Tag: DFS

KLD and DFS teamed up earlier this month for the Be Conference from Maven46 which was held at the beautiful Richmond event centre in Smithfield Dublin.

Part-conference and part-experiential extravaganza, ‘Be’ 2019 featured four stages (styled by KLD), 10 rooms filled with exciting surprises, and 20 inspiring female speakers to motivate and learn from. On the agenda was fashion, beauty, life and inspiration with a full day of interactive talks, live panels, masterclasses, and experiential activity—led by top females in their industries, including KLD’s own Róisín Lafferty.

Roisin took to the stage and told us all about her rise in the interiors industry and also gave some tips on how to make your home work for you.

But before the day, KLD designer Vicki McGahon was tasked with styling four stage areas and a chill out room with furniture provided by DFS. The location was the Richmond Event Centre which has been recently been refurbished to a beautiful standard and completely modernised, yet keeping a lot of its original features.

The rooms we were assigned were the Tea Room, The Banquet Room, The Lecture Room and the Auditorium. The biggest challenge was that none of these spaces actually had a stage so although we had to pick furniture for function for each of the speakers and interviewers we also had to create some sort of back drop for the eye to focus.

The Tea Room.

Probably the easiest as this room name really reflects the feel it is long with high ceilings and a beautiful balcony to the end. So much light comes into this space. The existing set up was perfect here with dark mahogany tables and chairs. So there was no question really that the Bailey deep button sofa in burgundy was the option here it complimented everything already in the space but gave an element of contrast with the deep vibrant burgundy. Then to sit along side that we chose the Lucy Chair in Blush Pink. As a finishing touch we added a beautiful cherry blossom tree to draw attention to the space and furniture.

The Banquet Room,

This space is on the first floor, directly above the tea room, similar in size and flooded with light. The furniture in this space were soft pastel blue chairs which was the only colour everything else within the space was neutral soft greys and silver pendant globe lights. We very much took inspiration from the pastel blue and carried that onto our stage set and furniture selections. Scandinavian and pastel was the theme so we chose the Hoxton 3 seater in and ocean pastel green we complimented this with our 3^rd pastel colour Pink and chose the Zinc armchair to sit along side this. For the stage set we actually used clothes rails and got the very talented Gingko Florists to create some amazing dried displays that we hung from the clothes rails to create that stage set. Also used here was the Isna rug from DFS in small and medium and layered them.

The Auditorium

Probably the most difficult space to create a stage the space at the top of the room was narrow and obviously with the seats rising it was going to be difficult to create impact. The windows and nearly 3m tall so it was about thinking of a way to dress the space. We decided to hang drops of fabric between the windows which very effectively changed the feel of the space. And we chose to create a linear layout of the Zania sofa with and open arm chaise end. The colour choices here reflected the fabric we used between the walls.

The Lecture Room.

Not the most visually appealing space of them all very much screamed lecture room. For this one being the smallest we felt a 3 seater and chair composition would overcrowd the front of the space and we opted for two of the Marl cuddlers which we love in a bluey grey leather. More of a masculine feel to this space it was darker than the rest. What I loved about this was that we just decided to do an array of floor lamps to create a back drop and it worked out amazingly we just chose the largest floor lamp from Dwell.co.uk.

DFS Chill out Room

Some people are afraid to mix colour so we decided to give this space a serious pop of colour which in fact I don’t think deflected from the stunning original fire place of the vintage dresser. We chose the lovely Mya sofa from DFS’s new Sofa so Good range in a gorgeous teal wool fabric. We mixed this with navy, red, blue and some mustard it really was a statement of colour. And everyone loved it!

Here is a short video of Be Summit and the beautiful furniture from DFS and Dwell.

Our sincere thanks goes to both DFS and Dwell, their staff and crew for helping us out with this logistical feat. Thanks also to O’Carroll Consulting for bringing us all together and inviting us to be part of the event. Finally thanks to Tanya and Adina from Maven46 for organising such a wonderful summit. It was a fantastic day, inspiring and enlightening in equal measure.

DFS launched their So Simple… range in London last week and we sent our intrepid CREATE by kld designer Vicki McGahon to check out what So Simple… is all about.

