{ The Times Magazine }

Prop Styling by Laura Sawyer

This was a lovely shoot to work on.  The brief was to recreate this iconic image from the film A Cat On A Hot Tin Roof.  

The first job was to find a bed just like the one that Elizabeth Taylor famously reclines on in the film...  Easier said than done!  That is an American bed and CANNOT be found in Europe, as I quite quickly learnt.

After a lot of calling around I finally managed to find a wonderful and very helpful man called Jonathan at A Barn Full Of Brass Beds, who, quite literally has a Barn Full of Brass Beds!  Out of all the hundreds of beds he had, we chose this one, however it was Black... and it really had to be Gold!  So the wonderful Jonathan, who also restores antique beds for the likes of Emma Thompson and Ralph Lauren, painted it gold for us!

The photographer had some very similar lamps, so I just had to find shades, bedside tables and bedding.  This all came together quite easily.  The shades are from Laura Ashley, the bedside tables from Brissi and the bedding came from a sister company to A Barn Full Of Brass Beds called The Vintage Linen Barn which sells beautiful old bedlinen.

Behind The Scenes

 

So here is the beautiful bed in a couple of stages of dressing.  I decided not to go for a traditional duvet in the end as it looked a little too twee for what we were going for.

Here I am being the light model so the photographer could get the light just right.  I'm not sure why it looks like my head is stuck onto my body like that!

The photographer and her dog.

Hair and Make Up Artists.

...and the shoes... only Louboutin will do!

{ Mora Approved }

Styling for new online interiors retailer Mora Approved.

http://www.moraapproved.com/

Here is their Christmas ad...

{ Nativity Scene }

I really have to remember to take a 'Before' photo when I do things like this!  I tend to get stuck right in before I stop to think that it might be interesting to see what it looked like before!  

This nativity set was bought in a charity shop for a few pence.  It was a dark brown wooden stable with plastic coloured nativity.

So, first of all I painted the wooden stable white (of course), and also added a bit of Cole & Son wallpaper to the interior wall...

I painted all of the nativity characters white (of course), but wanted to add a bit of sparkle to Baby Jesus and to the gold items in the scene.  So I painted him gold, as well as the Kings' crowns, gifts, angels wings and gave Mary some gold studs and wedding ring, because, quite frankly, she deserves a treat!

Lastly, I added a bit of blue glittered bunting to mark the birthday celebration of Baby Jesus.

This should look cute in the porch for our Christmas Party in two week's time!