Apartment Therapy Style Cure - part I

Hello Lovelies!

This is the color scheme that inspires me - paint chips from Farrow & Ball (link). 

More inspiration here.

As I mentioned earlier on this blog, I am doing the Style Cure hosted by AT. Yesterday was day 8 of the Cure, which means it is time for an update. To review day 1 (aka my starting point, please read here).

So, this is where I stand for the Style cure - day 8:


First, picking the room to cure.

 image source via

The room i picked up for the Cure is: a very large room that is mainly a living-room with its "social triangle" by the chimney (read: two-seated sofa and two vintage French old chairs), plus a large wall that will become a rotating personal art gallery (complete with shallow and narrow white metallic shelves wehre I can display my own art as as my small personal art collection) and a nice corner that serves as a home office, complete with desk, lamp, shelves and two bookshelves.

example of shallow shelves for a rotating art gallery at home: image found on a tumblr blog.

Then, determining your own style - I wrote about this before. And i have a pinboard about this.

Also, taking measurements and drawing (hastily and by hand in my case) the floor plan. you can see my sketch here.

And now, After much hum and ho, picking the right colors for the room:

Example of the paint color i want to use: "Elephant's Breath" by Farrow & Ball.

Main color for the room is inspired by this color theme: http://www.flickr.com/photos/teabutterfly/9452299040/

So, I will paint most surfaces in a warm off-white paint (inspired by the Farrow & Ball range of whites, maybe "Elephant's Breath" or "Blackened" the former having a greyish and pinkish undertones, but reproduced by my local paint shop).

Ceilings look OK to me right now, but if after the paint job is completed they don't seem clean in comparison with the freshly repainted walls, I will paint them a bright, pure white.

Since my room is lacking *a lot* in terms of visual depth and cohesion, i will need an an accent color on the wall that faces the street and has two high French windows. I will paint it in a color inspired by F&B "Dead Salmon". The windows will get covered in sheer white drapes and a second layer of thick anti-cold and anti-noise thick off-white ( a warm shade of white anyway) drapes.

More varied textures will be found in a new cover for existing sofa (think: satin velvet cover in medium to dark grey), pillows (I will work with the many pillows I already have, occasionally buying fabric that will best fit the color scheme and the upcoming cold season to sew inexpensive new covers for existing pillows), woven baskets for books & mags storage, I need to buy a new reading lamp, too.

image via

The color scheme used for these accessories will be matching shades of pale grey, dark grey, rich brown, off-white and a touch of zesty mustard yellow. Maybe i can contrast warm and cold shades of grey.

 

spiky origami pendant lamp available here

shopping list:
"Elephant's Breath" and "Blackened" sample paint pots
"Dead Salmon" sample paint pot
off-white paint inspired by "Elephant's Breath"
medium greyish taupe paint inspired by "Dead Salmon"
new dark grey slipcover for sofa in a shiny dark grey satin.
repair reading lamp and buy a new patterned lampshade for it
a pair of sheer white drapes
some patterned fabric in graphic grey/white/brown/yellow for covering up pillows
place existing woven basket - i have only one - in the room

shopping list for later in season:
some more patterned fabric in graphic grey/white/brown/yellow for covering up pillows
a couple more woven baskets
a pair of opaque curtains
new reading lamp (optional)
a graphic origami chandelier to hang from ceiling (I found a great shop on etsy - Zipper8Lighting - for that, my budget for this can go up to 150€). link is: https://www.etsy.com/fr/shop/Zipper8Lighting the seller is extra friendly and helpful!

I foresee that the whole painting job will take over a month, though! But at least i'll have a direction with this project and a precise to-do list!



Wanna see more? Check this out.

-Alix

Amateur of Design: An Ongoing Personal Journey (update part 3).

Hello Lovelies,

Shown above: my FAVORITE apartment therapy house tour, ever! Liz Fabry's Well-Edited Half of a Durham Duplex House Tour

Remember my personal journey through the world of design as an amateur? (You might to read here for a quick reminder).

So I wanted to tell you lovelies that I am doing this month's Style Cure, as hosted by the Apartement Therapy blog. One of the first assignmernts of the Cure is to fill out our personal style form (see link here). Actually,  using pinboards for the last few years helped me determine my own personal style quite easily. As i have stated on this blog before, here is what I am personally drawn to:

"My inspiration is mostly gathered here.  This main pinboard helps me define my style, a little "industriel", a little "wunderkammer" with a "masculine flair" twist, thogh none of these decor style pinboards are really realistic nor affordable. It's about dreaming (which is a necessary function, too).

Image above: In a petite living room, pairing a sofa boasting a sleek design and a low profile with a large artwork and a statement-making light fixture will give the room a bold sense of personality. Image source: here.

My general home decor pinboard presentation goes like this, and this sums it all up:

"

#10: Home Decor - general inspiration

my personal style tends to: Wunderkammer, Masculine Flair, Warm Industrial, Belgian Greys. I also love to use Botanical Charts and insect drawings as home decor.

And of course, I amdrawn to simple clean lines as shoiwn in Japanese and Scandinavian or Shakers' interiors.

To sum it up, i guess i really like it bold & dramtic, with a strong sense of personal style. (image below is from this post on the sfgirlbybay popular design blog).

Before actually starting to decorate, decluttering is in order. How timely! This month's ZenHabits simplicty challenge is all about decluttering your life!

Here is the ZH plan: zenhabits.net/declutter

"Decluttering" could mean a lot of different things to me, from getting rid of too many belongings, not-useful-to-me material things but also getting rid of unnecessary assignments that burden my day or even better yet, toxic relationships that simply bring me down.

what about you lovelies? What does "decluttering" mean to you?

-Alix.


Oh! and I almost forgot to mention I am also back on instagram with this August 2013 photo-a-day challenge,vie the ideas room blog:

I guess I am alive and well and bursting with new projects! Right? Right-O!