Modern Interior Design Blog – Just Seen

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We all know the four basic elements: earth, air, fire, and water. For a subtle and intriguging design theme, try incorporating these elements into your desgin, creating an interior space that balances the elements and building blocks of life.

Earth

Though we love earth-toned fabrics, for this design theme, we suggest pushing the limits and bringing some actual earth into your design. The Cube Planter from Push + Pull available at Emmo Home juxtaposes hard concrete walls with softer colored glass inserts. The planter is perfect for holding a plant, but can also be used for a candle (to give you fire lovers an extra fire fix).

Air

Incorporating air can be the most challenging of the elements, as can finding an attractive fan, but the Propello fan by Black+Blum solves both these concerns while adding an air-iness to any interior. The fan features rubber blades that allow it to operate without a guard. A high quality motor makes the Propello virtually silent, adding air without a sound.

Fire

To add fire to your design, incorporate unique candelabras such as the Spin Candelabra from Tom Dixon available at Context. This arms of this cast iron candelabra spin and move through varying angles, allowing it to take on various shapes. Because the Spin Candelabra can fit candles ranging from tea lights to tall candles, the opportunities to turn up the heat with fire are endless.

Water

Let water bring a cool fluidity to your design with Aruliden’s Fishscape Fish Bowl available at A+R. This Red Dot award winning design is made of handblown glass. The fish bowl could also double as the earth element because it features an internal mountain range and can be used as a terrarium.

The new year has arrived, and with the dawning of 2013 comes a new design trend forecast. InsideSeen has explored blogs, newspapers, magazines, and our other industry design sources near and far to give you the ultimate inside scoop on the latest design trends for 2013.

Patterns

Whether it’s classic florals, stripes, or animal prints patterns will be everywhere in 2013. Building on the popular pattern clashing trend that has taken the fashion world by storm of late, interior design trends in 2013 will follow suite. The trick to this trade? Clash but don’t crash, pick an underlying theme to your pattern clashes, such as color, and be sure to incorporate solids to give the eye a place to rest amidst the array of bold patterns.

Wall Art

With art fairs popping up in more major cities, art is becoming more available to the masses. Art can be the focal point of a room or can set the tone and fade into the background. Of course, always buy pieces that you love, but also try to focus on key design elements: color, line, texture, and light, which can be easily incorporated into your overarching design aesthetic.

Metallic Touches

Metallic touches, specifically in brass, bronze, and gold will be bringing a homey glow and an elegant touch into your interior designs this year. Incorporate metallics with classic pieces like lamps or mirrors, or add an air of whimsy with more eccentric pieces.

Hot Colors

Red, blue, and yellow primary colors will be balanced with green inspired by Pantone’s declaration that the emerald is the color of the year. Incorporate these colors into your designs as wall colors or with furniture, fabric, and wall art.

To keep up on trends shop FurnitureSeen, Accessory Seen, and FabricSeen today!

Rugs, rugs, every where! Though they don’t cover as much space as the water from Coleridge’s famous poem, rugs are a staple for any room. Whether they are acting as a finishing touch or are the inspiration for a newly designed interior, these home accessories are an essential design staple.

One of the InsideSeen design team’s favorite rugs is the Vera indoor outdoor rug by Pappelina available at Viesso. With a focus on simplicity, quality, and function Pappelina designs products made for the modern home. Their collection is centered around the plastic rug and a weaving technique that dates back to 1948. Though this unique product was almost lost, Pappelina renewed it and made it popular.

The Vera rug uses PVC-plastic and polyester-warp to give it ultimate durability and cleanability. Easy to maintain and friendly on the feet, the rug comes in a variety of bright color options and can be used outdoors or to add a pop of color to a kitchen or bathroom.

Ligne Roset’s Pan Pan Decorative Rabbit and Pan Pan Table  are a  little something out of the ordinary, a rabbit integrated right into the table top and his larger buddy, a free standing decorative object. Both pieces were designed by Barbara Kuehne-Thompson, whose background is similarly intriguing.  She left the United States for Vietnam at the age of 24. While there, she met Swiss entreprenuer and founder of Wetter Indochine, Michel Kuehne. Together they have managed to combine the skills of Vietnamese artisans with creative design to “…transform the pure forms of nature, bringing them into the home in a subtle, elegant way…” @ Linea

Flower Loop by Black + Blum was reportedly inspired by the Fibonacci Curve, you know that series of numbers that accounts for so many of the spiraling shapes that occur in nature… Well, in any case, the vase is pretty and simple. Executed in free flowing wire with a chromed finish, the vase is equipped with a water tube  that is concealed inside. Consider linking several Flower Loops together for a greater impact.

 London based Black + Blum is an Anglo-Swiss design consultancy that ventured out to develop their own product line. Seems is was a good decision as their modern accessories  line continues to grow.

Available through Emmo Home @ $36.00 each.

Decorative Pillows that have broken the mold – designs with themes that are edgey. Mean Street by Lovegrove & Repucchi is more of an artwork, an observation. While Green Octopus Boudoir Pillow by Ige Design features a nature-inspired theme, the execution in materials that are in stark contrast to the subject give it that extra edge – after all, who expects an octopus to be rendered in rich velvet and gold embossing? Jonathan Adler also hits us with the unexpected by pairing buttons and tassels with a handgun in Collage 22 Pillow – that one caught me a little off guard. I love the idea of using these pillows with their more traditional cousins. Check out a great selection of pillows from many designers and showrooms.

Re-design, re-creation and re-invention are not easy – but that is the challenge for designer Susanna Kost who works with many repeat clients. Often projects require rethinking the client’s original collections and furnishings, with an eye towards simplfying.

Kost believes “Rooms should leave space for the occupant’s personality…for candles, flowers and music and party guests…” Rooms should celebrate the client’s personality, which can be complicated.

One of her favorite quotes is from Jean Cocteau “Style is a simple way of saying complicated things”. Kost uses art, collections and accessories in rotating combinations to keep a room fresh. Her feeling is that rooms that do not evolve, become stale.

So how is style expressed without becoming cluttered or overdone? According to Kost, restraint and careful editing aka controlled exuberance. Displaying collections allows each piece to retain its importance and yet the whole becomes greater than the sum of its parts.

Current passions? “My current passion is metallic anything – I love reflection”. The wall panels in this library are finished with a metallic automotive paint (the backdrop for a rotating art collection), under a mirrored ceiling and furnished with metallic pink leather chairs. “The shimmer in the night with candles is spectacular”.

How to describe her work? Kost loves to combine divergent styles in what may be described as uber-eclectic. She has completed projects that she labels “The Jetsons meets LA Confidential” and “Mid-Century meets Cribs”. Currently she is working on her own home which looks to be moving in the direction of “Zen-Glam” – think hemp, metalic gold, Asian antiques.

See more from Susanna Kost.

When I attend a design show, its usually in some sort of a non-descript hall, so one of the things I most look forward to is, well – design. What can be done with a trade show booth? One of the most interesting I saw at dwell ON DESIGN in LA was this installation of Clouds by Ligne Roset. Erwan & Ronan Bouroullec follow a recent trend towards additive design. Each of these fabric tiles is connected to the other via a sort of high-design rubber band. The design allows that tiles to hold 2 or 3 dimensional shapes, depending on how you utlize the scored fabric tiles. Designed to be used as a room divider or art installation, the gigantic Cloud installation at dwell ON DESIGN certainly caught our eye.