WHAT?
Practically Fabulous is an exploration of they ways colours, patterns and function interact play together in interior and exterior spaces. My tools of choice are artificial intelligence (AI), human intelligence (mine), and my camera (phone). It’s a space to celebrate playful creativity and to explore answers to this question:
What haven’t I seen that might delight me?
I created this little corner of the internet as celebration of spaces and colours that entice and embolden us to create our own uniquely delightful environments, moving away from choices made out of convention or habit.
It’s about ‘WHAT IFs’?! & WHY NOTs?! It's about colour for the sake of joy.
WHO?
Born and bred among the tropical colours of St. Croix in the U.S. Virgin Islands, I’ve lived in 37 homes in 9 countries on 4 continents. My hope is to NOT reach the 40 homes milestone. Given my track record, my hope is likely unrealistic optimism, BUT a life lived without dreams is a life I don’t want to live ;-).
With previous careers in international public health and early childhood education, the joyous aesthetics of colour interior design were an absolute delight to dive into! I
HOW?
ABOUT SUBSCRIPTIONS:
For now, this is a free publication and there is no paid option. Thank you for being a fabulous free subscriber, reading and enjoying my posts!
HUH?
Here are a few of my previous posts to give you a taste:
034. WANTED: A City Called Home
I have never lived anywhere that I expected to stay long term. As an adult, I made choices to ensure this reality continued, fueled by a strong innate desire to experience the world in its diverse glory. 36 homes in 8 countries on 4 continents. It’s been a grand adventure that was everything I wanted it to be. And now, I’m ready to go to Home. But I don’…
033. Purple Magic for Kids
Last week I attended a magic show by Michael Vincent, a professional magician who has travelled the world for decades astounding audiences of all ages with seemingly impossible acts. Despite knowing with 100% certainty that there was a rational explanation for everything I saw, each trick was a delightful surprise that I had not seen or expected.
027. Blended Interior Design Styles
It’s such a common scenario, played out in homes around the world: Ana adores zen neutral spaces, while her partner loves bright boho vibes that remind him of his childhood home. Akiko feels happiest in bold primary colours, but her partner needs inky dark spaces to unwind after long days in bright hospital corridors.
017. A Refuge of Love in London
Today’s snippet from my brain is a brief tour of the London home of Raj and Viktor. The images and story are fictional - I created the images using Midjourney AI, and the words are directly from my brain.
WHY?
In 2015, my now husband I and visited the paint department of our local hardware store, to choose a shade of blue for one wall in our newly shared home. We thought it would be an quick and easy errand. Instead, we found ourselves staring at an enormous wall of blue rectangles… hundreds of little blue rectangles, each ever so slightly different from the rectangle directly above and below.
Surprised, but yet undaunted, we starting leafing through the paint sample cards…
“This one? Maybe darker?”
“More greenish maybe. And lighter. Ooo, how about this one?”
“Too dark. This is nice.”
“Hmm, no, too blue.”
“TOO blue? But, we’re looking for blue!”
We quickly realised that we were not up to the task. We retreated to research a new plan of action. Luckily, we found a professional colour tamer who deeply understood those rectangles of 1000s colours. An online interior designer advised the perfect blue, and proceeded to help us transform our entire home into an attractive and colourful sanctuary that we both loved. My obsession with interiors was thus sparked, and that initial blue seed continued to grow and blossom. I spent a year doing a wonderful online certification in interior designer from the UK, and enjoyed it immensely. Most recently, I’ve been exploring colour, shape, and texture in a smaller scale in embroidery and textile art. The colour adventures continue!
I humbly and happily invite you into my Practically Fabulous Substack home. I hope my words and images bring much delight, I hope you stay a while and share some of yours too!
- Vanessa :-)
