How To Decorate Easter Table?

This year I completely disregarded the Easter and am totally unprepared. Since I work in a coffee shop as a Barista (haven’t I told you that?) it may turn out that I will be working these days but as a designer, I was looking for some ideas for decorating the table for holidays. I gathered few inspirations for you that I find interesting and are a bit different from commonly used.

Whether you plan a dinner for 20 people or just meet some friends, I am sure you can find something for yourself among this inspirations and be creative with what you have already. Mix and match items, add few Easter themed items or tulips, daffodils or branches with young leaves to create this festive feeling.

Thanks for checking this post,

Gosha

How To Organise Your House In Style

 

Spring is usually a time when we clean our houses to let the fresh energy in and say goodbye to winter. We want to keep our home clean and organised so it is a good idea to make some changes in terms of extra storage space. In this post, I will show you how to make the most of your space in style.

Book Shelves Under The Window. Usually, space, where we have window sills, is going to waste. Why not use it for extra storage- it looks interesting and adds functionality to our room.

Repurpose Old Furniture. This old mailbox cabinet can be a perfect organiser in your craft room or home office. It adds an industrial feel and personality to it.

Small Shelves And Extra Hangers. They are perfect to hang small items, little organisers or expose interesting items like jewellery or other accessories.

Drawer Organisers and Cupboard Containers. Natural materials like this bamboo organiser or glass containers will look much better than the plastic ones.

Wire Baskets. If you have interesting items you can show them and keep them organised at the same time in baskets like this. There are a plethora of possibilities here because you can find them in different styles and colour. I would stay away from the chrome ones though as they are not very pretty.

Wooden Crates. They are perfect for storing larger items. They are nice as they are or can be painted or stacked to create shelving etc. You can ask at your local fruit and veg store or they can be bought on Amazon.

I wrote this post to give you some creative ideas to organise your homes and I hope the article was useful. Please note that it contains few affiliate links to similar products shown in the photos. I am on the organisation stage in my rented home as well so expect more of this type of posts. Are your houses organised or are they rather the creative messes like mine? I would like to know so please share some thoughts on this in the comments below.

Thanks for reading,

Gosha

How To Add A Boho Chic To Your Interior?

Historical Background

The term Boho is a short form of Bohemian which is defined as a someone who lives and acts freely, disregarding conventional rules, usually an artist or writer. It has its origin in 19th century France where some artists and poets rebelled against an institution controlling the art market- the Salon. This movement died at the beginning of 20th century but influenced later art like surrealism or music like punk rock.

Bohemian Style

Nowadays Boho chic in fashion and interiors is associated with free spirits like hippies, Gypsies, travellers and artists. This eclectic style has to express individuality and freedom. There is no rules here and you can be very creative decorating in Boho vibe.

Boho Chic Interiors

As there’s no rule and the style is as unique as a person utilising the space it is hard to define the style, but there are few characteristic elements of Boho chic. Combining few of them or even all creates Bohemian feeling in the room.

Tropical Plants

They remind us exotic places and travels

Macrame

This technique uses different knots to produce textiles and decorations. There are tutorials available online that show how to create macrame decor like the pictured below.

Hobbies

If you play the guitar or any other instrument or paint incorporate your interest in your interior after all Boho chic is associated with art and free expression. This will be a perfect topic for a conversation when someone visit you 😉

Rug

In this style rugs are welcome even the old fashioned ones, patterned and vibrant- whatever you like.

Fairy Lights and Lanterns

There’s something magical and artistic about them, they create ambient atmosphere- a perfect background for good music and long night conversations.

Pattern and Colour

In Bohemian interiors there’s no rules how to mix and match patterns and colours be as creative as you want.

Lace

This decorative and romantic element is used commonly in Bohemian style interiors.

Succulents and cacti

They don’t need too much care and will survive without watering even if you travel a lot.

Dream catchers

They are supposed to protect us from nightmares and are characteristic for Boho chic.

I hope that this article was helpful and inspired you to add a bit of Boho to your beautiful houses…Writing this post made me think of buying a camper and travel around the World… Maybe, at least, I will learn to play the guitar?

Thanks for reading,

Gosha

Texture In Interiors- Why Is It Important?

A texture is associated with the sense of touch. The Cambridge Dictionary defines it as “the quality that can be decided by touch: the degree to which something is rough or smooth” but by looking on something we can estimate the feeling of a material. The picture below shows four different textures and looking at them we can imagine how they feel without touching them. For example if we touch the blanket or the cat it will be nice and soft and the jute carpet will be rather rough, the wood- hard etc.