CREATE by kld is Kingston Lafferty Design’s new tailored interior design and decoration service and is available across Ireland now.

Hi, Vicki here, I am just back from London and the launch of a very exciting new range from DFS, So Simple…. With new lifestyles and smaller spaces, DFS have come up with a new way of buying sofas, easy as 1,2,3.  Let’s face it apart from your kitchen the next show off thing in our homes is the sofa. Over style, comfort comes first when choosing a sofa but DFS have certainly put both together here.

To briefly go through the concept, it’s a 3-step process

1. Choose your style (8 to choose from)
2. Choose your size (3-seater, 2-seater and armchair)
3. Choose your Fabric (27 to choose from comprising of wool, velvet, linen and leather look)

Every So Simple… sofa is then designed and handmade to order. And what’s more, the DFS designers, makers, stitchers and shapers deliver the goods with a 15-year guarantee.

Sofa shopping made easy. But to help a little further I’m going to walk through my top 3 from the event.

Personally, my favourite styles were The Tom, The Mya and The Guy.

The Tom was by far my favourite, it looks compact and neat but what surprised me was that you did sink into it so definitely wins on both style and comfort. It was on display in a leather look, but I think it would have been amazing to see it in the wools or linens, my choice would have been the peacock teal wool.

The Mya was a big hit with everyone there and stunning in the pink linen. Pink is everywhere and it’s losing that tag of just being feminine. KLD recently created a stand for Fleetwood and used the Betsy 1920 palette from Fleetwood’s Vogue range and it was all kinds of sophistication, but a room for everyone. But back to the Mya, A perfect nod to a traditional chesterfield sofa but sleeker with thinner arms making it easier to fit into all sized spaces.

The Guy is definitely the winner for that lounge experience. You literally sink into it. It was displayed in the natural earth velvet which was super soft and luxurious.

I can’t wait to help our CREATE by kld clients see the options in this range. My top tip would be don’t be afraid to mix the styles.  I can certainly see a 3-seater Tom positioned alongside two Mya chairs. And play around with the colours and fabrics, the velvets would be lovely mixed with the wools.

I want to say a special thank you to DFS for having us all over and to Niamh O’Carroll from O’Carroll Consulting who organised the Irish contingency and looked after us while we were there.

Thumbs up to DFS for creating this oh so simple way to shop for that all important sofa. A perfect option for folk who find themselves with smaller spaces to furnish.

Here is a short video montage of the the launch and the So Simple… range

You can check out the full range of So Simple… sofas, sizes and choices here

Bye for now,

Vicki

What a year 2018 has been…

2018 has been a wonderful year for Kingston Lafferty Design. We have had our challenges along the way, but who doesn’t? We can safely say that 2018 has been very kind to Kingston Lafferty Design.

In May we enjoyed the wonderful DFS Colour Happiness event when we transformed the Chocolate Factory for DFS. Hats off to Niamh O’Carroll for pulling all the pieces together. It was a full on week of adrenaline, but we wouldn’t have it any other way.

It was also great to represent at the House event in the RDS again, building a stand for Fleetwood Paints and also the Inspiration Stage. We were particularly proud of the Fleetwood stand, it was really a work of art, thanks to Moore O’Gorman for making it a reality and of course to Fleetwood paints, whose paint is second to none!

It was also an unprecedented year for awards and awards nominations. In July were thrilled to be longlisted for the inaugural Dezeen awards for our Urbana and Thérapie designs. In June we heard that we were nominated for best café at the Restaurant and Bar Design Awards for our beautiful Pot Bellied Pig in Rathmines. It was a long wait but, we were crowned winners in October at a fantastic event in London’s King’s Cross.

In the meantime, Róisín Lafferty, our founder and creative director only went and won Image Interiors & Living Interior Designer of the year for 2018. Congratulations Róisín, you’ve had a phenomenal year and thoroughly deserve the recognition.

Speaking of Image Interiors & Living, we were honoured to have our Bolton Coach House project feature as the cover story for the November/December issue of the magazine. This was one of our favourite projects to work on in 2018, working with old and new and bringing them together. We just heard in the week before Christmas that it was shortlisted for Irish Design Institute Awards 2018 in the Domestic Interior category.

