French antiques should evoke warmth and casualness with the gorgeous country elegance of the french country side. These elements are so well blended that you probably will not recognize each element of style individually.This beautiful style represents the farming life of the peasants of France. It later became popular with the middle income earners. In summing up French Country Style furniture, you may say it is a blending of furniture designs from various eras. However, the lines are much more simplistic, the woods more durable and the overall color is lighter.

Country French antique furniture consisted both the sophisticated furniture made in Paris for the royalty, aristocrats and the rich upper bourgeoisie on one hand, and French provincial furniture made in towns that retained the local cultural identity. All French antique furniture is renowned for its refinement and rich materials and fetches premium prices in auctions.

There was a revolution in the eighteenth and nineteenth century manufacturing industries. The pieces of French furniture to gain popularity during these times were tables, commodes, armoires and chandeliers. French antique furniture can be broadly divided into Renaissance, Baroque, Rococo, Classical revival, rustic and modern periods. French antique decor consider antique French jars, candle sticks, ceramic urns and vases, colorful canisters, rustic pottery. Other decorative accessories includes, clocks, spice racks, bread baskets, wicker baskets for storing fresh produce, copper or wrought iron pot racks and pots.

Country French antiques had a highly developed art of wood carving with a distinctive and ornamental decorations that represent unique Renaissance period. This can be contrasted to the Italian antique furniture that contained more delicate and intricate lace.

Country French antiques may be considered a fantastic option. They are an assemblage of many antique styles, have interesting history, and are ideal for family life. Tables for the kitchen, hutches, and armoires are classic French Country Style items. Due to its history and broad family appeal, French Country antique is a popular choice amongst persons seeking home-style antique furniture.

Photo Frames

Framed photos of a child from a trip, travel, school or any association, are an excellent motive for decorating walls of the kid's room. When such photos appear in this frame, they will make a children's room more colorful and childish. For selection of colors and motifs, always consult your child; he/she is the only one who will enjoy this ornament.

Very often the subject of the wall in every home, is precisely the wall rack. In the kid's room wall racks are desirable because of hanging wardrobe, especially school bags or clothing. In the same time, your child learns about neatness. These coat racks can be very imaginative and decorative, beautiful colors and motifs.

Wall clock is an important home decor product in child's life who attending the school. Child then needs to learn to interpret the position of the clockwise in order to know when to go to classes. It is important to choose a child wall clock that will be clearly printed numbers. Also, it is a perfect wall decor in the kid's room.

The wall lamp is a very necessary addition to every head of the child's bed as well. It's the most required when you get up at night to drink a glass of water or go to the toilet, and this gentle light feels good especially when small children are afraid to sleep alone. Colorful wall lamp with custom nursery design will be great decoration on the wall.

Wallpaper with scenes from fairy tales, the heroes of cartoons, games, sports and the world in general are interesting to children. It's a beautiful wall decoration in each kid's room.

1. What do you want it to be? If you want your home to be a tranquil oasis in a busy world, are your colors soothing or do they shout? If you want a fun place for friends to gather, do you have plenty of seating?

2. What are your main hobbies and activities? What do you need for these activities? For instance, if you have a collection that you work on often, get storage containers for it that can be easily opened or put away. If it’s a lot of trouble to get at your collection, you either won’t spend the time on it, or else might be tempted to leave it out and risk losing or breaking certain pieces.

3. Who will be using the space? How many people will be living there? What ages? It’s important for every person to have a space that’s their own. Whether it’s a special chair, couch, desk or a section of a room, everyone needs ‘their space’. If you’re planning to do video aerobics, you’ll need room to move around in front of the TV!

4. What about your things? It’s easy to become very messy if things don’t have a place. A small filing cabinet is a must for many people – it’s a great place to store all the papers that you don’t know what to do with!

5. How much do you really need? Too much furniture makes a room seem crowded. The bare essentials are a couch and chair, a table and chairs for eating, a bed and place for your clothes. After that, think hard about what you need or don’t need. Will you really use that computer desk – or would you rather sit on the couch with a laptop?

6. Think about the traffic flow. You want to be able to walk anywhere in the room without bumping into furniture. Try drawing furniture placement on paper as a first step.

