Interior Design Archives - Page 12 of 15

Choosing A New Ceiling Light Fixture

January 15, 2016/5 Comments/in Interior Design, trends /by Mila

I need to replace my light fixtures through out my house, specially the living room. I still have the ones that came with the house when we bought it and they are… how do I put it?… mmm… repulsive comes to mind.

I want a brass fixture, like everybody else in the world. A couple of years ago, I wanted to buy this one:

Park Studio LA

And I still love it, but, if you follow any design blog in the world, you have seen this fixture (or something similar) in a thousand of spaces. I understand is cute, but I don’t want to jump into this trend wagon too late in the game, like when I bought this Fiddle Fig tree.

Here are other light fixtures I am considering:

Sputnik Chandelier – Lucent Light Shop
Vertex Chandelier – Lucent Light Shop Urchin Chandelier – Dutton Brown The Napoleon Chandelier – Sazerac Stitches5 Orb Chandelier- Lucent Light Shop

This one is a vintage lamp that I think it would look good in my bathroom or hallway. The only problem is that I need to bring it here all the way from France:

Vintage light fixture –French IdyllCeiling Sputnik – Lucent Light ShopLoa Chandelier – Sazerac Stiches

Aurora Pendant – Cedar and Moss Modern Chandelier –Illuminate Vintage

For my living room, I would love to have the vertex chandelier or the urchin. The urchin is so nice, but more expensive. For my bathroom, I would like the vintage lamp because it has so much personality, it is different and vintage… nothing to lose here. For my hallway, I would love to have the ceiling sputnik lamp. Wishful thinking!

What is your opinion? Do you have any favorites from above or other shops?

Thanks for stopping by.

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Grey Rooms

On the topic of choosing colors to paint a room (or a house), I declare myself to have low education AND no intuition. We painted our home exterior last week and choosing the color was an intense process that showed my ignorance about colors at every turn. I knew I wanted grey, but who could imagine there are thousands of grey colors? OK, I knew there are thousands of grey colors, but I didn’t know that the look of a house, or a room, can completely change from using one grey or another that are seemingly identical.

I wonder if interior designers have endless discussions about color. They probably do. There must be whole classes devoted to choosing a color in interior design school, and, if there are not, they should be.

The biggest difficulty in choosing a grey was that it was hard to imagine how the end result would look like. Even after we painted patches as sample of the different colors on the wall, we found out that the color can completely change depending on the time of the day you are looking at it (obviously), and how big the area you are painting is.

As an example of what I am explaining, I found in the Internet a lot of grey rooms to share. You will be able to see that a slight change in grey can make a huge difference in the mood of a room. Also, you can see how some grey colors can be bluish, pinkish, reddish, etc. It was strange to see that, when choosing a grey, sometimes my husband would clearly see blue where I saw bluish grey.

So, here are some pictures that will get you inspired and will prepare you for the difficult task you will have ahead in case you are planning to paint your house. Thoughts?

Huffington Post / My Unfinished Home Fashion LandscapeKeltainen Talo Ranalla / The Designer Post Lovely LifeSmart Furniture – Smile And Wave Mark & Spencer Home Furniture – Pinterest For Me, For You Design Sponge – SF Girl By BayMy Domaine Living Illusion – A House In The HillsBrit + Co The Visual Lamp – Solid FrogDeco Peques Indulgy – Mozaico Pinterest Homedit – Ideas To StealGreige DesignVtwonen

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Let Us Be Inspired By Spanish Interior Design

December 11, 2015/6 Comments/in Interior Design, Let's visit some homes /by Mila

Spain has great designers that we don’t get to see in the US. In my opinion, the Spanish interior design scene is one of the best scenes in the world. For example, the Architectural Digest from Spain is full of innovating, risky, colorful and edgy homes. I love it and have a subscription to it (the website is not as good as the paper magazine). Even if you don’t understand Spanish, images speak more than words in the design world and inspiration is everywhere.

The last time I was looking into Spanish blogs, I found Casa Decor and designer Beatriz Silveira. She owns the design studio Batik Interiores in Madrid. Her designs are elegant, colorful, and full of vintage finds. My favorite kind of interior design. Please, take a look at the pictures below and put attention to the details: aqua verde chairs in the dining room, accentuated by the colorful chairs at the ends of the table; brass lamps; vintage furniture; gold wall decorations; unique plant vases; and velvet, so much velvet. Beatriz has a great attention to detail and mixes old and new pieces perfectly. I love it all.

