GUEST POST: Beauty Lies in Simplicity

Beauty Lies in Simplicity

This is a guest post contributed by Eva Stephen.

The well-known saying “Less is more” can sometimes be a wonderful guide to people looking for ideas on how to decorate or remodel their home. There’s some charm in over-stuffed rooms, full of interesting details, especially if they are exotic. However, simplicity brings beauty and grace to a home that no crowded space can match.

Positive aspects of simple solutions

If you are not a big fan of loud, shocking colours, elaborate decorations on walls and ceilings, unusual furniture and making sure no corner remains empty, you’ll enjoy the positive aspects of simple décor. Minimalistic style:

• brings out the beauty of your home’s architecture
• makes your home look more spacious and elegant
• makes it much easier to keep your house clean and tidy
• has a calming effect on the house’s inhabitants

What’s lovely about minimalistic homes owners is their love for plants. Plants are usually that lively, colourful “detail” that interrupts the sheer simplicity and brings out the house’s beauty.

 Trend Decoration Via

Colours that spell out elegance and style

When decorating walls, there are many factors to consider: the purpose of the room, how many windows it has, how big it is, how you want to feel in it. Teenagers and older people will no doubt want different things from their surroundings.

When going for a simple style in your home, you’ll want your eyes to rest on soothing colours: earthy tones, different shades of brown and cream, peach, very light green, or simply white. Different rooms can have different wall paint, to match the furniture appropriately, but they should all have a soothing effect.

Children’s room is probably the happiest, most colourful room in the house, so even when you want to keep it simple and toned down, the yellow, orange, baby blue and bright green are definitely allowed in the play room.

If you decide on the white throughout, make sure you put up some nice photos, quality paintings or similar details that will open up your home, and not make it look sterile.

In healthy surroundings, healthy body

People who lead messy, disorganized lives often don’t eat properly and have problems with their weight. It’s well known that people who pay attention to how they make and serve food are healthier.

 Jeannies Kitchen Via

You should not eat standing up, hurrying on to some other task, or plopped down on a sofa, watching TV. Food should be eaten at a tidy table in a pleasant atmosphere. Most happy events, whether private or business, are celebrated during a meal, which is why a great amount of care should be given to dining room decoration.

Many people, especially women, are very interested in how their kitchen is decorated. The bigger, more spacious and brighter it is, the easier it is to spend hours in it. Don’t clutter the kitchen with unnecessary elements, but maximize its space and potential putting only what’s necessary in it.

Shop 4 Furniture Via

Beauty and simplicity go together

Another reason to go for the minimalist style in your home is - it is less likely you’ll do a bad job decorating this way. When you clutter your home with many things, the chances are higher some of these things will not look good together. You don’t want your house to look distasteful, but you do want it to be pleasant to live in and beautiful. Keep it simple and you’ll love it.

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Thank you Eva for this lovely article

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Too much Contrast

Although I like clear lines and a minimalistic decoration in a room depending where it is and what the surroundings are, I find this one to contain too much contrast. In tropical landscapes you have plenty of light and the abundance of vegetation often needs a counterpart of simplicity. In this case though the contrast is too harsh in my opinion and the placement of the two additional colour spots increases the contrast even

This could easily be softened by different artwork above the bed such as this wall hanging and the silkcarving on the opposite wall.

The wall hanging above the bed is an art quilt made entirely of silk and handquilted with silk. The small wall hanging on the opposite wall is a silk carving, also made of silk and hand stitched with silk. Both have been painted with silk dyes and metallic pigments.

"Apsaras"
52" x 69", silk art quilt
©Petra Voegtle

You can read more about this art quilt here. There are also more detail photos to see.

 

"Apsara"
( from the Angkor's Faces series)
silk carving, 14" x 14"
©Petra Voegtle

The above silk carving has been mounted on stretcher bars and is ready to be hung with or without additional frame.

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The Colour White is the Colour of Purity...

I am not a friend of pure whites simply because I am a colour person (please see my other blog Blooms and Blossoms - that's all about colour!)
But there are people who love these pure whites and of course I can only attempt to stay within the rules with this painting on the wall which is called - no joke - White Wall and belongs to the series Reminiscences, which is about the painted walls of the old Olmypic Student Village in Munich which has been torn down last year for re-construction (please see photo series if you like).
More details of this painting can be seen here.

original image source from http://www.housetohome.co.uk

"White Wall"
(from the Reminiscences series)
acrylic, 26" x 18"
©Petra Voegtle

An opulent silk Art Quilt in a Designer's Living Room

There are a lot of people who do prefer the minimalist interior of their home. Whether it's an overall aversion against all kinds of ornamentation, a longing for being trendy (whatever that might mean) or simply someone with a love for straight "things" without any curlicues - there is a demand out there for the pure. The problem is that these kinds of rooms often appear cold, repellent and even hostile. The solution for this is to offer at least one counterpiece.
What I mean with this, is this example. A room furnished with only the basics and then a piece of art on the wall that seems to be quite the contrary: opulent and decorative. But in this context it does not change the demand for a reduced interieur at all but it offers a place for the eyes to rest on and feel comfortable.

For details of the art quilt Golden Nymph click here

original image source from http://www.modernes-interieur.de