Interior Design Insights: Top 5 Reasons to Love Paris

Written by Lynn Malone, exclusively for Luxaflex.

From Frank Sinatra’s rendition to Lana Del Ray late last year, generations have crooned the 1953 Cole Porter hit tune, I Love Paris, expressing a year-round love affair with the French capital. With over 32 million visitors last year to to Paris (hint: drop the ‘s’ if you want to speak Parisian) it attracts visitors like bees to honey. What are the magical ingredients that result in Paris to consistently rank as the number one holiday destination?

A trip to Paris is on most of our travel wish lists.  Here is your chance to win a dream come true! Enter the competition before 30th May 2014, and you and a friend could win the Ultimate Paris Fashion Experience, courtesy of Luxaflex Window Fashions. Visit www.luxaflex60.com.au for all the details.

Eiffel Tower view from The Peninsula Palace

After spending 5 days in Paris, I have an inkling of enlightenment that makes me want to go back for more. Here are my top five reasons that I Love Paris and why I believe you will too!

Food and Wine:  Another glass of champagne, s'il vous plaît (if you please)
Locally sourced ingredients, freshly baked baguettes, bagels and croissants; and handmade everything – all terms of endearment for food and wine lovers. One observation:  I did not see one person in the streets carrying a take-away coffee. What I did see was café after café packed with patrons engrossed in conversation over a morning cuppa. How civilized!

Keeping Paris well stocked in fine champagne are the ancient villages surrounding Reims, a scenic 129 kilometre drive from the city centre and home to Grandes Marques of Champagne and the world’s crème de la crème champagne houses.

From small bistros to Michelin star restaurants, the French take their food seriously. One of my most memorable meals was at Mamie Gateaux tearoom.  It's best to arrive when the doors open at 11:30am, as it only takes fifteen minutes for the locals to fill the tables. The daily chalkboard menu offers a section of savouries such as seasonal quiches and soups; and sweets for the sweets – pastries and cakes – until sold out.

Parisians are the best

So you don’t speak fluent French, simply learning key phrases such as please and thank you; good morning and good evening; is advantageous in navigating the language barrier. Attempting to communicate in French goes a long way and I They are gracious hosts who cordially welcome visitors to the City of Light.

Window displays spare no expense trying to entice... ...But window shopping is still free!
Many of the world's best know luxury brands have their headquarters in Paris – the Louis Vuitton, Chanel and Christian Dior stores are fabulous, with the latest trends as expected. The stand out for me were the extravagantly dressed display windows, particularly the Louis Vuitton flagship store. Paris has something for one and all. There are emerging designers’ basement shops with wares fresh from the cutting tables at pre-famous prices, through to pre-loved and vintage luxury brands as well as fashion-forward couture.

Louis Vuitton flagship store ceiling and a shop window in Paris

Tight quarters inspire design creativity
In Paris each square metre is at a premium and the lack of space is often the impetus for cleverly designed interiors, particularly when it comes to hotel guest rooms, from boutique hotels with 10 guest rooms through to re-purposed palaces with 200, conceptual design is inspirational.

Introducing Atmosphere Translucent - The latest innovation in contemporary fabrics

This year the LUXAFLEX^® brand celebrates 6o years in Australia. Over the last 60 years, the LUXAFLEX fabric range offer has brought a number of iconic fabrics to the window furnishing market and continues to be a market leader in fabric innovation.

Atmosphere Blockout was one of the first soft and luxurious feeling foam back products that the market had seen which also offered an array of stylish and sophisticated colours. 60 years on and LUXAFLEX is still the market leader with a very enticing fabric range that continues to add that needed edge to the Window furnishing market.

To celebrate LUXAFLEX’s 60^th Birthday, we are excited to announce the launch of the highly anticipated Atmosphere Translucent fabric range.

Atmosphere Translucent is inspired by subtle mist of colours. A more subdued and neutral colour pallet injects calm to your surroundings. The range complements 8 of the most popular Atmosphere blockout fabrics, allowing a great dual ship solution for your window coverings. Developed locally and supporting local textiles, the introduction of Atmosphere Translucent is just another example of how the Luxaflex brand re-invents sophisticated quality finishes.

Atmosphere Translucent is available across Roller, Roman, Panel and Vertical applications.     

Luxaflex: Australian Made Blinds, Quality and Passion.

Luxaflex Window Fashions has been in Australia for 60 years and plan to be here for 60 more.

Sometimes Luxaflex window coverings cost a little more. We stand behind the quality of Luxaflex Blinds, Shades, Shutters and Awnings and you might find that little extra goes a long way and you’ll be able to enjoy Luxaflex in your home for years to come.

