Interior Design inspirations by Indywiduum Design
Eclectic interior, exterior, and product design on a budget
| Festive season is coming up, so Christmas trees are again to grace our houses. Inspired by this, I wanted to share with you how we can enjoy the natural beuaty and dramatic impact of a tree in interiors the whole year round. | Święta za pasem, i niedługo chonki znów zagoszczą w naszych domach. Zainspirowana tym, chciałam podzielić się z Wami jak możemy cieszyć się naturalną urodą i dramatyzmem drzew w naszych wnętrzach przez cały rok. |
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Challenged by Julie from Most Wanted I created a moodboard with a selection of summer indoor/outdoor accessories from both high street and designer shops. All 10 of them for under £50 together!
The mix contains accessories from various shops, ranging from IKEA to Philippe Starck and Alessi. This just shows that with a bit of looking around (and helpful sale season!) we can add a bit of spark to any room, and on a tiny budget!
This set is designed to work perfectly for the summertime, and can be used both indoors, as well as for outdoor entertaining. Fresh and colourful!
Including, from the top:
– IKEA Superfin glass tealight holders, £0.39
– Argos Mimosa Cushion – Cream, £6.99
– Dwell Organic tubular vase, £13.95
– Homebase Mini Dried Bundles, £3.99
– Koziol, Bird napkin ring, £3.60
– Lux by Starck, Set of 6 Squares plates , £3.90
– Lux by Starck, Set of 10 Big cups, £2.70
– Cath Kidston, Spray Flowers Salt and Pepper Shakers, £3.50
– IKEA Legym 2-piece salad servers set, £0.99
– Ti – Coffee cup and saucer, Sentou Edition, £5.70
TOTAL: £45.71
I hope that inspires you to hunt for other summer bargains!
I have just found a very inspiring blog / company / person: Betsy Head runs Affordable Interior Design in New York and writes her blog here. I admire her a lot that she managed to turn into a business the idea that made me start the blog – design on any budget. Her portfolio presents very lively, colourful and eclectic spaces, and the shopping finds on her blog are absolutely spot-on.
Great stuff, Betsy, keep it up! I can only hope to one day run a similar company, though on the other side of the ocean 🙂
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Wlasnie znalazlam bardzo inspirujacy blog / firme / osobe: Betsy Head jest szefowa Affordable Interior Design w Nowym Jorku, a jej bloga poczytasz tu. Podziwiam ja bardzo za to ze udalo jej sie przeksztalcic w biznes ten pomysl ktory zainspirowal mnie do zaczecia tego bloga – dezajn niezaleznie od ceny. Jej porftolio pelne jest bardzo energetyzujacych, kolorowych i eklektycznych mieszkan, a sklepowe znaleziska na jej blogu trafiaja w dziesiatke.
Betsy, trzymaj tak dalej 🙂 Ja tylko moge miec nadzieje ze kiedys zaloze podobna firme, mimo ze po drugiej stronie oceanu 🙂
I don’t think I should even start apologizing for not being here for ages… so let us pretend those two months never happened 🙂
That would be difficult, though, as since the last post:
So this is a very exciting time for me and there is really lots going on. I am obviously going to share with you the ideas for the new flat, and can tell you straight away this is going to be tricky, as we want to finish the flat mostly remotely, and as of today there are only bare walls and windows there.
But! First things first, let me show you what we managed to do to our first flat around Christmas; we wanted to make it livable, so that it rents out quickly, on a budget of ca. £250:
I guess you’ve seen some of our bathroom, especially the cupboard hand-made by my husband; to our great anger and despair, the glass maker did not manage to do the doors on time so our shelves are still open, but the rest was good to go:
The bedroom, with the furniture set we got for free from a friend, a super-old retro ceiling lamp, and bits and pieces of decorating from my mum, with the only new element of the baroque-inspired white wallpaper to add just a teeny bit of glamour:
To complement the wallpaper, we have used a spare piece as wall art and put it in behind glass, all placed on an old shelf which I finished in a quasi-shabby-chic look. The throw also works the same theme as the wallpaper.
Now, the living room, and to be completely honest this is the most haphazardly finished room ever 🙂 One feature wall covered in beautiful black wallpaper… though since it was our first time ever wallpapering, the results are far from perfect! Good tip – when working with a dark wallpaper, it’s much easier if you dab the areas on the wall, where wallpaper pieces will meet, in paint the colour of the wallpaper; this way even if your work isn’t perfect, the gaps between stripes will not be as visible as on our wall.
