Velvet Jungle Interiors | Maximalist & Bold Interior Design

New Project !

October 9, 2017

Hey guys!

Sorry for the long absence but I’ve been working non-stop on an exciting new project !

Before I get into it, let’s do a little recap of the past few months : Mathieu’s living room makeover got a lot of attention over the summer and was featured in ApartmentTherapy (yay!!), so we’re working on the sequel, the bathroom makeover, which should be just as awesome! I’ve also been working on little projects here and there, celebrated the site’s 1 year anniversary, re-did my logo, and last month I was featured on the Art&Design Rugs blog for a fun little interview ! All very exciting stuff.

But most of my time has been spent on this big new project : I’m redoing an entire apartment in Paris !

Whaaaaaat ?!

So, backstory, this is my adorable grandfather’s apartment from when he used to work in the city. After he moved to a small town, he kept the apartment to be used when he or any family member came to Paris. It hasn’t been used more than once a month for years, so finally we decided, as a family, to re-do it and rent it out long term.

So it’s half-makeover, and half-home-staging !

The apartment is in pretty good shape since it hasn’t been used that much, so it’s more about updating the look, and giving it a pretty, modern new life. Thankfully it’s got lots of light, and heaps of potential, so I have a lot to work with.

Here’s what we’re looking at :

The apartment is about 470 sq. ft. and pretty well spaced-out. (This version shows a wall between the bedroom and living room, that isn’t there currently, more on that below…)

When you enter, double-doors separate the living room from a small-ish entryway.

The entryway is long but not too narrow, and leads to the bathroom. This couch is the one I’ll use for the makeover, a much more modern look indeed !

In the middle of the entryway: a great dressing room area with lots of potential !

The bathroom is pretty poorly thought-out and veeeery outdated, so most of the changes are going to happen here… Goodbye ugly tiles, and useless bidet !

The living room is in great shape though which will make my job a lot easier ! We just really need to replace that carpet with some pretty wood floors.

There’s room for both a living room and a small dining area here.

The biggest change here is we’re going to close off the bedroom, and create a peaceful, uncluttered room. We’re also keeping the bed since it’s pretty recent.

The kitchen is small but there is a lot of potential, with better planning we can add a lot of storage, which is essential here.

Like I said, the bathroom will need some major renovation, but for the rest, I’ll be using some decorating magic to transform this place into an elegant Parisian apartment with some serious hotel vibes.

I’m even keeping the kitchen tiles, which are still in perfect condition. Their color in the current space makes for a very outdated look, but instead of fighting it, I’m choosing to adjust the style of the whole apartment to it, adding touches of yellow in the other rooms, and within a more modern vibe with industrial touches, it’ll find its footing.

So, here’s a look at my plans for the space :

This is my basic inspiration for the project. I have big plans for each room, but there are 5 of them, so I can’t put it all in one post of the internet will break !! But stay tuned as I go room by room in the next weeks.

There’s a lot of work to do before I can serve up the eye-candy, I’ve got to sell all the existing antique furniture before we can start tearing down the existing kitchen furniture, the bathroom, and building the bedroom wall, new kitchen and dressing room ! And then it’s onto the fun part : painting, new floors, and accessorising 🙂

The project is starting this week and we’ve got until around Christmas so this should keep us real busy ! I’ll be bring you some news every week, so for today : here’s the selection of textures and colors !

I’m obsessed with this palette… Can’t wait to see this come to life !

Have a great week everyone !

2 Comments

Makeovers Project Reveals

Project Mathieu : An Elegant Bachelor Pad in Paris

July 24, 2017

Hi everyone !

I’m so happy this day is finally here : it’s the reveal of Mathieu’s apartment, totally finished !

You can watch the slideshow above first – if you’re a rebel,
or follow along this little recap from start to finish before you come back to check it out (if you’re new or maybe you just forgot!)

You can also look up the tag « Mathieu » if you want to read all the posts in their entirety.

When we started, the space was separated by a half-wall and unused sliding door.
This was the living room side, painted red at the time (with some classic college-age Ikea seating!)

And this was the kitchen side, because of the not-so-great layout, we hadn’t changed anything in there since he moved in.
One of the main reasons we wanted to break the wall, was to unlock the kitchen’s potential.

The only wall that mattered before I came along : where the magic happens !

So we tore down the sliding door wall, and opened up the whole space.

Next, we got rid of these sad little kitchen appliances.

And with a mix of brand new Ikea cabinets, pretty appliances, and a lot of hand-made tricks to keep the cost down, we managed to create a functional and sleek new kitchen, and as a bonus, move the video projector a few feet back !

To separate the kitchen area from the living room, we added a very large bar, that also allowed for rows of drawers under it, adding more kitchen storage.
We used a place holder Ikea counter top at first.

And then added a gorgeous piece of wood – that used to be our grandfather’s work station – as the final countertop.
While we were doing the kitchen, we repainted the whole room, saying goodbye to red, and using a mix of sophisticated grey hues instead.

