We are all inventors, each sailing out on a voyage of discovery, guided each by a private chart, of which there is no duplicate. The world is all gates, all opportunities.
Ralph Waldo Emerson

Thursday, May 20, 2010

Peaceful Space Inspiration

Now that I am no longer surrounded by the clutter that comes with moving from a house to a little apartment, I can focus on making our rooms conducive to relaxing. It's going to take lots of planning and a little ingenuity, but I'm excited about it! I'm hoping to have at least the beginning of projects to show for it when next week rolls around. Here's a little peek, though:

Living room inspiration: Peacock color palette with Polynesian patterns.
I have a vague idea of how to implement this, and I really hope it all comes together! I'm nervous about it though because everything might not work as a whole, but oh well. There's only one way to find out, right?
Tapa designs. I love the traditional designs of my culture, but I'd like to create my personal interpretation of them using traditional shapes and one of my favorite palettes: peacock colors.

Guest bathroom inspiration: Maroon powder room. Elegant and feminine. I'm thinking luxury and velvet like these drapes below. The femininity will hopefully be balanced with the deep strong maroon color. That's what I want, anyway. We shall see what we can come up with.



The cottage look above isn't me, but I adore the idea of personalizing the area around the mirror by draping some fabric. It adds a feminine touch too, I think. I don't know how I would do this, but I love it.


Master bedroom inspiration: Resort Spa. I imagine teal like the ocean and tan like the South Pacific sand; a peaceful, light space with soft colors of the ocean incorporated throughout the room. I want to feel like I'm on a getaway at a fabulous, relaxing spa resort while staying away from nautical or overdone seashell themes.

I love the thought of sheer curtains at every corner of the bed. So luxurious and resort-ish, isn't it? And it also makes me think of the sea breeze playing with the sheer fabric and the tropical sunlight shining through. We don't own a canopy or four poster bed, but I would like to use this somehow.

The combination of bamboo runner and candles is so lovely and relaxing.


These baskets remind me of honey colored wood that I saw everywhere on the island where I grew up. The gorgeous natural polished wood was crafted into supporting pillars in family meeting houses, or traditional tiny wooden benches that were used as pillows by the older generations of islanders. It just makes me think of home.



Master bath inspiration: Spa massage room. 
I see bamboo, tropical flowers and aromatherapy. 

I doubt I'll be able to afford a bamboo piece like this, let alone have the space to put it up in our little bathroom, but the clean lines and beautiful bamboo wood grain is inspiring. And I do need some sort of storage. Right now the only place to put things is in the double cabinet beneath the small sink.
Our master bath suffers from lack of towel storage as well. I like this idea...maybe not in a basket, though.

This, as well as the other candle/bamboo runner photo in the bedroom inspiration is the sense of calm and pampering and tropics that I would like to have in the bed and bathroom.

Whew! I love having all this together so I'll have a visual reference as I work on adding these touches to each room. Our toddler's room is the only one that is on track with it's theme, which is Learning Playroom. It definitely needs tweaking, but it has everything he needs, unlike the rest of the rooms. So, I decided to focus on slowly bringing the rest of the apartment along before I do anymore to the nursery. After all, the adult spaces need to be inviting too! We are not allowed to paint, which makes it even harder to add personality on a budget. At least I can look back at this and refocus once I get going. It's easy to get lost in a redesign, no matter how small it is, but now I'll have my inspiration post to help me get back on track. Don't forget to check out tonight's Spa Night post on a homemade acne spot treatment!

2 comments:

  1. Love that ocean blue scene. Where was that taken?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Oh so do I! I believe I found it on a free image site and the caption said it was of some spot of ocean in the Caribbean.

    ReplyDelete

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