As November rolled around so did the Fit Out Awards at the Convention Centre, we were delighted with our nomination for The Vaults Parlour, and even more delighted when our names were called out on the night as Fit Out Project of the year – Retail. Thanks too to our partners for this venture NSBS, we did celebrate the win in style.

On November 16 we celebrated our 1^st anniversary at KLD HQ with a celebration event. We invited Jill and Gill, John Redmond and Al Higgin’s to display work in our offices, while we also created a video installation in one of our rooms. We had live music, a trad session and people travelled from near and far to be here. There was also a maze of 50 trees for people to walk through to enter the building. We do like a bit of whimsy.

One of our major achievements of the year is getting CREATE by kld off the ground. CREATE by kld is a tailored design service from KLD, we provide the customer with the tools to transform their own homes. We were also very excited to open a Christmas Pop-Up in Foxrock Village for the weeks leading up to Christmas. We’re hoping 2019 will see CREATE by kld grow as we add e-commerce element to the site. If you haven’t heard of it yet, check it out here at createbykld.com

Here is a little video of 2018 at KLD:

Happy New Year to you all, wishing you health, happiness, imagination and creativity for 2019.

We recently spent a very exciting week transforming the amazing Chocolate Factory Warehouse space into a pop up Home of Colour for for DFS. The Chocolate Factory in Kings Inn Street in Dublin 1 is simply the most wonderful space in which to work. It has that old industrial feel, extraordinary light and beautiful rustic rafters. It is a designers dream.

We started put on a Monday morning with this wonderful blank canvas. Members of the team immediately began taping the flooring, zoning each area in which the furniture would be displayed. While the transformation took place within a week, there had of course been months of planning for the event by Niamh O’Carroll, DFS and KLD. A tremendous amount of time, thought and hard work went into the staging and meticulous execution of Home of Colour 2018.

Once the zoning and taping was done enter our joinery partners Moore & O’Gorman who built a cross-like partition in the middle of the space thus creating four distinct zones and a central focus. Once this structure was up, so began the painting marathon which would continue for two days. All hands were on deck as we lavished the woodwork with the wonderful paint from Fleetwood’s Prestige range.

And so after two long days of building and hanging and painting we were ready for the plants and more importantly the beautiful furniture all of which came from DFS.

We then had a photoshoot of the DFS Home of Colour with award winning photographer Barbara Corsico. You can see the beautiful and amazing images she created here. On the Thursday DFS and KLD hosted two events organised by O’Carroll Consulting. In the morning a select group of bloggers joined us in the DFS Home of Colour for a delicious champagne brunch with stunning food from Food Glorious Food, with prizes, goody bags, a discussion with Roisin and of course some early morning yoga. One lucky blogger won the stunning Marl Cuddler sofa from DFS. Our evening event which was cohosted with House and Home Magazine was open to the public had  “sleep over theme” and guest were treated to delicious pizza, popcorn, Prosecco and one lucky winner went home with the sofa of her dreams.

#Colourhappiness

And it wasn’t over yet as we had a visit from TV3’s Saturday AM on the Friday morning.

This was a wonderful week for KLD, transforming the Chocolate Factory for DFS Home of Colour.

Thank you to DFS for asking us to take part in this great project and to Niamh O’Carroll and Grainne Mooney of O’Carroll Consulting who worked tirelessly along with the KLD team made the whole week happen.

And sincerest thanks to all our collaborators and sponsors: Fleetwood Paints, Chocolate Factory and Green Shoes team, The National Gallery, White and Green, Food Glorious Food, Susan Hunter Lingerie, House and Home, Foxford, Wild Orchard, Gill and Jill.

We can safely say this is how we felt at the end of the week:

One of our recent projects was a collaboration between DFS, their charity partner Gaisce, and Limerick based charity DIAL house. Novas is the largest provider of homelessness services in the Mid-West region and they run DIAL House, a residential facility that provides young care leavers a home.

Our design team wanted the house to reflect the vibrancy of the residents who live there and create spaces that balanced tranquility with youthful, powerful colours. Current residents, Cara and Susan, Gaisce competition winner Will O’Callaghan, worked alongside the Kingston Lafferty Design team to create rooms that were equally calm and exciting, incorporated artwork created by the residents to truly make their space theirs.

