Category: Style Guide

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Decorating by Layering 101: colors and textures

Now that you know contouring with colors from our previous post, let’s explore another make up technique to interior decorating, which is called layering. In this post I will be discussing layering with patterns and textures. It is a little bit more advance than contouring with colors, but it is actually quite simple.

Just in case you don’t know layering makeup technique, it’s when you layer products so you can get that flawless look. There are many ways on how you can do this. But a simple version is when you apply products in the following order moisturizer-primer-foundation-concealer-powder. These steps is a technique that is often used by lots of women to get that natural looking finish.

How can we apply this concept into interior decorating? Now let’s look at this room decorated by one of my favorite Interior Designer, Kelly Wearstler. I am a big fan of her because she can always make any room much more interesting with her fearless shapes and bold style. Her designs are so rich, that the space she created is like an exquisite  piece of art.

pic3-kw01

(source: kellywearstler.com)

 

In this post, I’m going to discuss a layering technique where she applied around the focal point of the room, which is the art work. The layers in the focal point is a layering method by using colors and patterns.

Firstly, similar to the Jeremiah Brent’s design in the previous post Kelly Wearstler used contrasting colors to create more depths into the room. To make it more dramatic, she contrasted the room with black marbles against the white walls that surrounds the room. The black marble has a very bold and defined colors compared to the whole surfaces of the room.

What’s even interesting about this black big slab of beautiful black marble is that’s she used layering again by book-matching the marble’s grain. Marble bookmatching is the practice of matching two (or more) marbles, so that two adjoining surfaces mirror each other, giving the impression of an opened book. This adds more depth and character to the marble.

The third layering is the artwork. You can’t deny that the abstract painting by John Williams draws your eyes towards it creating the inward pull to the room.  This probably the intention of Kelly Wearstler when she designed the space. She carefully placed the black marble as the foundation contrasting the white canvas of the painting.

The breathtaking abstract painting also adds layers in itself. As you can see the abstract painting’s colors and shapes are so bold against the white canvas. Thus, adding more dimensions to the artwork and consequently to the whole room.

It’s pretty amazing that although the designer used contrasting colors, textures and patterns, the whole room feels natural and very together. Just like when you do layering techniques with your makeup in creating a natural looking finish.

Now that I have broken down the many layerings that Kelly Wearstler created at the center of room, I hope it will help you understand a little bit more about interior decorating.

I also hope that by using a make-up technique analogy, interior decorating would be easier and more approachable for you. I will use this kind of analogy again, so stay tuned!

If you have any question or comment, please let us know in the comments sections below, we’ll be happy to answer them.

Thanks for reading,

Sofisofi Insight Team

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Decorating by Contouring 101: Colors

First of all, if you think about it, make-up artist and interior decorator are both artist. They both are people that are engaged in an activity or demonstrating to the best version of its original piece. Whilst, a make-up-artist can give the best version of how you look, the same goes of interior decorator to your space. Since most women (and probably some men) knows a thing or two about applying make-up, I thought it would be fun explaining interior decorating by using make-up techniques so that it will be more familiar to you.

So, here is the first part is about contouring.

I know that contouring is so 2015, but hey, most people know contouring, right? So, I’m hoping that everyone can relate to this analogy. But, just in case you don’t know, contouring is where lighter/darker makeup shades are strategically blended onto the skin to enhance or downplay different facial features and/or slim the entire face. This technique was popularized by the famous Kim Kardashian. Here is a picture for you to better visualize it.

pic 1 - from Glamoursource: www.glamour.com

As you can see, a lighter color is intentionally applied on the nose tip, cheeks, forehead and chin areas. Darker colors is applied to the upper forehead, sides of the nose and lower chin areas. It was also applied on the side of the cheek to enhance the cheek bones.

The same technique can be used for interior decorating. But, instead of using a contouring kit, we can play around with paints, patterns or texture. I will share a way of contouring in this article by using colors.

Basically, light colors, can make a room brighter and thus larger because cool colors tend to recede. Meanwhile, darker colors can make the room feels smaller, because they appear to move towards us. By combining both light and dark colors, you can create dimensions into your space.

To visualize what I just said, let’s take look at this picture below, where a room is painted with two different colors. This was decorated by a famous interior decorator, Jeremiah Brent from the US. Just like when you do contouring on your face, Jeremiah placed two contrasting colors to create depth into the room. The back wall in black is perfectly framed against the contrasting white and created a sense of depth deeper than the actual depth between the black wall and the white frame around it.

pic 2

(source: jeremiahbrent.com)

Well, I hope this post helps you understand a little bit more about interior decorating. I also hope that by using a make-up technique analogy, interior decorating would be easier and more approachable for you. I will use this kind of analogy again, so stay tuned!

