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Beautiful Rooms: Monday Inspiration

Starting off the week with some calming neutrals and restful colours by which I mean (for me at least) some soft pinks teamed with lots of natural wood and dark accents as seen below.

pink walls and black accents via @our_edwardian_home
pink walls and black accents via @our_edwardian_home

Now before you start asking about the ceiling, note how it matches the white painted floorboards so it all makes sense and makes it look like a decision was made. It’s also a colour combination made in heaven that is completely age-proof as well.

image via @nick_nemechek
image via @nick_nemechek of TRNK

Talking of classic colour combinations, this is the home of Nick Nemechek, co-founder of TRNK, a curated collection of homewares that, sadly, doesn’t ship to Europe at the moment, but they sell from an international range of designers so you can take inspiration from their curation at least.

And here’s a case in point. If you’ve started to look at that pale grey and find it a little cold, then note how it warms up with the addition of natural wood and a chocolate brown velvet sofa. Grey is very easily influenced and you can change its mood from cool and, slightly unfriendly, to more welcoming and still sophisticated with the injection of, if not actual colour, some warm neutrals.

pink chairs via @houseofhipsterblog
pink chairs via @houseofhipsterblog

Staying with natural wood, but this time adding in some soft blush pink in the form of these fabulous vintage chairs belonging to Kyla at the wonderful House of Hipsters. She has now changed the table but for me it this picture is all about those chairs and this colour combination that just always works. Nick’s room above is the more masculine version but imagine a couple of pale pink cushions on his sofa and it’s similar feel.

white walls and natural wood via entrance makleri
white walls and natural wood via entrance makleri

In this kitchen above, the open plan space has been carefully zoned by keeping the colour palette very neutral but using different materials to change the feel between the areas. So the kitchen is all white with lots of tiles and then the vintage wooden table, wishbone chairs and Persian rug bring a warmth and softness to the eating area.

The kitchen below, by Nordiska Kök, might be the one that persuades me to redo mine (in about ten years). The Mad Husband has long desired a wooden kitchen but he was thinking ply, which has never really appealed to me – or perhaps it is just this Victorian house. Then I saw these dark oak cupboards. The walls are a very pale grey but look how the wood, brass and black accents bring the whole space to life. This is how to do grey in 2019.

wooden kitchen by Nordiska-Kök-OAK
wooden kitchen by Nordiska Kök

Now, enough of all those restrained calming colour palettes, worrabout this? Just as I wouldn’t change my kitchen unless it was for something like the one above, so I thought I would never fall out of love with my spotty stair runner until I saw this. And I don’t even subscribe to the current leopard mania, but this, this I could go for. It’s from a project by the Hollywood design team Woodson & Rummerfield, and I suspect (unless anyone can find out otherwise) that it was specially commissioned for this house but isn’t it fun? It works because everything around it is relatively restrained so there’s no fight. I wouldn’t haven’t tiled floors like that in the UK, but this is in Hollywood so all bets are off. Imagine simple wooden floorboards and a bannister that wasn’t made from lucite.

design by woodson & rummerfield greeen leopard stair runner
design by woodson & rummerfield green leopard stair runner

And while we’re doing colour what about this fabulous pink and orange dining room by Kim from Desire to Inspire?  And you can see how much better this room looks with that pale pink ceiling instead of a standard white one. It picks up on the rug below the table and casts a pretty rosy glow over everything.

pink and orange via @kim_dti of desiretoinspire.net
pink and orange via @kim_dti of desiretoinspire.net

Staying with Kim’s house and that room leads out to this hall below. She has wonderful panelling but you could just as easily paint the walls and woodwork like this and then add your choice of wallpaper above. The white ceiling ties into the floor tiles, and stops it being too dark and the pendant light fitting is also a perfect reflection of the floor.

navy blue hall via kim of desiretoinspire.net
navy blue hall via @kim_dti of desiretoinspire.net

So the question is …. which way are we going this week? Restful neutrals or punchy colour? I suspect that happiness likes in a mix of the two. Thoughts below….

Kate Watson-Smyth

The author Kate Watson-Smyth

I’m a journalist who writes about interiors mainly for The Financial Times but I have also written regularly for The Independent and The Daily Mail. My house has been in Living Etc, HeartHome and featured in The Wall Street Journal & Corriere della Sera. I also run an interior styling consultancy Mad About Your House. Welcome to my Mad House.

7 Comments

  1. The green stair runner with flattened leopard hideous, have googled and still hideous. I mean, why would one want a simulated flattened leopard on their carpet. Won’t someone think of the children, all that PTSD….

  2. The rooms are so big/tall/well proportioned/lit, half them chandeliers in our rooms would be thwacking my 6ft plus husband in the head every time he wombled into view. But have smug sense of smugness in that we painted dark stairway upper landing (very blinking small) in plaster pink , with one wall in dull gold paint 10 years ago – sounds hideous but does work, but probs better in larger, more ornate house than a slate 1900’s house in Wales.

  3. I have seen the stair runner before in a different house. Diane Von Furstenburg I think. It’s fab!

  4. It’s colour for me every time. I can’t get behind this move to white walls – it looks very bland and reminds me of how public spaces are decorated. For me, colour is how we express our personality. Love the navy blue hall!

  5. Really love the pink & orange dining room and the hallway.
    I like the first few pics too, although when I look at the pink I want to add apricot and pale banana with a shot of violet somewhere.
    Always restful.

  6. The Leopard runner looks like a specially commissioned version of the Diane Von Furstenberg design for The Rug Company.

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