Why? Because we have a great team of passionate people throughout the business who genuinely are committed to making the best window coverings.




There isn’t just an investment in large machinery, such as our new “stenter” machine that, among other things controls the quality and coats fabrics… Fabrics that we also manufacture. We invest in jobs. Some of the passionate people behind Luxaflex have been here for 30 years – it’s experience you can trust.

We decided to give you a small insight into the factory and people who make Luxaflex and in the future, we’ll be bringing you stories about the people and the processes behind the Luxaflex brand as we celebrate 60 years in Australia.

Interior Design Insights; Fabrics, Colours and Textures - A Mixture for Success

Written by Lynn Malone, exclusively for Luxaflex

Hotels comes home

Fortune telling is not my forte but I predict lipstick-pinked red, opulent indigo blue and cranberry-infused purple winging toward Australian shores.  Evidence at Milan Design Week 2014 and resounded as I travelled five European cosmopolitan cities seeking interior design inspirations for Luxaflex and its valued customers, these were the prevailing colours.  Not only were the colours on parade, they were presented in an array of textures and patterns.  Is this the start of something new or is it history repeating itself?

Ham Yard Hotel, London; Firmdale Hotels

Ham Yard Hotel, London; Firmdale Hotels’

I believe design trends for the homes are often debuted in edgy hotel guest room interiors.  Cases in point are the boutique hotels created by the likes of Karl Lagerfeld, iconic German fashion designer; and prolific French designer Phillipe Starck whose name-dropping moniker adorns luxury products from furniture, vehicles, lighting to homeware.  Then there is newcomer and ‘it-girl’ in the interior fashion arena, Milan-based architect Patricia Urquiola, best known for her signature collection designed for B&B Italia, leading Italian modern furniture manufacturer.

Dressed for success

Fabrics and window treatments in particular; bring softness and a semblance of comfort to a home.  Keep an eye (or two) open to observe and consider the significance that window dressings play in a home’s schematic. One of my favourite ways to bring vibrancy and intimacy to your home is with window treatments:  soft drapery fabric panels that are complimented by the functionality of window coverings that filter UV light and provide privacy. Luxaflex Duette Architella Shades using a fabric from the Elan range is my choice.  The Elan fabrics have a refined shimmer-like effect contrasted by a textural linen.  The colour spectrum goes from vibrant and bold to warm and subtle - a favourite being Frosted Mulberry.  Duette Shades enhance the aesthetics of a home; and of equally importance, serve as an efficient insulator that reduces energy costs.  

Mixology at its best
In central London, a household name in the high street design circles is hotelier and designer, Kit Kemp who along with husband Tim owns Firmdale Hotels.  The Kemps are opening their eighth London property, Ham Yard Hotel in June 2014.  Kit beautifully designed the guest rooms and suites, each individually styled, in keeping with her award winning luxurious, modern British style renowned for its innovation; and daring mix of colour, pattern and texture.  As the saying goes, a picture is worth a thousand words so let’s take a sneak preview of the colours, patterns and textures that bring Ham Yard to life.

Ham Yard Hotel, London; Firmdale Hotels

Ham Yard Hotel, London; Firmdale Hotels

Ham Yard Hotel, London; Firmdale Hotels

Mixing at home

Ham Yard Hotel interiors are inspirational and cleverly considered but how does one achieve simpatico when mixing colours, fabrics and textures at home?  Here are my tips for successful mixology:

1. Vary the scale of the patterns
2. Mix textures  – not only colours and patterns
3. Combine fabrics – as example a decorative pillow using one pattern on the pillow front, a second pattern on the pillow back and a third fabric as cording
4. Give consideration to the pattern scale and the item that it will be applied; as example, a small pattern fabric often works well on a small chair.  That said, the contrary works too – a bold stripe wallpaper for a small room can be a winner
5. Know when enough is enough and when to stop adding to the mix

Interior Design Insights; Trend spotting for Luxaflex

Written by Lynn Malone, exclusively for Luxaflex

Each year in April, Salone del Mobile and Milan Design Week showcase the best in interior design fashion for the perusal and scrutiny of design trade professionals – many of who have travelled over more than one continent to attend.  Exhibits range from deep-pocketed international luxury brands with extravagantly dressed showrooms to emerging design talent operating on a shoestring camped out in a pop-up stand.  Despite the budget or showroom amenities, resoundingly there are concurrent threads that prevail.

For three glorious days, I traipsed through the football field-sized exhibition halls of Salone del Mobile and the back streets of Milan’s fashionable districts in search of embryotic trends.  I rediscovered trends that have stood the test of time, being simply reinvented.  As the saying goes, “what’s old is new again”.  Reporting exclusively for Luxaflex, here are my observations to share with you.

