13 Decorating Ideas + Bolia
Want to see 13 trendy decorating tips for Autumn/Winter 2014? Danish design brand Bolia has gorgeous furnishings and accessories for interiors but there are also some design tips you can pick up from their deliciously inspiring catalogs that I'll highlight below... And Bolia has some good news! They've only been available to those of us living in Denmark, Germany and Sweden until yesterday. Now they've launched an English version of their shop online and will deliver to all EU countries. Also until tomorrow August 31st, you can get 25% off many items in their online shop. Yes, really. A big sorry to my American friends because I know this post is a real teaser but at least you can see the creativity and gorgeous designs coming out of Scandinavia so you can look for similar things stateside to add to your homes for a more international flair. Ready for some decorating ideas?
1. Decorate with flowers, real or faux, stuck to the wall. Or buy this Floral wallsticker.
2. Decorate with plates arranged a bit imperfectly. I love a simple collection of plates randomly hung on a chalky gray wall, so subtle yet striking.
3. Decorate with framed artwork tightly arranged. I love concrete exposure on walls and floors, so this image really made me smile. But more interesting is this tight grouping of frames. It looks easy to hang frames touching like this but trust me, it's not. In the end though it is worth the time and F bombs.
4. Tape lots of stuff up and mix with framed art. I love all of these things taped and nailed to the wall, it's a giant mood board really. Of course the furniture and herringbone wooden floors aren't too shabby either.
5. Try a high contrast work studio in black and white. In a creative studio, this super large illustration looks totally cool too don't you think? But check out the contrasting work stations. Luke join me on the dark side.
6. Decorate with butterflies. This is definitely one of those rooms you'd never have that is purely meant to inspire the viewer. But I do think that chair is gorgeous and the table too. Those butterflies caught my eye, wouldn't it be pretty to use fishing wire and string up something like it using a simple butterfly shape craft puncher and brown paper from bags you've recycled from the grocery store?
7. Decorate with wall panels and a paint your sideboard in fun colors on the doors only. The sideboard is really the coolest, at least if you intend to keep those colors in your home for a wee bit. And that chair, YES. I do love me a good lounger with a slim profile. I'm a little over the arching floor lamps, I guess I've seen them too much. The coffee table must be a bit of a statement or art piece unless perhaps they are trying to make the point to consider childproofing your room before buying that new coffee table. The gold metal backdrop is very cool. I love the idea of adding focal points like this because you don't have to paint, wallpaper or do whatever to all four walls in a room, heck you don't even have to do "it" to the whole of one wall. Five panels of whatever works. Wallpaper, metal, wood, stone, whatever. Even the faux equivalent of stone and wood as wallpaper. My final comment is that is it my monitor or is there a ghost in the room? Who ya gonna call?
8. Do buy a gorgeous sofa that is cozy and good for sinking into. Let's just get this out of the way (sorry Bolia). I don't like this bookcase. It feels like the room is slidinggggg. But the rug, though too small for this sofa width, is great as is the upholstery. Looks super duper cozy for window. Side note: I love how the home owner cleverly concealed their wall radiators on the left with those built-ins beneath the window. If I owned my apartment I'd do that too. It's so much prettier than radiators sticking out unless you have those old gorgeous ones (you know what I'm talking about). But most of us don't.
9. Decorate with boxes, stacked, to form a bookcase, credenza or whatever. Secure them to the wall if you have littles. But oh my goodness you guys! Stackable boxes are SO bad a$$ over here. Everyone really likes them. So versatile.
10. Add greens and flowers to your space and don't be afraid of a sofa that's a color but still could pass as a neutral. So let's talk about this photo for a minute. Sofa. Want. Desk. Yes. Chair. Maybe. Plants and light placement - must be an art statement. Flowers on the wall - in my current book on page 57 in the Market Style section - love that look so much. This clearly isn't someone's home or meant to be an example of how to decorate, I know that. It's funny to see this shot though as an outsider because we often look at catalogs and think everything is in a real room and most of the time, it's not. It's furniture dropped into a big light studio with panels brought in and flooring, etc. I've never worked on a set like this, but would honestly love to style an entire catalog - perhaps I'll get around to that eventually.
11. Decorate with exposed concrete walls or find concrete wallpaper. Not sure if that wall is real or faux but I'm liking it. Yeah, it's not the warmest room in the world mood-wise but once you add some soft furnishings to the mix and a little color you could add a little heat. That cabinet is sweet.
12. Decorate with wall illustrations. Oh the time when we had phones with cords... Okay so I'm not even close to ever owning a white sofa like that, even with slipcovers, because I live in jeans and couldn't bare to ruin my stylish sofa with denim smudges. But that wall illo is very cool. I wouldn't do it in my living room but I would consider a wall illo in an office or kids room or playroom for sure.
13. Decorate in this color palette that takes you from Fall to Winter with one simple swap out. I guess you can say I've saved the best for last. I am CRAZY about this color palette for Autumn. It's so nice! You can pull the pumpkin during the winter months, or just slip cover that ottoman in a gray or deeper rose tone and top it with a white lucite tray and a nice little fir tree in a pretty pot to winter it up. I love this unusual color pairing though, what do you think?
And for fun you have to click on the Bolia sofa website called Find True Love At Last, it's the cutest thing ever. It matches you to the sofa of your dreams.
(images: bolia)