Before & After: Home Styling Part Three

Styling your home can be the best activity ever. Trust me. It is so fun and so challenging at the same time. During my interior styling online course by Justina Blakeney I was asked to restyle five areas of my home: The coffee table and sofa (part one, see HERE), the console and bookshelf (part two, see HERE) and the bed & nightstand - today's final part three!

As you see on my pics, my rooftop apartment has pitched roofs and my bedroom is literally stuck under one of those droops. My bedroom furniture is white and a nautical bunting (can't be seen on the pics unfortunately) sets the tone for a maritime vibe in my nook. So I've decided to take the bunting's theme as a key and style a nautical bedroom corner for the 'little sailor' in me.

For the bed I used various textiles to play with textures, patterns and colours. Understandably, the colour palette is muted with blues, off whites, soft greys and a dash of yellow. I combined striped bedsheets with a navy blue knit throw and a Hamam towel. My anchor cushion from H&M Home and the Whitby cushion by Mini Moderns complete the look and call for a seaside dream.

The nightstand is simple and as I would say 'happy'. The nautical themed painting that I brought back from Provincetown sets the frame whereas the coral, the little colourful lighthouse and the succulent in the happy dotted pot recall coastal joy and and add texture, colours and the magical power of botanicals.

What do you think of my bedroom styling? It is simple, I admit, but isn't it happy?

Photography by Igor Josifovic

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Before & After: Home Styling Part Two

Last week I wrote about my online interior styling class and I presented the first results - my coffee table and sofa styling. Today, I want to share the second part with you: styling a bookshelf and a console. 

Justina Blakeney's online course was a truly fun experience as we were asked to take 'before & after' pics and apply the '8 principles of styling'. So when I embarked on restyling my upper bookshelf, I've noticed one thing: it was hopefully packed. We learned that things should have a bit of space 'to breathe' in order to avoid a cluttered look. So I took off all knickknacks and a good deal of books, played with vertical and horizontal placement, added a bit of texture and colour with my little House Doctor owl, a dash of bling with my faceted sapphire blue vase and some spring botanicals. When I look at the 'before & after' pic I must admit - this is definitely an improvement.

The console was the next task. I have a lovely wooden console (found at Butlers) with many little drawers painted in various grey and black shades. Funny enough, I'd sort of restyled my console just a few weeks before the course kicked off, so I felt like I had to enhance my styling rather than restyle it completely. 

I liked the colour scheme that included greys, blues and greens so I looked around in my apartment and found a few goodies to add to the vignette: a green, vintage apothecary glass bottle, a weathered blue letter (both from Home Barn) and my quirky plant pot from Atelier Stella with a tiny cactus. I remembered the rule that items should be grouped in odd numbers, and a set of three has a great visual power especially if you combine different heights. Plus, the colours were perfect and ta-dah, my console styling was accomplished!

I really like the outcome of my little styling approaches. What do you think? Do you restyle your home frequently?

Photography by Igor Josifovic

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Before & After: Home Styling Part One

There is a wonderful French proverb saying: 'Il vaut mieux un petit chez soi, qu'un grand chez les autres.' It means basically: There's no place like (our own small) home. Particularly true in my case when I think of my shoebox sized apartment. But creating a personal, warm and comfy home is not a matter of size - with a few tricks and tweaks every home can have that personal touch. 

As I mentioned yesterday, I am currently enrolled in an interior styling online class taught by the impeccable Queen of the Jungalow, Justina Blakeney. Styling the own place (or any other home) can sometimes be really tricky. So I've decided to take the course and learn something from the experienced pro. And it proved to be very helpful. After a short theoretical introduction embracing the '8 principles of styling' we were quickly asked to embark on our very own interior styling adventure. The first task was to take before pics of five key areas of our homes. And then we kicked off. First stop: coffee table and sofa styling.

Since my place is tiny and I have no extra storage room I tend to keep it rather sorted and uncluttered at home. Moreover, I've decided to work with what I've got at home. So no extra expenses. Rather some reshuffling and rearranging of accessories. So no too drastic changes.

My living room has a rather muted colour scheme, grey, black, white with some pops of colours. My vintage kilim cushions set the tone and so I've interpreted the coffee table in a similar manner: I added a bunch of fresh white ranunculus in a textured, handmade stone vase, a small pile of similarly coloured books balanced the table setting topped by a bit of 'bling' - an old Moroccan silver box. The Marimekko plate ties the mixed 'ethnic meets Scandi' style together and reflects the rug's rich pattern. Plus it comes in handy to drop little things and keep them in one spot.

The sofa was slightly restyled. I swapped the grey cushion with a white one plus I added my vintage Handira cushion from Morocco which added a hint of bling. All this was finalized by adding a touch of liveliness - an open book on the sofa and a pair of Converse. Voilà!

I must say I was rather happy with the outcome of my first round of restyling. I would really love to hear your opinion so make sure to share your view points in the comments. 

Next week I will continue with the second part - the styling of my console and bookshelf. 

Happy Thursday!

Photography by Igor Josifovic

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