Home Tree Atlas: Home Decor Ideas and Mood Boards

The Right Style: Modern Kitchen Design Ideas

Here are some tips and ideas when it comes to creating a modern kitchen design.

Color Choice

Stick to a strict color scheme. This means taking out colored pieces that don’t align with your color scheme, or you can store away these pieces out of sight.

Take a look at the pictures in the mood board above. There really is no color in the kitchens. They mostly use natural and neutral modern kitchen colors like white, grey, black, wooden shades, and stone. Use plants to add some greenery and warmth to the space, along with using wooden features (flooring, countertops, bar stools).

Clean and Simple Design

Avoid patterns. Instead go with textures – like a marble countertop or backsplash. Notice how in the pictures in the mood board, you have very clean cut straight lines – there are no rounded corners and that includes the sink. Take a look at the small modern kitchens in pictures (1) and (3) as good examples of this.

A Different Style: Black Kitchen Ideas and Designs

What Do Modern Kitchen Cabinets Look Like?

Most modern kitchens will have flat cabinet doors with no handles or doorknobs. Instead they push pop to open, or you have a groove cut out to open. This creates a sleek design, and makes the space feel more spacious.

Also the cabinets will be glossy. This helps makes the kitchen feel bigger as the light bounces off of the shiny surfaces.

A Modern Home is Well Lit

Recessed lighting is the way to go for modern kitchen lighting. Have them placed all around the kitchen.

When it comes to work areas, you’ll want to have light fixtures that bring the light closer down from the ceiling.

Countertops – use kitchen under cabinet lighting
Kitchen islands – use pendant lights
Around the sink – recessed lights can work here or pendant lights
The cooker – a hood with a light built in it will work
You can even have the inside of your kitchen cabinets light up. Either for displaying items, or if it is for storage you can install a doorjamb so the lights come on when you open the cabinets and search for items

Keep it a Clutter Free Space

A modern kitchen will be clutter free. The only things decorating the space are the elegant cabinets, and special materials you use for the countertops and backsplashes. And all of this elegance will be brightly and well lit.

Have a look at these other kitchen posts for more ideas:

image credits 1/2/3/4/5/6

April 9, 2016 in Kitchen, Modern

Design Ideas for Decorative Ceiling Medallions

A ceiling medallion, originally called a ceiling rose, comes from the early 1500s when King Henry the VIII ruled. The ceiling rose acted as a symbol of secrecy, and would be carved over a meeting table – meaning you could speak freely.

These days they act as decorative design elements in a room.

Where To Put Them

Decorative ceiling medallions are usually found framing a chandelier. But you can also use them to frame modern recessed lights – just like in picture (4), they can also be used to frame fans.

You can even repurpose a ceiling medallion, and use it in a creative DIY project. – Like decorating a closet door (DIY Challenge: Give Your Closet Doors A Makeover – Ideas and Design Tips)

Or create a decorative gallery wall of ceiling medallions. Stick a few different ones to a wall, and paint over them the same color as the wall

Different Shapes and Styles

When it comes to shapes, you have the standard circle. But you can also get oval, octagon and then there are more elaborate and decorative shapes, like the large ceiling medallion in picture (3)

The classic style is white. A white medallion on a white ceiling, will always look good. But you can see from pictures (6) (7) and (8) that the ceiling medallions can be painted over to add pops of color to the room (or painted black for a more modern look).

Check out the 2 piece ceiling medallion in picture (5), as an example of a unique design option.

For other ideas on how to decorate your ceiling, have look at this post: 3 Unique Vintage Ceiling Design Ideas. It goes over ideas including ceiling medallions, using Anaglypta wallpaper, and decorative crown molding.

For more decorative decor posts, search through the ideas on my page here.

