tiles, Milton Hollins Collection
www.johnson-tiles.com

EL 13 Amp Stove Cooker: Esse
www.esse.com

Tap and sink: Franke
www.franke.com

Ceiling Pendants: Pooky
www.pooky.com

Paint, “Matterhorn”: Sandersons (Style Library)
www.stylelibrary.com

Dining Room

Yellow Song Armchair: Maker and Son
www.makerandson.com

Dining Table Top and High Chair: Stantons
www.stantonsuk.co.uk

Dining Table Legs: Tiptoe
www.tiptoe.fr

Dining Chairs: Pluck
www.pluck.kitchen

Paint, “Matterhorn” and “Botanical Green”: Sandersons (Style Library)
www.stylelibrary.com

Bedroom

Bed: Karma Beds
www.karmabeds.co.uk

Wallpaper, “Apple”: William Morris (Style Library)
www.stylelibrary.com

Navy and Pink Bedspreads: John Lewis
www.johnlewis.com

William Morris Strawberry Thief Bedspread: Bedeck
www.bedeck.com

Curtain Makers: Dixons Interiors
www.dixonsinteriors.co.uk

Curtain Fabric, “Srrawberry Thief”: William Morris (Style Library)
www.stylelibrary.com

Ceiling Pendant and Bedside Lamps: Pooky
www.pooky.com

Paint, “Fire Pink” and “Amanpuri”: Sandersons (Style Library)
www.stylelibrary.com

Bathroom

Sacker Double Ended Bath: Lefroy Brooks
w ww.lefroybrooks.com

Sink and Toilet and Taps: Lefroy Brooks
www.lefroybrooks.com

Savoy Marine Wall Tiles: Johnson Tiles
www.johnson-tiles.com

Devonshire Floor Tiles: Johnson Tiles
www.johnson-tiles.com

Coving and Ceiling Roses: Keaneys Ltd
www.keaneys.co.uk

Paint, “Matterhorn”: Sandersons (Style Library)
www.stylelibrary.com

Loft

Grey Armchairs: Rhubarb Homes
www.rhubarb-malvern.co.uk

Desk Lamps: Herston
www.herston-uk.com

Paint, “Matterhorn”: Sandersons (Style Library)
www.stylelibrary.com

Throughout

Internal Doors: PJ Pine and Sons
www.pjpine.co.uk

Wooden Flooring: The Natural Wood Flooring Company
www.naturalwoodfloor.co.uk

Coving and Ceiling Roses: Stevensons of Norwich
www.stevensons-of-norwich.co.uk

Column Radiators: Radiators4u
www.radiators4u.co.uk

Ceiling Pendants: Pooky
www.pooky.com

Paint – Hallway and Stairs, “Charlotte’s Locks”: Farrow and Ball
www.farrow-ball.com

Paint – Landing, “Matterhorn”: Sandersons (Style Library)
www.stylelibrary.com

SamKnows

I ‘ve been busy rebranding, redesigning and Cookie-ifying all of SamKnows digital products this year. First to get relaunched is the website – www.samknows.com.

If you don’t know anything about SamKnows and it’s highly likely that you don’t, they can measure your internet, they measure lots of peoples internet, they are considered the best measurers of the internet in the world! Governments, regulators and ISPs all over the world use them to conduct national studies on internet performance. They have big plans, plans to help you get better internet, understand your internet performance more, make the complexity and mystery about why your internet is sometimes good, sometimes bad and thing of the past, they want to build a self healing internet so you don’t ever have to worry about bad internet again. We’re not there yet… but you can sign up for a free Whitebox and start monitoring your internet right now, new features will be hot off the production line.

Big up to Callum for building it, all the .svg animations on the homepage required some mad maths skills. Oh there’s a couple of hidden Easter eggs on the homepage, see if you can find them :)

Lost My Name – Dragon Slayers

The guys I’m working with were on BBC’s Dragon’s Den last night! Here’s the episode on iPlayer, they’re right at the end of the show. Asi’s negotiations were brilliant, the only time I can remember someone getting all the money they wanted for the equity they offered. £100,000 for 4%, a new record for Dragon’s Den.

I think it’s a safe bet for the dragon though, they’ve got really strong growth, feels like sales are almost doubling every month, Christmas this year is going to be nuts. So much stuff going on behind the scenes here too, just about to launch the book in multiple languages, even an American version because they were constantly complaining David couldn’t spell ;) Book number 2 is in the works, much more ambitious (and hopefully magical) than the first. We’re hoping to have it ready early next year. We’ve started working on an animated version of the book for a mobile and TV app. And we’ve got a new site launching soon (which I’ve been helping them with). Happy days.

One of the nicest things about working for a company like Lost My Name is the feedback we get from our customers, here’s a particular favourite we received the other day:

I have to tell you that I am 53 years old and have purchased countless gifts for children over the last 35 years and this book was the most extraordinary and priceless gift I have ever given to any one before. This is no exaggeration. Your work was perfect – creative, intelligent and beautifully crafted.

Head over the Lost My Name, stick a name in and see what it’s all about. Or watch this video:

Greetings by Markus Magnusson

Great little animation by motion designer Markus Magnusson. Love the style, the masked transitions between greetings is really nice, the fist bump greeting is my favourite. More animations on his Vimeo »

Illustrated map of Japan by Muti

I love a good illustrated map, this one by the South African outfit – Muti is a fine example. Nice clean geometry, lovely bit of vintage texturing, and the rest of their work is well worth checking out too.

Colour Studies

As an avid collector of random crap I’m drawn to this set of beautiful colour studies by New York-based artist Sara Cwynar.

Walking across the Alps on the GR5

Finished editing the video of me and my brother walking across the Alps from Lake Geneva to Nice along the GR5. If you haven’t got half an hour to spare, here’s the 2.5 min highlights version.

At the time we booked our plane tickets we didn’t realise that the Alps had received it’s biggest snowfall in the past 50 years over winter… So even though it was early summer (June), it felt more like spring! Progress was slow through the deep snow on the passes and we had to make a few detours for safety. In the end we didn’t make it all the way to Nice before our 20 days ran out, we stopped a few days short at Saint-Étienne-de-Tinée. But we had a great time, the scenery was fantastic and we pretty much had the whole Alps to ourselves, which is a rare treat these days.

You can see the photo set of the trip here »

Cat face desktop

I drew a picture of Eddie the other day to decorate my desktop, if you want a stylised cat face on your computer too, then download it here »

Say hello to Eddie

It’s been a hectic few weeks for me and Nicky, we’ve moved home to Bethnal Green and we’ve got a new kitteh! He’s a long hair Pixie Bob, although he doesn’t have a bob tail, or the extra polydactyl toe, but he is a whole lot of fun :)

Below is a short video of his first few weeks with us:

Nice

The GR5 was a fantastic little walk, sometimes we made extremely slow progress due to the sheer amount of snow this year, but we had a great time. I’ve uploaded at set of photos to Flickr if you want to see the trail in more detail.

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