Interior Tips

Today I thought I'd share with you a few of my favourite interior design tips and principles. Yesterday's blog post mentioned a challenge to decorate a really large space. I love the challenges of working with small spaces, but filling a big space up can be equally daunting. The key is to create zones so your furniture is not just floating in the middle, or pushed up against the wall with a vast empty centre. Rugs and pendant lights are both excellent tools for anchoring a zone - one rug for each space. Use furniture to help you zone - by having the sofa out from the wall (see below) it's back creates a divider, like a mini wall.
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Each room should have a focal point. Some rooms my already have an amazing view, or a beautiful fire place, but if not you can create one. Perhaps a striking piece of art, or a picture wall, maybe a special piece of furniture. Once you decide on your focal point, let that be the hero of the room.
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Make sure you have varying shapes and heights in your room to add interest. In the photo below the chairs and coffee table are all quite low, but height has been added to the room with the items on the mantle piece. A beautiful pendant would also work here.
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Contrast is very important in a room. Contrast in texture - smooth and rough, soft and hard; in form - curves and straight lines; and in tones - light and dark. A round table is great way to contrast all the straight lines found in a room. And below the chunkiness of the table is a lovely contrast to the finer chairs.
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It's important that there is a sense of cohesiveness to all of the rooms in your home. You want it to flow from one room to the next and the easiest way to do this is to create a colour palette. Choose three of four main colours and stick to these in varying tones. The photos below are actually the studio of Oh Joy, but you can envisage them as a home. Tones of pink and yellow, and blue and green link each space. It's really not hard to do this as you will find that you already have favourite colours. So if you buy what you love a pattern usually emerges.




Don't forget the details, these are my favourite things in a room. They will add personality and help 'finish' a space. Below this little grouping of furniture and accessories adds colour, texture and pattern, but it's the picture above that anchors everything and makes it belong. Once again, it's playing with varying heights - something low, add something high.
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What's your favourite piece of advice, either from the list above, or your own interior tip? Or is there anything you want to ask my advice about? Let me know and I'll create another blog post around it.

One Kings Lane + Katie Tarses' Boho Abode

I get emails most days from One Kings Lane, a US site that launches new sales every day offering gorgeous, top-brand, vintage and designer items. I often drool over the furniture, wishing it was feasible to ship it to me here in New Zealand. Although they don't ship internationally, it is feasible to ship smaller items using NZ Post's YouShop service.


Someone who is able to take advantage of the amazing One Kings Lane products is Katie Tarses, a full-time mum and part-time actress. She lives with her husband, Matt, and their three kids in a beautiful Spanish-style house in the Hollywood Hills. Katie often buys OKL items to decorate her home which boasts the stunning eclectic boho, casual and welcoming vibe I love so much.


When Katie first came across this house she wasn't quite sure how she'd work the huge glass-ceiling solarium space. But she has cleverly divided up the large room and created separate areas for dining, lounging, and entertaining around the perimeter.


She also had the help of Pam Shamshiri of Commune Design, who recommended warming up the room with rugs in a unique way. They stocked up on a selection of gorgeous rugs, rearranged them to get the perfect layout, and then hand stitched them all together with metallic thread creating one massive boho patchwork-style carpet.


The rugs that didn't find a home on the floor have been sewn into cushion covers, as you can see in the lounge area. This corner of the solarium is used by the family and their friends to chill-out, watch movies, or read. If you stripped the room back you'd see it has a very neutral base, the colour and pattern is only added in the accent pieces. The white sofa can be turned around to create a more open space when they have guests.


The TV is cleverly camouflaged on the wall by the vines growing around it. All the lovely textures and shapes work beautifully together.


The staircase is covered in gorgeous Spanish tiles, which are complimented by the light and tiny cupboard below. The slatted bench, an example of One Kings Lane shopping, is softened by a sheepskin throw and cushion. I love the way Katie has anchored the small light fittings by hanging art below them.


Eight-year-old Harry's bedroom is very cool with it's blackboard wall and Ikea bunk painted glossy red. It's a great example of using furniture pieces that can grow with the child - the wooden sofa provides a nice spot for relaxing, and will still work in 10 years, or in any other room of the house.


Likewise, four-year-old Pippa has some beautiful furniture pieces in her room, but there's no mistaking it's a little girl's room with it's candy pink wall.


The other three walls are papered in Studio Printworks' Spenserian Beasts. The beautiful line drawings are a work of art and really fun. Rather than toy boxes Katie labels colourful baskets to keep Pippa's toys organised.
photos by Nicole LaMotte
There is so much I love in this home, and I hope it's inspired you too. Pop over to see even more here.