Current Living and Dining Space

As some may know, my husband (George) and I are new home owners. Three months ago,we bought a cozy 2 bedroom condo in Arlington, VA. The condo is centrally located, near shopping and transportation and has great space with lots of potential. The thought of having the free will to paint walls, change light fixtures and update the kitchen and bathrooms without having to change it all back, like in rentals, its super exciting. We have several projects already in mind to make this condo truly ours, but as much as we (and by "we" I mean "me") would love to just go crazy and begin tearing down walls and remodeling the kitchen and bathroom right away, we are practicing the art of restraint (again, by "we" I really mean "me"). We have a few fundamental home improvements to take care of first, like replacing all of the windows and glass doors in the unit before I can have a go at the cosmetic changes.

Fortunately, we were able to fully furnish the condo using the existing furniture we had in the rental unit. We did add a few new pieces to the dining room - a glass dining table and light fixture. The dining room project continues, as we are in the market for the perfect area rug and chairs, we are also awaiting a fabulous art piece that will hang on the back wall, where we currently have four silk-screen prints from Puerto Rico. I'll be sure to add new photos when it gets here.

A few weeks ago, we also purchased a new sofa and chair for the living room that we expect to receive in a couple of weeks. In the meantime, here's what our current living and dining space looks like.

LIVING/DINING SPACE 

It's as simple as black & white

This week I completed my first mood boards, I have to admit that it's a lot harder than it seems.  It's very time consuming to research and gather images that are aimed to illustrate a theme or inspiration that will then translate into the design of an interior space.  The first board (below) illustrates the inspiration. As you may recall from my previous post, I'm currently working on a class project with the country of Turkey as my main inspiration. I have to design a contemporary space and a traditional space.

This is the theme board for the contemporary space, my master bedroom. To develop this theme, I focused on the presence of black and white geometrical shapes found in Turkish textiles, architecture and culture. It was tough choosing which images to display since there were so many, but in order to design a mood or theme board that is clear and precise I had to edit, narrowing it down to the best 7 images. The theme board can also include 3-5 key words that express the overall look and feel, as you can see below I chose to incorporate words on my board. 

1. Turkish Sufi (Whirling) Dervishes  2. Pillow with Geometric Patterns  3. Traditional Turkish House  4. Turkish Suzani-style Pillows  5. Arabesque (Islamic Art) Pattern Tile  6. Turkish Hamam Towel  7.  Turkish Bath (Hamam) House

Once my theme board was completed, I worked on the mood board for the room. The mood board is where I place images that illustrate the specific furnishings, flooring, textiles and accessories inspired by the theme board. The mood board is sort of a wishlist, here's the board I developed based on the theme board shown above. 

1. Alison Queen Headboard bed by Ethan Allen. I chose this item because it can be upholstered in several fabrics and colors, I also like the geometric shape of the headboard which reminds me of the geometric patterns found in Turkish architecture.   2. Shyrdak Pillows found on l'aviva home - a website that features a series of curated collections featuring handcrafted homewares from artisans around the globe.  3. Terra Bella Pavers - San Felipe Tiles. These are really cool jet black tiles with a high gloss from a company out in California called Mission Tile West. I'm completely obsessed with these tiles, I think the color and pattern works great for flooring but I can also see this as a really cool wallpaper design. 4. White bed linens 100% Egyptian cotton, simple and luxurious.  5. Bride & Groom Crystal Lamp by Horchow. This lamps is great! Crystal lamps are in trend and would be ideal in this space, the shapes also compliment the geometrical pattern inspiration and and color scheme. 6. Kilim Black & White sofa by Andrew Martin. This absolutely stunning sofa with vibrant pattern would be the focal piece in the space. This piece is perfect, it adds a traditional/ethnic feel without compromising the sophistication and modern aesthetic.  7. Deco Venetian Mirror. This mirror is a great find, it plays really well with the design of the crystal lamp, tiles, nightstand and the headboard.  8. 100% Egyptian cotton decorative white pillow. Adding some basic pieces will help maintain the simplicity and balance between all of the patterns, shapes, contrast and colors.  9.  K by Keaton K-Stitch Striped Throw Blanket sold at Bed Bath and Beyond. Black & white stripes are must for this color scheme, again inspired by stripes on Turkish tiles and architecture. 10. Topkapi Rug from Grandin Road. Inspired by ancient Turkish tile work, the Topkapi Rug is a magnification of the remarkable mosaics found at the historically significant Topkapi Palace in Istanbul. The graphic, asymmetrical pattern of vibrant blues, gray, and white lends itself to both modern and traditional décors. It also adds a splash of color to the room, which would otherwise be all shades of black and tints of whites.  11. Turned wood pedestal table in high gloss black from Brocade Home. Love this table, the shape is simple, the high gloss reflective surface connects with the mirrors, the sculpture and the Terra Bella Pavers.  12. Sara Chandelier by John Lewis. This fabulous chandelier inspired by hanging lanterns found in Turkey and Morocco would hang in the center of the room, it's simple and elegant, and will go perfect with some of the other crystal/mirror pieces in the space.  13. A sketched floor plan of my master bedroom, important to have the space illustrated so that you can start picturing placement.  14. Silver Dervish Sculpture. Accessories are a great way to add the cultural references. This silver sculpture is ideal, repeating some of the round shapes found throughout the room and adding a sense of movement.  15.  Cane Throw from Cococozy. A great way to add anther texture to the bedding, plus color - playing off of the blue from the area rug.  16. Black & White Resin frame, found on OneKingsLane.com.  17. Austin Mirrored Nightstand from Modern Sense Furniture. Mirrored furniture made a huge comeback in the last few years, this nightstand just adds a lil bit of glam. Reflective surfaces are also great to brighten things up.

