His Style, Her Style… Their Style

Having a design style is like having a semi-superpower. The power to know exactly what you what your space to look like.It really is amazing but can be a nightmare when you have to share your space with someone who has a completely different design style.

Source- Home Designing

Most newlyweds face this problem. So many questions: Will you marry me? (I will), Do you take this woman….? (I do) and now will you take my contemporary over your traditional? (I so will not!!!) So what do you do? How do you make your space appealing to both of you? You have to merge your design styles and come up with a compromise that satisfies both styles. It’s a lot more effort but it’s possible.

Source- Kepler House

One thing to do is to share your design style between elements and accents. If you decide that all the furniture is going to be traditional, then you bring in your contemporary touch with colours, art, fabrics e.t.c

Source-Ocean’s Loft

Another way is to work with your structure. Use architecture to bring in those traditional elements that reflect your design style and balance this with contemporary pieces. The traditional in her will enjoy the structure of the space and the furniture will keep the modern man happy.

Source-  Sam’s House

When merging styles, always remember the importance of scale.Ensure that the items that carry larger visual weight have lighter colours and the items with the lighter visual weight can have darker colours.

Source- Decoris

Here’s how I see it; everyone has a contemporary flat or an ethnic beach house or a classic family home. So dare to be different, find a common ground, make your own statement and create a design style you can call “our design style”

Source- Home Portfolio

LS Loves – The Farnsworth House

Retreat Home? YES, PLEASE!!!!

The Farnsworth house, 14520 River Road, Plano, IL 60545, is a 140m2 house designed and constructed by German- American architect, Mies Vans de Rohe, between 1945 and 1951 as a weekend retreat house outside of Chicago for Dr Edith Farnsworth.

I love the way the architect uses elevated slabs to give the house a lift from the surface of the earth and a lower slab to create a floating terrace.

The Farnsworth house is a big open space that uses free standing elements to differentiate its sections.You certainly don’t need too many structures to zone out your space. The house is divided into sections comprising of an office area, dining area, sleeping area, living area and a kitchen.

I believe the idea behind the architects design was to create a single room that can be used in any way desired by whoever occupies it.

The house was built using a lot of glass, steel, concrete, and travertine. The furniture is very minimal and considering it was a retreat home, that was easy to achieve as only necessary pieces were required. All the furniture pieces were made with wood, steel and some glass and tan leather.

I usually don’t like browns but this earth toned colour palette is perfect.

The house was sold to the National Trust for Historic Preservation and Landmarks Illinois in December 2003 and is now operated as a house museum, the Farnsworth House is open to the public, with tours conducted by the National Trust.

Photo Credit-  www. farnsworthhouse.org

What your Interior Designer needs to know about you.

Hey  Guys, happy holidays and happy new year. I’m so sorry I have been incommunicado… New Year, clean slate 🙂

Over the holidays, I was having a conversation with a colleague who is currently working on a project. She was extremely frustrated and didn’t know what to do with the space. She told me what she was trying to achieve and we worked on a submission together. A week later, she called back and said the client hated it. I was so confused so I asked her, “what exactly did the client want?” and she said to me “I don’t know, I haven’t met the client”. She had never met the client, she did not get a brief, nothing. She just had a space.

Interior Design is about space planning but you need more than just the space. You need information about who you are planning the space for, what you’re planning the space for, where the space is located and so on.

Personally, before I see a space, I prefer to meet my client. I have come to the realisation that everyone has a design style. As a human being, I have my design style but as a professional, I know and can translate many design styles so I need to know a lot about my client in order to translate their design style.

First of all, a designer needs to know about the users of the space. How old is the user? Is the space for a group or for one person? Male, Female or both? This gets the ball rolling for the designer.

We then need to get to your personal preferences for the space. What do you want in the space? What don’t you want in the space? What colour do you want to see and what colour would you hate to have? Do you have any design inspiration images? Is there a finished look you are trying to achieve?

Finally, we need to know the purpose of the space. If it’s a living room, for example, we need to know if it strictly for receiving guests or also for entertainment. This will determine if the room will have  a TV and where the TV will be.

Now, you must understand that we are not trying to invade your privacy. All this information helps us determine a design direction that fits your taste and requirements instead of imposing our taste on you. Without this, your designer may come up with an amazing design proposal but you may not like it and not because it not nice but because it doesn’t suit you. One man’s trash is another man’s treasure.

