Velvet Jungle Interiors | Maximalist & Bold Interior Design

Life in Pink – A Valentine’s Day Special

February 14, 2017

Happy Valentine’s Day everyone !

To honor all the ladies today, from married- to cat-, I decided against doing a post about setting the perfect table for V-Day or DIY-ing an adorable box of chocolate (they don’t last long around here anyway !). There’s already a lot of great ones online if you need some help and inspiration.
Instead, I thought I’d stay in decor mode and do a full inspiration post about using the color PINK in your home!
I have pink accents all over my home and it’s an essential part of my Boho-Glam-Rock look. It can be girly, exotic, and even rock n’ roll.
Whatever your palette, there’s many cool ways to mix in pink, from walls to pillows, indoors and outdoors, it all depends on your comfort level.

So let’s dive in and start off with some inspiration from these too-cool-for-school looks from famous designers :

Let’s break it down.
A great way to infuse happy pink into your home, is by using the color outdoors and letting nature create the perfect color combos. It always works, whatever the shade !
It can be on the walls :

H&M Home Collection

Source

Rosas & Xocolate Hotel

Or you can wow with a single pop of color, like a door or a staircase :

Source

Indoors, once again the walls are the perfect stage. You can use fabulous wallpapers, like these :

This classic flamingo pattern (Source)

This fun modern stencil (Source)

Or this over-the-top goodness from Matthew Williamson (Source)

Or play with paint, like this refreshing bedroom :

Source

Or even use tiles for a retro bathroom :

Source

If you’re not ready for the full look, you can bring in an appliance or a piece of furniture :

Like this awesome Smeg fridge (Source)

This linen sofa in a black & white home (Source)

This cute velvet chair (Source)

This cool loft entryway locker (Source)

This boho console (Source)

Or this glamourous modern dresser (Source)

And if it’s still too much for you, no worries, check out these affordable smaller accents (with links!) :

Pillows, left to right : Mongolian Fur // Hmong // Linen // Ikat

Rugs : Left : RugsUSA // Right : UrbanOutfitters (sold out)

Upper row : For Like Ever // Waffles // Black&Pink // Space

Lower row : Pink&Orange // Cat // FairyDust

Of course, this round-up wouldn’t be complete without neon ! Here’s some of my (very appropriate) faves from Pinterest :I’m working on my own neon sign above the bar, but until then, I got this 15$ pink neon tube above my bed that’s doing a pretty good job of making me happy !

As you can see, pink can work with many styles, from modern, to spanish homes, and from california cool to glam maximalist interiors !
So go find your shade and don’t be afraid to bring some pink into your home !

Until next time, have a fun Valentine’s day, and you know the rules:
whether you’re single or taken, today is a gym-free, chocolate and champagne day ! So treat yo’ self !

Save

0 Comments

Makeovers My Home

Art Round Up (with links!)

February 6, 2017

Hello, hello !

Welcome back, mostly to me, after the great Norwegian adventure ! I came back fully rested and full of ideas … Ah ! Just kidding I never wanted to leave and I’m already exhausted.

But, such is the way of the vacation and I’m afraid real life will always take back its place. So it took a while, but I finally managed to get my act together and today I’m sharing a lot of art inspiration and resources, yay !

First of all, here’s a little “blue wall appreciation”. The paint was done very last minute before I left so I finally got to enjoy its magical healing power of blue happiness full-time and it really works. You just can’t be sad next to this wall, it’s like black magic or something !

I started *somewhat* styling, so here are some vignettes for your enjoyment :

This is playing around with what I already have, I want to get some more colorful glasses and maybe look around for some interesting accessories, but it’s not a priority right now, since the house is already overflowing ! #maximalistproblems

So that was the easy part ! As happy as I am that the shelves are styled and good enough for company, the main story is still the gallery wall.
If you haven’t taken a look at my «Gallery Wall Inspiration» board on Pinterest, well. You should. It’s got cool stuff.
If your parents don’t want you to, well, stick with me kiddo and keep reading !
I wanted to plan out the gallery wall before buying the art but turns out it’s literally impossible ! These are the tasks for much better men and women than me.
I started playing around on a photoshop version of the wall – easy peasy – but ended up ripping most of the hair off my scalp so I decided to stop.
It was like a giant puzzle : too many options for prints, too many of the available sizes didn’t fit what I envisioned, or go together very well, and it’s an explosion of colour, so I couldn’t seem to find the right balance. (Sooo much pink…)
Instead I needed to let it go, and go with the floooow.
So I removed half the layers on photoshop and started over ! The only real way Photoshop helps me right now is figuring out which wall is better for which print. I have a bright blue wall, a white wall, and brick wall, and a buttload of colorful prints. So I can try and see which one will look better on blue, or white, or reddish-brown.

For that, it’s very very good.
For the rest, it’s completely evil and I spent a full day going crazy staring at Photoshop and now have a broken back to show for it !

