Transylvania Loft Treehouse

This week’s interior is something really special. I’ve always loved people or places with an original story, and I think this treehouse is beyond originality. The location is surrounded by pure nature, and everything encourages you to go back to the basics. However, this treehouse if a fully functional 1 bedroom interior combined with a kitchenette and a bathroom with a shower. I love the huge windows letting in the abundance of natural light, not to mention the fantastic view of the surroundings. The idea of living (even if it’s only for a few days) in a treehouse is über nice, you have the chance to try living in symbiosis with Mother Nature, to contemplate and to understand what’s important to get a hygge moment in a hygge interior.

The high ceilings painted into white give the impression of a spacious room. The dark window frames are great contrasts of the white interior. The comfy bed and the linens are the extras to make sure you feel at home in the middle of nature.

I think that we are lucky to have this kind of location in our region available for bookings. I was very thrilled also of The Hermit – a cabin in Gura Haitii, Suceava featured not so long time ago on the blog.

These days when we are working from home (or from anywhere where we have Wi-fi), I suddenly realized how great it would be to sit on this private deck, having my morning coffee and admiring the Retezat Mountains. I think I could get used to this.

The Transylvania Loft Treehouse is available on Airbnb for bookings, and Gabriela and Rareș have other great places too for renting, like the Transylvania Treehouse. They can also be found on Facebook so do not hesitate to contact them for a nice experience. If you are eager to visit Romania, this is the place you need to be.

 

Photo credits: @transylvanialogcabins– shared with friendly permission

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La Belle Vue – a perfect place to start the summer

The summer is almost here so the La Belle Vue B&B is the perfect inspiration for the upcoming sunny days. This place is located in French, but the proud owners, Yvonne and Micke are from Sweden (heh, almost everything on this blog is from there). The house was originally built in 1857 by the wealthiest winegrowers, and in the cellar there is still the completely intact wine system with five large wine tanks. Can you imagine that? No wonder why you can book, along with your staying, for a wine making workshop. Beside this, there are plenty other activities, like yoga sessions, running week, bicycle tours that can be combined with your trip.

What I love the most, it’s that Yvonne and her husband tried to keep everything with in its original format and shape. You know that I love interiors that have a little bit of patina and reflect the time passed. They reconditioned carefully those pieces that were already in the house and they also purchased interior pieces from local flea markets, antic shops and old French ladies. Isn’t this fantastic? This way they managed to decorate each room differently. I guess the only common in the rooms is the comfort. Look at those walls and wallpapers. The floor tiles are the original ones, hand-made decades ago, of course reconditioned during the renovation.

Enough of me, I let you enjoy the French country side and the view to Spain from this great location.

In the dining room there is this vintage closet full of locale, hand-made treasures, all done by ladies. Not that I would be a feminist, but I think that promoting artisanal stuff locally produced adds an extra value to the things. I spotted the lamp shades. How about you, did anything captured your curiosity, or the chandelier took all your attention? It is definitely a strong focal point in this room.

They have an outside pool too next to the exterior summer kitchen, so if you are still hesitating to book a stay, I think this view can resolve your dilemma. You can find out more about this gorgeous location on their Instagram feed, a perfect inspiration for your next holiday 😉

Have a lovely weekend my friends!

 

Photo credits: @La Belle Vue – shared with friendly permission

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Compartment No. 3 – when simplicity meets taste

Australia is full of great interiors with great designs. I’m following a few interior design studios for some time now and they always manage to impress me with something that I’ve never seen before. I’m a huge fan of the Never Too Small YouTube channel focused on small, award-winning Australian interiors. I might even get addicted to their videos 🙂

Sophie Bowers’ 50 sqm apartment captured my attention for its calm feeling, clear lines, and simplicity. No wonder why, as she is a fan of Danish design, the color palette used in this interior is proof of that. Danish people are using and combining colors like no one else on this planet. The apartment was built in 1926 and now is the home of Sophie, her husband Josh, and their 2 super duper cute little dogs, Billy and Remy.

The apartment was designed by her own design studio – Strutt Studios – in art deco style. I particularly like the genius solution of storage in the kitchen, especially the pantry. We have a similar one too, a huge one and I’m telling you, my friends, you can store things enough for an army in something like this.

I hope you enjoy the tour as much as I do, Sophie’s voice is simply music to my ears.

 

Credits:
Featured image: Strutt Studios
Website: www.nevertoosmall.com
Produced by: newmac.co

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The Hermit – a cabin in Gura Haitii, Suceava

We are living some strange days, and traveling became something unrealistic. With all the restrictions from the last 1 year, I think this was the hardest one for me and my husband. I was super happy when I found The Hermit cabin on Airbnb, this might be a good opportunity for us to run away from the city, as traveling inside the country is possible. Romania is full of wonderful places and this 13,7 sqm small cabin is proof of that. The Hermit is in the middle of wild nature in Gura Haitii, Suceava county, as its name is indicating as well this is a perfect location for silence, contemplation, “back to the basics” lifestyle. The cabin has a spacious porch and deck area that lets you admire the stunning view of the Călimani mountains. It is designed by the architect Ana Hodan from the tresfolles interior design studio, and it was even featured on BigSEE as BigSEE Wood Design Award 2020 – Winner. The interior is inspired by the Danish hygge principles of keeping things simple and cozy, the fireplace, the candles, and books, all take you back to Nordic minimalism. The open floor living room has a huge window with a reading nook next to the fireplace for the chilly nights.

