Decor refresh for spring

New growth always brings with it hope and energy for life.  Once the snow goes I always get a hankering to make changes inside my home.  Now don't get me wrong, these aren't major changes.  I'm more into ten minute additions.  Sometimes I'm willing to commit an hour or two to a special project.
If you get the spring  hankerings perhaps there's inspiration in these ideas.

Use a tray to organize a vignette

Perhaps you have a blaw wooden tray you could spray paint and then organize a colourful spring vignette in it.  Think about what you might already have to add and then buy several filler items.

 

 A small tray on a bathroom counter adds a fresh look.  Placing a grouping of cut  flowers always adds to any vignette.

I particularly love groupings of white and muted colours and then a big splash of colour with cut flowers.  Yes,  my biases are showing.  Fresh flowers rule in my life. 

 Plant spring bulbs

Tall glass vases allow you to see the roots growing .  You have to be on top of the watering if you are going to adopt this idea. Repetition of the same shape always looks good in an arrangement.

This simple twig wreath adds  additional detail and texture and also helps to cover the pot the bulbs are set in.

Paint something

 You don't have to repaint a whole room.  There are so many simple painting projects for your home.  If you have a bed perfectly centred on a wall, consider adding a painted headboard all the way to the ceiling.  Simple and very eye catching.

 Bring a simple bookcase to life by repainting the back of it.  A fresh colour like this yellow (which is a hot 2013 spring colour) adds a simple focal point and shows up the grouping of objects and books .

 I love highlighting a porch or entry  door with paint.  You can be brave in your colour choice when you want to add a cheery accent to a small space.

 

 Coloured islands with light cabinets are everywhere lately.   This is such a fresh look if you have enough nerve to go there.

 

 Not artistic?  Don't worry.  Choose sculptural artificial flowers and lay them on a canvas painted in a solid colour.  Trace around the shapes with a white coloured pencil .  Fill in the shapes with white paint.  Presto!  Fresh art for your wall.  The simplicity and off center composition of this work makes it. 

Consider textured wallpaper

 

 Textured wallpaper is underutilized.  There are so many patters and textures that cover the gamut from very traditional to modern.  No doubt there's something for you.  I like the use of textures to reinforce a dresser make over. This is a great idea for a little girl's room.

Check out these links and more ideas on  my Pinterest Spring Refresh board.

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Easter welcome

Detail of one of my paintings

The early spring days are dear to me. Not only comes Easter, the lovely feast, but I enjoy every small sign of the season. The still chilly nights, but the first afternoons on the deck among the sprouting greens, tweeting birds and light turquoise, cloud filled sky. And today our 16 year old daughter returned from a first visit alone to her older brothers in Berlin, filled with adventures, stories, as many as one could possibly cram into one week. And I had double reason to prepare for the coming days. 

We cleaned the windows. After a winter of candle lights and crackling fires, the soot had certainly left more then its fair share behind on the small window panes. The sun was shining and I was for the first time sweating out there, polishing my bay windows. 

The feeling of satisfaction has not left me yet... I am always surprised by the glowing transformation.

Some Easter decorations made it out of the boxes, fresh cut Forsythia was put in a vase to force some blossoms by Sunday and fresh tulips found their place on the window ledge.

There are Ranunculus and Easter Lilies, Hyacinths and fist Narcissus...I love the early flowers.

Easter time always has a wonderful sense of awakening about it and although I am not religious, I feel a spiritual sense of wonder.

Happy Easter!

All images by V.Zlotkowski

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Fresh colour schemes

 Traditionally many homeowners get the re-decorating bug in spring.  I'm no exception.  I am planning a major painting job for the downstairs of my home.

As I age, I seem to want less and less colour on my walls.  My choice for living room, dining room and hallways is  Ben Moore Acadia White OC 35 (#5)  to  replace Elephant Tusk (#6). Acadia White is a warm white without being too yellow.  It is darker (not by much) than Cloud White which is the colour on my trim.

If you love colour here are some crisp, fresh combinations for spring updates. 

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Where have I been?

It's been a long, long time, I think one of the longest blogging breaks I have been taken, partly involuntary, partly deliberately. Projects around the house, work with clients, other work and visiting family have been distracting me to the point where I felt I could not take another moment writing about it all.
Life has changed here, living without our dog still impacts us and the decision not to have another pet has also kind of made an impact...