7. Pick a focal point. What do you want to see when your first walk in the room? If you have nice windows with great lighting, are you emphasizing it? Everyone feels brighter in sunshine.

8. Think about order and organization. Do you bring home work every day, or mail, or sports equipment? Where will you put it? A large bowl or box near the front door is a great place to drop mail until you go through it later.

9. Take advantage of free expert advice. Every store and every product line employs professional designers to put furniture and accessories together. If you’re unsure of your decorating skills, pick a design you like. Study how they did it either by looking through a catalogue or going to a store. It’s all there assembled and displayed for you. If you like the look, simply do what they’ve done!

If you live in a place that doesn’t allow many changes, it doesn’t mean you can’t show your personality. Check with your local stores and you can find many items that you can creatively incorporate into your apartment.

A redesign of the Kitchen/Gathering Room provides ample space for food prep, breakfast bar and casual lounging. Counters fabricated in iridescent flecked granite, backsplash in coordinating iridescent glass mosaic tile, floor in linoleum checkerboard pattern.

The master bedroom decorate using floral motif accents and plantation shutters, its create an interior garden atmosphere inside.

The master bathroom was redesigned as a luxurious home spa with double glass vessel sinks and wide countertop, oversized shower, and separate toilet room. Floors, walls and countertop in a combination of azul cielo marble and glass mosaic. Earthy and organic, with a deep color palette the Powder Room becomes a secluded refuge.

Designate aims to produce good quality, unique items at an affordable price ensuring both our distributors, and their customers, have a product to be proud of.

The husband & wife,Andy and Kirsty Field, have been trading since 2000 and produce a large range including small clocks, wall clocks, mirrors, blackboards, frames, and lamps.

Designate has been trading for ten years and their products have a unique, charmingly simple style using reclaimed timber, slate, vintage fabrics and buttons; every item is therefore unique as each element has been individually chosen and hand assembled. New products are often added to their in store range, but their best sellers are the heart and button clocks. They also sell, alongside their own pieces, lots of other craft based items such as cards and jewellery, all handmade in the UK.

It is difficult to define the reason for the popularity of Murano glass. It is probably the combination of innovative techniques, centuries of tradition and superb craftsmanship that is so unique Murano.

Although there are many glass artists in Murano producing beautiful venetian glass objects, there is a common thread that makes Murano glass easily recognizable, even today, when Murano glass makers are adapting to the modern styles and market demands.

The tradition of producing magnificent glass objects was cultivated and protected by Venetian glass making families through centuries and for a long time, new techniques and the ways to produce different kinds of glass were kept as family secrets. In time, techniques, together with Murano glass artists, left the island and slowly conquered the world.

Today, there are glass artists all over the world who produce unique glass art following the Venetian glass tradition. Technology made it possible for glass artists to copy many of the Murano glass making techniques. Artists are using new technologies to make new types of glass, using their own unique artistic sensibilities, but are still proud to call themselves Murano glass artists. Many glass artists from different countries still consider the time spent in Murano, learning the ancient techniques, as the privilege and high learning.

It is not only the ancient techniques that the modern artists are bringing from Murano to the world. It is also a way of working in a team, using old tools, still unsurpassed by modern technology, to create the magic and transform simple sand into exquisite art objects. Modern glass artists consider time spent in Murano to learn the traditional glass making techniques as part of their advanced studies.

One of the secrets of success of Venetian glass making art is in its adaptability. The artists were constantly looking for more interesting ways of forming glass and the new ways to express their talents. In the 15th century, Murano glass artist Angelo Barovier invented 'cristallo', totally transparent glass never seen before.

Angelo Barovier Iridato figure Barovier & Toso Italy, 1954
$4,000.00 - $6,000.00

The same century produced ghiaccio (ice glass) with crackled surface, and incalmo, two different colors of glass fused together. In the 17th century Murano glass artists came up with aventurine – clear glass imbedded with gold, shimmering particles. It was the same century that produced now famous millefiori (thousand flowers), a technique that most people today identify with Venetian glass.

The competition with Bohemian glass artists in the 18th century inspired Murano glass makers to come up with techniques like enamel-painted glass and milk glass. They also started working with crystal glass and gilded mirrors.