The rest of the room is my parents’ old sofabed under a new throw, a red ceiling light which was supposed to be comlemented with red wall art though we never put it up (don’t ask), my teenage bedroom set, a good old piano, a spare single bed that can be put away depending on the needs of the tenants and an Ikea Lack table 🙂 Plus the really pretty blinds which unfortunately do not show too well in this light – basically when it’s light outside, they seem very pale and creamy grey, but when it’s dark, additional silver elements show as well.
Finally, the kitchen-diner, with the infamous kitchen units which never got properly fitted together (so that the worktop still floats independently of the units, there is no steel strip at the bottom and a millon other sins we committed with it and haven’t tried to make up for yet). Nonetheless we like the kitchen and maybe, some time, in the distant future, we will finally put it together once and for all 🙂 There is also an extra loveseat and armchair in the other part of the room.
…and our hall, unfortunately I have a photo only from the time when this ugly carpet was there (with the dog’s bone and toys prominently on display) so try not to notice them 🙂
So to sum up, this is certainly not the best example of interior design, but we tried to make the place nicer for the tenants than the usual offering but on a minimal budget, and the result was that we rented it out just a few days after we advertised it!
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Chyba nawet nie ma co zaczynac przepraszac za to ze mnie tu tak dlugo nie bylo, wiec moze zapomnijmy o tych dwoch miesiacach 🙂
Z drugiej strony byloby to trudne, gdyz od ostatniego postu:
Takze ten czas jest bardzo ekscytujacy i na pewno bede dzielic sie tu pomyslami na wykonczenie nowego mieszkania; juz teraz wiem ze nie bedzie to proste gdyz duzo chcemy wykonac lub zlecic ‘zdalnie’ z Londynu, a w tej chwili w mieszkaniu nie ma nic – stan deweloperski.
No ale! Zaczynac wypada od poczatku 🙂 wiec kilka slow o naszym pierwszym mieszkaniu. W okolicy Swiat Bozego Narodzenia postanowilismy zrobic ile mozemy w mieszkaniu by przygotowac je na wynajecie. Niestety czasu bylo malo a budzet juz zupelnie ograniczony (troche ponad 1tys. zl) wiec spedzilismy troche czasu wymyslajac co mozna zrobic by we w miare przyzwoitym stanie mieszkanie wynajac.
Zdjecia powyzej pokazuja rezultaty naszej walki z nieterminowymi sprzedawcami (czytaj: brak szklanych drzwi do szafek w lazience) i bardzo ograniczonym budzetem (czytaj: wykorzystanie naszych starych mebli, mebli ktore dostalismy od znajomych, odmalowanie kilku rzeczy, samodzielne kladzenie tapety ze skutkiem mieszanym – hej! robilismy to po raz pierwszy ok?? – i kilkoma drobnymi nowymi zakupami). Kilka rzeczy dalej nieskonczonych, typu kuchnia (caly czas nieprzykrecony blat i brak cokolow, nieoslonieta sciana i inne takie), te nieszczesne szafki w lazience (szklo to jedyne czego moj maz sam w tej lazience zrobic nie moze, i cholera tak nawalili 😦 ), oraz totalny misz-masz stylow i kolorow w duzym pokoju.
Zdecydowanie nie jest to przyklad swietnego designu ale biorac pod uwage ograniczenia czasowe i finansowe jestem w miare zadowolona z efektu, i obecni najemcy mam nadzieje tez.
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And finally, here they are – photos of what we’ve managed to do in our bathroom back home a month ago.
As you know / don’t know, we live in London in a rented flat, but our hearts – and our own flat – are still in Poland. We have never managed to finish it to the standard we wanted because we moved to the UK having just bought it and being able to do only the basics. Now every time we come back to visit our family, we try to add to it.
The next visit over Christmas will be even more important as we’re thinking about renting it out, and for that we need to finish at least the projects we’ve started, if not the whole place!
Our orange-cream-brown bathroom is actually the only room in the flat that more or less started coming together and is almost finished – it really is missing a few minor details (though my husband wouldn’t call it details…)
Below is what we’ve managed to complete last time – some embellishment around the mirror, and a tall cupboard for the much needed storage. I’m not going to show the whole bathroom yet – I’ll do that when we finally finish it off, but I can proudly say that the bathroom design and most of manual work have been done by my husband with a tiny bit of help from me.
