Style Your Home with Art Nouveau

Style Your Home with Art Nouveau

Art Nouveau, also known as “New Art,” is a popular design style that emerged in the late 19th century and flourished until the early 20th century. It was a reaction against the formal, ornate styles that had dominated the design world for centuries. Art Nouveau instead embraced nature-inspired motifs, flowing lines, and dynamic curves. In interior design, Art Nouveau is characterised by its use of organic shapes, intricate patterns, and a sense of movement. This style can be seen in everything from furniture and textiles to lighting fixtures and architectural details. Read on to find out how you can style your home with Art Nouveau.

Incorporate Curved Lines and Organic Forms

Art Nouveau is characterized by its flowing and curving lines, inspired by natural forms such as flowers and plants. Add furniture pieces with curved legs, round sofas or decorative objects with organic shapes.

Living room in modern Art Nouveau style with arches and curved wall panels in monochrome beige. Modern armchair, coffee table and ottoman in a wall niche.

Choose Rich and Vibrant Colours

Art Nouveau is known for its use of rich and vibrant colours such as deep greens, blues, purples, and gold. Incorporate these colours into your home through wall paint, textiles, and accessories to create a dramatic and luxurious look.

Use Intricate Patterns and Detailing

Intricate patterns and detailing are common in Art Nouveau styles, often featuring floral motifs, arabesques, and geometric shapes. Add wallpaper, textiles, or decorative accents with these patterns to easily introduce the Art Nouveau style into your home.

Art Nouveau inspired interior with pattern wallpaper and rich green and gold furniture

Mix Old and New

Blend vintage Art Nouveau pieces with modern elements to create a unique and eclectic look. Pair a contemporary sofa with Art Nouveau-inspired wallpaper or mix antique Art Nouveau furniture with modern artwork for an interesting contrast.

Pay Attention to Details

Small details and accessories, such as door hardware, moldings, and lighting, can make a big difference when styling your home with Art Nouveau. Lighting fixtures, such as stained glass lamps or intricate chandeliers, can add a touch of elegance and drama to your space.

If you enjoyed this blog, make sure to check out our other blogs for more home styling inspiration!

Kitchen Interior Trends for 2024

Kitchen Interior Trends for 2024

The kitchen tends to be the central meeting point in our homes so it is important to keep the interior updated. The atmosphere we create in our kitchen sets the tone for the day when we make our breakfast. It is also where most of us unwind at the end of the day to prepare dinner. Whilst following every new interior trend can be wasteful and unsustainable, we do like to talk about the trends that last. Using trends as inspiration for your interior can also be a great way to explore new ideas if you’re stuck for ideas. We’ve put together this blog with our favourite kitchen interior trends for 2024, we hope it inspires your New Year revamp!

More bold colours

2024 is the year that we see less greys and neutrals and more bright, bold colour schemes. It has been proved that some colours, especially warm shades, can have mood-boosting effects and create a more lively atmosphere. See our blog about the psychology of colour to find out more.

Looking more specifically at kitchen colour trends, jewel-inspired tones are a popular choice. Burgundy reds, emerald greens and deep blues create a feeling of timeless luxury that you’ll never get bored of. These tones can be built up to create depth or can be contrasted with complimentary pastels to create balance.

Heritage Green 5G Kitchen

Bold colours can be a little daunting, especially if you’re used to more neutral colour schemes in your home. You can introduce them subtly, for example, try bold accessories that can be softened by pastels and neutrals. Bold colours shouldn’t be too harsh so make sure that you tie them into the rest of your space and create consistency.

Embrace darker shades

It might come as a surprise to some, but dark-coloured kitchens (including black) are dominating the 2024 trends. We’re embracing rich velvety colours such as deep blues, rich greys and blacks for kitchen cabinets and worktops. These dark colours create a feeling of confidence and look smart and stylish paired with softer finishes such as wooden floorboards and lighter wall colours. Using lighter colours alongside darker cabinets will also balance out the intensity of the dark shades, therefore helping to make the kitchen look more airy and spacious.

