other people's houses

Aside from the fortnightly (ish) hand modelling stint at the studio, my work also provides me with another escape from the office: the monthly location shoot which is exactly what it sounds like. The quilt is taken to a usually gigantic beautiful house to be photographed in situ. Location shoots are long tiring days, there's a lot of hanging around, tea/coffee making & drinking and cat petting (the cats belong to the houses, sadly we don't have a designated location shoot cat that we take around with us....maybe we should though...). The houses we use can be anywhere in London which on occasion can lead to lateness/getting lost when trying to find the properties. On the plus side I'm learning a little bit about lighting and styling shots as well as where the quilt works best (beds, sofas, folded on things). However, the best thing about locations shoots (apart from the very rare offering of free food&cake) is the opportunity to look around some amazing houses. I mean I'm never going to be able to afford anything like the places we shoot in but, maybe because I'm nosey, it's fun to see how people style their big and beautiful homes. I know I'm not alone, why else would there be magazine features, tv shows and books on the subject of looking at how other people (fairly well off people) live. After six months of snooping around exploring using some gigantic houses for work purposes and taking a few of my own snaps, I've built up a little gallery...

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1. I loved the little girl's bedroom, it was so neat and pretty and decorated with the cutest things - bird mobile and tiny tiny clogs! <3

2. The kitchen in this house was fabulous, lots of antique cabinets and dried flower arrangements. Highlight was the miniature drawers with the cutlery instead of knobs.

3. Again, the girl's bedroom, such an adorable bed plus she had a nodding dinosaur!

4. This house was huuuuuge. The kitchen was my favourite room, full of light and pretty things.

5. This house was full of mirrors and pretty glass bottles - the picture on the left is taken in the lady's walk in closet (it was bigger than half my entire flat).

6. Awesome kettle

7. Robot lamp - I really want one of these.

8. Tintin poster :)

9. This house had a massive garden - the biggest I've seen in London - complete with swing seat, two play houses, a tree swing (always wanted one of these when I was little), a trampoline AND a fibreglass life sized cow! The picture on the right was a little annex room looking out over the garden.

10. I loved the little boy's bedroom at this house - one wall is a world map and he had the most amazing chest of drawers containing Tintin comics.

11. Of all the cats (nearly all of these houses have cats) we've met on location shoots this one was the most beautiful and so unbelievably soft.