Birds provide endless inspiration for creating beautiful designs with the intricate patterns, colors, and textures of their feathers!
In my article Birds of a Feather- What Birds Can Teach Us About Designing the Perfect Room, I shared some ideas for one of those flat lays inspired by realistic photo art of Pintail duck and eagle feathers. I designed a room with a calm and earthy feeling that reminds me of being in the forest using the feather art and colors of nature.
Flat lay and Edesign by Northern Lights Home Staging and Design
Edesign by Northern Lights Home Staging and Design
This second flat lay, to me, evoked a much more glamorous style and feeling, like a cross between Modern Global Style and Hollywood Glam.
Flat lay and Edesign by Northern Lights Home Staging and Design.
I am not sure what bird the feathers in the photo came from, but the art is less realistic and more stylized. The black and gold color combination felt very luxurious, and like a great place to add a variety of metallic finishes.
The natural theme of bird feathers still evoked a sense of nature, inviting wood, stone, and natural materials such as velvet, leather, and cotton. I selected green, which is a wonderful color of nature, for the fabrics and added plants.
I decided to create a living room, that was dark and moody, with black or deep chocolate walls, and lots of different gold-tone metals. Dramatic lighting enhances the art and brings out the shine of the various brass and gold-toned lights and accessories.
Instead of the photo in the flat lay, I found several other art prints of feathers in black and gold that I used as inspiration.
I could see this combination in a living room, master bedroom, master bathroom, or powder room. How about you?
I decided to try a living room. A flat lay can first evolve into a drawing or floor plan to get a feel for how the room will work spatially.
Edesign by Northern Lights Home Staging and Design.
To get the feeling of drama and glamour, I decided to try the idea of a black wall. I love it! It beautifully highlights the feather art and sets off the beautiful greens in the furniture. Of course, lighting, strategically placed and lots of it, is important when using black.
Edesign by Northern Lights Home Staging and Design. Edesign by Northern Lights Home Staging and Design. Edesign by Northern Lights Home Staging and Design.
For variety, I tried a textured light-colored wallpaper similar in color to the feathers to give the room a more light and airy feeling. I think I like the black better for a glamorous feeling.
Edesign by Northern Lights Home Staging and Design.
And here is it in a shade of off-white. While still pretty, I like the black walls best, and the feeling of dimension the textured wallpaper gives over the white walls. How about you?
The moral of this flat lay tale is that you can use natural elements like bird feathers to inspire glamorous, dramatic, modern, and sleek designs while still bringing the outdoors in. And, don’t be scared to use black!
Bird feathers can inspire many design styles. Look for my next article on the design for my third flat lay inspired by bird feathers.
Are You Ready to Create Your Perfect Space?
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I Learned to Solve All My Interior Design Problems by Dancing-Distractions Ruin Everything
Essential Elements for a Beautiful Stage or Design.
Recently I took a dance class called From Practice to Professional Presentation with professional dancer and instructor Helia Bandeh.
This class discussed essential elements to create a beautiful stage or background to highlight your dance performance on a stage or video. She discussed decor, lighting, and costumes.
So many things related to creating your perfect space with Interior Design! This article focuses on decor.
Some critical factors related to set decoration included:
The dancer is part of the stage environment. There needs to be a visual balance between the dancer and the background. Consider how the dancer looks compared to the background based on the colors she is wearing, how large or small she appears compared to the background, or how interesting she might be in context. For example, if you are dancing in front of the Taj Mahal, will people be looking at you or the building?
Eliminate visual disparity between the dance and the background. For example, don’t perform a dance about a love story in a Catholic Church with the cross behind the dancer. A background in nature would be more appropriate.
Interactive elementsin the decor add dimension to the performance (such as a chair or flowers).
Removing distracting elements is more important than adding supporting elements. If you are doing a Persian dance on a stage filled with chords, speakers, signs, and more, adding some Persian decorations only makes it worse, not better. It is essential to neutralize the stage and removing unneeded things first, then add decoration if it highlights the dance. Otherwise, the audience looks at everything, not just the dancer, and in essence, sees nothing but distractions.
Simorgh performing an Azeri Drum Dance at the AlAska Shriners in Anchorage.
For example, above, we are performing an Azeri Drum Dance. The room is brightly lit. The stage decor is permanently set up with a design specific to the Alaska Shriners. The background also has flags and other decorative items unrelated to the dance we are doing. The background colors do not go with our costumes and the lights do not highlight the dancers.
