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If you’re familiar with Bellevue Café in Kloof, then it’s likely you’ve walked past the stylish and tasteful shop, called Adele Catherine, and popped in for a quick squizz.
Filled with a stunning selection of boutique lifestyle products, Adele Catherine is the product of a creative partnership between Adele Schmitz and Catherine Mc Daniel. These two lovely ladies have a passion for styling interiors and, when looking through their work, it is evident that they have a love for beautiful, soulful and functional spaces that have a positive impact on others.
Considering their expertise and years of experience in styling interiors, we thought they were just the right people to speak to in view of the latest 2020 interior trends. And so, we connected with them and asked them a few questions.
Read on for a little insight into what’s new this year. But first, let’s learn a little more about who they are and what they do.
Nicky Askew: How did your company come about?
Catherine: Adele and I met while working for the International Trend Institute – a holistic branding agency that creates meaningful brands through considered strategic thinking, global trend knowledge and creative design – obviously this was hugely influential in both of our paths!
We started with a stand at the Bellevue Market, selling bed linen and accessories, and quickly moved on to sub-letting a space in a shop called Fat Tuesday, on the Bellevue Campus. When the owners of Fat Tuesday decided to close, we jumped at the opportunity to take on the whole store in 2016 and re-brand it as Adele Catherine. With a formula that was working, we looked to expanding to Johannesburg, where we’ve opened two stores in early 2019.
Nicky Askew: What inspired you to become boutique lifestyle retailers?
Catherine: Our passion for styling interiors was a huge inspiration. In our stores, we aim to create places that both inspire our customers and make them feel at home. We want to inspire people to see and do things differently – through products that help them to inform and express their own personal style. And we never sell anything that we don’t love ourselves!
Nicky Askew: What is your favourite part of the job?
Catherine: Discovering new products and being able to work with artists to creatively edit their products to make them uniquely ours. Usually that means adding a little black J
Nicky Askew: What are the top 2020 interior trends at the moment?
Catherine: Individualisation is becoming more and more important! This, together with peoples’ desire to know the maker and support local crafters, makes for a very interesting future in 2020 interior trends (and fashion!).
Authentic materials that comfort and provide tactile pleasure to the user are important. As are heavier furnishings that are more grounding, sturdy and reassuring. Dark moody colours that cocoon peoples’ homes are also a current favourite.
It’s all about countering our super-fast, high-tech lifestyle with materials that make us feel safe and connected.
Nicky Askew: What advice do you have for working these trends into your home while keeping your unique style ‘personality’?
Catherine: Choose pieces, fabrics and colours that speak to you, that you love. Hold on to special pieces that have heritage and a story that has meaning to you, and edit out all the superfluous ones.
Try introduce natural, textured weaves, in the form of throws and scatters. Try a dark wall or be daring and paint an entire room in a dark charcoal or rich earth-inspired, saturated colour.
Nicky Askew: Which colours are trending at the moment?
Catherine: Rich, earth-inspired, saturated colours – think terracotta, butter, charcoal, deep green. At Adele Catherine, we usually have a lot of black, white and grey and introduce colour through accents.
Nicky Askew: How do you go about picking the right colour for a client’s walls?
Catherine: So many factors come into play! We take a look at the natural light, the function of the room, what existing pieces we’re keeping and what we plan to add. We create mood boards and discuss these with clients to make sure they understand what we’re trying to achieve, and make sure they’re on board. Then, we test the colours in situ!
The lighting in each home and location is different and has an incredible impact on the way you read a colour – testing is vital before committing to the final colour!
Nicky Askew: Who or what inspires your interior style?
Catherine: Artists, nature and social media. We’re always keeping our finger on the pulse for creative inspiration.
Nicky Askew: How big are you on attention to detail?
Catherine: Very! As we know you are too. It’s the little details that set a space apart and make it special and unique to its owners.
Nicky Askew: How do you go about looking for a reliable painting contractor?
Catherine: Mostly through word of mouth. Other than that, it’s through good experiences – quality of workmanship, cleanliness and reliability keep us coming back. We’d definitely recommend using T-rifik, as we are familiar with your reputation for high quality work!
And there you have it! Thanks for reading this interview, and please don’t hesitate to call us if you’d like update your home with a new paint job to suit the 2020 interior trends mentioned above.