Where did I leave off? Our outdoor house project, which had been originally initiated by storm Sandy and started in mid December, has finally been completed. 

Before:

The old front design did not do much in bad weather or a hot summer day.

And now:

Now in rain, snow or sunshine, there is protection from the elements.

A new roof and a newly designed (by yours truly) portico give the house new balance and added protection from the environment. It is a huge success and seems to attract all kind of attention in the neighborhood. Which makes me smile every time! It took us a long time to arrive at this point.

On a recent winter evening

After this we have moved inside and, although there is more work to be done, a few important things have changed here too. For starters we cleaned out and insulated our attic. 

Together with the new roof this has impacted our heating bill, which went down a good 20% since January. And it has been cold. The kids have complained about to warm of  rooms over night, something we've never heard before.
We feel the house is warmer altogether and that is a big difference. We also exchanged the attic vents, so they close in the winter. All things you might think we've had done years ago, but no....

I painted our hallway August 2009

Next week we also going to have two rooms painted professionally. YEAH! The family room, below, which had been effected by Sandy and needed a window replaced and our hallway, which had been done a few years back by me and needs a makeover badly. It will not make that space larger, but we always feel refreshed, when we change colors....we picked coral...

Major spring cleaning mess...

But in the meantime I also had energy for a good spring cleaning, which for the first time in many years was done, to my utmost surprise, with a swift hand and lots of parting from things, I thought I will never let go off. The result is an enormous feeling of relief.
And a clean living space.

The old trunk was a lucky curb find! A second, smaller one was snatched by my daughter for all her gadgets.

Another find: The Lamp base. One man's trash is another one's treasure. Indeed! I just fixed a tiny broken leg, here still missing.

The Ficus tree lives outdoors from spring until autumn.

We just love it!

The book shelf extends through the entire length of the room, which is most
helpful with a tiny kitchen. I keep china and glasses there as well.

(The color we've chosen is only a few shades darker then this one, no major change.)

Many books, old magazines, junk and leftovers from odd projects went away and it makes me happy to see suddenly more space where I thought I had none. I only hold on to things I need desperately to remember: Moments back in my life. Which still seems more then enough!
But I am so inspired, next I'll move to our bedrooms to take the closets apart.....

Morning smoothie, bananas, berries, coconut water and more....

The change of lifestyle, which I had begun exactly one year ago has also impacted our family, my husband has joined me now in a quest for healthier eating/living. We are now 70% raw, largely wheat free and mostly vegetarian and we have never felt better. Weight loss has only played partly a role in it, but the changes in our health have been lasting and amazing. My husband's heart pain has been gone since last year and has not returned, my joint pain, back pain and mood swings are all things of the past as well. Especially as a woman approaching menopause, there are countless benefits! I have so much more energy and this has made perhaps the biggest impact in our family life. And we have tackled issues, we never thought we would. It has been a great journey so far and we will stick to it! The great thing is, it never feels like a sacrifice or limitation. We do splurge on occasions and love coffee and chocolate (70% and up, lol) and the occasional glass of wine, as much as anybody else. We've realized over the last year that many shops and restaurants have jumped on the bandwagon of this healthier lifestyle and to ask for certain foods has never been easier. We find juices, smoothies and raw foods and is is rather amusing how I started this a year ago with not many knowing much about it and now almost no weekend passes, where I cannot read something or other raw food related in the WSJ, NY Times or different lifestyle magazines! OK, it must have hit main stream...which is actually really good! Give it a try! There is also a large online community, ready to help and connect with!

With my soul mate, together for more then 20 years! I am a lucky woman!

I have a feeling all these changes in my life are wonderfully connected and to be able to leave things behind is also the result of my new lifestyle. I feel empowered and ready to go another 50 years.....And I am grateful that I met this challenge and succeeded.

Things are good around here and this is thankfully not impacted by setbacks, like the lost project, which I had been working on for the last few weeks and the clients pulled out because they felt it is too big an undertaking to get their minds around. I can relate....
But when one door closes another will open and something will come my way.
You will be the first to know....