Murano still has thriving glass making industry and Venetian glass artists are proud to follow the ancient tradition. Some of them are following their own artistic path, others are answering the demands of the market for cheaper, smaller glass objects affordable to the majority of people. Whether you have a museum-quality piece of old Murano glass or a necklace bought online, the Murano tradition and artistic integrity will always be the recognizable part of it.

The only significant influence surrounding the plot is the adjacent par three golf course. The plot is completely flat and there is no physical limit between the golf course and its northeastern border, resulting in a magnificent view which also coincides with the best sun orientation.

The internal regulation of the Country Club, including a strict limitation to the buildable area and its limits regarding the neighboring buildings, generates a very large urban sprawl with lots of space between houses. This results in large green open spaces, enabling you to connect with the natural surroundings, a characteristic not common in other suburban developments such as this one. On the other hand; these same characteristics, combined with the client’s desire to use the maximum area allowed, often result in a very compact rectangular volume, sometimes dull and devoid of expression.

This is the main reason why most of the houses in this neighborhood tend to concentrate on the outer spaces (so common in this type of climate) by using lightweight structures attached to the main volume, thus compromising their own formal logic.

Bedrooms and bathrooms occupy an L-shaped floor-plate on the first floor, enabling ground floor living areas to be double-height. The clay brick used is sourced from nearby town Chacabuco.

These strong factors, existent in a design most of the houses within this area, are taken as the principal ideas for their project design. They chose to exteriorize the volume, instead of hiding it, exploiting all of its possibilities.

Apply different articulation mechanisms to create a variation of spatial relations between the different factors present in the projects program. They slice the volume horizontally dividing the daily functions from the private ones. Then they cut, rotate and translate the lower walls so as to gain contact with the exterior at ground level, without giving away the required privacy. Everything seems to have been created in order to give a monolithic character to the house. The pieces of furniture were carefully chosen and in harmony with the interior. The building itself seems to be a perfect geometric shape, a rectangle which fits perfectly in the page it was drown.

Awarded the 2011 Recent Work Prize by the Central Architects Society of Argentina.

With metallic paints you get translucency, depth and shimmer. And with the shift away from fluorescent lighting to more use of incandescent and halogen, the metallic surfaces sparkle. It’s “in.” It’s “cool.” It’s “hot.”

Silver and Platinum

For a light metallic effect, choose silver or platinum metallic paint. Lighter shades of these hues reflect light and work well when balanced with darker-toned wood furniture and flooring. Dark tones of silver and platinum pair well with sleek black lacquer furniture and modern accessories. These metallic shades work as a neutral backdrop in design and pair easily with jewel tones, as well as deep shades of burgundy, forest green and brick. When used in a kitchen environment, silver and platinum coordinate well with black granite countertops and stainless steel appliances. Use these shades judiciously as trim or on one wall to create a visual focal point.

Taupes

Opt for a neutral metallic taupe shade for the ultimate neutral setting. Paint walls with an almost matte metallic taupe for a soft sheen and to warm up a space. Matte metallic paints are just one level below a satin finish and, while still metallic in nature, are not overwhelming. Pair taupe with navy for contrast or soft tones of cream and beige for a monochromatic effect. Rich, velvet upholstered furniture carries on the soft effect of taupe and creates an elegant decor. Satin pillows, potted green plants and textural wall hangings finish the look.

Copper or Bronze

Copper and bronze are rich-toned neutrals and fashion a cozy, warm decor. Combine these metallic finishes with rustic, vintage furniture and cool colors, such as turquoise or aqua. Blues in varying shades give contrast and life to copper and bronze. Lime-green tones work well with copper or bronze and can be brought into decor with accents--such as plants, pottery or upholstery. Muted red tones provide complementary color to create a unified look. Peach tones are also suitable for use with copper and bronze, especially when decorating a bedroom. Pair soft peach-toned bedding with metallic copper or bronze walls for a relaxing, cohesive color palette.

What environments, locations and applications are ideal for metallic paints? If you talk to enough people, you’ll find there really isn’t any limit. But there are some things to consider — and the primary things really come down to cost. Metallic coatings aren’t cheap. You can “maximize the impact for the money spent for this product by using it in very visible, important areas, such as lobby areas and specialty spaces.