 

 

I wouldn’t do that if I were you… (Part 2)

Lets talk about overplaying themes. This is a very common one that you see in many spaces, especially homes today. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with having an inspiration or a theme for your design, its all about how that theme is translated  and this can be done in many ways; patterns, colours, materials and many others.

Source-stylebyemilyhenderson.com

Lets take colour for example; it has the power to affect the size of a space. Darker colours will make your space look smaller while lighter colours will make your space look bigger. If you have a theme colour that’s dark, it’s better to use it on a feature wall or on your furniture. It will be a huge blunder to use Navy blue paint on all your walls and have Navy blue sofa with gray pillows. The room loses balance.

Source- thebloggerbusinessassociation.com

Patterns are another great way to interpret your theme. They can help give your space a new look without having to change your whole interior design but can also be overplayed. A patterned pillow on a patterned sofa in a living room with patterned wallpaper and a patterned rug… I wouldn’t do that if I were you.

Source- skydesigns.us

All you need to remember when designing with a theme is balance. Do not allow your space get to drowned by overplayed themes.

I wouldn’t do that if I were you… (Part1)

Interior Design mistakes are very common today and it is important to note that a high budget doesn’t necessarily mean your space will be well designed and decorated. Its so painful to look at a room you have spent so much money on and then you wonder “where did I go wrong” and this is one of the many reasons why Interior Designers are needed.

Source- Unboxedwriters.com

Interior Designers take out time to acquire knowledge of how to manage spaces, proportions, colours, lighting, patterns and many other factors that could affect a space.

Over the next week, I will be discussing some common Interior Design mistakes and their solutions. I don’t expect this post to turn you to Interior Designers overnight but I know it will definitely help you correct the mistakes you’ve made and make your space look much better.

The first and most common mistake is Poor Space Management. There are so many factors that can affect the management of your space but here is a simple way to put it. When designing and decorating, you must remember that; apart form the furniture, accessories and accents, a person or even more will still have to make use of the space. I will highlight some of the factors that could affect the management of your space.

Source- createdhouse.com

Do not put two sofas across from each other. Once you do that, you automatically make that the only path in that area. Once you have two sofas are facing each other, what you have done is you have created an alleyway and there is no freedom of movement. The space for feet then doubles as the (only) path in your space.

Source- Interiordesigninspiration.net

Another thing I wouldn’t do is over crowd my space. You really should not have to do a pillow ritual before you can sit on your sofa, or move a whole bunch of frames and vases and ornaments before you can place something on your table or console or not be able to see your walls because you have it all covered with art, photos or mirrors. Every item of furniture should have its functional space before being decorated with accessories. Remember that every colour, pattern, furniture, tile and light in your space is there to decorate the space and should be allowed to do just that without being crowded.

Source- popartdecorations.com

Clutter is another problem and I doesn’t necessarily mean being messy or untidy. Sometimes, clutter could simply mean that there is no space for an item. Storage units are decorative and also very useful. They keep unnecessary items out of sight so they do not take the beauty away from a perfectly decorated room.

Source- hgtv.com

Try out these tricks at home, in your office or any space and I hope you see a difference 🙂

What LS has been up to.

Its been a long time since my last post. Been trying to keep up with work, relocation and much more. I will just go straight into it. I ended 2014 with a beautiful home renovation. I stripped the apartment down and had it back up in time for a cosy Christmas.

The apartment came as seen in the top left photo but the client wanted a fresher environment so we went with a whitespace. I changed everything from the tiles to the lights and wall colour and threw in Blue and Red furniture for the POP. 

I also changed the kitchen to match the general concept of the house and used a mustard yellow feature wall.

We started 2015 with this fabulous Man Cave. The Black, White and Tan combination is perfectly warmed up with the yellow wall lights. This client loves to travel so we used his walls as a mini display of his favourite cities.

I am currently working on a Party Store and a Baby Room. I am super excited and can’t wait to show you photos of that too.

Feature Wall

A feature wall is simply a wall with a different design from all other walls in a room. It creates a focal point and brings in a lot of excitement. They are easy to achieve and can be done in a different material from the rest of the room or a different colour. They can also be changed very easily for people who get tired of the Pop it brings.

Source: Varrell

Picking the right wall for your feature wall is very important. The first thing to do when trying to choose is to eliminate all walls in the room that have doors and windows as this will break the flow of the feature wall and take away from its purpose. Once those are out of the way it becomes a little easier to choose the wall that needs to be highlighted. Obviously a feature wall must be seen by any and everyone that walks into the room. A trick I have learnt and that works for me all the time is to invite someone that is new to the space in when the room is bare, give them a minute to take it all in and then ask which wall caught their attention. That wall is usually the best wall to pick and highlight.

