A few days ago, we shared some links to interesting ways in which designers are bringing the outdoors inside with herbal architecture and indoor greenery in general. Since the benefits of interior foliage are plentiful, we’re delving a little deeper and sharing some more points of inspiration from places that are applying forward-thinking methods to the practice.

In that post, we shared a photo of Artaqua’s self-watering “green wall,” and today’s first image is of a “moving hedge” by a company called Greenworks, whose products (as shown above) require a bit more maintenance than Artaqua’s wall, but not by much; the hedge column only requires watering once every five weeks.

The benefits of abundant indoor greenery are multiple: chief among them are consistent air purification, a visually calming effect, and muted acoustic resonance. Within the nursing home industry, for instance, there’s even a movement called Pioneer Practices which involves infusing long-term care homes with pets and plants based on the fact that the constant presence of plant and animal life boosts residents’ overall mood, health and quality of care.

And the principle doesn’t just apply to commercial spaces and group homes, either; it’s applicable in any given suburban home or city loft. For the craftiest among us, Instructables.com offers tutorials on creating gorgeous green displays for an interior space, going beyond mere potted plants and vases of flowers but stopping short of full-on plantscaping, keeping it chic yet accessible for those of us under a time or budget crunch:

No southern exposure? No problem. Studio Shulab has developed an inventive lamp prototype incorporating plants and LED technology to aid in raising a miniature herb garden even in the darkest and most enclosed of spaces.

Even a few well-placed perennial plants can add life and color to a home, and the proliferation of design ideas from designers and do-it-yourself enthusiasts alike is staggering. “Going green” can start with one small step and easily turn into a giant leap after a few much-needed breaths of fresh air.

Photo credits: Greenworks, Linnea Beck, Instructables and Studio Shulab.

Today’s wanderings around the web are turning up a heaping helping of comfortable living room designs. For starters, Design*Sponge satisfies our voyeuristic needs with its before+after lineup of bungalow renovations, a glimpse of which we’ve provided above.

Anthology Magazine, on the other hand, is checking things out and liking them just the way they are: this week, they’re  openly admitting their “pattern envy” over the wallpaper designs at Minakani Walls, founded by two Parisian textile designers:

The folks at Uncrate are geeking out over the comic collage art painstakingly put together by Mike Alcantara in Austin, Texas…

A toast is in order for the team at Remodelista, who are basking in the glow of their freshly updated design that made its debut on the oh-so-chic site earlier this week.

Whoa, Nelly!  West Elm is having a 70 percent off sale. Hang on for just a moment before you rush over there, though, and make sure you…

…check out the gorgeous roundup of Kilim rugs warming up all the common areas featured in La Dolce Vita’s top post at the moment.  OK, now you can go shopping.

Happy living!

Photo credits: Design*Sponge, Anthology and Uncrate.

Your dining room is the one part of the home that needs to be able to accommodate more than just the 4 chairs that came with your dining room set. From special occasion dinners, to inviting friends over, to hosting your relatives at the holidays, creating more seating in your dining room is a challenge many of us face. The most important factor is to be flexible with your dining room and have a plan for those last minute guests. Here are a few ideas to increase your seating area for you and your dining companions.

• Examine your entertaining lifestyle: For every home, there is a personal lifestyle that embodies how each of your rooms will be utilized. Extra seating in a home that has several kids and visiting family members could benefit from a bench or window seat that can easily provide more than just pull up chair seating. If you only have an occasional dinner guest, consider using coordinated seating from an adjacent room to solve the extra seating dilemma.

Photo credit: Houzz

• Eclectic seating can be fashionable: Long gone are the days of dining room chairs and tables that had to match. In fact, a mix of upholstered, wooden, metal, and even family room chairs can bring an eclectic design style to your dining room table. Create more seating in your dining room with vintage and garage sale seating finds, or reuse and re-purpose older chairs and give them a distressed finish or a fresh coat of paint. When using different types of seating, try and keep a unified theme, but don’t be afraid to mix and match! Whether you connect your seating with color, material or patterns, this unification helps your dining room look purposefully eclectic and not haphazard.

