Vincent Van Duysen

Vincent Van Duysen

Maximum light, natural tones, pure architecture combined with well selected art pieces and vintage/second hand furniture....

produces a contemporary, refined and unpretentious style.

I first saw photos of Vincent van Duysen's work in a book that I bought while studying ID in 2003. I like the simplicity of his designs, his use of natural light and colour.


image published March 2007 in ceramics design home accessories

Belgium linen curtains no doubt!

Raw textures....

Simple, close to nature, authentic and with a touch of the past.

A great recipe for a casual, restful interior space!

images sourced from itfensi, the style files, vincent van duysen.

A Perfect Day

A perfect day for spending time in the garden.

Always plenty to do...

Niche Market

The gorgeous lights above are by a talented local designer. There are a number of designs in various colours and finishes. The Grandelier would suit a range of interior styles. I think there are a few going into the Henry Jones Art Hotel. The Grandelier is a "social and environmental choice and designed and made in Australia". Perfect! We'll have a few of these, thank you! The pendants above are also part of our collection. From an emerging company called Sala Verde, the lights are all ethically produced and are made from 100% plant based materials. Especially suited to contemporary and/or organic spaces. The brown spirals look very stylish in a group of three over a table or bench.

Whatever your style, if you are after some wow factor with your lighting one of the options above could work!

Handmade soy wax candles. These are cinnamon /vanilla scented and have a burning time of about 30 hours.



Looking forward to getting our house back. It is looking a little bit like a shop in some areas!

These are samples of natural floor coverings. We can have them made into floor rugs with borders.

Store It

Once a tyre, now really cool containers for holding or storing just about anything. These have been very popular. Toys, wood, magazines, towels or plant them with herbs. What do you think? I like the idea that we can reuse old tyres that would otherwise end up as landfill.

They can be sealed around the bottom edge if water proofing is required. We have a range of styles and sizes available.

These zinc baskets could be lined and used as linen baskets. I have also seen them used as wood baskets.


Bonnie & Neil

Australian designers making a fabulous range of homewares. Storage boxes and placemats are a couple of items in their current range.
Will have some of their products when we open.

Sliding Doors & Colour 101

There will be a bedroom adjoining the open plan living area in the apartment at 51 Balfour Street. Sliding doors will separate the 2 spaces. The walls are about 30-40cm brick and render so the doors will be sliding along the wall.

(Source Unknown)

Sustainable bamboo products from bambu. Great cutting boards, serving trays and cooking utensils.




Corsica is a beautiful range of linen from Belgium. The colours in this range are simply stunning.
According to our supplier, Corsica is extremely popular in Europe at the moment. It is an ideal weight for curtains and bed linen.

It is also works well with our first colour palette for the store.
As do the butterflies below.
Photo from Shannon Fricke blog. Aren't the colours in this fabric divine!

Cloth & Spare Room

Cloth Fabric - again! Stoney, the olive (spinach) coloured fabric in the cushions is a fabulous design. It's an easy way to add colour and pattern to a room. What works even better, is using more than one Cloth fabric in a cushion or on a chair.

The colour spinach is not going to work for our first colour palette in the shop. Our first selection of 10 colours are the Society Colours, Foundation 01, designed by Sibella Court for Murobond, shown on the board above.



A few months ago our spare room became an experimental space for me to work out the first theme and colour palette for ecoco. Today I can barely move in there! I am looking forward to getting this space back, I think we all are!!!

Fair and Eco-Friendly

One of my favourite Australian designers is Julie Patterson of Cloth Fabric, she is a creative inspiration. This is the beautiful wattle fabric in the colourway, cloudy. Cloth fabrics are printed on organic fabrics using environmentally friendly inks and processes.

Once a tyre, now a tub for carrying and storing fire wood etc. We have 4 of the tyre tubs left at the moment. See them on our website. Will have some of the chunky knit floor cushions similar to the one above arriving soon.

Armadillo & Co is a company that we have chosen to support because they share our philosophy in regard to respecting the labour rights of people in developing countries. Their range of floor rugs are stunning, made by artisans in India, who are more importantly, paid fairly.



Nest in Charcoal

The collection includes about 10 styles

If you are lusting after one of the recycled glass grape lights above, we have 2 large and 3 small available. I think I will use one in the shop over a round table.

Coming Home

Thursday 19 August 2010

One of the nicest things about putting lots of time and effort into creating a home, is coming home. After recently spending 4 nights away staying in a new but bland and pokie hotel room and waking up to look out at a tall grey building next door every morning, it was good to come home.

Never underestimate the uplifting power of natural light. Research, (I can't remember whose) suggests that people are drawn to interior spaces that have lots of natural light. In a standard 4 wall room it is always good to have windows on 2 of the 4 walls if possible. In this photo of our hallway natural light comes flooding in from the skylight roof. Lovely, but a bit chilly in winter!

The Renovation

Wednesday 18 August

After 2 years of searching we found a building for ecoco. It had all that we were looking for; location, potential, history and a few great cafes around the corner. Along with all of that has come months of planning and a few issues. But....

finally, we are able to start swinging the sledge hammers at 51 Balfour Street.

After 4 months of frustrating delays we are finally able to start the demolition of the old sheds to make way for the extension of the shop downstairs and the apartment upstairs.

This photo is taken from inside the shop looking out to the backyard.

You can see the problem we have with rising damp.

All this will go.

The neighbour's house.

This is a photo of the back of the building. As you can see not a lot of heritage value back here. Years of neglect and bad alterations have resulted in this mess!!!

In a few weeks, this will all be gone!!!