Tag Archives: brown tones

Design Inspiration – Coffee

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Interior designers, and clothing designers, often find inspiration from things that are totally unrelated to homes and fashion. Colors, shapes, images and ideas can lead to unique design thinking.

In this week’s blogs, we’re going to take a look at three different types of design inspiration and how they turn into room designs. By the way, this week’s blogs were inspired by the kind words of one of our subscribers in Winnipeg, Canada.

This designer chose the photo of a steaming cup of coffee shown to the left as the basis for creating several hotel rooms. With a limited budget, he was still able to make an impact. The colors reflect the rich brown of the coffee beans with the flooring. The walls and bedding are represented by the warm light browns and creams of the stoneware coffee cup and saucer.

The designer also used the shapes of the steam rising from the coffee cup as an inspiration for the curving wall murals in each room. The furniture also curves to coordinate with the rounded cup as well as the oval mirror shaped to resemble the top of the cup in the photo. Even the chair looks like a cylindrical coffee mug missing the handle.

Although there is no actual image of the photo in either of the rooms, if you have the opportunity to compare them, the source of inspiration is clear.

What else would you add to this room to make the coffee imagery stronger? How about a jar filled with coffee beans or a do-it-yourself small coffeemaker?

Take the time to look at photos on the Internet. Do any of them inspire you to design your own space?

Beautiful Browns in the Bedroom

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You might shy away from browns in the bedroom thinking they are too dark or dramatic. Layering shades of brown can create a warm, soothing bedroom that feels like a sanctuary.  This bedroom demonstrates that you can layer several shades of brown in the bedroom and create a beautiful room.

 

The carved wood furniture sets the tone for this bedroom. The tall headboard set into a nook is the focal point of the room. The heavy wood furniture has a beautiful rich wood tone.  Working from this warm wood, the table lamps are done in shades of brown that play off the furniture. Keeping the walls a light color keeps the room from feeling too dark. You could also play off the richness of the furniture’s wood and go darker on the walls for a much more masculine look to the room. Deeper wall colors would create a cozy feeling in the space.

 

Light walls lead your eye up to the tray ceiling where the center is painted a warm taupe. Bringing a darker color onto the tray draws your eye up to the architectural detail. The warm taupe color also ties in with the wood floor as it is a similar shade.

 

It would be nice to see more accessories in this room. Framed artwork on the wall above the nightstands would help balance out the large headboard. Window treatments that tied in with the wood of the bed or the colors of the bed linens would give a finished look to the room.