rooms
mixing up patterns is a bold and stylish decorating technique
LEFT Provence stool in Dark Brown, $250, Hermon & Hermon.
Rule 4: layer bold… with more bold!
Dual purpose Two small paintings and a wooden sculpture turn the master bathroom into an art gallery. The Gridlock table by Delinear often plays the role of magazine rack, and, occasionally, clotheshorse. Pattern power (left) The black-and-white Missoni Home towels in the studio bathroom echo the mosaic tiles and prove that mixing patterns is a bold and stylish decorating technique.
ABOVE Graham & Brown “Exotic” wallpaper by Julien Macdonald, $150 a 10m roll, Chee Soon & Fitzgerald. LEFT Replica Eames Group Aluminium chair, $795, Matt Blatt. For stockists, see page 161. 100
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Don’t let small spaces put you off being bold with colour and pattern. In Rex’s intimate 79 sq m apartment, unlikely friends are forged between the bathroom walls and some serious art. While the rest of us may not own original paintings, there’s no reason why you can’t achieve a similar look with your favourite prints. The bathroom is the perfect place to contemplate a feature wall – it’s a small space that often gets overlooked. Colourful bath towels are an easy and obvious injection of “bold”, but what about a floating narrow shelf to house – amongst the soap jars and paperbacks – a sculptural figure? In Rex’s second bathroom (see left), the silver in the wallpaper sets off the chrome fittings, while the timber cabinetry takes the glamour back down a notch.
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Artist’s eye at work Rex’s studio is on the ground floor of his building, meaning work and home are always conveniently connected. This is where he creates his wood-mounted paper collages, some of which are in the permanent collection at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.
As well as sizeable portfolio or paper collages, canvas works and resin panels, Rex Ray has designed album covers and/ or tour posters for a long list of musical entities including David Bowie, Björk, REM, Robert Plant, Pearl Jam, Joe Satriani, Pink Floyd, PJ Harvey, Tom Petty, Beck, Prince, Radiohead, Scissor Sisters… the list goes on. Visit rexray.com to see them all.
real living
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