Selecting Furniture

Hello, Décor Chasers! Selecting furniture for our house, apartment, or office can be a lot of fun, but it also requires time and ehhm money….

Today I want to try and give you a guideline that you can use when shopping for furniture and help you get the most out of your time and money.

Buying furniture is a beautiful process, but it can be quite overwhelming. I mean, there are so many choices out there: so many stores, so many different styles of decor, so many colors…

First, I would like to talk about two words that you might think mean the same, but they don’t: scale and proportion.

Scale is a word used, in interior design, to describe the relationship a piece of furniture has with other pieces of furniture or with the room it is in. A small bed in a big room has the wrong scale.

Proportion is used to describe the size relationship of one piece of furniture compared to other parts of itself. For example, a chair with legs that are too short for it.

Ok, so let’s imagine you are in a furniture store. You have fallen in love with a big blue couch. Do you buy it right away? Stop! Ask yourself these 3 questions before paying:

1. Is this piece FUNCTIONAL for the space where it goes? For the people who live there? For your lifestyle?

2. Is this piece SUITABLE for your décor style? For the scale of the room? Does it set the mood you intend?

3. Is this piece HARMONIOUS in quality?  In proportion?

These questions seem time-consuming, I know, but in reality if you did your homework before shopping, it shouldn’t take you more than a minute to answer them.

Plan in advance

Prepare before going to the furniture store. You obviously want to think about what you like, and don’t. Browse around (you know I’m a fan of Pinterest and Instagram) for inspiration.

Next, you want to measure! Measure the space where you are going to place your adquisition, its height and width. Measure door entrances, hallways, stairways, etc. that are on the way to the spot.

Have a budget in mind. Seriously, there is no need to overspend.$$$$

Don’t rush it. I believe in buying furniture for the rest of your life, “until death do us part” haha.

I know that if you follow this guideline, you will make a smart buy. To all of you out there shopping for furniture, I hope this post comes in handy! Until next week.

♥Laters, Mari

Scandinavian Design

Hello Decor Chasers!

#scandinaviandecor, #scandinavianstyle, #scandinavianhome, what’s the deal with Scandinavia? These hashtags keep popping in the photos that I “heart” on Instagram. Scandinavian decoration is everywhere, and how not to love it? You might think this is a new trend, but it actually isn’t​.

First, let’s get our geography straight. The term Scandinavia refers not only to a region in Europe, but also a culture. The three countries that are most related to it are Denmark, Norway and Sweden. Culturally, the Nordic people preferred functional, eco-friendly beautiful design.

The Scandinavian design emerged from a post WW2 ideology, that beautiful and functional products shouldn’t only be for the rich. Remember that back then there was a boom in low-cost materials and mass production, reason enough why the “democratic design” prevailed. It then grew in popularity because from 1951- 1970 there were two yearly  awards given to the most outstanding Scandinavian designers. The term Scandinavian design was born back in 1947, when a traveling design show titled “Design in Scandinavia” passed through the U.S. and Canada, showcasing the work of Nordic designers.

An example of a very popular Scandinavian design is the 3107 model chair. I could bet some money that everyone reading this post, no matter where you are from, have sat at least once in your life in a chair like this. It is a very popular design by Arne Jacobson, one of the pioneers of SD, that has been sold and copied thousands of times.

Arne Jacobson’s 3107 chair

There isn’t one magical formula for Scandinavian decoration because it has various styles within the style…of course it does, it goes back to a whole region! But behold.. I give you  10 +1 tips on how to get your house to look more Scandinavian:

+1: Look for inspiration on the internet. It’s fun, motivating, and basically free; careful it is also time-consuming… guilty! According to my calculations, at least 40% of my day is used on Instagram/Pinterest interior design stalking. Hehe!

Tips to make your house look and feel Scandinavian

1. Declutter. Scandinavian design is minimalistic, own less. Scale back on the accessories.
2. Paint your walls white. The palette associated with Scandinavian design is a neutral one.
3. Wood! Choose floors, furniture, cabinetry, accessories, toys etc. made of light wood and other natural elements.
4. Black and gray for fabrics, use nature prints. Accent with splashes of color, pale colors mostly. Blue is very Nordic.
5. Have clean lined furniture, with smooth rounded edges and natural hues.
6. Decorate with plants.
7. Maximize the use of natural light. Scandinavian design uses little to none window treatments.
8. Buy a natural textile throw (for example sheep skin, wool or mohair).
9. A chimney is very popular in Scandinavian design; but it is never in the middle of a room, it’s not the focal point. It should be in a corner.
10. Choose eco-friendly​ materials.

If you want my opinion about SD, I love it. I can’t get enough of those touches of pink, the brass lamps, and the feeling of simplicity and coziness it gives. I would love to have a Scandinavian bedroom. Could I have a Scandinavian home? Probably not. There is no way I can have a uncluttered simple living room at this point of my life. Remember to always stay true to your lifestyle before buying decoration, it is going to have an impact on your family.

I want to know YOUR opinion! Leave me a comment 🙂

♥Laters, Mari

Ps: Did you know IKEA is a Scandinavian store?

