Design proposal for an Earthy nest

A few weeks ago, I managed to finish one of the most “pressuring” design projects that I have had so far. This particular project that I called Earthy nest (due to the color palette) suppose to be an apartment with a fresh, trendy look & feel, but still staying original, with as little possible commercial crap in it. The owner of this home is a young, demanding entrepreneur who meant this apartment for renting it out. Since he has a very sophisticated taste for vintage pieces and art, my Scandinavian obsession had zero value in this case. The budget for the interior design was €10.000 without the construction expenses. For a 2 rooms apartment without too much luxury, this budget is pretty ok…even if I needed to turn upside down the internet to find the right things I imagined for it.

As a first step, I always start the design process by asking the “customer” to send me some personal photos having the same vibe as the potential feeling he wants to achieve in the apartment. The below mood board was created exclusively with the pictures received from the owner. After I scanned the collage with a color palette generator, it ended up with these 3 dominant colors. What a beautiful palette of earthy tones 🙂

The next step is to do the 2D plan to see what where to fit. Since this apartment has a wardrobe and a pantry, I managed to keep everything decluttered, I truly hate overcrowded homes with too much furniture here and there.

For the living room, I had 2 requests from the customer: to have a green sofa in the sitting area and apply white brick wall decoration on one of the walls. I’ve managed to use a few vibrant colors too, like the mustard yellow lighting and the blinds with rust color and grey. I created a reading corner as well with the gorgeous EKENÄSET Ikea armchair. To have some industrial vibes, I used a black FJÄLLBO TV cabinet from Ikea.

In the bedroom, there was a single requirement of having something with red or burgundy color for reflecting passion and love. I’ve used the red Farrow & Ball Chromatic Stripe wallpaper for the wall behind the bed. This way, I managed to meet the customer’s expectations, avoid overcrowding of the room and create a great focal point in the bedroom.

For the hallway, I’ve let my imagination go wild a bit by proposing a bold, hipster wallpaper from HappyWall. They can print customized wallpapers based on the buyer’s need, so you can set the width and the high you need. We have one too from them in my husband’s home office, and I’m super happy with the choice we made 2 years ago. I have to admit, although this seemed a good idea, this one did not go through the customer’s acceptance criteria, and we agreed that he will choose something else when getting to this point.

The bathroom was a real challenge in terms of finding a nice, not very common tile. This green-orange Terrazzo tile seems like a good fit to combine the moss green wall color. To avoid turning the bathroom into a cold interior, we’ll put tiles till mid-high (max. up to 1.5 m) on the wall and paint the rest in this earthy green. The customer is not 100% sure yet if he wants a bathtub or a shower, so we left that topic opened till the construction works start.

For the kitchen to create an airy feeling, I’ve recommended an open shelving approach instead of having top cabinetry. The furniture will be dirty white combined with black electronic equipment. The dining table will be in the middle of the kitchen for the impression of an existing kitchen island.

And of course, as usual, there is no design without a 3D plan to show around how the apartment will turn into a home. Navigating in the house it helps a lot to get the overall idea and to see the proportions of the furnished interior. I use Floorplanner as a planning software and it’s always helping me to turn into a realistic idea of what I actually want with an interior.

This home is not ready yet, it will take a few months till I can return to the blog with a photo shooting tour about the end results. I hope you like the proposal and I do believe that everything will turn 10 times nicer in the reality like on my mood boards.

 

Photo credits: 1., 2. & 3. focalpoint.ro, 4. Ikea.com, 5. Wallpaperdirect.com, 6. focalpoint.ro, 7. & 8. Alchemist.ro, 9. & 10. focalpoint.ro

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A beautiful apartment with a dark red thread

One of the basic interior design rules is to use a red thread through an apartment/house. This can be either a color, a style, an element that is recurring in every room of the interior. The idea is to assure continuity by connecting the rooms through this red thread. This week I’m choosing a home tour with a dark red thread. Although I’m not very into dark colors and dark interiors, there are quite a few that captured my attention in the past.

This 67.6 m2 apartment in Göteborg has a calm vibe due to the dark elements here and there. The living room’s focal point is definitely the dark tiled stove and the 3m high ceilings that let the room shine in its entirety. I spot a Ghost chair at the dining table that mixes styles boldly. The dark marble coffee table adds a dramatic feel to the area.