Texture is important element in interior design and without it the room often feels flat, cold and incomplete. Smooth and sleek textures- like metal, marble, glass are associated with luxury and rough and soft textures create cosy and homey feeling. It is necessary to add a bit of texture in interior but balance is important as too much of texture can be overwhelming and create the sense of mess and clutter.

The easiest way to introduce texture to your room is to use different fabrics like linen, faux fur pillows, high pile rugs or knitted throws.

Different fabrics are perfect for adding texture.

Without these cushions the room would feel cold and unwelcoming.

Another material that interior designers love to use is wood or wood-like materials. The wood warms up the space and and is always in trend.

Neutral interiors would be dull without introducing different textures.

Plants are perfect texture as well they add an instant update to the room. Being around greenery is good for our mood and health.

Without plants these rooms would feel cold and incomplete.

Throw some books around to add  texture instantly- plus you will appear smarter if someone visits you 🙂

When you are on the stage of designing it’s worth to consider architectural elements like moldings, columns and tiles in terms of texture.

 

I love texture in interiors and I always introduce it in my designs to create interesting rooms. I hope this post gave you a lot of ideas how you can make your beautiful rooms even more interesting by bringing in different textures.

Thank you for reading,

Gosha

How To Mix And Match Patterns For Beginners

If you’re fed up with boring plain block of colours and want to add a visual interest to your room, introducing pattern can be a good idea. Today I will give you few tips how to start.

Choose the colour palette first. Decide which colours you like and check if they go well together. Weather it be warm or cool colours, complementary or harmonious scheme. Now you can proceed to mix and match patterns.

Pick one colour that ties everything together. On the picture below we can see that mustard yellow ties two unrelated patterns in cohesive look.

Photo credit: Ikea 

The image below shows beautiful tiles pattern which is only highlighted by small dots on the emerald green vases.

Black and white pattern is perfect solution if you have other colours in the room it can be stylish and interesting update to any interior.

Photo credit: Ikea

One bold print as an accent wall gives this room a focal point. It is interesting element itself but could be paired with a smaller pattern with the same theme colour.

Your personal style is the most important as it comes to decorating your home so I encourage you to experiment ant play around. Breaking the rules can have unexpected effect like on the picture below.

I hope this post inspired you to do some changes in your houses. Introducing pattern gives an interest to your favourite rooms and will stimulate your brains which can lead to many more creative ideas …

Finally I want to share with you some mind blowing example how a German artist Lars Contzen combines bold colours with patterns in his work (click).

Thank you for reading,

Gosha

Free Online Resources For Interior Design

When you’re designing your room you don’t necessarily want to spend money on a design software. Not everyone has a natural flair for interiors or trained eye for design, but that doesn’t mean that you cannot compose an appealing colour scheme or plan your space. There are free websites and softwares that can help you in doing this. In today’s post I will share the ones I was using or still use in my interior design projects.

Monochrome interior mood board  created on Polyvore

1. Polyvore is a website there you can create a mood boards for virtually anything: your outfit or your interior. It is an online platform where you can buy the stuff your used in the project, but you don’t necessarily have to and you can save your board or share on social media. I used to compose the boards on Polyvore for my college projects ,before I knew the design software.
2. Room Planner by Pottery Barn is an online software where you create your floor plan. Put your room dimensions and use their ready-made blocks of furniture to plan your space. At the end you also get the full list with dimensions of furniture you used.
3. Google SketchUp is a 3D modelling software to download to your computer (SketchUp Make version is free). It is quite simple to use and you can model your room in 3D which is very handy if you don’t have the ability to imagine how your space will look like. 3D Warehouse feature allows you to download already modelled furniture to your project. 

   

   A quick 3D model of a living room made in Google SketchUp Make

    

4.  Pinterest is an online source of inspiration where you create your boards and collect pictures there. You can simply create a board for your room and pin the images of inspiration there. It is really handy to define your style and to keep ideas for later. I have to warn you that it is very addictive though and can be a huge time waster as well 😉
5.  BBC Design Rules on YouTube- I recommend to watch the whole series of 6 episodes if you’re at the beginning of your journey with decorating a home. It’s necessary to know the rules first to break them like a pro 😉
6. Adobe Color CC will create a colour scheme for you wether it is analogous, triadic or complementary. Choose the colour from the wheel and choose the option in the dropdown menu. If you download an inspiration photo Adobe Color CC will pick the colours and create the colour scheme for you.