If you have any question or comment, please let us know in the comments sections below, we’ll be happy to answer them.

Thanks for reading,

Sofisofi Insight Team

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Light vs Dark Colored Parquet

So you like parquets and you have chosen it for your flooring. But, then there’s a daunting question, which color that would set the mood to the space? Or how do mix-matched it with your existing furniture? Well, this post will guide you for you in choosing the color.

First of all there so many choices of colors for parquet, oak, maple, ebony and so on. But, at the end of the day, there are two major colors that can be categorized; light and dark. In this Parquet 101 post, we are going to compare light colored parquet to dark color parquet only in terms of how they work with the overall design.

Light Color Parquet

Light color parquet offers a light to your space without adding any light and lamps. This is because light colored parquet allows light to bounce and illuminates the space. Look at the picture below where the natural light bounce from the light color parquet and illuminate the living room.

pic 02 light color parquet from kaboompics

The result is your space feels lighter and less claustrophobic than it usually is. So, it is a great solution if you want to make your space feels larger than it really is. You can see in this picture that the space is actually quite small, but with the light-colored parquet, it doesn’t feel squishy.

pic 01 light color parquet from kaboompics

Light color parquet also goes with both dark color furniture and light. It goes well with the dark sofa above and adds dimensions due its contrasting colors.

Dark Color Parquet

Many floor designs include a dark stain to make the floor look more aged and antique. The following picture shows that the dark colored parquet brings out the metals of the tables and the brass vases on the shelf because it is such a contrasting element of the room.

pic 03 dark color parquet from kaboompics

Whilst light colored parquet makes the room larger than it seems, dark parquet makes the room feels more intimate. Dark floors tend to work better in larger homes and open floor plans.  Just look at this picture of the entertainment area of a home designed by ma-ru. The dark floor compliments the overall ambiance and sophistication of the space.

pic 05 pak boy maru

Just like any good TV series, this is only the first episode of our post in helping you to choose a parquet for your home, office, or any kind of space. Stay tuned for more posts from us.

If you have any question or comment, please let us know in the comments sections below, we’ll be happy to answer them.

Thanks for reading.

Sofisofi Insight Team

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Choosing The Style

Hi everyone, this our second post about buying a sofa online. It is a continuation post of our earlier post of how to buy a sofa from an online shop 101. If you have not read it, I really encourage you to read it, so that your knowledge on buying a sofa online will be super comprehensive. Here’s the link, just in case you haven’t read it or would like to refresh your memory on the topic

After measuring, the next thing to do is to choose the overall style of the sofa. There are so many styles and it can get super confusing. But, actually, it is broken down to two fundamental categories.

The first style is an easy route, which is to choose the same style with your space. As a guideline, choose a sofa that blends in with your flooring, walls, décor and other furniture in your space.  An example of this approach is the picture below.

pic 03

As you can see from the picture above the sofa blends in seamlessly to the ambiance and the monochrome colors sets a calming mood in that living room.

The other option is make your sofa the centerpiece of the room so that your sofa will stand out. For this option, find a sofa that has a different texture, material, color other than the furniture in that space. Personally, I love this option better, because by perfecting-mixmatching, you can really put your own character into the space.  Take a look at the picture below.

pic 04

The picture above really illustrates how you can mix and match lots of different kinds of styles and how each material, texture and color balance each other out. The fun part of this method is also that you can always add or take out anything at anytime. Imagine you just came back from a vacation and you just bought a couple souvenirs.  Just place them as a decorative item on the coffee table. Or, maybe your kid made some arts and craft from school that you are really proud of, just hang it on the wall or even the ceiling! As you can see, the magic of this approach is that there are no rules!

So, what do you think? I hope this will help you on your next purchase in setting the style of your sofa. Remember to stay tuned to our next post as I will post more about this topic.  If you have any question or comment, please let us know in the comments sections below, we’ll be happy to answer them.

Thanks for reading.

Sofisofi Insight Team

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Measure, measure, measure

Buying a sofa is probably one of the most important furniture purchase in every house. This is because a sofa is a multi function furniture. Other than just a sitting apparatus for us and our guests; it also functions as a bed for short naps; a comfy place to read books or reading books with children, watch TV, work, etc.

Continue reading Measure, measure, measure