The apartment’s structure is kind of circular, from the living room you can go to the kitchen, and behind the kitchen is the bedroom from where you can end up in the dining area. I love the glass shelf system that lets prevailing some nice ceramics.

The kitchen is simply marvelous with the minimalistic lines of matte cabinetry design by Kvik. The limestone countertop is a winner of the whole place. I like to industrial window solution that lets the natural light flowing in through the bedroom. What a great trick of solving the lack of a real window.

The bedroom is simple, but it has it all, style, store, simplicity, elegance, you name it. The bottom-to-top closet has a lot of storage space without making the room crowded. The ceiling light is one of Gong’s masterpieces, the MO-003S- Benitier Silk Ceiling. I discovered this brand recently, and ever since I love all their lightings. Leaving the double doors unfinished adds a great contrast to the place.

And as I mentioned many times, outdoor spaces are super important to Swedish people, so this apartment has a tiny balcony too making sure that the lucky owner can go out getting some fresh air while admiring Skansen Kronan and Skansberg.

 

Photo credits: shared with the cordial permission of Entrance

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Summer vibes with Zara Home

This is the first article since I have my blog, where I’m writing about a brand. Although this world is full of brands producing marvelous interior design products, somehow, naturally, I start with Zara Home. We have a few nice pieces from them in our home, and I love every one of them. They are affordable, working with natural fabrics and materials, using earthy tones and minimalistic vibes, not to mention that many of their products have vintage vibes too. And if you follow me, you know that I’m in love with vintage pieces.

I made a list of the items I love the most from their Summer collection 2021.

1. Foldable chair

This is my number one from their current collection, with its vintage shine and natural texture it’s a real winner when it comes to exterior furniture for summer. One of the biggest advantages is when something is foldable and can be stored in smaller places when the season is over. This chair reflects the hot sunny vibes, and it could look nice in our yard (still in the design phase, looking forward to starting the construction). In case you’ve fallen in love with it and you want to purchase it, pay attention as the top header cushion is not included by default, you will have to buy it separately.

2. Beach umbrella

Ah, what a beauty, and it goes hand in hand with the foldable chair. The beach umbrella is a necessity when staying in sunbathe, you should never ever go to the beach without protection, besides the sun lotion cosmetics you should always have something to get shadow too. And why not do this with style? This umbrella in sandy color can assure a +40 SPF protection which might be handy in the full summer season. It comes in 2 sizes along with a cover that makes its transportation easy.

3. Ever green tableware

I’m listing 2 of my current favorites, but I linked the entire Zara Home tableware collection, they are literally having the most beautiful tableware sets in the universe. Regardless if it’s a breakfast, lunch, or dinner set, still with their attention to details, fine lines, color palette, and materials, Zara is the winner for me. You can find everything, minimalism, vintage, modern style, holiday vibes, this is what I love the most at Zara Home…being able to remain loyal to their fine, elegant simplicity.

4. Fruit baskets

I could fill our home with baskets and still not getting fed up with these beauties. Baskets can come in every shape, color, and material in my humble opinion. Fruit baskets can be handy these days if you spend time outside having dinner with your friends. Zara Home has an entire collection of baskets basically for everything, fruit baskets are a good investment, during summer for cherry, strawberry, and watermelon, during winter for orange, banana, and grapefruits. Your choice!

5. Cushions

Cushions all over the place, inside, outside, it doesn’t matter, as long as everybody can get comfy with the beautiful Zara Home cushions. They have every style, but now I’ve chosen the ones with the summer vibes. These linen cushions can be found in many shapes, sizes, and combinations of colors and lines. I love the earthy colors and playful lines, and the linen textile turns these pillows into must-have items.

If you are not a Zara Home fan yet, please start to love their products right in this second. In my region, they have a physical store in Cluj Napoca in the VIVO! shopping mall, but you can easily buy online basically everything. I think I’ll come back with a similar article about Zara around Christmas, as they can turn winter holidays into a fairytale.

Photo credits: Zara Home – thank you for letting me share these picture!

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