In the bathroom modern silhouette bath gives a touch of light sculpture. Modern and stylish furniture gives a beautiful blend with dark wood of the barn.

The kitchen is very simple and modern look; two walls made of marble mosaic. Mechanical systems, electrical and data warehouse was updated but the appearance and structure remain. The old staircase remains of the warehouse is one of the centerpieces.

The fireplace in the living room is made of steel but it looks like it’s very old. Modern and stylish furniture gives a wonderful mixture with old wood of the barn. The kitchen is very simple and looks modern; two walls are made of mosaic marble. In the bathroom the modern silhouette of the bath gives a light sculptural touch.

The furniture for the bedroom was taken in the local shop, it’s handcrafted but the designers painted it ebony black to get a modern touch. There is even a guest house where traditional style is mixed with contemporary. Could you think that an old barn can become such a fantastic living space?

Choosing Furniture

Once you're well into adulthood, it's likely that you have a mish-mash of furnishings that you've acquired throughout the years. So, you might want to consider sending the outdated furniture to a new home. That college futon or the fiberboard dresser you needed your dad to help you assemble probably don't represent your style anymore, but someone else can surely use them.

Many experts will recommend that you splurge on something you really love and fill in the gaps around it with less expensive pieces. But there are certain pieces that you don't want to skimp on -- couches and beds, for example. Expensive furniture doesn't mean it's the best, so you don't have to break the bank to find your style.

There are many middle-of-the-road furnishings on the market that get high marks in craftsmanship and comfort. But furniture stores aren't the only way to find the pieces you love. A trip to the flea market or local secondhand furniture store may yield the coffee table of your dreams. Repurposing a side-of-the-road find can not only be a fulfilling project, but it can also give you a unique piece that represents you. As they say, one gal's junk is another chick's treasure.

Furniture Placement

Before buying, you'll want to take a long look around the room that you're shopping for. Good flow in a room is a big key to comfort, and this means having plenty of space to move around in while you're living your life. You'll want to plan furniture placement with appropriate amounts of open space to allow traffic to move comfortably within it. It's helpful to live in a space for a little while to figure out how you use it, and take into consideration that a family of five requires a wider berth than a couple with no children. If you want an Eastern philosophy, grab a book about feng shui and use that to help you plan your layout.

If spatial planning isn't your thing, find a room in a magazine that makes you feel good, and try to mimic it. Keep in mind that scale of furniture is important. You may really want the king bed and matching bedroom suite, but a small master bedroom may better accommodate queen-sized proportions. And don't forget to factor in plenty of storage. A cluttered environment translates to a frenzied brain.

Choosing Colors

Color is an important factor for each room, and it's important to choose colors that fit the use of the room and put you at ease. Blues are cool and calming and can be good choices for a room where you want to relax, like your bedroom or living room.

Yellow is bright and cheery and complements a room where work needs to get done, like a kitchen or an office. Accessories like throw pillows and rugs can bring pops of color into a room without overwhelming your senses.

There is also what he calls the “penultimate” Hollywood view, for which you have to go up the stairs to the master bedroom. Be careful: Moby’s one rule is no shoes on the rug. O.K., now plop down on the rumpled bed. Looking through the window straight ahead, you can see the canyon fall to the Hollywood Reservoir; to your right and up the hill is the famous Hollywood sign. If he were a Hollywood producer and wanted to impress some actress, Moby says, he’d use that view.

Has he had the opportunity to impress anyone here so far?

“I had a date, which ended up making out under the view of the Hollywood sign, but nothing too crazy,” says Moby, who is so slight as to be almost as much of a caricature as the drawing on his gray T-shirt. Make that a caricature in pencil. I don’t fit in here? No problem. Rub me out. I work alone a lot of the time anyway. In appearance, Moby is either Jules Feiffer’s illegitimate son, or he was drawn by him.

But back to the view from the bed and that date. How’s that relationship going?

“At present, it’s ambiguous. Back in my drinking days, I used to be a little more promiscuous, but now in sobriety, I’m like a nun.” A quick correction: “A monk.”