Feature natural textures

With a growing appreciation for organic forms and natural materials in the interior design industry, we can expect to see natural textures in 2024 kitchen trends. Try experimenting by layering different textures. For example, marble worktops, stone accessories and wooden flooring. If you’re interested in finding out more about adding texture to your home, check out our guide.

By leaning towards more natural materials we will also discover the beauty of organic shapes. Irregular forms can create an interesting contrast to the luxurious feel of the jewel tones and darker shades mentioned earlier. Including natural materials in our interior design has many benefits including enhancing our connection to the outdoors as well as being good for our health and well-being.

Groove Kitchen Meadow Green and Wood Panel

Slat wood panelling

Relating to natural textures, slat wood panelling has recently boomed in the interior industry and is set to grow even more in 2024. Employing slat wood for your kitchen cabinets or a feature wall instantly transforms the space into one with depth and character. Inspired by Swedish interior design, slat wood panelling is a great way to make your space feel more chic and refined.

Check out our blog on slat wall interior inspiration!

More curves

Using curves in your kitchen can create a more relaxing atmosphere by inserting balance and harmony into the activity hub of your home. Curves are mostly seen in the design of a kitchen island or cabinet corners but can also translate into other areas of your kitchen. Think of more subtle details such as a scallop tile splashback or curved accessories such as sphere light shades or round bar stools.

Curved 5G Kitchen

We hope you enjoyed reading this blog and feel inspired by some of these 2024 kitchen interior trends! Don’t forget to check out some of our other blogs.

Decorate Your Home for Christmas 2023

Decorate Your Home for Christmas 2023

Do you fancy a change in your Christmas decor this year and looking for some inspiration? We’ve written this blog to give you a few new ideas for decorating your home from Christmas 2023.

Metallic Accents

The holiday season is perfect for embracing the glitz and glam of metallic accents. Gold and silver have always been used around Christmas time but brass and chrome accents are in for Christmas 2023 and have the power to stay in trend well into 2024. The key is to choose accessories that can be interchanged with other seasons’ styles. For example, a brass vase can be used for holly now and swapped out for blossoms in the spring.

Christmas dinner table with metallic decor. Beautiful served table with decorations, candles and lanterns. Living room decorated with lights and Christmas tree.

Jewel Tone Colours

The traditional reds and greens of Christmas are around every year, but this year we are looking at more jewel-inspired colours. Deeper tones such as emerald green, regal purple and ruby red. Think of it as a more luxurious revamp of usual Christmas colours, providing a rich and sophisticated contrast to bright and jolly decor.

A cozy living room draped in plush fabrics in red and forest green with golden accents

Handmade Decorations

In contrast to the rich, luxurious theme of metallic accents and jewel colours, handmade decorations can add a personal touch to your home. Creating handmade decorations can be a fun family activity for the holiday season and is also good for the environment to upcycle and reuse objects. We’ve all tried paper snowflakes but other, more complex ornaments can be homemade. These ideas below make use of natural objects such as pine cones, as well as upcycled wallpaper or even scrabble pieces!

homemade christmas ornaments, two diy ornaments made of pineconeshomemade christmas ornaments, diy upcycled wallpaper ornaments with red stringhomemade christmas ornaments, let it snow ornament made of scrabble tiles

We hope you enjoyed this blog and feel inspired to mix up your decor this year! Be sure to check out our other blogs for more inspiration and tips.

 

Create a Cosy Living Room

Create a Cosy Living Room

With the weather getting colder and the days getting shorter, you might be thinking about preparing your home for winter. One of the best things you can do to make your home feel warmer (aside from central heating) is to create a cosy atmosphere through your interior design and accessories. The living room is at the centre of most homes, so in this blog, we’ll go through some tips and ideas for how to create a cosy living room ready for winter!