DINING BEFORE

KITCHEN BEFORE

LIVING ROOM BEFORE

LIVING ROOM AFTER:

Soothing green walls, picture railing shelving, artwork and accent pillows make the room comfortable and engaging.

KITCHEN AFTER

DINING AFTER

One of our favourite pieces, the sky purple herringbone Slouch Sofa,  opens up the space and allows for more seating in the living room. Also in the room is the pewter velvet Zinc Cuddle Chair that comfortably seats two people, making it perfect for weekly movie nights. Another addition to the room was the French Connection Opus Coffee Table that sits below the picture railing shelving.

A huge thanks has to be given to DFS and Niamh O’Carroll for organising and supporting such a fantastic project. KLD would also like to thank all of the following suppliers who helped make this incredible transformation possible:

Best Tile, Richard Burke Kitchens, Fleetwood Paints, James Clery Flooring, Reon Technologies, Lola Donoghue, Will O’Callaghan, all of the team at NOVAS and Gaisce.

Recently I was fortunate enough to be invited to join the creative team for DFS on their trip to Milan for the world renowned Salone del Mobile design show. This utterly inspirational trip gave me the chance to see how the design team at DFS review trends for the coming year and incorporate them into the ranges sold by the furniture retailer. I have worked as a Brand Ambassador with DFS for a while now and the reason I am so drawn to the brand is for their emphasis on design, craftsmanship and how passionate the team are about bringing affordable design led furniture to the masses.

This trip introduced me to the new Creative Director Alison Hill. Alison’s experience within the realms of furniture design is second to none, having previously worked with high profile brands like Liberty, The Conran Group, Burberry and Habitat.  For Alison and her creative team, trips like these are not about discovering fleeting movements towards particular styles but about distinguishing the movements with likely longevity and separating these from the fleeting fads. Milan is often seen as the show which offers designers a chance to take risks and get a little playful, branching a little outside the normal realms of their brand. With up to half a million visitors each year and 6 days of design inspiration in a city well acclaimed for its dedication to design, for the thousands of exhibitors the Salone del mobile show is not only a chance to be daring, dynamic and different but practically a requirement.

With each stand as inspiring and engaging as the next the show is the design equivalent of Disneyland, a designers playground filled with quirk, fun and delight.

So what did the DFS design team take away from the show and what trends are proving their staying power?

CURVES

The curve looked to be a key trend in furniture shapes yet again at this years show. This formation has been popular for a while now, as we embrace softer shapes and also marry them with the regularity for clean, linear forms. It is a trend that DFS have picked up on for a while and several of their pieces incorporate the trend really well. One great example is the new Lark Tub Chair, available in a range of colours and fabrics, I particularly like the mustard velvet version. The Athena is a great example of a piece that has been softened by the merge of curves and lines in one contemporary and comfortable seat, and is also available as a sofa.

GREEN

It doesn’t come as much of a surprise that green was a hugely prevalent colour at the show. With greenery the Pantone Colour of the Year for 2017 and a longstanding conversation on the benefits of natural greenery in the home this colour really is one that so many designs benefit from, in whatever capacity. Whether its a statement green sofa or chair like the Lark Tub Chair, Topaz Sofa or Athena Sofa, this clever Pure triangular foot stool or even an abundance of some indoor planting, the DFS team are still very much on the ‘Go Green’ team!

VELVET

Rich and luxurious design was a really central theme across most of the stands at Salone del Mobile. Such opulence was really highlighted through the use of highly tactile and opulent materials like velvet. In an array of rich and eye-catching colours velvet was seen across lots of furniture and accessories including beds, sofas, chairs and cushions.  DFS have a number of ranges available in velvet, I particularity love the deep teal Eden sofa and the luxurious zinc two seater in navy blue velvet.

THE NATURAL WORLD

Designers have for a long time drawn inspiration from the natural world and we have seen various types of floral prints, leaves and animal prints come in and out of fashion in the interiors world recently. This celebration of the natural world was rife in Milan this year with a focus on everything from insects, florals and leafy prints. The Botanic four seater sofa by DFS is a beautiful shade of green and has a stylish structure that brings a strong statement to a room.