Styling: how we put a set together
Every set in the shop starts as a sketch. Here is the rule we use, and how to book a stylist for your own room.
How to style a shelf, a sideboard or a mantel
Shop staff sketch a display before they build it: tall at one end, a middle piece, something low, and a line through the tops that falls from one to the next. Three steps, in this order:
Start tall
Put the tallest piece at one end, about a hand’s width from the edge: a lamp, a jar of stems or a leaning print.
Add the middle
Place a piece about half its height a little in from the other end. A pair counts as one.
Finish low
End with something low and wide, like a bowl or a dish, so the line through the tops lands on the surface.
Stoneware jar with olive stems
60 cm
$54
Brass candlesticks, a pair
16 cm
$36
Glazed dish
5 cm
$18
Round mirror, the backdrop
76 cm
$135
The mantel, all four
$243
Mantel set for a living room (sample). Example prices.
Four more rules from the shop floor
The triangle does most of the work. These four do the rest.
Odd numbers
A pair counts as one piece
3 or 5
One texture, one shine
Wood or wool next to glass or a glazed pot
Matt + glaze
Leave a gap
Between pieces and at both ends
About 10 cm
Change one piece a season
Stems, candles or a cushion; the set stays
One piece
A stylist at your home
One of us comes to your home for 90 minutes with a car full of pieces on approval. We style one room, you keep what you like and we take the rest back.
Home styling visit, 90 minutes
Taken off anything you buy over $300
$75
Within 10 miles of the shop
No travel charge
Example prices.
Styling a whole bookcase
On a bookcase, swap the tall end from shelf to shelf, so the eye zigzags down. Our shelf sets come ready to place, shelf by shelf.
Seen something you like?
Tell us the piece and we hold it for two days while you decide (sample). We reply the same day we are open.