Mosaic mirror frame
Actually, this decor has never been planned. We thought we’re going to have just an extension shelf over the mirror, on the same level as the top of the cupboard next to it. But then it turned out that we have some remnants of the panelling which we could use for the shelf. The only problem was that it was some milimeters shorter than the cupboard, which would result in the front of the shelf being a bit recessed in comparison to the cupboard, so the idea of having it at the same level for a sleek look would be lost. So we thought and thought… and then I came up with an idea of adding something decorative to the front of the shelf to disguise the difference in level, and we settled for some mosaic.
Obviously, there are many types of mosaic, and originally I thought we’d get the traditional glass mosaic. We also needed to make sure that the size of single tile (or two / three etc) is more or less the same height as the front of the shelf.
But after some strolling around the decorating shops, I saw this decor and I loved it! The original version was vertical (the size of the usual tile decor) so I broke it up into pieces, got rid of the supporting (and irritatingly difficult to remove) plastic frame beneath which normally holds the mosaics together for easy mounting on the wall, and used each separate tile as I wanted, making sure I don’t repeat the pattern much.
I mounted it onto the shelf using a standard all-purpose strong glue, and it worked very fast and was much easier to work with than the tile glue. Of course, be careful with this – you don’t want your fingers stuck together forever 🙂
…and after a moment of drying up, we were able to hang the shelf up!
Tall cupboard
This is another example of recycling what was already in the house. My parents have bought a set of furniture to my teenage bedroom ages ago; one cupboard had glass door. We thought we saw some stain on it, so we asked for replacement. The manufacturer duly resent the door, but never took the faulty one. In the meantime we decided the fault is almost unnoticeable, so haven’t even replaced the door. And so it lay for ages in the basement, which my husband noticed some time ago and had his plans for it 🙂
Even though I know how good a DIY-er he is, I was still surprised by what he managed to do in half a day (with some finishing touches the next day) – he has actually measured up, had the panels cut, finished the edges, and built a proper cupboard for our cupboard, nicely employing all colours from our bathroom’s scheme.
Even so, I can hardly survive having something so big in my house without me adding the teeniest bit to it… so I’ve decided to use the spare mosaic tiles to finish the door handles 🙂
So, that’s it for now. Going back now to choosing textiles for Christmas… hmmm maybe that’s a topic for my next post 🙂
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…and another two assignments behind me 🙂 Pretty tricky they were, and they left me covered in spattered paint! Why oh why can’t we use CAD on this course…
Anyway, below are a few rugs that I fell in love with when I discovered another interesting online shop: Kaleidoscope. They look absolutely gorgeous, very tactile and I am sure any guest at your house will want to touch them 🙂 and they are very affordable!
All rugs courtesy of Kaleidoscope.
I think I also promised you my DIY project some time ago… let me find the photos…
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…no i skonczylam kolejne dwa zadania do akademii, ktore byly dosc podchwytliwe i pozostawily mnie pokryta plamami po farbach! Ach, czemuz nie mozna uzywac zadnego CADa na tym kursie…
Tak poza tym, powyzej przedstawiam kilka strukturalnych dywanow w ktorych sie zakochalam, a znalazlam je przegladajac kolejny sklep internetowy Kaleidoscope. Sa nie tylko piekne, ale rowniez malo bolesne dla portfela, a do zaloze sie ze kazdy gosc w waszym domku bedzie je chcial poglaskac 🙂
Hmmm, czy ja kiedys nie obiecalam pokazac jaki projekt ostatnio poczynilismy z mezem w PL?… lece znalezc zdjecia…
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Another design for the yellow bedroom – all in all (together will wallpaper not shown) I managed to keep cost down to minimum, not compromising on looks or comfort. We’ll see what the clients will say (after getting a cleaner version). I used the ‘Meduza’ lamp I wrote about after my trip to Poland.
Since I’m dead and really need some sleep, that’s it for now 🙂
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Kolejna wersja zoltej sypialni – z uzyciem lampy Meduza o ktorej juz pisalam. Poniewaz padam ze zmeczenia, na dzis tyle, chetnie uslysze komentarze 🙂
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I’ve spent yesterday strolling around Regent Street and Oxford Street here in London – not really to buy anything but to have a look around, see new collections etc. I found a few nice wallpapers and fabrics in House of Fraser and ordered free samples (I might use it with my next assignment, part of which is to create a sample board). In Zara Home, nothing show-stopping this time.
