The Zoo

I thought I'd had my fill of all things safari after visiting Edinburgh Zoo (for the first time) a couple of weeks ago, but by the looks of theses photographs, it appears I'm still drawn to interiors with skins, patterns and textures inspired by the kingdom of animals. I went with quite a few members of my family, some of which were over from Australia, to see the famous pandas. As exciting as the pandas were, my highlight were those of another monochromatic nature.........As the heavy rain of the Scottish summer drenched us, my mum and I, separated from the group and pushed a sleeping Sebastian, in his plastic covered pushchair, to the top of a ridiculously steep incline, to see the zebras. There were five of them, all sheltering from the rain, standing under the viewing platform. They were beautiful...perfect. And so close. It was the end of the day and the zoo keepers started calling them up to their shed. The zebras ignored them for a while but after a couple of whistles, they flicked their stripey, funnel-like ears and trotted up the field like obedient dogs. Magnificent.
The point of my rambling? Inspiration from nature in design is, as always, excellent. I love the giraffe inspired rug in this beautiful, masculine interior. 

Much to my disappointment, there are no giraffes at Edinburgh Zoo (Sebastian had a toy giraffe with him on the day to compensate), if there were, they may have stolen the show but for now, the zebras reign...in the rain. 
P.S. The shiny, wet hippos (mum, dad and baby) grazing, came in at a close second place.

Interior photographs by the super talented Phillip K. Erickson. Zebra photograph by me on my iPhone 4, then edited with Instagram.