#mydonnawilson is an interior inspiration series where each month we ask some of our favourite people to showcase our products in their homes. Not only does this mean we get to peek into some beautiful houses and apartments, but we also get to know a little bit about the owners – and their interior design tips.

This month’s influencer is blogger Pepper Schmidt, who’s been busy making-over the living room of her family home in the south of Germany…

My name is Pepper Schmidt.

I work in Print Media, but right now I’m on maternity leave. In my free time, I write a blog called Heimatbaum about living, travelling, and my family. We live in the south of Germany in a small village called Muhlhausen. Our house is surrounded by fields and trees, and we love to step out of the house to enjoy nature. I grew up here and I like to live in the countryside. Big cities like Heidelberg, Mannheim and Karlsruhe are easy to reach from here, so we have the benefit of both the peace of nature and the culture and shopping of the city.

My style changes so fast – it’s hard to say what it really is, as it is constantly flowing!

At the moment it is a mixture of vintage industrial, Scandinavian elements and some ethnic vibes. I think if you’re creating a personal home for four people, it’s not possible to have one constant style. Our two children live here, so they should also have an opportunity to add their own style. And of course my husband should also feel comfy with our interiors, so there is a combination of shades of pink, Star Wars, decorative toys and original design pieces.

My favourite room is definitely the living room.

It has an old door, a huge, cosy sofa and colourful spots everywhere. This is where we spend most of our time in the day, reading books, playing, or just cuddling on the sofa. I love how the room has changed from how it was at the beginning. It’s like a presentation of the things we love, as all our favourite items are displayed here.

My most treasured object is the old door in our living room.

When my favourite cafe in the neighbouring village closed last year, I was the lucky person who got the front door! I had always dreamed of owning this door,  but I never guessed it could happen. It originally came from Hamburg, and we managed to install it in our open-plan living room/kitchen area. Now the two rooms are separated by this beautiful piece of wood.

Most of the items I have are from flea markets or eBay.

I like used things with patina and signs of wear, and I love special things that nobody else has. For new design objects, I love the online shop Connox.

Right now I have a big crush on colourful interiors.

I’m also a huge fan of Dutch interiors as I love the brick walls, the old wood and their relaxed style. I’m really looking forward to returning to The Netherlands in August to get some new inspiration.

As for what’s next on my interiors shopping list, I had to think hard about that…

The only thing I can think of would be some original Egon Eiermann chairs for the dining table. I would also love to have a life-size Iron Man or Storm Trooper!

What makes a house a home? 

To me, it’s a combination of furniture that tells a story, self-made art and personal collections, like my Kokeshi dolls for example. I love clean interiors, but only to look at, not to live in. 

Any home can be beautiful if the owners just stick to their own taste and style.

If you like colour, use it. Don’t ever think about what others may think of your home. Only you and your family live there, so it should fit your needs and not a common trend.

Shop Pepper’s #mydonnawilson:

Charlie Monkey

Meddling Monkey

Mushroom Shaped Cushion

Round Balloon Cushion – Blue

Round Balloon Cushion – Orange

All photography by Pepper Schmidt.

You can see more of Pepper’s ever-evolving interior style on her website, and follow her on Instagram at @heimatbaum.

#mydonnawilson is an interior inspiration series where each month we ask some of our favourite people to showcase our products in their homes. Not only does this mean we get to peek into some beautiful houses and apartments, but we also get to know a little bit about the owners – and their interior design tips.

We met this month’s influencer, Elodie Love, at the Maison&Objet tradeshow in Paris last year, and fell head over heels for her beautiful flower portraits on Instagram. Over to Elodie!

My name is Elodie and my family name really is Love!

I got this lovely name from my British husband when we got married in 2008. I work in the digital field and in my spare time I run a flower and interior blog since 2012, and I take pictures of flowers.

I have been living in Paris for over three years.

I live with my husband Stephen, our four-year-old daughter, Ella, and our cat, Kitsune. Before that, we lived in Germany for ten years. We live in a very old Parisian building near the Canal Saint Martin and overlooking a typical Parisian courtyard.

My style is very French, of course.

I have also been very much influenced by our time in Germany. We have, for example, painted all the floors of our apartment in various shades of grey, which is very untypical for France.

I like to incorporate animals into my interior style.

