Oh I do love poking about other people's houses and seeing what inspiration lies therein. Don't you? Today's 10 Beautiful Rooms features some gorgeous – mainly grey – interiors seeing as my book Shades of Grey is out in a little over two weeks. That means that partly I want to show you how versatile, and beautiful it can be as a colour for your walls and partly, because that is on my mind so I find I am drawn to rooms like that.
These first two are from a Swedish estate agency and, while it's the same room from different perspectives, you can see how this dark grey works so well. Try Down Pipe, Scree or Night Jewels 2. They're all warm, they all work in both day and electric light, they will make your possessions pop out and look better than they would against a plain white wall.
via 79ideas.org image by Lisa Cohen
Or, if that makes you nervous – and notice how the top rooms have large white skirtings and white space above the picture rail – then what about the half-painted wall? Modern and perfect for the commitment phobe, this is a great way to bring in some drama without worrying that your space will be too dark.
Or, as these next two images show you can go for a pale – barely there – shade of grey or a mid version. Mix it with black and monochrome, lots of wood and a bit of metallic for maximum effect. But both these rooms would work really well with other colours thrown against them – dark orange, blush pink, olive green and navy blue. Everything goes with grey, it is everyone's friend.
This room is white – or possibly a very pale grey with charcoal accents – the frames of the glass doors, the pillows and the lamp. They all work to anchor the whiteness of the walls and the bed and the reclaimed floorboards stop the room looking too new and stark. We want to avoid 100 per cent newness at all costs. When I was a child and was made to tidy my room, I would put everything away and then create a pile of stuff just off centre. It was a way of making sure people could tell I still existed, of putting something of me back into an empty space. It's the same with decor – if everything is new there is no personality, you need to bring back something old and loved to give it that all important character.
These next rooms are for a client of mine who is doing up an enormous house with a view to letting some of the rooms out. Carpeting a house this size will be prohibitive and take some of the character away. Imperfect old boards with rugs will allow the house to speak and tell its story.
I'm still not sure about the bath in the bedroom thing, but I like the floor and rug thing, whatever the furniture is.
bathroom at The Pig
Sticking with bathrooms, this all white version by stylist Heidi Maude is a great example. It's a room that has ended up with a bath in it, rather than something that has been tiled and hermetically sealed like a modern bathroom. It's completely organic and, even though the bath isn't in front of the fire – which might have seemed like the obvious layout – is comfortable and inviting. This way you get to like back and watch the flickering flames rather than lying next to them and feeling a bit hot.
Lastly, this monochrome bathroom is in praise of the hexagon tile. White tiles with dark grout and vice versa on the other side. You don't even need to have the gold taps, although they do warm it up a little, but given that the cost would be prohibitive for most of us, consider, instead, putting more thought into the tiles for your wow factor.
There you have it. Monday. 10 Beautiful Rooms. Done. Feel free to add your thoughts below, we know to know what everyone thinks.
from Mad About The House http://ift.tt/1Kz2RoC
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