Source: Mybaijiale

The next thing is to decide what design you want your wall to have. Feature walls can be achieved with many different colours and materials. So you have to have an Idea of what you want and then go with the flow. Do you want a plain or patterned wall? Patterned? Ok, Do you want it to be the same colour as the rest of the room but with some pattern? No?  Ok, Do you want a different shade of the colour you have or a completely different colour? Once you have all these answered, then choosing your design will be very easy.

Source: Legcloud

The last thing is to give your feature wall a balance. You must make sure the wall is not crowded. There is no point highlighting a wall that is mostly covered but at the same time, you have to make sure the wall is not bare as that may bring too much pop into the room and may overpower your space.

Source: Prinston Glass

What’s your Budget?

The first question I ask my clients at the beginning of a project is “What is your budget?” and the immediate response is “I don’t have one, I just want you to look at it and tell me how much”. Even if you don’t know what you want to spend, we all have that “I can’t spend more than XYZ” thought and that XYZ, is your budget.

Starting with a budget gives you an idea of your end result from the very beginning. Once you have a budget, you know if you can achieve all that you want and whether you can do so exactly as you imagined it.

Interior Design gives many options to the desired result. For example, if you want a feature wall, you can achieve it with a type of stone, which is expensive; wallpaper, which is cheaper; or paint, which is cheap and cheerful, and many other options that vary in cost. Having a budget gives you or your Interior designer a starting point to determine what you can get and how you will get it.

Another advantage of a Budget is that it helps you scale your project reasonably. Most of the time, clients don’t realize how high their budget for one area is and are usually shocked when informed that they can re-design an extra space with that budget. Other times, clients underestimate and in just one conversation, I can make my client understand that all that they want can’t be done with the budget and some areas can be left as is, or done later.

A budget also gives room for more creativity. Being forced to work with a budget will make you think outside the box when designing. You won’t use the typical easy way out, not only because it may (or may not) be expensive but because you will want to challenge yourself and see how well you can work without being able to ask for more. Design is endless and the more you have, the more you spend so with a budget, you will be forced to prioritize and focus.

DIY may seem like a wise way to save money but consulting with an Interior Designer is a wiser investment and will help you allocate your budget effectively.

LS LOVES: CITCO

One of my favourite aspects of a space is the wall treatment and I always spend minutes appreciating a room with a beautiful feautire wall.

Citco Camelia

There are various ways to treat your walls and picking one main wall with a special wall treatment is one of my favourite of the lot.

Citco Puzzle

I am obsessed with the italian brand CITCO. This brand takes wall treatment to another level and uses geometry, nature, jewels and other elements to create amazing art.

Citco Bamboo

CItco coverings are unique and will give your space a strong character and there is something for every space.

Citco Couture

LS loves Citco and I know you will too.

COLOUR PALETTES- WHAT’S YOUR INSPIRATION?

One of the many decisions to make when decorating a space is the choice of Colours. Questions like “what colours should I use?”; “How do I figure out what goes with what?”; “How will these many colours that I love look together?”; “I know I want pink… What shade of pink?” The list is endless.

Source: Refresh Wellness Centre Blog

Now the Internet is an amazing place with so many beautiful images of anything and everything. I usually use that as my starting point. First I decide what I want the atmosphere to look and feel like and I just look at images for hours. A butterfly for example can be so colourful and it lives its whole life looking beautiful with all those colours so why won’t they work in your space? Images are very inspiring and they give you a starting point for picking colours.

This colour chart above was for a feminine, soft and delicate space.

I always try to run away from the typical Black and White colour palette because I feel its too safe but the colour palette above was for a client who actually loves Black and White. Now I was not going to let him have it easy because a little pop of colour don’t hurt.

I worked on this particular one with one of my colleagues. A restaurant by day and a club by night. This was a challenging one because it was difficult to choose colours that will work for both so we had to play smart with it. Colours come from different sources: wall paint, fabrics, tiles but most importantly light. What we did was to pick colours that can be easily changed with coloured lights for the daytime so once these lights are on at night, the colours can be influenced.

A loft is usually an apartment that has been converted for residential use from previously being used for industrial purposes. In the loft I designed above, I wanted to keep the dusty industrial idea behind the loft but in a bold way.

Source: Indulgy

It is important to find images that speak to you in colour. An image that has a combination of colours will make it easier to translate colours into your space.