CATALINA ESTRADA - more than a wallpaper

“I love colors and shapes and if I have a choice I want to make them beautiful.”

  Catalina Estrada is one of those artists who brings home accessories to another level. What she does it's called art in all it's meaning. The color pallet is amazing, the illustrations are complex and as you can see, her favorite theme is nature. My words can't describe her designs, but the images can.
Few words about her :

"Unconditional lover of nature. Passionate about colors. Fascinated by textures, details, shapes and beauty. Such is Catalina Estrada, Colombian illustrator based in Barcelona since 1999 who has managed to reinterpret the Latin American folklore with its original strength to make it bloom in deep harmony and simplicity. Her impressive and cheerful visual language, infectiously optimistic, with thousands of colors, and with all the power of nature, goes beyond borders."

So, I leave you to enjoy her website and congratulate those who have her products.

Pip Studio - Wallpaper

I do not know how many of you know about  Pip Studio , but I'm sure that lots of Romanians haven't heard about it. Since I discovered it in a wallpaper shop in Cluj ( my city) it was love at first sight. I was looking on internet for wallpapers models, but non of them was this complex and graphic. The studio has to offer not just wallpaper, but other amazing products.

Pip Studio is based in Amsterdam and it has such a funny story behind it:

"PIP was born in a small village by the sea as the youngest child of the family. She has three older brothers and a Love bird, or to be more specific, a small African parrot from the genus Agapornis. The Love bird is called Tjommy and it can say its name. Tjommy always sits on her head or shoulder and goes everywhere with her. PIP’s real name is Catharina, but everyone knows her by her nickname. PIP was the first word that she ever spoke and her brothers just started calling her that. The rest of the family soon followed and these days no one knows any different.
After PIP graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts, she bought a dilapidated old Victorian house on the outskirts of town. There was no longer any paint on the house and the garden was a wilderness, but PIP fell in love with it the moment she saw it. The house’s most unique feature, to her mind, was the intense northerly light that lit it up when the sun shone and that reminded her of the village where she was born.
PIP created a studio in the attic of her house and dubbed it the PIP studio..."

Love the story, love the products and the wallpapers...love it all. 

Colorful Houses Inspiration

 To keep the same topic as the previews article, I want to show you my latest finds. This amazing rooms are a mixture of different styles : Asian, Indian , Turkish, Moroccan, African ... and the list could continue, in a such a tasteful way. Materials with complicated patterns, wallpapers full of colors and illustrations, crazy rugs and curtains ... it's a lot, but it still looks great. There are exotic interiors and probably, as soon as you get through  their doors you will have the sensation you are on an ireland. At least this is how I will feel.. as if every day I will live in a holiday home. 

Now, I'm dreaming with my eyes opened !!! Oh, how lovely it will be to have a house like this ! 

Black for Bold Interiors

flaingfrance

I wonder how many of us had bold ideas but they didn't had the courage to put them in practice? 

I always dreamed of painting my walls in dark gray, but every time I told someone about my plan, they were like: what? are u sure? .... and I wasn't anymore. 

So, I thought that it will be a good idea to make a post which, probably, will give you a bit of nerves to go for it.  And let me tell you this: there's no such thing as bad color; you can use any type of color in your house, but what's most important and what makes it look good, is the way you combine it, in which context and how much .... 

I will dedicate this post to BLACK . If you want that "wow" factor, than I suggest you should try it. Black will give you a dramatic and sophisticated look to your house. If you have large spaces than I advice you should paint an entire wall, or some furniture... but if you have small rooms, than play with decorative objects or home accessories like: light shads, rugs, chairs, pillows, curtains etc.  I will choose to combine it with white, brown (in different shades), peach or green... but if you will pairing it with vibrant and powerful colors it will give a swanky look to your space. 

Till next time, please do not forget to be brave ( but do some research first )!

I'm here if you need any advice in interior design. 

 

Trendey

fleaingfrance

Houzz

skonahem

melongins

skonahem

desiretoinspire

Retail Detail

Park-Life

 Every morning I wake-up around 7:30 and while I enjoy my tea till 9:30 I have time to get lost on Pinterest and different blogs and websites. And because my main focus is my Shop, I had to dedicate another post about shop interiors and share some of my findings. As you can see they are totally different style, but each in its own way, brings something original.

The first one it's a beautiful chaos; as I'll say: a organized mess. It's complex and full of life.Love the black and white diamond shape of the floor, and the see-through pink chest.

Pinterest

 The second one ( the above image ) it's very neat, simple and almost monochrome. What I like a lot is the walls and floor textures and the light. Very original.

Rikshawdesign

 The third it's a classic one. A calm atmosphere with some graphic insertions. Very cute and perfect for a baby products shop. 

Freshome

And the last, which it's probably the most original, it's very colorful. Very economic , if you think how much furniture they've saved. :D ...

As a conclusion, as a retail designer you will have to find something original, but in harmony with the merchandise. It doesn't have to be crowded, but has to fit a lot of products; and it has to relate with the shop target .  The big challenge will be to fit lots of products in 23 square meters and to make it look great.
Challenge accepted !!!       

A N T H R O P O L O G I E - shop design

 Hello hello , after more than 3 month! It's been a while since I posted my last article. I have to admit: I haven't been in the mood to wright and I was indeed busy. But, here I am, back on track, looking forward to get back into blogging. For those who already are familiar with my blog, they should know by now how many times I have changed the concept of this blog... too many time. Sorry, this is me: making lots of things and undecided all the time.

It's time to change this too :D ... what I will do? I will come back to the main reason of starting this blog in the first place: DESIGN. For those interested in this area, I hope you will find my blog a constant inspiration.

It's 2013 and for me this year it started pretty crazy. Overwhelmed by how many things happened already, but joyfull that, beside many health problems in my family, I have lots of new projects on the run. The biggest:

Re-opening my STORE !!!!!!!! Heyyyyyyyyy... very happy. And not just the opening, but it will be in the same space, which I like a lot and it's intact. I'm still afraid if it will last longer this time, or if I will able to make some money out of it, but the point is that, this time I will do things differently, I will focus more and make it happen. I have so many design projects on my sketchbook, which I will bring them alive this time.

And here I am, awake at 7:00 am, browsing the internet, trying to find some cheap and clever ideas of how should I organize much better my little space. I'm so glad that internet and Pinterest exists ( huge fan of this page) so I can find so easily everything that I'm intereted in. This is how I came across this amazing shop:

ANTHROPOLOGIE . I know about it as a cloths and accessories shop, but I never had the chance to visit one and to see how their stores look like. I'm like: wow !!!!!! I can easily say that it's one of my favorite stores.

Well, what do you think of how original they are. I'm crazy about wood objects and the combination of vintage with new. I'm sure I will have the chance to see one live. 

Till the next post: improve your life, improve yourself !