While the stage itself is pretty, there are a lot of distracting elements for the audience to look at that have nothing to do with, and do not enhance the dance performance.
By contrast, below I am performing a Qashqai scarf dance on a beautiful stage that perfectly shows off my dance, costume, and the scarves with it’s simplicity, colors and lighting.
Me performing a Qashqai Scarf Dance in Anchorage Alaska on a beautiful stage, perfectly set up to highlight the dancers.
How Does This Relate to Interior Design?
All these things relate, but in particular, this is key to creating a beautiful room.
Removing distracting elements is more important than adding supporting elements.
The more time goes by, I realize the connections between all things artistic. The same principles apply to making the magic happen in Interior Design or any other art form. You just need to open your eyes, listen, and feel it to notice.
It always seems to come back to the alignment between art (creativity), science (color), and energy (connection) that makes the magic happen. I use this alignment to create both beautiful dance pieces and interiors.
Creating a Magical Stage
Let’s look at the three elements in stage design that help create a beautiful performance and see how they relate to that room you are designing.
We are Part of the Design
We are part of the design of our rooms and need to consider how we look and feel within them.
For example, if navy blue makes me look old when I wear it, but I look beautiful in turquoise, I will not design my living room with navy blue because I will not look good surrounded by that color. And if I don’t look good, I will not feel good in the room.
Think about how you will look and feel in the room. After all, when you are in it, you will be the star of that show.
We are part of the design. Does it make you look good? Photo by Jens Lidner on Unsplash. We are part of the design. Does it make you look good? Photo by TheWonderAlice on Unsplash.
Eliminate Visual Disparity
Eliminating visual disparity is important. What is your personality and story? Are you being true to it and does it fit with the architecture of the building?
For example, are you a maximalist that loves to be surrounded by lots of things and color, creating that style in an ultra-modern space?
Or, are you trying to create an ultra-modern look in an ornate Victorian living room? The contrast might be interesting, but can you live with that visual disparity every day?
Some may call this eclectic, but even eclectic styles need a balance with one primary style.
There needs to be a connection between the architecture, style, and story you are portraying. Otherwise, it will always be distracting to the viewer.
Interacting with Your Design Elements
In design, we interact with almost all the elements in our spaces. It is critical to make sure elements such as furniture and decor are comfortable, support how we live, are beautiful to us, and there is not too much of it!
Do you enjoy interacting with everything, and like the touch, feel, smell, and comfort of your decor items?
Do you enjoy the touch, feel, smell, and comfort of your decor items? Photo by Matthew Henry on Unsplash. Do you enjoy the touch, feel, smell, and comfort of your decor items? Photo by Johnathon Fink on Unsplash. Do you enjoy the touch, feel, smell, and comfort of your decor items? Photo by Gemma Evans on Unsplash.
Removing Distractions is More Important than Adding Supporting Details
Removing distracting elements is more important than adding supporting details, which will make or break a room.
If you have a room filled with clutter and distracting things, no amount of adding more of your favorite decorative elements such as art or pillows or knick-nacks will fix the problem.
The most important thing is to neutralize the “stage” and eliminate all the unnecessary elements first. Then begin adding layers until you have created the effect you want. Otherwise, you and everyone else using the room will only see the distraction
Its better to remove distractions than add more decor when creating a beautiful room. Photo by Ayla Verschueren on Unsplash.
Neutralize First
The first step in creating a beautiful stage or a room is to neutralize it first by removing distractions. Once that is done, then you can add meaningful decor items to create the perfect background for your performance or your perfect space.
A problem I often see, is when people have too many distractions in their room, usually in the form of clutter. The room may also have too much decor or furniture. They think that adding beautiful decor items will fix the problem, and create the look they want.
It does not work.
The key is remove the distractions first, then add decor to get the look you want.
In the example below the focal point of the room is the art. To make it stand out as much as possible, the rest of the room was designed with neutral colors.
In a similar way, a neutral background on a stage could highlight a dancer in a purple dress and her beautiful movements without distractions.
Edesign and “A Passion for Purple” fractal art by Northern Lights Home Staging and Design.
This design highlights my fractal art, “A Passion for Purple” which you can purchase at my studio on Society 6.
Before you start decorating, take everything out of the room you really don’t need, neutralize things as much as possible and then add on your layers.
Its better to remove distractions than add more decor when creating a beautiful room. Photo by Samantha Gades on Unsplash.