My flat is full of birds, butterflies, fish, squirrels, and also cats. I think that decorating with animals gives a fairy-like touch to your home which we sometimes very much need in our busy lives. It reminds me of the innocence of childhood and makes me smile. I like photography, particularly flower photography, and also have a passion for illustration and have many displayed around the flat. This is one of the reasons I love Donna Wilson’s designs.

My favourite room is my living room.

This is where we live, dine and also my office when I work when I am working from home. I like the light coming from the two big windows, and this is where I display my treasures, such as my ever-evolving collection of dried flowers.

The most treasured piece of furniture in my home is my glass cabinet.

This is where I display my glasses, vases and some of my dried bouquets. We bought it in Hamburg as a wardrobe for Ella when she was a baby, then later moved it to our living room in Paris.

My favourite object is my fabric bird called oiseau oiseau. I bought it at a fair for handmade products in Paris. It is a bird with a green cape, arrows and a bow. I instantly fell in love with it when I saw it the first time. It is not very useful, but very poetic.

I like to shop at flea markets.

I also like the interior shop Fleux in Paris which sources some great brands. Paris is full of interior shops that also sell smaller brands. I love the shop La Tresorerie near the Place de la Republique for useful but beautiful items and the shop Les Fleurs for more poetic and surprising finds.  I also shop online for antiques and to find more individual pieces.

I also love the French brand, Tse & Tse.

I have a paper light garland and a porcelain lamp from their shop and also some metallic shelves in my kitchen. They curate a small edit of items but they are always very well chosen, and their design is recognizable in a blink. I am a big fan and never tire of the pieces I buy from them.

Next up, I am dreaming about a pair of new deep blue silk curtains for our bedroom from Le Monde Sauvage, and a lamp from the French brand Wo & We.

As for what makes a home…

Flowers, always, both fresh and dried! And good friends, good food, good music, and of course all things pretty.

Shop Elodie’s #mydonnawilson:

Cyril Squirrel Fox

Fox Cushion – Orange

Squirrel Beaker

Trees Jug

Trees Plates – set of 4

All photography by Elodie Love.

You can see more of Elodie’s beautiful floral photography on her website, and follow her on Instagram at @madame_love.

#mydonnawilson is an interior inspiration series where each month we ask some of our favourite people to showcase our products in their homes. Not only does this mean we get to peek into some beautiful houses and apartments, but we also get to know a little bit about the owners – and their interior design tips.

So, without further ado, let’s meet this month’s #mydonnawilson tastemaker, Ilona!

My name is Ilona Zieltjens, and I’m a 34-year-old Dutch mother.

My partner Daniel and I have been together since I was 16 and he was 17, and have two sons – Tycho, 13, and Fender, 7. We all live together in Tilburg, a city in the province of North Brabant in The Netherlands.

I love to use my home as my test lab. If I haven’t painted anything for a few weeks, the paint tins literally call out to me from the closet. You can find me daily on Instagram under my second name, Mamoesjka.

You’ll often find me sitting on my pink home-made bench.

It’s my favourite spot in the house, where I write, scroll through Instagram and sit with family and friends. From my bench, I also have a clear view of the rest of the living room and the open-plan kitchen.

My favourite piece of furniture is…

The vintage cupboard that my partner and I bought it at a thrift store. I really loved it when I first saw it, but we both thought it was far too expensive (the cupboard was not in the best condition) and we left the shop without buying it. But soon I had second thoughts and we quickly went back again and bought it. We gave the little cupboard some love with oil and wood paste and I now think he’ll stay forever!

I like to keep things simple.

I like a fresh white canvas decorated with vintage, design or handmade items, mostly in fresh or soft pastel colours. I’d much rather have one item that I really love rather than five things I just like. I don’t shop on impulse. I will always take my time before I buy something for my home.

I like to search the internet for new treasures.

I look for both new and second-hand items, and design pieces as well as less expensive finds. For me, it’s very important that they’re not things that everybody likes and buys. I want stuff that is unique and is available on a small scale. For that reason, I always search for small websites or designers that sell their own work. It’s so much more fun to make a small independent enterprise happy by purchasing some of their products than to buy something from a big retail chain.

My interior crush is…

I really love the home of Wunderblumen. She is such a great mother and takes the prettiest of pictures. I especially love her beautiful flower pictures. I like flowers but for some reason, I don’t buy them myself, and I can’t make such beautiful bouquets in my vases. So I really love to see these pictures and smell them from a distance.

