Interior design by ifdesign, Brisbane :: Three Little Girls and a Boy Named Ted

ifdesign recently completed the interior design scheme for Three Little Girls and a Boy Named Ted on Oxford Street, Bulimba, Brisbane.

Owned by Charmaine McDonald, this young children's clothing store sells quality children's clothing made from natural fabrics with labels from Australia, France and Italy.

With an increasing awareness of the benefits of healthy environments and natural materials we were delighted to work with Charmaine, Greener Kitchens (for the joinery) and Building in Green (the builders) to create a natural and healthy environment one should expect from a Children’s clothing store.

The project involved the strip out of existing walls and finishes to allow for a new retail layout, new kitchen and stock area all with new floors, lighting scheme, bespoke joinery and furniture.

new store plan

Our brief was "to create a French inspired retail store" with healthy low toxic materials and a sustainable focus. Working closely with Charmaine our inspiration was drawn from an ecletic mix of French shabby chic, the Hamptons and shaker styles. We also combined a mix of hand crafted items, fair trade products, reclaimed and natural finishes. The use of healthier materials and finishes such as low VOC and no VOC natural paints, low energy light fittings and recycled timber was used to create a healthy and sustainable retail environment.

early design ideas

Rather than select mass manufactured retail fixtures and furniture we designed a family of “Shaker inspired” original joinery cabinets. A local wood turner was commissioned to make traditional “Shaker coat pegs” for product hangers and many decorative items were sourced from local reclaim centres around Brisbane.

ideas from our trip to reclaim centres

The biggest delight was finding some vj’s from an old Queenslander in West End. These timber panels were stripped of nails and old paint, then installed to create a feature display wall to the rear of the store. Once installed they were painted with a natural based paint made from milk bi-products and given a wax finish as shown in the images below.

the feature VJ wall "under construction"

Hand made jute display baskets were also sourced from the Dharma Door, a local supplier working with a “Fair Trade” program in Bangladesh.

Finally, many thanks to Katrina Philips of Style My Room in Brisbane for all your beautiful final touches such as the beautiful French jars that complete all the joinery cabinets.

For a fine afternoon of retail therapy why not pop along to Three Little Girls and a Boy Named Ted located at Shop 4, 77 Oxford Street, Bulimba.

We are also very proud to be featured in this months copy of Brisbane's River Wrap... Thank you!