I apologize for this enormous long post, which surely will test you patience. But it only shows how much I missed talking to you all! I will come back to write and read all your posts, my (blog) friends. I've missed you.



xoxo 
Victoria





All images via Art House Design by V.Zlotkowski

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Implied lines in design

Part 3  of composing inviting interiors ...


Doesn't  implied lines sound very  technical? It refers to  lines from separate objects that run into each other and seem to form a single edge. This is sometimes called a hidden edge. Such visual anomalies cause confusion and/or boredom in our homes (and in artwork).

I like this well put together vignette and what I'm going to point out is probably the result of  the angle from which the photo was taken, but it works well to illustrate this point.  You can see that the lamp looks like it shares the same edge as the art work.

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This is another shot of the room and  indeed the lamp is placed away from the edge of the artwork.  If it wasn't that is all you would need to do to tweek the arrangement.

A similar problem is created when you have implied lines set up when  several objects are the same height  in an arrangement.  A prime example of this implied line happens  when  lamps are exactly the same height as a headboard in bedrooms.  Sometimes this works well and other times it doesn't.  You have to decide your intent when doing it.

There are such beautiful colours and patterns in this room and the designer probably had a  good reason for choosing the lamps shown here.  It is often difficult to determine why choices are made when you can't  see the whole room or you have no understanding of the homeowner intent.  In my humble opinion, I want to see the lamps less overwhelming in pattern and shorter so the headboard shines.  Again that is one person's opinion!  Excitement/interest  is usually created by variety and something has to shine in an arrangement.   I am not fond of  visual competition/fighting.

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 In this room the lamps and headboard are roughly the same height and provide a line to support the arrangement of art work that runs beyond the the headboard. A successful use of implied line.

 Bright Bazaar 

 Then of course there is the room where the masterful designer makes implied lines work to fantastic advantage.  In this space the lamps extend the visual line of the headboard and creates  great bottom weight for the large scale, highly textured  IKEA shade.

  Can you see the implied lines in this dining room?  Your eye runs horizontally on three  levels.  It is boring!  I can say that because it is an old shot of the dining room in my house.  A few simple changes  helped greatly.

 The strong line that ran from the buffet to the railing was broken by moving the buffet to the opposite wall and creating a visual break by hanging long drapes .  These are temporary while my custom order ones are being made.  A new round  light fixture hung lower also helps break the horizontal lines.  Thankfully none of the wood is a orange as the photos suggest!

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Arranging objects - scattering

And now for Part 2 of my arranging objects series....  Scattering objects to the the edges of a table or mantle can  either create a visual mess or a striking composition using repetition.  Think about how you want to arrange a collection. What do you have in the collection that could be the star or the weightiest object? 

  Scattering objects to the edges of  can create a problem in two ways:

1. When you arrange objects in a vignette  and you spread the object  along the length of the tabletop from side to side you are pulling  the focus to the edges and the cohesiveness  usually falls apart. 

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Some effort was made in this vignette to have a centre of interest by placing the bell jar and the plant pick in the centre.  Unfortunately height and colour in the plants take command and your eye runs both up and off the edges.

 When you want to anchor your eye the tallest objects  (several massed)  should be placed together.  The shorter ones can  lead to the edges.  This vignette could be arranged like the one below for a stronger composition.

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This is a masterful display in one colour.  It has variety in heights and shapes and the massing of the objects in the classic A formation anchors the eye on the vignette. 

Luxe

This is the same solution as above, but the height is added using a dark wall and a painting that  anchors the vignette. 

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While the objects in this vignette are focused toward the edges they are connected by the large circular mirror/sculpture/  I would prefer that the taller objects bank the mirror and the shorter ones approach the edges.  This organization works too. 

 

       2.    Sometimes you group objects to one side of a tabletop and it creates an unbalanced look. If the 

              objects are similar in height there is no variety.   

Design for Living

This composed correction created variety in shapes, heights and placement. You could also reverse the placement and have the lamp on the right which would move the frame away from the other frames on the wall.

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Exception to the rule:
Although this vignette is on the edge of the counter it is extremely well placed.  It  connects with the strong black vertical  on the left and the black rectangle on the counter.  All work together to create a vignette within a vignette.

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