Play with light

Good afternoon everyone!

Outside finally sunny and you can work until late only with the sunlight! Unless you happen to live in a place like … Scotland – astonishingly beautiful BUT dark. And cold. Been there, lived there, had an amazing time, but never in my life was so obsessed with light! Anyway, wherever you live, what brings light and warmth to our everyday lives is interior lighting, often overlooked by designers, and unjustly so.

Light changes interiors like nothing else, and it does so in an unnoticeable way (if you manage to nail it). The moment you enter a room and feel some sort of magic, but can’t tell what it is, I bet it’s the ambient lighting mixed with some cool accent lights. Light adds drama to interiors, it gives them vibe, a flavour.

What is super crucial when designing lighting for your room is blending different layers of light. There are three main kinds of light in all interiors: ambient light – main source of light in a room, often coming from recessed downlights (too common and modern as for me to be honest), task light – used to carry out certain activities at home, important especially in kitchens and bathrooms, and accent light – to highlight a piece of furniture or architecture features, for example table lamps. They should all overlap and blend, creating a warm and cohesive room, without boundaries, unless you want to divide your room of course, then you could use light to separate space by putting “light walls”.

via http://abigailahern.wordpress.com/

This is what I mean by drama and magic in a room. Super warm and romantic.

A cool industrial lamp in a restaurant/bar, mixing original brick walls with twisted pink and turquoise.

Check it out when visiting Warsaw: https://www.facebook.com/CheeseburgerSlowFood.

I would personally use this lamp in a loft-style flat as well. It perfectly fits the city and gives your space an urban edge. If you are more traditional, go for a crystal chandelier, like the ones below. Don’t be scared of oversized chandeliers/lamps. You can use them as an accent piece of furniture which will decide the atmosphere of everything around.

via http://abigailahern.wordpress.com/

Finally, I’m a bit crazy here, but do not overestimate candles and … Christmas style lights. It’s such an easy and cheap way of warming up your house, not necessarily in Xmas season.

Enjoy the rest of the week people!

camY

Go rustic – Tuscany inspired

Hello back interior lovers! Had a bit of no blog, no internet, no mobile time in Tuscany. A refreshing experience in the always-online social-media centered times. Highly recommendable! It’s been also an inspirational time. Rural Italy is a beautiful getaway and gives one plenty of ideas on how to make your home a bit rustic.

Just to make you a bit jealous;). This is where I found those inspirations. By a glass of locally made chianti.

When you think rustic, you think warm, bright, natural and inviting, which to me sounds like a perfect description of a home. Of course not everyone lives in a villa in Tuscany or Provence with a vineyard in the back (what a pity though), so the trick is how to give that relaxed touch to your home, wherever that is, Soho London included.

If you happen to live in a house/apartment with such architectural features as wooden beams or stone work, try to bring it out, adapt your interior to highlight their natural beauty. The easiest way is to light them up by creating little pools of light around them, preferably dimmed, so it gives a room a warm feeling instead of a hospital style super bright, almost white light, created by ceiling pendants. Put a desk lamp next to your favourite piece of furniture or Christmas style plain lights around your wooden desk.

Another tip is to celebrate those natural features by contrasting them with something modern in a high voltage tone, like electric blue or raspberry pink. Contrasts make interiors sophisticated. In order not to overdo it, you should mix it with earthy colours, which will also perfectly match wood and stone. In the end you want to surround yourself with intriguing but harmonious interiors.

Floors. In my humble opinion, the most important and so often neglected element of any interior. Panels are a mistake! They should be forbidden. Wooden or stone floors create magic, especially when old. Personally love it when an old wooden floor starts ‘talking’ to me when walking on it at night. It gives me an interior thrill! If you want a piece of countryside at home, go for wooden floors. If you want something rough and and are not obsessed with the sense of squishiness like me, dare to have a stone floor.

Finally, create layers. Mix wood and brick with soft fabrics, such as wool or silk (blankets, cushions, curtains), use different shades of light, don’t be scared of colours (go for rough and painted wood). That creates frictions, which in case of interiors are super cool. This is how you make the space around you iconic.

 Rustic & modern

Idyllic, fairy tale style

The game of textures, fabrics, colours and light.

 Enjoy the rest of the week!

camY