Aug
17

Part 1: Interior Design Lingo Decoded

If you’re anything like me, you can frequently be found with your head inside an interior design magazine, a beautiful home book or browsing a fabulous design blog (like this one!).

You will likely have come across work by interior architects, interior designers, interior decorators and interior stylists. You’ll have read about things such as scope of works, briefs, schedules, fixtures, fittings, furnishings and a whole host of different types of trades. And it’s highly likely that at some stage you may have either thought “huh?” or simply switched off to any more interior design lingo entirely.

This article is here to clarify some of the terminology once and for all.

Who’s who?

An Interior Architect and an Interior Designer are one in the same. An Interior Designer is someone who alters the interior structure of a building. Think moving walls, doors, windows. They consider the spatial use and purpose of the space. They can also custom design furniture, lighting and flooring.

A peak inside a residence in Woolhara showcases Decus Interior’s customised banquet seating, wall panelling and high impact floor tiles.

An Interior Decorator will work within an existing interior structure. They also consider how a space is used, and how furnishings can enhance the flow of a space. An Interior Decorator will specify furniture, lighting, flooring, window coverings, colour schemes and fabric to create cohesive décor schemes.

Australian Interior Designer, Greg Natale, phrased the difference between and Interior Designer and an Interior Decorator succinctly when he said that an Interior Designer works with structure, while and Interior Decorator works with soft furnishings.

An Interior Stylist is someone who will work with a specific brief to create a visual scheme. They will use furnishings, colour and pattern to create an overall style, story or feeling for a space. They are often trend setters, and typically work in both residential and commercial as well as for magazines and other media.

Stylist Natalie Walton’s pure interior styling evokes a clutter free casual ambience

A Colour Consultant is someone who, naturally, works specifically with colour. They understand how colour can affect emotion and mood in a space, and they understand how groups of different colours work together. They work within a building and also, create external colour schemes for buildings.

Studio Pepe use colour and line to visually ground a bedroom

I’ve got to say though; the Interior Design and Decoration industry is far from clear cut. Some designers decorate and some decorators do some design (joinery design or custom soft furnishings). A good Interior Designer, Decorator, Stylist and Colour Consultant will have a clear set of offerings stated on their website.

Furnishing, Fixtures and Fittings

These 3 examples are often interchanged. But they are very different and are typically used in difference scenarios. For example, an Interior Decorator would use furnishings to mean decoration and soft furnishing items and fixtures to mean items permanently affixed to a surface.

Usually the terms fixtures and fittings are heard together mostly in real estate when describing the contents of a space and what is or isn’t included in the sale of a property.

Furnishings are essentially decorative items for an interior. They include furniture, carpets, rugs and fabrics used for curtains, cushions and upholstered items such as chairs and sofas.

A fitting is essentially a furnishing, and the term is used outside of Interior Decoration mostly in the real estate and building industry.

Generally, a fixture is an interior item that is bolted to a surface. Such as lighting, kitchen or bathroom units, built in wardrobes and plug sockets.

Studio McGee furnish a room with a mid-century modern twist, while playing to the existing architectural features

In Part 2: Interior Lingo Decoded, differentiating a proposal from a brief and understanding the different trades.

May
04

The Drinks Cabinet: 5 ways

Ice and a slice, a shake and a stir, or simply on the rocks. Whichever way you like your tipple, storing and displaying your collection deserves some serious thought to both style and function.

No longer the domain of your granny, the drinks cabinet has had a huge revival in recent years. It could be that we’re drinking more. Or it could be that our design sensibilities have been honed and we are seeking sleeker, smarter, more beautiful ways to organise and display our possessions. I’ll go for the latter.

Ideas to consider when choosing the perfect option may be whether you’re after a modern display or whether you’re looking for a way to introduce a retro piece into your home. Drinks cabinets aren’t just about the display. There are countless ways to integrate a discreet but dedicated space for you cocktail creations too.

Whatever your personal style, here are 5 ways with a drinks cabinet.

1. Modern Bar Cart

The modern bar cart is the perfect piece for the paired back room. Designers have been creating some truly beautiful items that happily integrate as a beautiful piece of furniture. These are ripe for styling with some of your favourite ‘objet’ too. Mostly mobile, these can be rolled into any soirée.

Lucite Lovely. Mid Century inspired but thoroughly modern material by Jonathan Adler. Beautifully styled by Siva Nayla. Image from www.sivanayla.com

2. Retro Cabinet

The retro cabinet is for the eclectic interior. You like to mix up your styles and love an original piece. You may be lucky enough to chance upon an original drinks cabinet, or you could have the perfect piece to convert. Either way the retro cabinet can stand alone. Think classic antiques, art deco and mid-century styles.