These six free design tools will help you to decorate beautiful rooms and create cohesive design, but that doesn’t mean that you will become an Interior Designer only with them… Designing for yourself is completely different than designing for others and there’s many restrictions and rules like building regulations, ergonomics or health and safety principles that have to be considered. Always consult projects that involve construction work with a professional.

Thanks for reading my post,

Gosha

Interior Design Trends For 2018. Part I

If minimalism and all white interiors are not your thing, or if you struggling to keep your house tidy and perfect, I have a good news for you. The 2018 trends in interiors forecast came to save you. In this post I will present few of them that I find interesting.

Imperfection or WABI-SABI trend is embracing flaws and accepts that the house is not a museum. This traditional Japanese aesthetics includes asymmetry, roughness, simplicity and modesty. Think of organic shaped porcelain, mismatched, creased linen pillowcases, uneven wood grain furniture or burn marks on chopping boards… There’s so many ways to incorporate this trend effortlessly.

source: Fashionlandscape.com

 Nowadays most of us live in a rush and we are surrounded by the technology but we still have a need to be closer to nature. Greenery trend respond to this need. It can be incorporated by placing live plants in the room. Green wall or few plants around the room, hanging baskets or stands on different levels will transform the interior completely, is inexpensive and you can never go wrong with it. this trend doesn’t have to be taken so literally, you can always use some printed accessories or artwork around the house.

Photo by Judah Guttmann on Unsplash

Millennial Pink is another big thing in 2018. This colour can be overwhelming so it’s better to use it in accessories as an accents. It looks very good when mixed with berry. You can add some texture like fake fur or fringes to give it more personalised look.

Credit: Theinkformant.com

Tonal reds- this trend is apparent in fashion from which interior design often takes inspiration. Trend forecasters predict that this will be reflected in interiors in 2018. Combine different tones of red: coral, tangerine, wine. This is definitely energising combination.

Picture: Pinterest.com

I find the greenery trend particularly interesting it brings fresh and cosy atmosphere to any interior and I like to be surrounded by nature. Also Wabi-Sabi aesthetics appeals to me because house is for living not for show. I wonder which of the predicted trends do you like. Please leave me some comments below and follow my blog if you want to know more trends for forthcoming year.

Thank you for reading,

Gosha

Men Do Care About the Design

Decorating a house is definitely a woman’s thing. Making a house a home is in our nature since the beginning of humanity. This gives us joy and makes us proud. We like if someone appreciates our effort and men seem not to care. But don’t they really?

Every time I see cute shabby chic living room with floral sofa, pink accents and white, distressed furniture I wonder how the man of the house feels in this room. I imagine him going back home after the long day at work and… Actually I cannot imagine that though I am very creative and I have rich imagination. He wants to relax on the sofa but there’s so many statement pillows so he throws them on the floor… I mean what else can he do with them? Then he wants to watch tv or read a book (yeah right, he’s tired after work) but tufted sofa is so uncomfortable, he had his favourite, comfy chair but it didn’t mach the decor… And this goes on and on…

Ladies you are not gonna like what I have to say: please consider your other half when decorating a house. I know it is not that easy but there are some things you should reconsider:

• Fluffy fur pillows- they’re good in your daughter’s room or she-shed but not in the living room (plus they’re home for dirt, hair and allergens)
• Floral sofas- imagine him with his male friends watching the game on it
• Pink accents (obviously)
• Mirrored furniture- I mean we have enough mirrors around the house plus they are hard to keep clean
• Painted white, distressed, shabby chic furniture
• Patterned wallpaper- especially floral, damask, fleur-de-lis
• Too many accent pillows (they take up space and usually they will end up on the floor and you will be annoyed again)
• All white room (men perceive colour differently most of them don’t distinguish slight tonal difference between white/ivory/cream their brain won’t be stimulated)

This post is just my opinion and shouldn’t be treated too seriously. Don’t get me wrong I wouldn’t let my man to decide about everything and definitely I wouldn’t let him to pick the paint colour. There are things we are better at… but they do care about how their home looks like and they want to feel comfortable there. Also there’s so many great male architects, graphic designers, web developers- that prove their attention to detail (so let them test the sofa or bed they will consider every practical aspect). I just think they don’t want to argue over small things and they want to make us happy and surely there is little something we can do to make them feel good at home. After all love is all that matters.

I am curious what are your thoughts on that? Are you asking your man about their opinion? Is there something you would add to the list? Please leave me a comment below.

Thanks for reading,

Gosha