My home wish list is not too long…

I change my furniture all the time and floors don’t like that! After seven years they’re not so pretty, so I think we’ll take some time to find a new floor this summer. I also have a bit of a thing for lamps. And chairs, and ceramics, and linen!

I like to do things my own way.

I think that’s my best tip I can give anyone. Make the choices yourself. Fill your home with items you really love and that make you happy. These days you can find inspiration everywhere. I like to scroll through Instagram and see all kinds of interiors, but I have to stay true to myself. Something I’ve learned over the years is to choose what makes you happy and don’t do what everyone else is already doing.

Shop Ilona’s #mydonnawilson:

Richie

Chuck Chipmunk

Cat Plate

Twigs Plate

Dove Jug

All photography by Ilona Zieltjens. Visit Ilona’s website and follow her on Instagram @mamoesjka_nl to be inspired by her clean yet quirky minimalist style.

Our silk scarves come in two sizes and three bold, beautiful prints. Made in the UK from 100% silk twill, they’ll add a pop of pattern and colour to any outfit. Here are just a few suggestions for how to wear a silk scarf.

Tie a small silk scarf around your neck girl-scout style.

 

Wrap a large silk scarf around your neck and tie in a bow.

 

Wrap a small silk scarf around your head prairie-style.

 

Knot a large silk scarf loosely at the neck.

 

Wrap a large silk scarf around your shoulders and tie at the front.

 

Wrap a large silk scarf around your hair and channel a vintage look.

 

Drape a large silk scarf across your shoulders for a lightweight cover-up.

Shop our collection of silk scarves here.

 

#mydonnawilson is a new interior inspiration series where we ask some of our favourite people to showcase our products in their homes. Not only does this mean we get to peek into some beautiful houses and apartments, but we also get to know a little bit about the owners – and their interior design tips.

So without any further delay, here’s this month’s homeowner, Nicki, aka @siglinchen on Instagram!

I live in Berlin with my husband and our three girls…

By day, I´m a paediatrician, working in a small surgery in Berlin. It can be quite challenging especially during wintertime, but I’m very happy with my job and I really enjoy working with children.

In my spare time I’m trying to learn more about photography. I ‘ve taken a few courses to improve my skills, but I still need a lot of practice with my new camera (Canon EOS 6D)! I like to decorate our home with colours and flowers, and I’m often inspired by my exchanges with other of interior lovers via Instagram.

Home is…

It’s really two homes! An old apartment building in Berlin, and a modern house just outside Stockholm.

Our rental apartment in Berlin is in an old building with high ceilings, stucco ornaments and creaking floorboards. Most of the interiors are inherited from our parents’ homes, and pieces we found in second-hand shops. A lot of the furniture is made from teak wood – I love the 50s – 60s feeling you get with it.

Our home in Sweden is a very modern house with big windows, straight lines and mostly interiors is modern interiors. The house is furnished in a very simple way because I’m afraid of destroying the straight feeling of the house. If I’m honest, I would prefer to have no furniture at all because I really love the pure architecture of the house – but this is not practical of course. Even though our house is tiny, it feels much bigger. The architect did a very good job and has used every single square meter very effectively. The house is surrounded by a big garden. We planted a lot of flowerbeds with mostly perennial flowers. I’m at my happiest when sitting on my knees in the flowerbeds with my hands deep in the soil.

Although right now our family are all living together in Berlin, it changes from year to year. Next year my husband will work in Sweden again, and I’ll stay on in Berlin with the kids until our oldest daughter has finished school. It might sound complicated and not that easy to juggle two homes and three children, but my family is quite used to it. We’ve been living like this since 2004 and it’s working very well for us.

My favourite room is…

Our kitchen in Berlin. It’s the room I spent most of my spare time in right now. In contrast to the open kitchen in our house in Sweden, I can close the door to the kitchen, turn the music up while preparing dinner and enjoy a couple of minutes to myself. I really enjoy this evening ritual. The kitchen is also the room where most of our family activities take place during the day. And in the evening my husband and I sit around the kitchen table drinking our evening coffee, talking about the day and doing some work. We hardly ever use our living room – except on Saturday nights when it’s movie time for the whole family.

I love gardening

I’m interested in all kind of flowers but am particularly fascinated by old-fashioned perennial flowerbeds. I grew up in the plant nursery of my grandma, so I guess that’s why I still enjoy having as many flowers as possible around me.