 

A great way to create cohesion within a space is to subtlety repeat patterns, details and shapes. All of the furnishings selected must relate to one another and to the main inspiration.

Three weeks in = Inspiration

I'm very excited about the classes I'm taking this semester - Color Theory, Intro to Interior Design and Textile Designs. Although each class has a different focus,  I've noticed there's one common theme in all three, inspiration.

During studio and lectures inspiration talk is always present, the professors are constantly asking "what inspires you?". At first, it definitely seemed like a very broad question, there are hundreds of things that I'm inspired by. However, in the past three weeks I've learned to quickly narrow down that broad thought and find inspirations specifically related to a project or an idea.

One of my professors said that when it comes to interiors designed by a pro, we have to observe it like a work of art, as if we were looking at a photograph or painting in a gallery trying to figure out what inspired the artist to create that piece.  It's the same with interiors, designers also develop a concept and gather inspiration from various sources in order to develop a design.

The first project for my textile design class is all about inspiration and concept. I have to select a country, and then search for inspiration within the country's culture to develop an interior using textiles. Turns out that I actually have a little trip to Istanbul coming up in March, so my decision was pretty easy... Turkey would have been at the top of my list anyway because it has such an amazingly rich culture, it also happens to have a great textile industry.

Within the last couple of days I've spent hours looking at images depicting Turkish culture - their architecture, bazaars, rugs, bathhouses, arts and crafts, and traditions among many more. I'm most attracted to the geometrical shapes and patterns used in tiles, rugs, fabrics, and architecture. I've also noticed that if you look closely you can distinguish two very different color palettes in the Turkish culture, one is very rich and bold with violets, reds, oranges, yellows, blues, and greens and the other is very black and white with lots of contrast. I decided that these two color palettes and the geometrical patterns will take center stage in my textile design project.  

Early on my professors advised that all students have a binder with clippings and cut-outs of images from magazines, newspapers, catalogs, fabrics, etc. that we found to be inspiring. The goal is to develop a personal/visual inspiration and reference guide that will be very handy as we continue to work on specific projects. This week, I finally got around to buying a 1" binder to organize my reference/inspiration book. When I finish inserting all of the clippings I've collected thus far,  I couldn't help but noticed how uninspired I was by the exterior appearance of the "inspiration book" itself. It was in desperate need of a drastic makeover.

After seeing so many beautiful shapes and colors related to Turkish culture, I decided to put all this talk of inspiration into action, and design a binder cover that would be more appropriate.  Inspired by two of the images shown above (in the set of black & white images), I decided to create a design with the black and white zigzag shapes on the pillow located on the top right corner and the center flower-like design on the image on the lower right corner.

The first step was measuring the front cover of the binder and sketching the design on a piece of tracing paper, before drawing in the patterns and details I drew a rectangle corresponding to the size of the binder so that I could keep my design within the correct measurements. 

 

Then, I transferred my design to a piece of 11x14 watercolor paper using graphite transfer paper. Once my design was transferred, using a small brush I painted every other zigzag line with black gouache paint.

Instead of keeping all of the original colors displayed on the images, I decided to mix it up a bit by adding a splash of color on my design. I mixed yellow and red paints to get a nice bright red-orange color that would go around the "flower" shaped pattern, which I decided to leave white.

Once the painting of the zigzag lines and red-orange base were complete and dry, I used an X-Acto knife and a cork back stainless steel ruler to trim the sides of the paper to the exact measurements of the front cover insert of the binder. 

And of course, in true makeover fashion, here's the infamous BEFORE:

And the fabulous AFTER:

Now that's more like it!