Learn More
To learn more, see some other articles in this series:
Now that you know some of the elements that work together to create your perfect space, are you ready to take action to make it happen in your home? If you knew absolutely for certain that creating a perfect space would create a better life for you, you would do it, wouldn’t you?
Let’s tell your unique story and find the alignment of art, science, and energy that makes you happy. Let me help you take that trip to your perfect space in a Ferrari instead of a stagecoach. Try my Aligned Design consultation and let’s get started.
Curious about your Interior Design style? Take the quiz and find out.
Create an Exotic Global Style Living Room with a Gorgeous Blue Rug
Bohemian style celebrates warm earthy colors, metals and jewel tones. Bohemian decor often uses deep browns, greens, grays or other neutral colors for base colors, then accessorizes with saturated purple, fiery orange, and electric blue and other jewel tones.
Bohemian style lovers are often carefree, dislike rules and want to follow their heart’s desire!
Do you like vintage furniture and light fixtures, globally inspired textiles and rugs, and love displaying your collections of cool things found at markets. thrift stores and in your travels?
I bet you like glamorous fabrics, lighting and accessories with well-worn items, antiques or cool pieces from other styles. Anything goes if it makes you happy. More is more!
Bohemian style is a global design style. Global styles are all about your worldly adventures and telling your story! They are usually very colorful, rich in bold designs and natural textures, patterns, colors, and arts and crafts of various cultures.
Get the Look and Celebrate Your Favorite Color- Blue!
A great way to get the look of Bohemian style is with a beautiful area rug. It can become a focal point for your room and help guide the color scheme and your choices for accents and accessories such as throw pillows, art, lighting, and more.
Celebrate your favorite color by picking a rug that highlights it and build the rest of your room around the work of art you picked for your floor.
One of my favorite colors is blue, so here are some examples of my favorite blue Bohemian or global style rugs.
My Favorite Blue Global Style Rugs
I changed the look of the following living room by changing the rug and sometimes the paint color. See how the room changes its look and feeling just by changing the pattern of the rug and shades of blue in the room, while still using the same art, furniture and accessories.
CRAIL AREA RUG
I love the colors and the abstract modern watercolor design of this rug.
Edesign by Northern Lights Home Staging and Design
BARN AREA RUG
This rug has a Transitional, Bohemian, Vintage vibe.
Edesign by Northern Lights Home Staging and Design
THOUSANDSTICKS AREA RUG
Love the rich teal colors in this Bohemian, Vintage rug made in Turkey.
Edesign by Northern Lights Home Staging and Design
BEVERLY AREA RUG
Love the colors and the textured look of this more contemporary design.
Edesign by Northern Lights Home Staging and Design
KENMARE AREA RUG
One of my favorites, I just love the design and colors of this Bohemian, Vintage rug.
Edesign by Northern Lights Home Staging and Design
And for those of you a little scared of so much color, you can still get your blue fix with the rugs, furnishings and art and go neutral on the walls.
Edesign by Northern Lights Home Staging and Design
LIMESTONE AREA RUG
I love the vintage look of this area rug, and it is a great rug if you love darker blues.
Edesign by Northern Lights Home Staging and Design
KAI Area Rug
Here is a beautiful Bohemian-style rug that you could use with a dramatic blue room or a more neutral room. I have also used some of my fractal art, called Bioluminescence in this design.
Bohemian Style Living Room Edesign by Northern Lights Home Staging and Design. Bioluninescence Framed Fractal Art Print by Northern Lights Home Staging and Design. Bioluninescence #2 Framed Fractal Art Print by Northern Lights Home Staging and Design. Bioluninescence #3 Framed Fractal Art Print by Northern Lights Home Staging and Design. Edesign by Northern Lights Home Staging and Design
Let’s Create Your Global Style Design
Are you ready for your house to go to the next level where your house looks great, feels great, and supports you to be great?Imagine that.
What’s it like when you are living in the perfect space for you?
My philosophy of great Interior Design, which I call Aligned Design, considers three key factors; art, science and energy. The intersection of the three is where the magic happens.
Creating a space that envelops you in your vision of beauty and color, while fine-tuning the energy of your space to promote wealth, health, love, and perfect self-expression aligns you with the universe, allowing you to live your best life so you can make a positive impact on the world.
Global style Interior Design is part of the art of great design and one of the things you are really going to love about creating the perfect space for yourself. Are you ready to immerse yourself in rich beautiful colors and truly tell your story?
Curious about your Interior Design style? Take the quiz and find out.
Edesign by Northern Lights Home Staging and Design