My most treasured object is…

My teak wooden desk in Berlin. I found it in a second-hand shop in Hudiksvall in the north of Sweden. It was in fantastic shape with no scratches at all and a really good price. I was so happy to have found such a bargain and I made the decision to buy it immediately. It had been snowing outside and the ground was icy. As my friend helped me carry the desk to my car, we slipped and the desk fell on the ground. The entire front of the desk is now covered in scratches, but nevertheless, it has become my absolute favourite piece of furniture in my home.

My interior style is…

It’s a mixture of playful colour on one hand and pure, minimal style on the other hand.

My top tips for vintage finds…

I have to admit that I don’t spend much time and money in hitting and buying interior design objects anymore. We bought most of the furniture for our house in Sweden (the String shelves, the Montana shelves, the HAY table, chairs and sofa) at Valamagasinet in Uppsala.

In Berlin, most of our furniture was found in second-hand shops or has been inherited. I have two favourite stores in Berlin, which I have to mention. One is called ‘La Lampisterie’. It’s located in Prenzlauer Berg. It’s run by a French guy who has a real passion for vintage lamps. He has a fantastic selection which he renovates by himself. We bought most of our lamps there, and I drop by from time to time to see if there is a new lamp waiting for me. The other shop, also in Prenzlauer Berg,  is called ‘Chairs’. You can find the best vintage chairs there – it’s where we bought all of our original Eames fibreglass chairs.

My biggest interior crush is…

Garlands! I love to decorate my home with them, and not only if there is a party or something to celebrate.

The item I covet the most is…

An Akari 10A floor lamp, designed by Isamu Noguchi.

At the top of my shopping list is…

More Eames chairs! We want to expand our little collection. Most of all we are looking for odd and rare colours. On a more practical note, we also need a few things like a bigger bed for our youngest daughter and a bunk bed for our middle child.

It’s what’s inside that counts…

It might sound corny, but from my point of view, it’s the people living in the house who make it feel like home.

Shop Nicki’s #mydonnawilson:

Fox Cushion – Yellow

Fee & Fish

Large Sweetie Cushion – Pink

Meg Cushion – Cream

Sausage Dog Bed Set – Cream

All photography by Nicki. You can see more of her beautiful homes on her Instagram account, @siglinchen.

When the weather is cold, what could be better than cosying up indoors with a book – or a book-shaped ‘Votes for Women’ Cushion?!

Last year, Glasgow-based curators Panel (Catriona Duffy and Lucy McEachan) invited me to be a part of their project with the Glasgow Women’s Library. Launching this month to coincide with International Women’s Day, From Glasgow Women’s Library is a collection of six products exclusive to the Glasgow Women’s Library shop. Each one explores the history of women in Glasgow and Scotland through the huge range of material housed within the Glasgow Women’s Library archive.

My knitted ‘Votes for Women’ Cushion was inspired by the library’s many treasures that celebrate the lives and achievements of women. From their lending library of ‘hard to find’ books by, for and about women, to their collections of knitting patterns, recipe books, Suffragette memorabilia and Radical Feminist campaigning materials.

After visiting the library, I went away and sketched ideas for a number of outcomes – including bags, jewellery, and ceramics. I’d been working on a series of knitted cushions shaped like book covers for my AW18 collection and just before a meeting with Catriona and Lucy, the idea of a knitted book cushion designed especially for Library came to me. It was the perfect fit! The title of the book – ‘Votes for Women’ – and the design of a stylised woman wearing a sash are inspired by the women’s suffrage movement and its role in securing the Representation of the People Act (which enabled all men and some women over the age of 30 to vote for the first time), exactly 100 years ago.

Each ‘Votes for Women’ Cushion has been knitted in Scotland from 100% lambswool, before being hand-finished in my London studio-workshop. I hope that my cushion appeals to the visitors of the Glasgow Women’s Library as a symbol of what it represents, as well as being a comfy, practical product that would fit in anyone’s home. It craftily brings together the inextricably linked ‘personal’ and ‘political’ realms of women’s lives.

You can buy the ‘Votes for Women’ Cushion (a limited edition of 30) and the rest of the specially commissioned products – including a fabulous Feminist Charms Bracelet by Ruth Ewan – exclusively from the Glasgow Women’s Library website from 1st March.

#FromGWL