Hello!
My name is Matt Allison.
I go by many titles with over a decade of experience in the design industry. My work has been featured in various lifestyle publications including Home, House & Leisure, Elle Decoration, VISI, Real Estate, Good Taste & The Sunday Times.
Based in Sydney, Australia my approach to interior styling and design is clean and timeless. I believe in creating spaces that are simple and functional, yet practical enough to deal with the ever-growing demands of daily life.
Thank you for visiting.
Category Archives: DIY
Fellow fellow fellows
All images courtesy of Fellow Fellow
I was trawling through Pinterest, as one does, and discovered these beautiful vintage mountain range printable gift tags.
After a little digging it turned out they were courtesy of Claire who runs Fellow Fellow.
Claire is an Australian native who has landed up in Singapore with her husband by way of Germany (yes, a bit of a circuitous route). She’s a graphic designer by trade and her blog is one helluva resource for crafty folks like myself.
Interestingly I’ve seen several of her ‘how-to’s’ before via another blog I regularly visit, Say Yes to Hoboken, but I hadn’t put the two together, and suspect I’m not alone.
As a way of paying it forward you can download these lovely gift tags above by paying it forward with a tweet on Twitter or Facebook, read all about it over here.
While you there look at her beautiful pics and other great tutorials like the ones below.
How to make a terrarium
There is no denying terrariums are making a come back, like 80’s day glow spandex there is just no getting rid of them. Why fight it, embrace their flora goodness (terrariums, NOT spandex).
I found this glass vase at a local thrift store and decided it would make the perfect habitat for our little patch of jungle goodness.
/// All that is needed to make a terrarium is a container, potting soil, pebbles, activated charcoal (any pet shop will have some), plants and a pair of chop sticks.
TIP: It’s often more cost effective to buy a mixed bowl of indoor plants then buying them individually.
I used an Aluminium Plant, Polkadot Plant, Spider Plant & Fern in mine.
/// Place your pebbles at the bottom of the container, followed by a sprinkling of charcoal. The charcoal helps absorb the potentially harmful fumes of decaying matter, essential if you plan on stoppering the container.
/// Remove your plants from their pots and gently pry the soil away from the root bulbs and place the removed soil into the container, making sure not to compact it, you want it light and loose.
/// Once you’ve loosened all your plants gently wrap their roots into balls, which will make it easier to place them into the potting soil.
/// Use your chopsticks to gently lower your plants into the container and then use one of them to push the loose soil around the exposed roots.
TIP: It’s always best to start with the largest plants first, making your way down to the smallest.
/// Once your plants are in you can add in extra stones, twigs and moss if you wish and sculpt it to taste.
To clean the inside of the glass tape a paper towel to the end of a chopstick and wipe it down.
If you plan on stoppering the container you need to water it first and then seal it, put it in a cool place where it will receive adequate light and give it 2 weeks to ‘harden off’. Once you’ve done that you can move it around if you so wish.
It will no longer require watering if you stopper as it becomes a self contained eco-system.
It took me less than an hour to put together, so it’s a fairly quick craft project that will bring months or years of enjoyment.
To add a bit of extra charm pick out a suitable ‘guest’. Nathan picked out this true to life pink and yellow dinosaur…