Use a warm colour palette

One of the quickest ways to transform your living room into a warmer and cosier space is to use a warm colour palette. Warm colours have been shown to have the psychological ability to cheer us up and make us feel more comfortable. Rich and deep colours, such as burnt oranges, deep reds and earthy tones are in trend this Autumn and work really well to create a warm atmosphere in your home. Warm tones of blue, containing hints of red, or warm greens with hints of gold can also give your room a snug feel if you’re not a fan of red or orange.

Repainting your walls or large furniture is the best way to create an impact but for a quicker fix, you could just swap out some smaller accessories and furniture items for warmer colours. Check out our door replacement service for a quick and easy way to transform your existing furniture.

Layered thick and soft textures

Another fun way to create a cosy atmosphere in your living room is to layer soft textures and thick materials. The most common way to do this is to use thick blankets and fluffy pillows on a textured sofa or seating area. This could also be achieved by using rugs layered on carpet and decorating with art made from fabric materials, such as macrame.

Layers of soft furnishings are perfect for bringing a cosy living room vibe, but can also help you to balance your patterns with plains and keep your interior looking modern. Read our guide to adding texture to your home.

Top 10 Gallery Walls Inspiration

Create a gallery wall

If you don’t have the time or budget for a full revamp of your living room, you can get clever with wall decor to create a cosy atmosphere. Create a gallery wall using your favourite framed pictures and art prints to add depth and interest to your living room. Filling your wall with imagery will remove the empty space that makes a room feel more spacious therefore creating a cosier vibe. This would also work by creating decorative shelving displaying objects such as books, sculptures and candles. However, you shouldn’t overdo with it decorative items, as your living room will feel cluttered and make it hard to relax.

Use seasonal scents

Scents have been shown to trigger feelings and add to an atmosphere so can be used to add a sensory experience in our home. Why not add some seasonal scents to your living room to create a warm and cosy atmosphere? Winter-warming smells typically include spices such as cinnamon and nutmeg or sandalwood. A popular way to add scents to your home is to use wax burners, candles or reed diffusers that can visually create a homely atmosphere as well as fill the room with a scent.

Cozy Living Room: Tips for Creating a Relaxing and Comfortable Gathering Area - Melanie Jade Design

Choose soft lighting

Lighting is one of the most important elements of creating a cosy living room atmosphere. A harsh white spotlight can immediately ruin an otherwise cosy interior, whereas a warm, dimmed light can help to accentuate a cosy atmosphere. Prioritising table lamps or floor lamps instead of overhead lighting helps to create a more close and homely atmosphere. By creating small areas of warm light you can illuminate certain areas for a function such as a reading corner or a coffee table, rather than brightening the whole room unnecessarily. Another option is to use candlelight and lanterns to create an even more cosy ambience.

 

We hope you enjoyed this blog and feel inspired to mix up your living room interior to create a more cosy atmosphere. If you are looking to read more, take a look at our blog about how to make your bedroom feel warmer leading up to winter.

 

Slat Wall Interior Inspiration

Slat Wall Interior Inspiration

Slat wall panels are a great way to introduce contemporary Scandinavian design into your home and they can be used in any room. The natural wood finishes give a bespoke hand-crafted look whilst creating a modern structure that will balance out a minimalistic room. Wooden Slat Walls create a big impact and look like they have taken a long time to construct, however, they are actually quite simple and easy to assemble.

In this blog, we’ll look at some interior design inspiration for using wall slats in the rooms of your house.

Living Room

A wood slat wall can be used to create a cosy and stylish atmosphere. A popular choice for living rooms, the texture of wood slats creates the perfect sleek backdrop for your seating area and can help you separate areas such as a dining area and lounge area.

Hallway / Entrance Room

Adding a slat wall to your hallway or entrance provides immediate impact when stepping inside your house. A linear layout will help you heighten the visual impact while highlighting a specific area, such as alcove seating or decorative furniture. 

Bathroom

Morning rituals and evening routines are important for mental and physical health, so it’s important to look after your bathroom space. Adding a sleek slat wall will create a luxurious spa-like feeling in your bathroom and help you to wind down at night.