…and then I went into Habitat and remembered why I love this shop so much 🙂 Seriously, I could live in one of their displays and would happily get anything from that place so if you are looking for a present for me, don’t hesitate anymore! :))
Ok, so here are some of the finds from this trip – and all of them under £100 – most of them well under!
First some lamps.
…And you won’t believe what they’ve done at the shop – they used around 20 of those candleholders in transparent glass, put LED lightbulbs in them and hung them upside-down from the ceiling at various heights, forming a very dramatic take on the bubble lamps we just discussed. What a view – shame I didn’t have my camera!
And now to coffee and side tables.
How can one not love Habitat?
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Chodzilam sobie wczoraj po Regent Street i Oxford Street, zbierajac probki tapet i materialow do mojego kolejnego zadania i rozgladajac sie za nowymi kolekcjami. Weszlam do Habitat… i od razu przypomnialam sobie dlaczego kocham ten sklep! Normalnie moglabym w nim zamieszkac, a jezeli ktos szuka dla mnie prezentu, to dylemat rozwiazany 🙂
Powyzej przedstawiam wczorajsze znaleziska w dwoch kategoriach – oswietlenie i stoliki. Zgodnie z moja idea ‘organiczonego budzetu’, wszystko, co pokazuje powyzej kosztuje do 100 funtow, a wiele z nich nawet sporo mniej.
Kilka typow? Industrialne klimaty zaprezentowane przez pierwsze lampy i stoliki; minimalistyczny ale bardzo kreatywny design w postaci kolejnych ‘skreconych’ lampek; wariacje na temat romantyzmu w kwiatowych swiatlach i drewnianym azurowym stoliku; niebanalny pomysl w szescianie Mr Woo bedacym i stolikiem, i swiatlem (swieci od wewnatrz), no i moj niesmiertelny Namber Lan – czyli zestaw trzech stolikow, za ich elastycznosc i lekkosc.
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I have always loved bubble lamps. They look so light, airy and magical – an absolute stunner in any space. The bubbles can be perfectly round, and the arrangement geometrically perfect, as here:
…or it can have slightly uneven bubbles and be more messy in arrangements, which makes them all the more natural-looking:
So imagine my excitement when I went to this Homebase-style shop in Poland and found this gorgeous chandelier:
I loved it, I checked the price, I could not believe it, I confirmed it with a shop assistant (as surprised as I was), and I bought it! Look how stunning it looks in this arrangement from a designer house:
Since it’s pretty long (80cm) and will probably end up over our bed.
Or the coffee table in the living room.
Or the dining table.
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… no, I’m definitely not one of those who never change plans for their interiors.
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Od dawna uwielbialam ‘babelkowe’ lampy. Te regularne, jak z dwoch pierwszych zdjec – ale jeszcze bardziej te z ‘niedoskonalymi’ kulkami wzmacniajacymi efekt recznego wykonania, do tego nierownomiernie rozlozone na plafonie z halogenami.
I, o niebiosa, znalazlam taka lampe w sklepie budowlanym – i to w takiej cenie ze musialam oczy przecierac, po czym szybciutko zlapalam za fraki pania sklepikarke ktora musiala sie wspiac na wieeeeelka drabine po moja lampe – no i jest 🙂 Zobaczcie jak pieknie wyglada w Domu Koncepcyjnym 2009 przedstawionym na Apartment Therapy!
Z powodu rozmiarow (az 80cm dlugosci) zawisnie pewnie nad lozkiem.
Albo nad stolikiem kawowym w salonie.
Lub tez nad stolem jadalnym.
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…nie, zdecydowanie nie jestem jedna z tych osob ktore nigdy nie zmieniaja planow wystroju swojego wnetrza.
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Further to my post about vintage, second-hand finds a few days ago, let me share with you what I found in shops on my Polish trip. You know I love a budget find – and all that’s featured below comes from high-street retailers.
One of the super-hot designs of this season – cross-legged side table. I’ve seen it on cover of the new John Lewis catalogue, of the Dream Bathrooms (from Homes & Gardens) too, and inside many recent magazines! I find it so light and delicate – it can visually lift up any sofa it stands next to, and add elegance and subtleness to the bedroom when used instead of heavy bedside tables:
Funky retro lamps – white & black – absolutely spot-on for now and for such a good price! Found in the local equivalent to Homebase and consting from £30 for a table lamp, through to £60 for the floor lamp.