It is a heck of an impressive view, he is told; it should have had some effect.

“She came from a very wealthy background,” Moby says. (Anyway, what fellow wishes his appeal to be property based?) “Hopefully she was impressed by my wit and character.”

Not so long ago, Moby, a musician and composer Billboard once named “The King of Techno,” was the hippest of downtown guys, running a teahouse/vegetarian cafe on his Lower East Side home turf, where he sometimes stopped in to wait tables, headlining at the Bowery Ballroom and going on about soy milk (well, he still talks about soy milk).

But now, while he keeps a small apartment in Little Italy, he has moved to Los Angeles, to a castle on three acres with a stone wall, a Disney-esque gatehouse and a kidney-shaped pool.

Called Wolf’s Lair after its first owner, L. Milton Wolf, a real estate developer, it is a house with old Hollywood flourishes that Norma Desmond would embrace. On the hill overlooking the castle, mounted on a tall pole, is a lamp shaped like a crescent moon, so there will always be the reflection of a moon in the pool, a perfect example of 1920s Hollywood romance. I’ll buy you the moon, baby.

Moby paid just under $4 million for the house last year and estimates he has put another $2 million into its restoration.

For an alternative-music guy, Moby, 45, has been doing very well. He has sold 5 million albums and 2 million digital tracks, according to Nielsen SoundScan (his music has been used extensively in soundtracks and commercials), and he has a new album, “Destroyed,” out next month. Written while he was touring, “Destroyed” is “broken-down electronic music for empty cities at 2 a.m.,” he says, and indeed the music has an echoing, futuristic loneliness.

Moby decided to move to Los Angeles for a number of reasons: New York is so expensive that many of his interesting, creative friends have had to leave; the winters; and that more difficult thing from which to remove oneself, the winter of the soul. The techno musician turns out to have a more debauched past than his persona suggests.

“I stopped drinking a few years ago, and I got to say that the cold and nastiness of New York in February was a lot easier to handle when I was a crazy drunk,” he says. “If you’re hung over when it’s sleeting outside and 40 degrees, it doesn’t seem so bad.”

Are we talking alcoholism here, A.A. kind of stuff?

“A.A. we’re not allowed to talk about, but yeah,” Moby says.

What made him stop?

“Simply the consequence of being hung over 48 hours after being drunk for six hours,” he says. “It didn’t used to be that way when I was in my 20s. I could stay up till 7 being drunk, and the hangover lasted for two hours. In my 40s, the hangovers lasted for days, and they were debilitating and soul-destroying. I simply had to stop.”

IF one were to tell a life story through the houses one has lived in, Moby’s would be particularly rich. A descendant of Herman Melville whose real name is Richard Melville-Hall, he was born in Harlem, when his father was a graduate student at Columbia.

Moby and his mother moved into her prosperous family’s Connecticut home when his father, whom she was divorcing, died driving drunk. His mother, who died of lung cancer 13 years ago, was a sometime secretary and devoted hippie. In 1969, she took him to live in San Francisco.

“My first memory — I don’t want to malign my mother, I can almost see her in heaven slapping her head and saying ‘Couldn’t you say nice things?’ — my first memory is her putting me in this ghetto day care so she could take drugs with her friends,” he says, laughing. “My second memory was her and her friends getting really high and sneaking me into X-rated movies.”

A few years later Moby and his mother moved back to Connecticut, living sometimes with her parents in their “perfect suburban” center hall colonial house in Darien, and at other times on their own, in grungier, darker places.

“We were dirt-poor white trash in arguably the wealthiest white town in the country,” Moby says. “I was on food stamps until I was 18 and became an adult.”

Their homes included a one-bedroom over a garage and a suburban house turned crash pad. “That was basically a mid-’70s drug den,” he says, “where her first boyfriend was a Hell’s Angel and her second boyfriend was a crazy drug addict who played pedal steel in a country-western bar band.”

When his friends’ parents came to pick him up for sleepovers at their homes, Moby would give them the address of a nice house.

He became interested in music in high school, when he started going to clubs in New York. At 19, after forming his own band and working as a D.J. at a club, he moved into his own place, in an abandoned factory in Stamford, Conn.

