British Invasion - The Union Jack & Bus Scrolls - Decor Trend

You've probably noticed this trend creeping up for a while now.  We're seeing home decor items with a heavy british influence - the Union Jack on anything and everything, bus scrolls, and even the Queen's profile, is quite ubiquitous as well.

Personally I think the trend is fun.  I am a bit of an anglophile myself, and kind of love all things british.  I adore London, and I pretty much think if I could have a life where I got to live in lots of places all over the world, London would be on the top of my list.  But I digress.  (Scotland's pretty awesome too, btw)

Anywho...

I started seeing all these cool things in the last year or so:

pillows

Cushions and more pillows

Super cool rugs (seriously, that's a super cool rug)

Some people would not put it on that pink chair, but I like it actually

Again, but a more demure rug

How flipping awesome is that?

and I love this more gritty version

And i love all the rich colors here - this one is awesome.  

Anyway, this got me to thinking that I'd love something similar.  And so when my friend Cindi said she was going to start a business painting furniture I asked her to paint an old chair I had sitting around with a union jack on the seat.  She then added a couple of details onto the back which reminded me of London - a "mind the gap" sign and a symbol for Victoria station, and a park direction sign.  The result is super cute:

If you've got a piece of furniture you'd like to something cool with, Cindi is your girl.  She's so talented and can do almost anything.  Check out her website HERE.  

And the other thing I've been loving for a long time are bus scrolls.  The thing is these are becoming so popular now that most of them aren't actually bus scrolls.  But what they were originally are the scrolls used to designate where the bus was stopping - the big double decker red buses in London.  The scroll would wind on a roll - and it's made of vellum-like material.  

See up there where it says King's Cross?  That's the bus scroll.  The REAL ones are hard to find.  Real ones:

 But now there are tons of knock offs.  And people who don't really understand what they originally were used for are selling some that say "Boston, San Diego, Houston, Seattle, Los Angeles, Atlanta".  Really?  Do you think there is a bus that ever travelled that route.  So dumb.  

I wanted a REAL one.  Not a fake one mass produced.  

In April I was in Los Angeles with friends and we stopped at this really awesome antiques shop in Pasadena.  I saw lots of cool things I would have loved in that antique shop but what caught my eye pretty immediately upon seeing it was a little section where two original bus scrolls were hanging on the wall.  I looked them over closely and I knew they were the real deal.  Most of the fake reproductions are made of paper instead of vellum.  And these were a little beat up - you can tell they were actually used.  Plus the names on them were not ones you would make up.  It was a little pricey, but I had money left over after my trip so I went ahead and bought one.  Do you know how often I buy something just because I love it?  Almost never.  So I am really glad I got this:

(see how if you were just making up one you wouldn't have all these "Harrow" destinations?  Obviously this is all on a street or area called "Harrow" - a few things I love about this - I adore that one of them is called Headstone Lane, and then shortly after we have Cherry Lane Cemetery and then the Christchurch Avenue.  Doesn't that just feel like a cool street?  With a church and a graveyard?  I also love that it ends at Hayes Station.  It's spelled incorrectly, but Hays is my last name.  

So altogether my little British Invasion wall looks like this:

Ignore my dog and her doggy toy on the ground, I couldn't get her to stop goofing around and get out of the way.  But it looks kinda cute there together right?  

Now all I need is a Queen profile somewhere (I really do think these are cool, I'm just now sure where I could use them):

But maybe I could find room for one of these:

Cheerio.