In the future, I will find other Spanish designers that are more edgy and controversial to share in this site, but, for now, I wanted to ease you into the beauty of designers that are far away and can be a wonderful source of inspiration. Let me know what do you think.

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A New Perspective On Your Gallery Wall

November 23, 2015/10 Comments/in DIY, Interior Design /by Mila

There are plenty of instructions on how to create a gallery wall on the web. Usually, these instructions involve a lot of buying, measuring, and planning. My problem is that, sometimes, I can’t plan or measure everything in advance when it comes to decorating. Most of the time, I don’t even have all the art I am going to use at the beginning of a project. I like to collect my pieces slowly by going to thrift stores, estate sales, and flea markets, and that can take months!

This is what happened in my bathroom. I knew I wanted a gallery wall that would cover all the wall, from top to bottom. I knew I wanted an eclectic collection, and I knew it was going to take me months to find the right pieces, so, when we moved into our house a couple of years ago, I had to start the gallery with 7 pictures that I brought from my previous home. That was it. So I assembled them the best I could in the middle of the wall and moved on from there.

Most of the advice on the Internet also tells you to keep a general motif and keep frames kind of similar. Well, that advice doesn’t always work. I feel it is OK to be creative and take risks, depending on the look you want to go for. I knew I didn’t want to have a clean look in my bathroom. I wanted and eclectic and vintage look.

After two years of mellow search around vintage shops in LA, this is the result: My last two pieces were the motel photo and the palm drawing on the top right. Once I scored those, the wall gallery (and my heart) felt complete. What do you think?

As you can see on the pictures, I have lots of frame types. I even have gold and silver frames on the same wall (this is when an interior designer has a heart attack on the spot). There are also spaces that are not filled with art, but, for some reason, it works (for me). It is unorganized and unusual. It doesn’t follow designer rules like these ones, but I do get a lot of comments on this gallery wall. People seem to like it. It cozies up this corner, don’t you think? Usually bathrooms are so boring, but this gallery wall spices things up. My favorite picture on the wall is the one of my grandparents, dad and uncle (on the left below). That green glass head was a flea market find at the Rose Bowl.

At times, it was tricky to find the right piece that would fit exactly into a certain space, but, for me, this unconventional way of creating a gallery wall worked. What about you? I would love to hear your thoughts on this.

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What I See A Lot On Pinterest – Hanging Rattan Chairs

November 20, 2015/7 Comments/in Interior Design, trends /by Mila

Hanging rattan chairs are in almost every house I see on Pinterest. They are very cute, but I have always wondered if they are actually comfortable. To me, they don’t look like a chair you want to lay down and watch TV on, do they? But that odd, nest shape, and the fact that they hang from the ceiling, makes them visually attractive. Let’s take a look.

Furnish At Home In Love Anson Smart Elle.fr Waiting On Martha Picslovin Seventy Nine Ideas Decor Pad Don’t know where I got this one from, sorry.

At Home with Kelley Howley

VERY CUTE! Don’t you think? Do any of you have one? If yes, do you find it comfortable? Do you actually use it? I would like to have one on my porch or outdoor area, but they are expensive. It is not easy to find one for less than $450. Also, you need to make sure you have enough space to be able to swing on them, otherwise, what is the point?

As a side note, some years ago, Jonathan Adler mentioned in this interview that the hanging chair is one of the items every house should have, and we all know that Jonathan Adler is the god of the interior designer world, so there you go.

Here is a round up of my favorite hanging rattan chairs out there. I found an Etsy shop that has them for just $250 (see last chairs on the list below). They are vintage and seem to be in pretty good condition. I should grab one right now instead of writing this post. Have a nice weekend!

Hanging Rattan Chair by Two’s Company – Domino – $479.99 Hanging Rattan Bowl Chair by Out There Interiors. 495 Euros -Ships to Great Britain only Hanging Rattan Chair by Serena & Lilly – $495 Pod Hanging Chair by CB2 – $699 Hanging Rattan Chair – Chairish -$539 Vintage Hanging Rattan Chair – Etsy – $250