The Finishing Touch: Wainscoting Ideas and Designs

image credits 1/2/3/4/5/6/7/8

April 9, 2016 in Decor

Luxury With Color: Black Bathroom Ideas

Black is a luxurious color choice for a bathroom. But you do need to be careful to make sure that you don’t end up with a dark and gloomy space. The black bathroom ideas in this post will help you create a well designed and balanced space.

If you want to create a more balanced black and white bathroom design, then have a look at my post here: The Classic Look: Black and White Bathroom Decor Ideas.

Adding Style To Black Walls

If you want to go with black walls for your bathroom, then here are some ways you can avoid having flat boring walls:

Add wainscoting. This can be another color (white, grey), or paint it black. This will add depth and layers to your walls
Add some texture to your black walls. You can either do this through paint, like using a sponge to create a faux marble look or a brush to create a linen effect (Textured Wall Painting Ideas: From Faux Wood To Linen Effects). Or use tiles that have a subtle texture or pattern just like the bathroom in picture (4).

Creating Balance By Adding Another Color

If you take a look at the pictures in the mood board above, you can see that even though the bathrooms are black you have a lot of features that are another color. This helps create a balanced and a well designed space. You only need to choose a few pieces that are another color.

Stick to neutral shades when you add another color to your black bathroom.

Shades such as white, wooden or metal tones, or stone. This means making use of natural materials.

Wood: Wooden features – some ideas here include using a wooden counter, wooden framing, or even a wooden door just like the bathrooms in pictures (5) and (6).

Stone: Stone such as marble can be used as a backsplash or countertops, just like the marble counter and backsplash in the bathroom in picture (2).

Metals: Metals such as brushed stainless steel, copper, or the classic choice of brass, would work well in a black bathroom. Metal pieces will really stand out against the black background. Have a look at the brass and copper vanity, faucet and sink in picture (1). You could also use metal/brass handles on your black cabinets.

Adding Greenery: How about adding some shades of green into the space by having some plants in the space

More Lighting

Since you are going for a dark and luxurious color palette for your bathroom, you’ll need to make sure that you have enough lighting to light up the dark space.

Recessed ceiling lights are the way to go for a modern and luxurious look. You’ll want enough to light up all of the areas in the bathroom, including in the shower, and around your black bathroom vanity.

For a more classic look, go with brass light fittings – and brass light switch plates.

To really control the level of lighting in your bathroom, go from relaxing low lighting to bright task lighting, hook up your lights to a dimmer switch.

Here are some other posts to get more bathroom ideas:

image credits: 1/2/3/4/5/6

April 9, 2016 in Bathroom, Color Palettes

Work in Style: Grey Home Office Ideas

When it comes to grey home offices, you can either 1) paint all of the walls grey, or 2) paint all of the walls white. In this post I go over how to design your space using those two options, and go over specific decor, furniture, and other grey home office ideas.

The Overall Look of the Home Office

Painting all of the walls grey is one way to go. You just need to ask yourself, what shade of grey do you want to use? Dark grey walls will make the home office feel luxurious and secluded. While a light grey home office will feel spacious, large, and open.

Option 2 is to paint all of the walls white. From here you have a blank canvas of a space to decorate with grey pieces. I go over a list of ideas on how to add grey accent pieces to a home office below.

You can always add in another color into the color scheme. You just want to make sure that all the pieces in the room align with the color scheme. Stick with 1-2 other colors. Any more than that, and you take away from the overall grey color scheme. Some good color combinations include:

Grey and green
Light or dark grey with light yellow
Grey and light blue
Grey and gold

Creating a Stylish Workspace: Modern Home Office Ideas

Ways of Adding Grey

Here are some ways to add grey into a home office design:f

Use a grey desk
Or a grey office chair
A grey lamp, or lampshade
Grey curtains
Repaint any cabinet or closet doors you have in the home office grey (DIY Challenge: Give Your Closet Doors A Makeover – Ideas and Design Tips)
Spray paint a corkboard bulletin board grey
Use a grey area rug
Hang up a large painting or photo in a grey frame
Add plants to your home office in grey planters