Dornob | Design Ideas Daily

Perfect Strangers: Townhouse Proves Opposites Attract

Posted: 09 Feb 2012 08:00 AM PST

[ Filed under Various Rooms & in the Interiors category ]

When planning the perfect interior, having solid structural bones is a great start…but it only gets you so far. After that, you’ve got to use your own instincts, tastes and budget to create something spectacular.

Swedish interior designer Marie Olsson Nylander created this exceptional interior by renovating a 1970s townhouse (featuring a spiral staircase to die for) and making it truly wonderful.

One of the most important elements at play here is the use of textures. The layering of a diverse range of textures and colors adds not only visual interest, but tactile interest as well.

The place looks almost as though it was meant to be photographed. But unlike some other picture-perfect homes, it looks equally comfortable and entirely livable.

The stark white is broken up with unexpected and playful pops of bright color, while the rustic wood textures are perfectly offset with lush velvets, smooth linens and patterned metal lattices.

Ample natural light from the huge window at one end of the loft certainly helps to keep the home looking comfortable and airy. But when the sun goes down, there is an almost dizzying array of lighting fixtures to make the space glow.

Somehow, even the storage area manages to look wonderfully interesting – as though it’s just inviting you to come and run your hand along all of the treasures lovingly stashed on the shelves.

Nylander’s incredible creation just goes to show that designing around a central theme is not a necessity.

Grouping similar objects together has its place in design – but an eclectic mash-up of modern, vintage, rustic, sleek, ethnic and whatever else you happen to love can be just as lovely and even more visually striking.

Keep Going - Check out this Great Related Dornob Article:

Attractive Opposites: Extreme Black & White Interior Design

Secret Rooms: Cool New Condo Hidden in Old Townhouse

[ Filed under Various Rooms & in the Interiors category ]

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Unboring Advertising: Ikea’s Surprisingly Stylish Catalog Art

Posted: 08 Feb 2012 02:00 PM PST

[ Filed under More & in the Installation Art category ]

If you are lucky enough to live within shopping distance of an Ikea, you probably wait anxiously for every new catalog. The Swedish brand takes as much care with the layouts in their wish books as they do with the modern designs of their products.

These Ikea catalog shots from photographer Carl Kleiner are almost more art than product photography. As one of the company’s previous slogans said, this is “unböring.”

After carefully arranging the sets of dinnerware and kitchen accessories on tabletops, Kleiner photographed the tableaux from above.

The colors and shapes are so deliberately laid out and intricately counterbalanced that the images invite more than the passing glance usually reserved for advertisements.

The very neat, organized and stylish layouts are so symmetric and perfectly laid out that they resemble installation art as much as they do enticing photos of covetable objects.