The huge wall light from the series is the truly fabulous – it has this designer feel to it which makes it a great statement piece, and it’s so versatile due to the long arched arm – one moment it can be used over a table, another – give you the reading light over the sofa…
Another (bargain!) table lamp replicating the eye-ball shape, working well with minimalist, retro and modern interiors:
Is it only me or does this lamp look like it was made from a jar? 🙂
And now – inspired by nature and thus timeless, but fun at the same time, the ‘twigs’ lamp:
Loads of such ‘wavy plastic‘ designs around, both on high street and at designers, and yet few of them cost £10…
This gorgeous glamour, delicate ceiling lamp with crystals-and-sheer-white-glittery shade will most probably find its place in the yellow bedroom. Under £30.
Now to some coffee tables.
This one intrigued me with its lovely visible wood design (check out both the general pattern and the 3 tiles in the middle of the top), its practicality (huge drawers) and its lightness achieved thanks to slim metal legs (this photo does not show off the lifting effect too well). Price: ca. £200.
This one I love for its functionality and versatility – not only in size and shape but also colour and finish. I adore such items for their aplicability to small spaces, when you need something smaller for everyday, but need space when entertaining guests.
This one is pretty simple, not from best materials either, but interesting enough to have cought my eye… and I had to give it a second look when I saw the price – for £80 you can buy it for a few years or for your rented flat without guilt!
Sleek, linear design makes this chair a great addition to a sharp, elegant home office:
And finally – what lovely fabric! Believe, when I cast my eye on the same sofa in cream alcantara, I haven’t blinked twice. But this is an example of how the choice of fabric can dramatically influence the look, instantly making it a fashionable statement for the bachelor’s pad.
…believe it or not but this is not all I want to share with you from my trip – there will still be one more buy, and a DIY project we’ve completed in our flat back home.
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Tak jak obiecalam, po znaleziskach ‘z drugiej reki’ – czas na to co znalazlam w polskich sklepach podczas mojej ostatniej wizyty. A bylo tego sporo i naprawde pozytywnie mnie to zaskoczylo – a zgodnie z moim motto, szukalam jedynie produktow w dobrych cenach!
Znalazlam wiele pieknych dizajnerskich lamp – niektore retro; najciekawsza z nich to ‘kinkiet’ z biala kula na bardzo dlugim ramieniu dzieki czemu moze oswietlac dwie strefy – no ale zyrandol ze sloika nie odbiega oryginalnoscia!. Inne inspirowane natura i dzieki temu ponadczasowe (bardzo ciekawa lampka nocna z galazek drzewa), a takze lampa podlogowa z falujacych kawalkow plastiku, bardzo modna w tej chwili – a jeszcze za taka cene?! No i piekny delikatny glamour w postaci krysztalkowego zyrandola z przeswitujacym abazurem, ktory, cos tak czuje, znajdzie swoje miejsce w zoltej sypialni.
Dalej – stoliki kawowe. Piekny wzor slojow przyciagnal moj wzrok do pierwszego mebla, ale tak samo interesujace sa w nim dwie niezwykle pojemne szuflady i metalowe nozki dodajace stolowi lekkosci. Potem trafilam na kilka stolikow ‘warstwowych’, interesujacych tym bardziej im wiecej mozliwosci ustawienia daja (idealne do malych pomieszczen!). No i moje ulubione ostatnio – stoliki ze skrzyzowanymi nozkami, ktore nadaja niezwyklej lekkosci kazdej sofie przy ktorej stoja, oraz elegancji i delikatnosci sypialniom, gdzie zastepuja ciezkie stoliki nocne.
No i jeszcze dwa ciekawe meble do siedzenia – przepiekny, elegancki i prosty w formie fotel laczacy drewno, metal i skore doda szyku kazdemu gabinetowi, a kanapa z niezwyklym lekko blyszczacym szarym obiciem bedzie wygladac pieknie w kawalerskim mieszkaniu modnego mezczyzny – idealny przyklad jak duzo zmienia material, gdyz ten sam model widzialam moment wczesniej w bezowym obiciu z alcantary… wystarczy powiedziec ze nie spojrzalam na niego drugi raz, a ta wersja az wyprosila zdjecie.
…ale ale, to nie koniec relacji z tej podrozy – podziele sie jeszcze z Wami kolejnym zakupem i projektem zrob-to-sam ktory popelnilismy z mezem w naszym polskim mieszkaniu!
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Interior Design inspirations by Indywiduum Design 