“It had no running water and no bathroom, but there was free electricity so I could make music, and I was really happy,” he says, adding: “I didn’t have any romantic life. For some reason, I had a hard time finding a girl who was interested in dating a man who lived in a crack neighborhood with no bathroom and no shower.”

In 1986, he moved to Lower Manhattan, where he lived in a series of colorful dumps. There was the tiny two-bedroom on Mott Street owned by a crack addict, and the apartment down the block in a building that had been a Civil War prison.

As the money started rolling in, he started buying extravagant properties. In 2005, he bought four floors of an Upper West Side building for $4.5 million, but got “really lonely” and sold the apartment a few years later, moving back downtown.

In 2003, he bought a 9,000-square-foot house overlooking the Hudson River in Kent Cliffs, about an hour north of Manhattan. “It wasn’t a home,” he says. “It was just, I don’t know, a weird degenerate country house. I built a disco in it. It was a great place for 30 people to have a drunken weekend, but it was not such a great place for one person to be there by himself.”

He was drinking at this point?

“Oh, boy, yeah, that was the whole reason I had the house,” Moby says. “I could go up there for the weekend with friends and just have a whole bunch of lost weekends.”

And all these years we thought he was a clean-living vegetarian with an ascetic life.

“The vegetarian part is true, and I work in an ascetic way, but for a good 15 years in New York, I was sort of tragically notorious for always being the last person to leave the bar,” he says. “And sometimes inviting everybody in the bar back to my house at 4 in the morning. At one point, I had been at the Mars Bar, and I invited everyone at 4 in the morning back to my house. And at 6 or 7, I had to pee and there were three complete strangers smoking crack in my bathroom. And that is when I realized inviting people back to my house at 4 in the morning was not such a good idea.”

The enormous country house was not such a good idea, either.

“It was huge,” Moby says. “It rambled on when I was there by myself. I felt like Orson Welles at the end of ‘Citizen Kane.’

“And this is not a joke, this is not hyperbole — when I renovated the place in Kent, I made the most beautiful bedroom I had ever seen: 1,500 square feet, walls of glass facing north, south, east, 10 beautiful skylights. And I have never had worse insomnia than when I stayed there. So for the last six months that I had that house, I put my mattress in the closet and I slept in the closet. The closet was dark. The problem with the big wall of glass, the sun would come up just as I was trying to go to sleep.”

He sold the house four years ago. Last year, looking at houses in the Hollywood Hills, he glanced across Beachwood Canyon and saw “this crazy shining castle.” The price had dropped 50 percent. He went to see it and, as he says, fell in love.

The castle needed major work. The roof leaked. The living room walls had been painted a dark gray, the floors had been painted black, the wall above the Gothic fireplace was covered in shells and there was what Moby calls “a low-rent country kitchen from 1979 with strange terra cotta tiles that were ugly to begin with.” He wanted a restoration, not a renovation.

“I basically went through the house and found all the original details from the ’20s and tried to renovate the house around all the original architectural elements,” he says, which meant getting rid of “everything from 1945 on.”

The guest house remodeled by the Frank Lloyd Wright protégé John Lautner in 1961 was exempt from this edict. Moby hired the Los Angeles architecture and design firm of Tim Barber to redo the roof, the kitchen, the plumbing and the wiring, and to replace all the windows and add three bathrooms to the main house. He also plans to turn the tiki barroom into an invitation-only magic theater.

The talk turns to his new album, which he wrote while touring, and to the book of photos accompanying it. They’re lonely images: deserted cities in the middle of the night, empty tunnels, an office building at 4 a.m. when the cleaning crew has turned on the fluorescent lights.

It’s odd that someone who finds beauty in these stark, dehumanized places has chosen to live in what seems like the opposite, a fairy tale castle, Moby is told.

“It’s also, in large part, the opposite of the houses I lived in growing up, which were very small and dark,” he says. “Basically, a Freudian in their first three days of school would be able to figure out the psychological impetus, which is creating or moving into the idea that I dreamed of when I was a poor kid.”

All he needs now, to go with the castle, is a lady.