Retro Beauty. Image via www.vintageluxe.tumblr.com

3. Glass Display

If styling is your thing, and you have a stunning Italian Glassware collection to display (a personal goal at Unfold!), then glass cabinets are perfect for you. There are the sublime slim profile Scandinavian timber varieties, or cabinets that take their cues from industrial design using metal and opaque glass doors. These cabinets seek a simple and modern environment to call home.

Simplicity at its best. The Haze Vitrine cabinet by Ferm Living.

4. Integrated Ingenuity

For some, drinks cabinets are a thing to be treasured, but not to be seen. If this is you, consider building one in a dedicated area in your kitchen or living space to house your spirits and glasses. There are some truly brilliant ways of bringing them to life. Consider metallic finishes, subtle lighting and mirrored backdrops.

Sublime bar cabinetry by B.E. Architects at their Armadale Residence project. Image by Derek Swalwell via Yellowtrace

5. Investment Piece

If truly beautiful craftsmanship gets you hot under the collar, then look no further than the investment piece. This is for the serious connoisseur. The highest quality finishes and beautifully crafted cabinet interiors. There is nothing average or ordinary about these. It’s the elegant, timeless talking piece that will have you and your guests clinking glasses in style for years to come.

Cheers to that.

The epitome of British craftsmanship. The ‘Frans’ cabinet in oak by Pinch London.

Apr
25

Top 5 interior decor tips

Let’s be honest, we’ve all had a few interior mishaps over the years. I am of course, no exception. Full disclosure. I’ve made a few.

And what I have done with every slip-up, is to learn from it and improve my decision-making process for the future.

Here are my top 5 learnings.

1. Plan it. Then plan it some more.

I’m a persistent planner of the highest order when it comes to pulling together an interior. And I urge you to be so as well.

One of my approaches with planning a room is to draw it out (to scale) and create 2D scale sized furniture to see how I can successfully re-arrange a space or introduce new pieces.

Maybe this is extreme to some! But who wants to remove the contents of a room, or have furniture and rugs delivered only to find, they don’t work together spatially, scale wise or that just they simply don’t fit properly?

The same applies when introducing a new colour, I always paint a large piece of board or cardboard in that colour and place it around the space at different times of day. The amount of times I have fallen in love with a colour, only to have my mind completely (and thankfully) changed by seeing it ‘in situ’.

So whatever planning you can do, take it up a notch and maybe one more, and then there should be no décor dilemmas once the scheme is in place.

2. Harmonise your everyday spaces

So, you know you need to decorate your main living spaces, hallways and bathrooms. But there will be several steps to this and to be honest, you can’t do it all at once.

This ties perfectly in to planning, in that you should be thinking about your ultimate outcome. Are there any finishes that you can bring through into the rest of the house to create unity?

This can apply to something as simple as hardware – curtain poles, door and cupboard handles. Do your bathroom finishes complement each other? They don’t have to match, they just have to ultimately work together.

Colour is also key here and is so simple to get right, or wrong. Think about harmony, colours that create a similar mood that can tie the main living areas together.

3. Get the flow right

You know how to go with the flow? Or do you? The flow of a successful interior depends on how easy, efficient and pleasing it is to move around and use that space. This is a time to use your imagination.

Consider how you will use the space, how you want it to feel and function. Imagine using it, walk through it in your mind.

Creating the right flow can be as simple as how and where you place your furniture. I’ve never been one to place bulky sofas up against walls. This simple trick creates a neutral space around furniture giving the impression of more space.

4. Balance the visual weight

Consider the visual ‘bulk’ within a scheme. By this I mean how many large or detailed items there are in the space versus smaller, simpler pieces. For example, you need to create storage space in a bedroom with a new built-in wardrobe. It’s a large piece that will make the room feel smaller.

Now think about the effect of less bulky furniture and how it will balance out the space. How a slim picture frame above the bed creates less visual volume. Or, how a similar tone colour scheme for walls, flooring and furniture will create visual balance.

5. Buy to last

I could write a whole article about this (and in fact I will be!). But I can’t stress it more! Buy quality.

From fabric to lighting, and floor coverings to furniture, quality truly matters. You can style and embellish a space in myriad other ways but stick to the best for your most used items.

The benefits of buying long term are two-fold. Not only will you save money in the long term, but well-made items are usually always to-die-for.

It’s the simplest dilemma, it may well cost you more upfront, but the benefits of not having to replace it in the near future, plus the fact that it’s massively beautiful, are one of the greatest ‘décor dilemma avoidance’ outcomes there is.