SnOOp: May 2009

Escape

It’s important to free yourself and get away from the hassles of work, the nagging at home and the pressures faced against us daily. Our minds are swamped by data, overstimulated and overstretched. It’s ok to run away and break out from it all but you don’t have to spend a fortune on holidays or yoga retreats. All you need to do is find your corner in the home. A place you can flee and have some shhhhh time. We have all heard how men need to go into their ‘man cave’. My dad’s cave was his garage my boyfriend disappears to the toilet and reads papers and magazines. But it’s not just men who need to find quiet time. Women and children need a moment to recharge. According to the University of Michigan Institute for Social Research, it reports an increase in children suffering stress and breakdown. For our wellbeing we need to turn off the television, step away from the computer, flick on some music, read or just sit quietly and let your mind have some time to take you on a journey. It’s the time you can redefine and ask ‘Who am I’? Here are some examples how people around the world have found their corner.

Marc Jacobs, Paris, by Philip-Lorca DiCorcia for W magazine

Julie Piatt, Calabasas, by Richard Powers

Lilly Cole, South Kensington, by Paul Massey

John Wrestler, Stoke Newington, by James Merrell

Judith Brenner, Kew, by Richard Powers

Liberace, Palm Springs

Kanye West, Los Angeles by Art Gray

Jess Frost, Brighton, by James Merrell

The Sutton family, Kent

Ingrid Schram, Manhatten, by The Selby

Marc Quinn, London, by Henry Bourne

Banish The Flab With Baker Miller Pink

Want to look great for summer in your bikini without working out? Well how about a paint colour that can raise your metabolism helping you shed the pounds.

Not only will Baker Miller Pink help you lose weight it will help you sleep and drop your stress levels so you can be the chill queen you deserve to be. This sounds too good to be true but homeowner David Alhadeff, founder of super cool design store The Future Perfect swears by it. ‘ They paint jails this colour because it calms people down. It increases your melatonin production which increases your metabolism and decreases anxiety,’ says David. Check out his bedroom in Williamsburg photographed by Jonny Valiant. Let us know your results living with this fairy floss candy colour.

Creativity is Chic

It’s time to re-discover your inner Pablo Picasso or Damien Hirst. For too long we have treated the home as a profit-making scheme and not as a place where you and your family can grow. Your home should represent all things YOU! Making imaginative use of resources you have available you can turn an old, beige, haze of ordinary into a home filled with things you love and make you happy. Get creative, get inventive in how you display objects and decorate a space. Let it shout from the basement to the roof ‘I live here and this is who I am'.