The above chair seems to be a Hans J Wegner CH07 Shell Chair from 1963, if you are a fanatic of original design products, this can be purchased from Intro Design. (Don’t kill the messenger, I’m aware of the spicy price).

The sleeping area is on the upper level of the cabin which is accessible by the metallic ladder from the living room area. The memory foam bed looks super comfortable, and it has a nice view of the mountains.

The wooden interior is in full harmony with the outside nature, and when you open the door, you just let nature coming inside.

The cabin is equipped with a simple gas bottle with burner and dining essentials, the bathroom has a walk-in shower and toiletry essentials. The Hermit can be rent on Airbnb and and if you would like to go with a larger group (not recommended now) they have another resort for 2-6 guests.

 

Photo credits: 3, 5, 6-9. shared with the cordial permission of Haita Land; 2. Vlad Florea & 1, 4, 10, 11. Cezara Tudosă via BigSEE

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The Wolves’ living room inspiration

A couple of my good friends, let’s call them the Wolves couple, asked me to help them with some inspiration for their living room. Luckily I know them well, so right from the beginning, I knew what kind of style and mood I should recommend for their living room. Usually, interior designers start with getting to know better their customers, their lifestyle, current homes, etc.

I did something similar with the Wolves too, regardless of how well I know them, I needed more information on the functionality of the living room, color palette they would like to use, style, and everything that is currently used in the room and should stay there even with the new design. As a first step, I requested the husband and the wife to send me separately (without consulting with each other) 3 photos that would reflect the feeling of the room. This could have been about anything. It was a fun exercise, and the result came out nicely. The below mood board was created with these pictures, and the color palette became obvious.

After the mood board was ready, it was easier to decide on the furniture, carpet, sofa, coffee table, gallery wall, bookshelf, and everything that had to be included in the room. I created a mood board plan to visualize the recommendations, along with a price list and URLs from where they can purchase the things suggested by me. The coffee table is just an inspiration, the Wolves have an old bench that was a butcher’s table, they found this on the flea market, and we decide to use it as a coffee table. With a little bit of restoration work, this table looks gorgeous with its vintage shine. For the main wall, instead of a regular bookshelf, I suggested a huge wallpaper and nothing else…a real focal point of the room.

They provided me the exact sizes of the room, stairs (there is a stair from the living room to the upper floor) and windows, so I could create a 2D and a 3D plan for a better understanding of the redesign proposal.

I work in Floorplaner, and navigation is possible (as in all 3D rendering software) in the room, so you can feel the proportions and see the actual big picture.

It was important to have a bookshelf, even if this wasn’t on the main wall, where the wallpaper was imagined. I decided to put this on one of the corners of the room which is an open space leading to the kitchen. This way the empty corner is used too, without interfering with the rest of the design plan.

To have a Tv in the room was important too. Don’t hate me for this, but I recommended one of the most beautiful Tvs in the world, the Samsung Frame. It is the perfect camouflage for hiding your Tv. I know, it’s expensive…I know it. This goes perfectly on a gallery wall, but in our case, we will have to find the right combination of the art displayed on the Tv and the wallpaper’s pattern, as the Tv will be placed on the main wall.

As an inspiration for furniture and Tv, I used this Finnish home found on My Scandinavian Home. We also managed to squeeze in a reading nook next to the window where I proposed a bunch of pillows and Roman blinds of Mendola Fabrics from Nobila Casa. No curtains this time.

The Wolve’s house if full of vintage stuff (real vintage pieces from flea market or from their grandparents) and Nordic pieces from Ikea. The general feeling of their home is very hygge and warm, and I did my best to stay in this mood with the living room’s design as well. They are in progress with this, I will come back with the actual results when they are ready with it (hopefully they won’t kill me that I just promised to show around their living room).

I hope you get inspired by this. In case something specific captured your attention, drop me a message and I will provide more information on that.

 

Photo credits: 1., 2., 3. & 4. Created by me/focalpoint.ro, 5. Pinterest, 6. Danila’s @indivisualstyle IG feed, 7. focalpoint.ro

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AD’s home tour at Patrick Demsey’s residence

I’m a huge fan of the home tours by Architectural Digest (AD). They have 2 series, the Inside Celebrity Homes, and the Open Door where they are visiting famous people’s houses. These home tours can be found on AD’s YouTube channel, and it worth every minute of watching it. It is a real treat for the soul.

Don’t get intimidated by the houses presented here, don’t forget that this is America, living the American dream. Even if I’m aware that this is another world with different budgets spent on houses (not typical at all in my region), it does not exclude my interest in admiring these homes. It is the proof of what is doable with exceptional style, or taste, and money. Without any dilemma, I knew that if I would ever have the chance to embed an AD home tour on my blog, that will be Patrick Demsey’s Malibu home designed by the one and only, Frank Gehry, the living legend of contemporary architecture. Do not hesitate to watch his Master Class if you want to get more into his work.

This tour was done in 2014, being part of the Season 2 of Inside Celebrity Homes. It’s been seven years since then, but I’m convinced that this house is still one of the warmest celebrity homes I’ve ever seen. And I’m not the only one who thinks that 😉

Enjoy the tour!

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