“I concur,” Moby says. “Well, I disagree. That is not all I need. I need dogs. A house filled with dogs and a smart, funny, kind, loving girlfriend or wife. It’s terrifying, but actually it seems like a really nice idea.”

Clarence House has been in the royal family real estate portfolio for decades. From 1953 to 2002, the four-story mansion was home to the Queen Mother and home to Queen Elizabeth until her coronation. It now serves as the official residence of the Prince of Wales and Duchess of Cornwall, as well as home to princes William and Harry.

The royal home was designed by John Nash and built in 1825. After the death of the Queen Mother in 2003, the house underwent an extensive renovation, where most of the rooms were redecorated by interior designer Robert Kime.

The decor does have a distinct Victorian style, but that’s to be expected from a place that was Queen Victoria’s house. Can’t wait to see what Kate does with it!

In the living room, the sofa is built in modules that can be turned to face the terrace in the summertime, or the kitchen in the winter.

The reading corner can be turned into an extra bed. Schonning designed the leather poufs himself, and made the cushions from an Ikea carpet. Under the concrete slab there is room for wood, books and newspapers.

In the tiny sleeping loft is platform bed with two drawers beneath it. In place of wallpaper, Schonning enlarged a photograph he snapped in Rio de Janeiro. The inset spotlights and a small shelf at the end of the bed offer light and additional storage.

Back downstairs, the kitchen occupies a long wall. The stainless steel worktop was so long—more than 16 feet—that it had to be lifted in through the window.

The fiberglass kitchen table is from Habitat. The Tolix galvanized steel chairs were designed by Xavier Pauchard. A rattan lamp from Gervasoni hangs from the ceiling. Pots of elk horn bracken sit on the windowsill.

The shelf over the sink is made from wood scraps from an old jetty. It's lined with glass on the top and bottom, to better reflect light and show off the objects Schonning has arranged on it.

In the office, a Granit filing cabinet stashes supplies and papers, and a bulletin board does double-duty as a 'mood board,' tracking Schonning's inspirations. The back of the desk runs all the way to the floor, concealing the inevitable tangle of cords.

Black tiles and fittings lend the bathroom a dramatic look. The black bathtub is made of recycled plastic. In the bathroom, wooden shelves in front of the window screen the room from public view, and provide added storage.

The apartment's built-in closets are deep and have mirrors on one side. Spotlights set flush overhead provide light and also allow the maximum amount of storage, all the way to the ceiling.

You’ll need to make one major decision right away when you opt for tropical theme decorating ideas. Do you prefer a serene white beach house look, a tropical chic style, or a colorful beach shack feel? If you want the beach house look, you’ll want to paint your walls white. You may also want to whitewash your wooden floor.

However, if you opt to leave the floors alone, the rich brown of a dark wood floor can provide a nice contrast to all that white. For tropical chic rooms, try tan, soft green, or pale gold colors on the walls. If you decide that you want a more colorful look, choose sunny yellow, vibrant blue, or rich green tones for your walls. Flooring should be a light colored wood or tile. If your current floor isn’t quite right and you don‘t want to lay a new floor, try covering it with a large woven rug.

Furnishings are very similar for all of the tropical style décor options. Look for pieces that are large and comfortable. Oversize, well cushioned rattan chairs and an iron or rattan chaise lounge covered in soft, overstuffed cushions will look great in a living room or a sitting room area in your master bedroom. Wicker, bamboo and richly colored mahogany pieces also look wonderful with this theme.

As you move on to accessories for your tropical interior décor, you’ll need to really keep the type of décor you want in mind. A tropical beach house room may have a lovely chenille throw, shells in a bowl and candles scattered around, but tiger prints will be non-existent. A Tropical chic room will have items with a rain forest or jungle feel, such as throw pillows with a palm tree motif and a table with a carved elephant base. That beach shack room may have a driftwood lamp or several quirky Hawaiian themed accessories.

To finish your room, you’ll need to take a look at the windows. A tropical paradise has plenty of sunshine and billowy sheer curtains to help you take advantage of all that glorious light. While your home probably doesn’t have quite as much light, you can still use sheer curtains as your window treatments. However, if, like anyone who lives in a tropical paradise, you sometimes want a little less light, you’ll want to install wooden blinds or shutters along with the curtains.

