I hope you enjoyed the ‘house viewing’, do stay for a cup of tea…
Thank you so much for all your response and lovely comments on the project, I’m delighted with the results {bigger images via flickr}.
A special thanks to the participants whose rooms have exceeded all my expectations (every one so beautiful and unique). It’s been exciting seeing the house come together room by room. We had fun with the building terminologies, having gained planning permission, struggled with building materials / size etc, and finally seeing ‘rooms in transit’.
(generous extras received from team-members : butterfly children from ulla, polaroid postcards from maditi, beautiful notecards from risa and anastasia, letter from vanessa, mini-paperdolls / stickers and mags from ismoyo)
*{NB. Amisha’s dining room is going through crazy ‘alice in wonderland’ perspective problems;
Julie’s garden is being planted for unveiling 2008 when the weather is more favorable,
we keep our fingers crossed for early next year}.

Maditi {Germany}
‘I found it quite challenging to “create a room” with my photographs alone.
Because of that I did incorporate some graphics, but in a rather subtle way.
I hope everyone will enjoy my conservatory :)’
* Maditi had been very enthusiastic and an encouragement throughout the course of this project, her sense of humour helped in making this an enjoyable project to host.

Babelfish {United Kingdom}
‘At first, the Basement posed a difficult challenge -
how do people utilise such a space?
The idea was planted when a fellow house-builder directed me to Amir Fallah’s fort series. I realised that this room could be anything I wanted it to be…so I set out giving the room a fantasy theme (if you look closely on the wall, there’s a monster lurking in the bushes).
For furnishings, I added hammocks and lighting sculptures from aqua creations, swatch portraits, and the popular ‘keep calm‘ poster.’
* Don’t worry, this room will be in the post to team-members shortly.

Vanessa Valencia {Tucson, Arizona}
‘The project was fun. I love doing collage and sitting in a cozy spot to cut fun pictures out. I loved my room. My biggest hurdle was with the size…
(I still don’t know if I got it right. I sure hope so)
All in all, it was fun and it is really wonderful to be a part of this with such an amazing group of women.’
* What I enjoyed most about working on this project was getting to know the ladies better. It was a lot of fun working with Vanessa, she’s a bundle of laughs (and I believe, a perfectionist)…on finding someone to design the Cover for the project, there was no question that Miss Fanciful would be the best candidate, for she holds the key ‘Through the Secret Keyhole‘.

Tongue in Cheek Corey Amaro {Provence, France}
‘The project was the first of anything “craft or artistic” on paper I have ever tried. I found it harder than I imagined. Mainly because of graphic words I did not know, 2D, paper size, etc. Though once started I found it fun. Hope you enjoy your bath, the towels are soft, the water hot, and there are some chocolates in the urn!’
* Although Corey struggled at first with the project, she gave it her best and, the end result is stunning. With her keen eye for antiques, style and composition, I knew she would do a fantastic job (I love that she’d brought a little ‘Continental Europe’ chic into the house).

Kelly Kilmer {Los Angeles, CA}
‘The project did push me as I usually don’t work “Theme wise“. I did have fun creating a room that I thought any young child would love and enjoy-soft but playful colors and some fun toys, too!’
* Kelly is a mixed-media artist and teacher, her work has been an inspiration and, I jumped at the opportunity to ask for her participation, happily she accepted. She combined various patterned papers to create a happy and fun atmosphere.
(NB. If you ever need a reason to buy a book, her blog is full of wonderful eye-candy and recommendations.)

Risa Friedman {Denver, Colorado, US} -
{but room was constructed in Quito, Ecuador}
‘I had fun putting together my room. It was challenging, as I do not have a lot of experience with perspective. I tried to make my room very feminine. I was going for a traditional Victorian style room with a few twists. My favorite parts are the screen with the dress hanging and the art work on the walls.’
* Risa’s room is vibrant and feminine (much like her in real life -sassy lady with a big heart). She was also the first to complete with inspiring efficiency and excellent organisation skills; in doing so, have set a high standard for all of us.

Little MissMeshell {Australia}
‘I think this was an excellent idea! I love everything to do with houses and homes, rooms and interior decorating. I’m also really intrigued by miniatures and dolls houses. I love that this was a collaboration and I think it was really exciting being allocated a room and not knowing what you were going to get. I was so pleased to be allocated the attic / loft bedroom! I’ve wanted an attic bedroom ever since I was a little girl and attics intrigue me so much (probably even more because you don’t find many attics here in Australia!), so I was very happy about that.
I compiled my room completely of fabric and used fused appliqué and hand embroidery and some other bits and bobs. I love everything to do with textiles so knew from the start that this was how I was going to make my room. I sketched my room out first after spending many hours gazing at beautiful pictures of attics and then transferred that design onto appliquéd fabric pieces, using iron on Vliesofix to keep the pieces attached to the backing cloth (100% wool felt) while I hand embroidered around their edges. I started with the room itself (floor/walls/roof) and built the furniture up onto that, finishing the room off by filling it with objects and accessories.’
* Meshell’s room is a bombardment of beautiful patterns and textures, in the way she collaged different fabrics (I’d love to see the original). I’m fascinated by the similarities between the two bedrooms : the dress-maker’s dummy and hats say that the girls would get on ’swimmingly’ in a shared house.

Ismoyo {Brooklyn, NY} - started in Amsterdam

‘I loved this project from the moment Babelfish first mentioned her thoughts about setting it up. I almost missed signing up for it, but luckily I could get in on the fun! What I wanted was to end up with a room that could be loved by anyone and at the same time would be in a typical ‘ismoyo‘ style (* pink, cute and vintage IS ‘ismoyo’). That meant there had to be some pink in it and of course a little vintage feel. The project gave us so much freedom as to what mediums to use, the possibilities and my ideas were endless. But I got very much limited by my personal situation (moving overseas and moving apartments a lot, thus having my craft supplies all over the place but mostly in storage). But my beloved computer was with me, so I chose to do a digital collage with some illustrations in it. I had to put a cup of coffee on the nightstand ’cause it so says “New York” to me, plus the fact I can’t start my day without a cup of steamy coffee. The framed artworks on the wall are scans from my personal vintage postcard collection.’

Anastasia Christou {Australia}

‘I was really excited to get the kitchen. I wanted to create a cosy room with a bit of retro kitsch thrown in. I ended up doing it in a collage style using cardstock and pretty papers. I drew the plan out in pencil and then cut out the shapes and glued them in place (the original has so many textures)…its a shame the copy doesn’t show this.’
* Anastasia’s enthusiasm is infectious. As a mother to two adorable boys, we can see her passion for cooking through the attention to detail added to her country style kitchen…obviously, the family dog takes pride of place :)