The last piece was the screen wall, where we decided to add some color instead of going for grey.

So when all of this work was finished, all that was left was replacing some of the living room furniture. Thankfully we didn’t have to replace everything, since Mathieu had made his own furniture. But once the space was repainted and elegant, the old brown couch and 10$ Ikea tables were looking very out of place.

Thankfully Mathieu wanted to change them as much as I did, and it lit a fire under his butt : before long he had bought a new couch, a reproduction Eames lounger, and had made his own coffee table to fit his needs ! (More clients like this please !!)
The Eames lounger has been his dream for a long time, and I never thought I’d see it in the space this fast, but I’m so glad because it rounds out the style perfectly (and he spends all his time in it!).

It’s a more grown-up, cohesive, and inviting space, closer to his 30-year old self, than his college-student red living room.
We’ve updated the space, but did so without changing the feel of the room : it’s made for watching movies, and reading a book in the lounger while music fills the apartment. Except now there’s a place to cook and eat properly, and a better layout to have people over.

Mathieu is very happy and at home in this new space, and I didn’t even have to put leopard anywhere in the room. Total win-win !

I did bully him into adding some accessories, like candles and throw pillows …

Which he pretended to hate it but wouldn’t let me take them back to the store. I still can’t convince him to buy a rug though…

Go check out the gallery slideshow at the top of the post, if you haven’t already, to see more pictures of the finished room !

Guys, I had so much fun doing this project, it’s a total departure from my usual over-the-top style, but with a client who knows what he wants, it was a breeze, and I’m so incredibly happy with the result !! I hope you like it too, let me know in the comments 🙂

Alright, that’s a wrap on Mathieu!

4 Comments

Makeovers My Home

The Last White Space – Built-in Shelves

April 18, 2017

Hey y’all !
So today I’m doing a post to bring you behind the curtain and share something I’m totally stuck on. Prepare for a terrifying journey inside my braaaaiiiin !
Revealing my finished Beetlejuice walls was a major high and the feedback has been amazing! Not to mention seeing it every day still makes me smile !

But of course, being who I am, the high wore off pretty quickly, and I started stressing about another unfinished project
… my built-in shelves. This is basically the last surface in the apartment I have to dress up, and the endless options are driving me crazy !!
The wall above my desk is staying white since I have all-pink artwork to frame, a shiny green desk on the way, and disco balls up. So it might be time to stop.
The built-ins are the last really in-your-face white space and I’ve been racking my brain trying to figure out what to do with them color- and pattern-wise now that the apartment is really filling up. And let me tell ya it’s not easy making a color decision in a multi-color home !

I haven’t really showed this side of the apartment yet for this very reason, so this is a total exclusive…
I know, you’re thinking “how is there another side to this tiny apartment?”, why it’s the mysterious bed of course !

Don’t judge my poorly-made bed… it was piled with books and crap seconds before this picture.

Ok, so once I took out all the art, the books, the accessories, we are left with very white and very boring shelves. The inside of the Murphy bed actually used to be dark brown, so it could definitely be waaay worse, but I’m still not happy with this situation.

I want to cover the back of the shelves on the right, and I’ve yet to decide if I’ll match it above the bed, but I know I’ll leave the bottom for hanging fabric.
I do like the idea that both sides are matching, especially with the brick in between, so when you open the bed it’s like a fun, but very tiny surprise-party ! (It doesn’t take much to amuse me)

To add some fun obstacles to this venture, the built-in shelves on the right are very deep so it’s not very easy to style them. The shelf above the bed on the other hand is the opposite and can only house one row of small paperbacks or picture frames basically. This apartment is a puzzle…

I want to keep the momentum going and find a real show-stopper, something that’ll add another layer of both crazy and cool ! But mostly crazy.
Now before you freak out, as you know by now, I protect my walls, so all of these ideas would work with a removable foam cardboard backing. Easy to remove if I want to mix it up or clean the dust. The backs of the bookshelves are static so I wouldn’t even need to attach them to the wall, just prop them up, easy peasy !
So here are some of the ideas that have been floating around in my head. First off, here’s a few patterns I considered for this :

A cute black and white Dalmatian print

This gorgeous malachite pattern by Jonathan Adler (which I can’t afford but maybe I could fake !)

These fan-freaking-tastic peacock feather patterns from Spoonflower ! In a twist of fate, I actually have the green one on throw pillows in my kitchen.

I lurv, lurv, lurv this flamingo pattern but I see it everywhere now and done in very cool ways, so I don’t think I can one-up it !

Love this beautiful, intricate, blue Damask-looking wallpaper

And I’m still pretty into marbled paper …

Ok, these are all pretty standard wallpaper options. Wildy different, and I haven’t even settled on a color as you can see, but they’re pretty straight-forward.

Now that’s all good and well but then I started thinking … what about texture !?

Like silver lame fabric