The main problem was I love too many prints, and don’t have enough space and money to buy them all, and I couldn’t seem to focus enough to whittle it down. After being overwhelmed by it for a looong while, I finally decided to take a breath and try again.
So I’m tackling small spaces first, kinda like a puzzle you know the old saying : start with the corners or you will go insane and/or blind.

( By the way, if you like spoilers or can’t wait until Mondays to see all this stuff, follow my on Instagram to get the scoop !)

So wall, by wall, here we go ! On the right side of the window, I already printed out two cool pieces I bought on Etsy and it looks pretty good ! Also, yesssss I added some more discoballs !

These print are actually downloadable prints from Etsy, you can find them both at the CityGirlStationery shop. This is the most affordable option for cheap art ever. I payed 12$ for both prints, yessir, downloaded them right away after buying and brought them to a printer in Paris where I payed under 10$ for the printing. It’s a total steal ! I might have to spend a pretty penny on some of my art, but I balance it out with very cheap options like this so I can still afford to you know, eat !

So above Kate here, I want to put up two 19″x27″ horizontal frames, one of them I bought already but the other one eludes me so far. It will look something like this :

The one I bought is from Desenio which by the way has beautiful, more classical prints, for way cheap as well. It’s a great resource if you’re looking to add some color or depth to your interior through art without breaking bank. I particularly like their landscape and nature selections, and would suggest it to clients so check them out !

This is “Street Women“

I also purchased this gorgeous “Ink Cloud” from them but have no idea where to put it yet…

Moving on ! Above the desk, I framed my gorgeous Italian marble paper (see below for details). It gave me a full 70s-futuristic disco vibe so I decided to go with that.
Here’s how it looks right now (ignore the messy corkboard!):

In a totally serendipitous moment, I happened upon a fantastic vintage poster for Barbarella, and after trying it on every surface like an idiot… It obviously needs to be put up here, duh ! The desk will be shiny and bright green so I love the contrast it would create with all pink art.

Awesome !

So that’s kind of figured out so far. And then yesterday, I bought quite a few other pieces from, you guessed it, Society6, mostly for the blue wall, to help things along, albeit very, very slowly. God help me when it’s all delivered and I need to make a decision…

I bought a pretty big version of this great abstract print from Matthew Korbel-Bowers and it may become the central piece on the blue wall.

Melty lips is my faaaaave. From @slimesunday.

This great mystic print from MilesToGo.

I also bought a pretty big version of this one from Adam Priester, and might use it on the left side of the window (brick wall again), to balance out the two prints on the right. I couldn’t work out a good enough picture of the wall to photoshop it though, sorry, so we’ll have to use our imagination !

I also got some more downloadable prints for cheap while I was at it. The other major bonus with this kind of print is that you can choose to make it any size you want. In this case, I got three prints from the great HoneyMoonHotel shop, and I’m planning on peppering them into the gallery. I’ve got bigger and colorful pieces coming and these black and white font prints are going to help the eye rest in all the madness and create some interesting layers in the process !
So I can make them as small or big as I go, as the wall fills up, which might save my sanity.

The important thing with downloaded prints if to have bring them to a good printer. Thankfully I live close by to the best in Paris : Négatif+. These guys are awesome and each print cost me under 10$. Scooore.

And finally, I looked into intricate and interesting papers, once again to create some interest in the wall.
There are many many materials you can frame as art.

Scarves, like this great Hermès piece from one of my favorites on Instagram : James Kivior.

Dried flowers and leaves, like this display from LoveMaegan.

and Wallpaper, like in this great inspiration from SimplyFramed.

I started looking around on Etsy because I went a little kookoo crazy for marbled paper. Well of course I found my bliss… twice! Now full disclosure, I tried to do this myself once and it was … not good. The process totally works but the result was a very very very faded version of the initial color. I may need to do some more research on the paint needed because it’s actually really fun to do yourself.
This is the one you’ve seen up above, it’s a piece of vintage italian marble paper. If I found this in a wallpaper I would cover my walls so fast it’d make your head spin. Swoon.

From the CarteVenezia shop.

And the second one is a much more intricate marbling technique and I just fell in love with the color mix. It gives me butterflies…

From the RedCottage shop.

I also found these beautiful waves I think I might buy soon, because I cannot resist pretty things. Ever.

From the HimalDesign shop.

So here’s where I am today with all this art business ! I’ve got lots more to get through before my blue wall is full and perfect so it’s gonna take a while until I can take a proper picture … In the meantime I hope filling the adjacent walls will help guide me a little. It ain’t easy having a rainbow house let me tell ya !