Bedroom

Slat walls can be installed as an alternative to a headboard to draw attention to your bed and give it a hotel-worthy makeover. The slats can be matched to your other furniture or used as a contrasting centre piece. Natural wood textures and a biophilic theme have been shown to help create a calm atmosphere, perfect for sleeping.

If you feel inspired by this blog and like the look of any of these ideas, get in touch to find out more information about our slat walls! Also make sure to check out our other blog posts for more interior design inspiration.

Add Art Deco Design to Your Home

Add Art Deco Design to Your Home

The Art Deco design movement originated in France just over a century ago and influenced everything from interiors to cars to architecture. Recognisable elements of Art Deco design are abstract geometric patterns, vibrant contrasting colours, mirrored panels and stylized imagery of figures, plants and animals.

In recent years, the Art Deco style has remerged into the interior design world and is constantly being re-interpreted and combined with other styles. In this blog, we’ll take you through some key elements of Art Deco in interior design and suggest how you can add Art Deco design to your home.

 

Striking Colours & Bold Contrasts

Art Deco design is defined by vibrant colours and dramatic contrasts. Highly saturated jewel colours such as red, green and blue, are used frequently. Silver, black and gold metallics create rich and glamourous accents. This rich combination is then contrasted and balanced out with more subtle pastel and neutral tones, such as beige and cream.

To add an Art Deco colour scheme to your home, choose dramatic contrasting colours. Start by choosing one or two bright colours; teal green and red or dark blue and orange work well together to create interesting contrasts. Then select gold, silver and/or black for your metallic accessories, and finally pick a neutral pastel colour to balance out the palette

 

Geometric Patterns & Shapes

Art Deco patterns are quite distinguishable, usually made up of geometric shapes, tightly repeated patterns and emphasised vertical lines. Often depicting motifs such as animals, flowers, arches, feathers and fans in a bold line style.

You can make an impact with Art Deco patterns in your home by using patterned wallpapers or geometric tiled flooring. If you prefer a more subtle effect, you could try patterned pillows, art prints or light fixtures.

Art Deco interior in classic style with pink sofa and table

 

The stylised motifs used in Art Deco patterns are also utilised to inspire sculptural furniture and accessory shapes. Sculptures and other works of art were abundant throughout the Art Deco period, so it will complement your theme to add a sculpture or two for decoration. If you have a bigger budget, you could introduce sculptural furniture; curved sofas and waterfall-style consoles create a luxury Art Deco presence.

Art Deco-style lighting is a prominent accessory that can transform your space. Usually, large chandeliers or geometric-shaped pendants are fashioned from steel, polished bronze and glass, often coloured to create a stained-glass effect.

Reflective Surfaces

High gloss surfaces and reflective materials are another important element of the Art Deco style. The rich shine of a lacquered table, a decorative mirror wall or high gloss furniture creates a glamorous and luxurious atmosphere, perfect for an Art Deco interior. Glossy surfaces can be overwhelming so they are more commonly used as accessories or smaller furniture pieces and balanced with patterns or less glossy surfaces.

To add these to your home interior, choose glossy furniture finishes, mirrored tables or metallic accents. Metallics, in particular, have risen in popularity in recent years, so there is an abundance of options when it comes to metallic accessories and furnishings.

Luxury kitchen in art deco style with golden, black and white colours

 

Luxurious Materials

The luxurious feel of the Art Deco style lends itself to working with other elegant and unexpected materials. Interesting wood textures, velvet, crystals, animal prints and marble have all been used to compliment an Art Deco theme.

These materials can be used for large furniture pieces such as a marble worktop or a velvet sofa. Or for a more subtle and budget-friendly option, luxurious accessories such as velvet cushions, crystal decor or marble vases work well.

 

We hope you have enjoyed reading this blog and feel inspired to introduce the Art Deco style into your home. Make sure to check out our other blog posts and get inspired by more interior design styles!