ForLook Interior Design

I always find other people’s homes interesting - seeing how they live; what their taste is like; how they organise their life and so on.  I’m even more fascinated by people living abroad. Despite the homogenisation of our world - styles, likes and dislikes are different in different cultures. What’s so wonderful about Europe is that you can travel only a couple of dozen miles and see very different architecture,  interiors and  styles. People live subtlety different lives in different countries, which are reflected in their lifestyles and homes..

This is a preview, read Interiors Abroad in full.

In the previous article we discussed how working from home can affect our lives. This article is about designing the right home office.

Before you get out your decor tools or just allocate a corner in your bedroom for a desk - you should really investigate the way you live and the way you work.  Analyse your habits, your organisation methods and the spatial requirements your job needs. You might think you only need space for a laptop - but even so you’ll still need gadgets and equipment, not to mention storage for folders and files. As we discussed before, the concept of the paperless office is still just a dream - bills, letters, agreements etc are still in paper form and they will pile up sooner or later. So it’s best to think ahead and allow plenty of real and potential storage for these.

This is a preview, read Designing a home office in full.

More and more of us are working from home, yet we are living in smaller spaces. So how can we combine and separate work and home living?
Working at home sounds really good - you can be your own boss, your life can be flexible and you don’t have to waste time on commuting to work. But home working is not as easy as it seems..

This is a preview, read Home office in full.

In one of our previous articles we wrote about the latest interior design trend, which is called “the new old” or “trad modern” or “new-stalgia” or FAB.

This new look is about glamorising vintage pieces  and designs.  Contemporary materials - such as lacquer, mirror, Perspex, Corian  etc - are used on traditional shapes. There is renaissance of Baroque and Art Deco styles, but with a modern twist..

This is a preview, read Bathroom design trend in full.

Designing small spaces is quite challenging and it requires more time and energy than larger spaces.  Here is a case study about the design process and results for a small home.

Building:

• 3 storey townhouse
• Area: 95 sqm

Problems:

• There was not enough storage
• Main bedroom was too small
• Kitchen was too small
• Needed a home office - with lots of storage..

  This is a preview, read Small spaces in full.

This is the area that is mostly associated with interior design. However, without taking into consideration the previous two factors - space & self - an interior design cannot be successful. As I said before, a successful interior is not about installing expensive gadgets, designer furniture and trendy finishes. It’s about balance - a conscious and subconscious harmony between elements - shapes, lines, colours, materials & textures. You know, when you’re in it, because it just looks and feels right.

This is a preview, read STYLE in full.

As I already mentioned in the article about designing a successful interior, your home should reflect who you are, what you like and how you live. This doesn’t mean that you should go wild and create something totally weird or fantasy-driven. This would not achieve balance, which is the most important component of a well-designed interior.

TV programmes & magazines have made us de-clutter and de-personalise where we live to such extent that it no longer feels like home. More often than not when I enter recently remodelled interiors, I see the right gadgets, trendy deco and furnishing - yet the space feels soul-less, cold and de-humanised. There are no clues about the inhabitants, their lifestyle, their memories, their individuality, their taste… I could be in a hotel, a showroom or anybody else’s home anywhere in the world. They are just not successful designs..

This is a preview, read Self in full.

When we talk about space, we don’t mean abstract arty concepts nor just rooms in the tradition sense. We mean an area framed by walls & openings - thereby creating a canvas to be layered with materials, textures, colours & your personality.

Did you get a notebook as I suggested in the previous article? If no, get one. If yes, get it out and start taking notes.

Before you start thinking about design, you have to analyse the space - its setting, its aspects, its age, its climate, its culture and so on..

This is a preview, read space in full.

In the previous article I wrote about the most common design & decorating mistakes people make when they remodel or redecorate their homes. This series of articles will give you inside knowledge about the most important aspects of interior design.

Creating a successful interior is not as easy as it looks on the TV; not everyone is a born interior designer. Just filling your home with designer and/or expensive objects will not make it feel “interior designed”.

A successful interior is about balance - a visual harmony between the physical, sensual and intellectual elements. This can be achieved through a conceptual design that uses layering, zoning and detailing. Let me explain these concepts:..

This is a preview, read Designing an interior in full.

Being an interior designer has its disadvantages. We never finish our work. Not only do our minds keep going after the end of the day, but friends and family members constantly ask us for advice regarding their homes. Mainly about decoration issues, but sometimes about spatial design too. However, they hardly ever follow our advice. Neither do many clients for that matter. It seems that people think that they are good at interior design and decoration and follow their own ideas. So they make big mistakes. Although some of them later admit that they should have listened to us, but I still wonder why they had commissioned a designer in the first place or why did they ask for expert advice? We are actually trained to see the bigger picture - and we can visualise ideas, something most people cannot do - but they think they can. We, at Forlook, had a few clients who openly admitted that they were not good at visualising or imagining spaces, and that this was why they turned to us for help. It would certainly be better if more people could come clean about this… their homes would be better looking and more comfortable places to live. But, I must admit, this is not easy, when the media put it over that everybody is a natural home-builder and a born interior designer..

This is a preview, read Design mistakes in full.