More are merrier
Why use one upholstery or window treatment fabric when you can use two or three!  How many times when selecting fabrics or finishes you experience difficulty narrowing your choice to the final one? If Milan 2014 design trends hold true, those days are by gone. With Luxaflex Dual Roller Blinds and Linked Roller Blinds, adding different fabrics to either compliment or contrast the room in your home is easy. From upholstered furniture to kitchen joinery finishes, there are multiple finishes – often three or more to one furniture or joinery item.  Chairs upholstered in multiple fabrics – complimentary or contrasting patterns – there are no rules in this game, it’s in the dealer’s hands.

Nature calls
If you can bring the outdoors inside then, do it!  At Milan 2014, greenery is abounded – from bathrooms with planted green walls to mini-fridges purposed to grow herbs; particularly suited for inner-city apartment dwellers.  Green is in – and its inside.

Unrefined timbers, textural - both visually and to the touch, were a key player for kitchen and bathroom joinery finishes; often counterbalanced by a polyurethane finished surface with a metallic finish thrown in for good measure. Natural earthy tones are a must in this year’s Milan 2014 design trends, if you are looking to apply this trend to your blinds, Luxaflex Verve Fabric for the Duette Architella Shades range features an urban chic with an eco-friendly quality. Made from 25% recycled materials, the irregular texture is enhanced with a subtle reflectivity in natural hues that reveal iridescent shine in natural light, making it the perfect addition to any home wanting to subtly incorporate the natural design trend.

Black out
The prevailing colour palettes were muted yet vibrantly engaged the sense of new:  biting shades of green from olive that creep to evergreen; champagne and mushroom representing the brown family; and warm grey toning from high to low.  Complimenting these palettes were splashes to swells of colour:  cobalt to indigo blues was a stand out; orangey reds and lipstick pink; and a tasting plate of mustards.  Missing in action is black and white.  One finish is a trend in its own right with descriptive to follow.

Copper colours Milan 

The finish and the ‘go to’ colour of the season is bronzed patina.  Versatile in its application, bronzed copper was the toast of the town from tables, chairs, and fabrics; and used for interior finishes from top to toe.  Polished, honed or brushed, bronze is a brilliant companion; and now is its time to shine.

Celebrate in style with Luxaflex

With a focus on innovation and style, Luxaflex Window Fashions have been enhancing the lifestyle of Australian families since 1954. To celebrate 60 years of Luxaflex in Australia, we could be sending you and a friend to Paris for the ultimate fashion experience, including:

2 x return economy flights with Qantas

4 x nights at InterContinental Le Grand Hotel

Exclusive shopping and VIP city tours

$2,000 spending money

How to enter

Spend over $2,000 at your local Luxaflex showroom this May, collect your entry code in-store, enter online by 31 May 2014, and you could find yourself on your way to a once in a lifetime Paris fashion experience.

There's never been a better time to buy Luxaflex.

For full terms and conditions, visit www.luxaflex60.com.au

Selling Houses Australia – Country Pub

The LifeStyle Channel’s Selling Houses Australia season final episode 13 aired last night, and from what we saw, the team did an outstanding job renovating the run down pub in Alexandra.

The Story: Ever dreamed of owning a nice little pub in the country? Think again. Barney and Barb thought their country pub would give them an idyllic lifestyle where they could work and play together; the reality was a 24/7 commitment working 7 days a week, 14 hours a day.

The Problem: The couple purchased the leasehold on the run down pub in Alexandra, Victoria 3 years ago. They worked tirelessly to turn the place from bankrupt to the most popular pub in town. They’re pillars of the community raising thousands of dollars for charity, but their efforts have taken their toll, physically, emotionally and financially. Despite their hard work, the pub is struggling to make a profit and now they just want out.

Kids Play Area

The Solution: The Luxaflex Ventura Folding Arm Awning was installed as it offers the very best in the open style awning market. Available with a wide range of accessories, this model can be customised to suit almost any situation. The 6.5 metre motorised Ventura Awning featured Dickson fabric in colour silver pearl, and fit perfectly in the outside courtyard of the pub.

Luxaflex Dual Roller Blinds in Prague Sunscreen fabric in colour Sheer Crepe and Plaza Plus Blockout fabric in colour White, were installed in the small bedrooms as it kept the room looking very streamlined and stopped it from having a bulky feel. By teaming a sunscreen and blockout fabric, you have the ability to adjust both light levels and night time privacy in the one application.

All Luxaflex Window Coverings were supplied and installed by Luxaflex Window Fashions Gallery, Decorator Curtains and Blinds in Greensborough, New South Wales.