Designer Love

I am in a very long process of trying to decorate my house on my own and looking online for inspiration. One designer that caught my eye for her clever use of colour as well as ethnic pieces is Angela Hranowsky.  I am so inspired looking at her work and how I wish she was closer to me, I would love to hire her!

Look at this divine living room. I love everything about this room. From the colour on the wall to the beautiful bold Weinrib rug (which I covet), oh and the lighting. The brown couch is perfect for the space.

Here is another room - I love how you can seek a peek of purple on the back of the curtains.

 

And this dining room leaves me speechless. The only things I can say are "Wow" and "Oh my!" - yep, I am that eloquent when it comes to describing things. I love the fabric (David Hicks?) on the bamboo chairs, contrasting with the lovely wood of the table. I want to have a dining room like this.

 

Plum colour (look at the pendant light!)

 Drool...

Oh Ms Hranowsky, would you please come to MD for a visit??? :) 

***All pictures are from her website - please go visit it for a real feast for the eyes.

Union Jack Bed For Boy's Room

Since I am on a painting blitz, I bought these two maple twin beds at a garage sale in the spring. They sat in my garage for months, waiting to be transformed.

 I dismantled the bed, sanded all the parts. Here, I have only taken photos of the headboard, which is where most of the work is done.

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I found this really useful website teaching you how to draw a British flag accurately.

I placed it against the bed and marked out the lines. 

 It is almost finished, I just need to get some super fine brushes to paint in the lines where the bleeding from paint came through. Then I am off to sell it on Craiglist. I hope to do it before next week. Wish me luck.

Finding My Voice

I have enjoyed art as a subject in high school and we had very good teachers. I just never did it very much after high school and that was back in 1987!

With our empty walls, I thought I'd buy some art but I went to several places like West Elm. Nice art work in frames but I was shocked at the prices for merely prints. I decided that I would buy original art work there and then.

How naive I was. I contacted several artists and one whose work I loved but he lived in Australia and did not want the hassle with the shipping and insurance. I could not have afforded his art anyway, he wanted AUD$6,000 for his beautiful piece of work. Which is worth every penny, except that I didn't have those sort of pennies. :)

I thought of reproducing his work. I struggled with this for months because I was not sure of the legal implications so I talked to a lawyer who is also a friend and he said that if I did not pass on the work as the artist's or try to sell it, it was fine. Also, I trawled through websites and found that there were websites selling reproductions from masters of art - and selling them online! What is with that anyway, I cannot understand it. Is it ok to resell art from artists who are dead? If someone explained this to me, I would be grateful.


A few weeks later I bid for a piece of art on Ebay but bidding was fierce and as I was not watching it closely, at the very last moment, the art went to someone else. I was gutted. So I decided to reproduce this one. Not too happy with my version because it is too bright - the artist was Charles Levier and his colours are stark and empty but mine was a bit too pink.

Then I was inspired by Matisse. This took me 2 hours to do and it was completely FUN! It is now hanging in our powder room. Not a great picture, sorry - it is time to upgrade my iPhone!

I put them on my Facebook and I had so many positive comments that I am thinking seriously of finding my own voice so that I don't have to copy other people's work. I am planning on putting aside a time each day to paint, to find my style. Hopefully I won't have to charge so much money so that people can enjoy it and also I can get some happy returns from painting! It is something I totally enjoy, which took me by surprise.

Thanks for looking - I know copying people's work is a sensitive topic and please drop me a comment, I would be interested to hear what others think.