I also had the fantastic adventure of a lifetime : going to Ikea with the free Ikea shuttle ! I’m fake smiling of course as it was a nightmare. I went to buy close to 90$ in frames for all these beauties, so if you have no money, that’s not a great start. What’s that ? How heavy is 90$ of frames ? Glad you asked. It was unbearably heavy for 2 ikea bags and no arm strength, no car. Oh, and I had a 30$ voucher I forgot to use. (Insert internal scream). And waited in the rain. It was terrible. I am not a smart person.

But, at least I got to frame stuff when I got home so all was not lost! I love that blue wall but it’s hard to see it empty so I’m glad it’s getting some friends !

Next week I’ll get into my plans for the entryway, the « stay creative » motto is going a little too well and I’m going be running out of walls very soon…

I hope this post inspired you to look for some cool art for yourself and your home ! Have a great week

Save

2 Comments

Makeovers My Home

Going Blue – A Messy Tale

January 20, 2017

Guess who’s back ? Back again…… It’s me. Was that not clear ? Sorry.

So, as I told you on Wednesday, I got very excited about the idea of painting another wall in my apartment and going with a bold hue, and I was hoping to finish it before I left for my vaaaaacaaaaay on Monday (can you tell I’m excited?!). I won’t be able to post next week due to a complete lack of wi-fi, and probably civilization – aka half the reason I’m going – so I wanted to make up for it with a special double-feature this week ! And it feels like a miracle, because I actually found time to paint ! Hallelujah !

Couple other cool things that happened since Wednesday that you may notice :
1/ I got my zebra hide !! (Awww, yeaaaah !) And for 300$ cheaper. Boo-ya !
And 2/ I’ve dyed my curtains ! I’m not sure if they’ll stick but I’ve been doing some serious head-scratching over what to use here. I’m getting close to a full-on rainbow of colors in the living room so it’s getting trickier to mix and match without ruining it, it’s like decor Jenga. I already had the white linen drapes, and had never dyed anything other than my hair before so I thought “why not play with those first”. Maybe I’ll go in a completely different direction later on, but for now, it’s pretty cute.
And home-made, which is always fun.

Hi zebra hide ! … I love you. Seriously.

Alright, alright, onto the main event : The Wall !

So I wasn’t sure what color I wanted. I liked the blue from the Photoshop “test” I did, but once in store, it’s a whole new ball-game, so I basically followed my instincts, grabbed 3 different samples “just in case” and was waiting to see if I liked any of them, because you never know what the actual sample holds, they can play tricks with your mind ! I got lucky and the first one was the right one. And then things when downhill … I just blacked out and woke up to a finished wall. Ok not really but it kinda felt that way, I was literally hypnotized by that color! And left unsupervised. I’m like a puppy.

So, as a disclaimer, what I did was baaad. Don’t try this at home unless you’re a professional impatient weirdo like myself and ready to face the consequences. I didn’t prep my space, or put down any plastic, or move the furniture that much really, like at all. I would never do this to a client’s home and do noooot recommend it. But this is my own home, and before this blog, no one could see or judge me, so this is the first time I’m feeling shame. So far, not a big fan.

Here are some pictures so you can see the gripping internal drama unfold :

“Alright I’ll just try it out, just a little sample on the wall. I might not even like it …”

“… Huh. This looks pretty good …”

“Maybe I’ll just paint a little more… you know, just to see if I really like it …” – she said as the wall was half-way done.

“Holy crap I love it ! More ! More ! More”

“Yaaaaaayyyyyy !”

“Happyyyyyyy … *record scratch* Wait … why is there crap everywhere ?! “

– insert nap here –

Wow. What a journey. But nevermind the stupidity ! Because what’s done is done and today begins my new, happy life, with a kick-ass blue wall !
I even cleaned up today, just for you guys and took some pictures (even though I didn’t bother styling the top of the bookshelf or cleaning the kitchen apparently… Nice job, dumbass) :

Ba-BAM !

Aaaaah … life is good !

This wall was earmarked for the big, huge, gallery wall I was planning in the living room. Now you could say “that’s too much”, and because it’s bold I should “go easy on the accessories”, but I say nonsense ! Bring me all ze colors ! Joking aside, this is one of those times where you have to go for it. I saw what brightly colored books looked like next to the wall and it just opened my eyes to what colorful – and carefully selected – art could achieve here : adding an incredible layer of interest, and how both the wall and the art would make each other pop in turns, making it ten times bolder by association. It needs some careful planning but there’s really something special I can achieve here so it’s very exciting !
If you want some spoilers I put up the « Gallery Wall Inspiration » board on Pinterest (which was hidden until now) where I collected all the prints I’m interested in.
Here’s a sneak peek :

There’s some really cool stuff in there, mostly from Society6, so it’s very affordable. Take a look and maybe you’ll see something you like too !

Okay guys, that’s it for me! I’ll just leave you with an idea of what’s (hopefully) waiting for me next week, so you can groan at me through your computer. As you may know, the color of the year is green so I think I’m in good hands, inspiration wise !