The Buckingham Palace speaks for itself. Indoor, outdoor it is an eye-thrilling show. Everything is Royal custom made.

With excitement building for the royal wedding of William and Kate, all things English will be seen and heard in the next week or two. Don’t you just love a good royal wedding?

They don’t come around too often, but I’m always enthralled with all the pomp and circumstance the English embrace so beautifully. Most of us don’t often see a wedding of this magnitude but we can live vicariously through the “telly”...

William and Catherine official wedding china from Old Durham Road, English Country Living

The African Safari theme conveys a mood which is overwhelmingly attractive, with its abstract and organic works of art, mixed with rugged timber furnishings and fine fabrics, creating a seamless blend of the natural along with the luxurious.

Colors

Earthy tones such as browns, rusts, golds and burnt oranges are predominant throughout African safari decorating, with fabrics and pottery offered in a wide range of patterns and colors to complement any decorating style. Fabric embroidered threads are often colored with plum, yellow, red, brown and black, and are made from local plant dyes, creating the beautiful color palette so popular in the African motif.

Color schemes tend to mimic the scenery of the African region itself, with savanna golden browns and deep reds worn by local tribes. Furnishing your home with island antiques from different periods of history, decorating in traditional color schemes such as periwinkle blues and jade greens with influences from the sea, purples and pinks reminiscent of breathtaking sunrises and sunsets, all evoke the splendor of the land.

Furniture and Fabrics

Safari-oriented furniture can come in a variety of different flavors, and is often adorned with various different animal hides, including leather, leopard spots, zebra stripes or tiger skin. Traditional hand-painted fabrics, woven wools and cotton textiles serve to complete an impressive look.

Another favorite option in African safari decorating is the traditional rattan and bamboo, used in chairs, sofas and tables, with scattered cushions in bright African prints and designs.

African fabrics come in a wide array of weaves, textures, colors and designs with vibrant geometrics and bold golden accents. These unique textiles often repeat a single symbol, representing security and continuity, as well as meaningful proverbs or historical events.

Particularly popular and unique to African safari decorating is mud cloth (made from dye out of fermented mud), which is cloth decorated in colorful patterns, or may picture such things as African tribal dancers, local animals and flora. African decor also offers appliqued cloths and embroidered velvets used to decorate furniture and bedding.

For an authentic Safari inspired theme, add down-filled quilts and mosquito netting atop a four-poster bed. Bed linens and cushion covers made of cotton lace, painted fabrics from adorning cushions and upholstery, all will serve to complete the effect.

Plants and Accessories

African Raffia, palm trees, and of course, bamboo are a must in this style. Adding to that, red roses, croton, Nandi flame, Lamu and other indigenous trees including jacaranda, frangipani, avocado, banana and grevillea palms enhance any African decor.

With roots firmly engrained in rituals and tradition dating back eons, accessories found in the African safari decorating theme link us back countless years throughout the ages.

There are many options to choose from in this theme, from African tribal designs to deep forest safari decor, and below are some ideas to help get you started.

- African wall hangings, such as masks, animal skins, or hand-forged copper works

- Colorful and patterned African fabrics on pillows, bed spreads and as wall hangings

- Leather trunks and crafts

- African candleholders, matchstick and incense holders

- Leopard, Tiger and Zebra print rugs and furniture throws

- Stained glass bottles

- African tribal designs displayed through masks, drums and spears

- Wooden fruit and water bowls

- Animal figurines and statues of giraffes, elephants, monkeys, zebras, cheetahs, leopards and tigers

- Ivory horns

- Candles depicting animal skins of zebras and tigers

- Palms and other leafy plants potted in African styled pottery

- Bamboo vases

- Colorful palm weaved Zulu baskets

- Persian rugs

Lighting

In African safari decorating, dining tables are nicely warmed by adding a beautiful iron candelabra as well as rustic hurricane lamps. Plain or ornate wall sconces placed indoors, on verandas or courtyards, offer a soft and inviting glow.

Pendant lamps fashioned after unique Kenya fish traps, animated animals, skin print lampshades, or pineapple-based lamps, all convey the Safari ambience without ever having to leave the comfort of your own home.