Mrscarlissa

Domestic Objects Hand Made

 

 

Designed by Eleni P.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Nordic design collective

Nordicdesign.ca

 

homedit.com

On a side note… Have fun!

Decorating is just sheer fun: a delight in color, an awareness of balance, a feeling of lighting, a sense of style, a zest for life and an amused enjoyment of the smart accessories of the moment. Dorothy Draper, first self-taught female interior decorator of the United States.

Hello decor chasers!

I’ve been thinking of how decorating might not be as fun -as it is for me- for everyone and that maybe, just maybe, it’s time for a post of comfort, good vibes and love.

Please don’t stress with decoration! A staged house is just a perfect house because no one lives in it. A home is made by whoever lives in it, not by what it has or doesn’t have.

Today I’m giving you in five points advice of realness, as my friend Allan would say.

1. Stick to buying things that have a meaning to you, that relate to your life somehow.

2. When choosing furniture, and accessories think about your lifestyle. They have to go together like two pieces of a puzzle.

3. Don’t rush it! The right piece will come! You don’t need to buy everything at once and in one store just because they have a “buy one, 50% discount on the second” deal. First of all, where is the fun in that? And second, you might find an even better price somewhere else.

4. Don’t buy cheap, buy quality. I don’t believe in changing living rooms every 3 years, and buying new beds every five. Even if you have the money to do so, it’s not right for the environment. You can always change the upholstery of the couch, or buy new linens for the same bed.

5. Yes be authentic, yes be original! But to those of you out there that don’t have the decoration bug, don’t worry! If you can, pay someone to decorate your house or find inspiration in books, magazines and Pinterest. Recreating looks is just as fun.

I hope this post has given you some comfort and positivity.

♥Love, Mari

Color, Color, and more Color

Hello decor chasers! I’ve been out two weeks (guilty!), but let me tell you why: I’m changing jobs and had a lot of things to do, thankfully I’ve managed to leave my job in good terms, but also quite excited by this change in my life.

So much can be said about color, and one post is definitely not enough. I’ve decided this post is going to be about what we can do with color, and how we can use it to achieve a desired effect in a room. I’ll probably post more about color in the future, who knows where my studies might take us.

Experts like Steven Bradley say “that good design should work in the absence of color”, but we aren’t experts here …yet.

What can you do with color?

• Set the mood for a room.
• Make a big room feel intimate, and a small room feel bigger.
• Disguise architectural defects.
• Accentuate strengths.

As you can see COLOR is our ally for decorating, COLOR IS MAGIC!

The first thing you want to decide is what mood do you want your room to have? Do you want it to be fun, intimate, welcoming or maybe you want to be able to concentrate better in it? 

Try choosing a mood with this extract from The Color Scheme Bible by Anna Starmer:

Pink: fun, lively, positive and feminine
Red: passionate, daring, intimate, comforting, stimulates appetite
Orange: stimulates creativity, evokes warmth and coziness
Yellow: welcoming, sunny, and linked to promoting intelligence
Green: tranquil, invigorating, restful and balancing
Blue: clear thinking, calm, meditative
Violet: stimulating, sexy; blue-violets are cooling, spiritual

Lets go back to elementary school

Perhaps you remember from elementary school that the primary colors are red, yellow and blue; and that green, orange and purple are the secondary colors which are achieved by mixing two primary colors. (For example: yellow+red = orange)

The wheel of color represents the relationship between primary and secondary colors

Since the wheel of color represents color, and color has different shades and tones, you can find a lot of different types of wheels. Remember, a color wheel is just a representation of color and there are different ways to express its relationships.

After you’ve chosen the mood you want the room to have, we move into choosing the  color scheme. There are four basic color schemes.

Complementary Scheme

The complementary colors are the colors that lay opposite to each other in the wheel. When combined in equal strengths they produce a neutral color. (For example purple +yellow = brown)

In interior design, whenever you want to make a room pop, when you want excitement, then you use complementary colors to decorate.

freshmen.com

Adjacent Scheme

The adjacent colors are the colors that lay next to each other in the wheel of color, for example blue and green. If you want the room to look relaxed, then decorate with an adjacent scheme.

the spruce.com

Monochromatic Scheme 

A monochromatic scheme refers to a color palette that uses the same color but in different tones. These are tones that can be used to attract attention and create focus. Some people say monochromatic palettes are boring, but personally monochromatic calms me and I think it makes a room look cozier.  My bedroom is decorated in a purple monochromatic scheme.

Accented Neutral Scheme

Neutral color schemes only include colors that aren‘t found in the color wheel (various tones of brown and gray) with a splash of color here and there. These type of schemes add sophistication and work if you don’t have a classic taste.

lushhome.com

And there you go! Choosing color in 2 simple steps. I hope you loved this post, please comment if there is anything that you need me to explain deeper or differently. Color affects our mood and thoughts, we don’t think about it everyday but it does. If you don’t feel confident enough to use bold colors paint your walls a neutral tone, buy a neutral couch and add color to accentuate. 

♥Laters, Mari

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