Photo credit: Houzz

Your dining room seating dilemma just became easier to solve with the help of these extra seating solutions. The size of your dining room will dictate how much additional seating you can fit into it for guests to still feel comfortable. If you have the space, consider housing 2 dining room tables with seating for extra large gatherings. This will ensure your guests are comfortable and everyone gets an ideal seat.

Photo credit top: Bone Steel Trout Hall

Apartment makeovers are always a treat to look at! Whether you love them because they give you inspiration on how to maximize space in your apartment, or you just love to see designer ideas and interiors trends. ‘The Bachelorette’ Ashley Hebert and JP received a great makeover for their New York apartment. Here are some of the additions that made JP’s old bachelor pad a home for the new couple.

Photo credit: Hayneedle

Hayneedle.com gave the apartment a much-needed uplift to accommodate a couple as opposed to just an individual. The challenge of transforming a masculine apartment into a home that both genders can enjoy and feel comfortable in can be a challenge. Celebrity Designer Courtney Cachet used touches of gender neutral colors such as gray, black, and white along with pops of decorative glam pieces to give the overall apartment a cozy, yet metropolitan feel.

Photo credit: Hayneedle

Cachet used all decorative pieces from Hayneedle and each of the pieces can be purchased directly from the site to achieve a similar look in your home. The tufted headboard and the gentle curvilinear bedside table both have feminine qualities. When paired with mix and match patterned bedding and dramatic vintage inspired black and gray wallpaper, the bedroom is completely transformed.

Photo credit: Hayneedle

Fun and glamorous accessories throughout Ashley & JP’s apartment make their new place feel like a fairy tale. Pairing mirrored and painted furniture together gives enough glitz for the feminine qualities and just the right amount of masculine traditional elements to make each space have its own character. You can create these looks in your home, and get more ideas from the Jan. 17^th issue of US Weekly.

Congratulations to Ashley & JP on their new apartment makeover!

Photo credit top: US Weekly

If you have looked at your boring sofa one too many times, and thought about replacing it, there may be an easier and more cost-effective fix. Update your pillows. Sofa pillows used to be only considered as the functional portion of the sofa. In recent years, pillows have become the center of attention, and the rest of the sofa may take a ‘back seat’! Here are tips to bring new life to your sofa with the addition of beautiful pillows.

Start a new theme on your sofa: Whether you want to compliment or contrast the colors and patterns of your pillows, or you’d prefer whimsical caricatures and abstract shapes, there’s a creative option for your sofa. Look around your space and determine what details you can borrow for inspiration. Window coverings, an area rug, or even a piece of wall art may do just the trick. Mix and match similar colors, patterns, and hues for your pillow ideas, and don’t be afraid to go bold. Pillows can change with the seasons.

Photo credit: Luxury Idea

Reuse and renew the old: If you love the shape and size of your old pillows, consider reupholstering them with new fabric and playful textiles. Add embellishments like feathers, sequins, beads, and even fur. You will be surprised how a new look far an old pillow can change your entire living room. To unify a room, coordinate fabrics to your sofa, adjacent chairs, and colorful throw blankets. While pillows are primarily for decoration, consider using larger ones for quick seating around the sofa for extra guests or kids who want to sit in the room. Maximize your old pillows and make them like new again.

Photo credit: Inspiration for Home

Your new sofa is begging for a fresh look, and focusing on the pillows can turn a boring piece of furniture into a focal point of the room. Whether you buy all new, mix and match, or renew the old with snazzy fabrics, your sofa and living room will benefit from the addition of great looking pillows.

Photo credit top: House to Home

Years ago, bathrooms only came in a few colors, and most of the time they were neutral or very feminine colors. Today, bathrooms have become a focal point in many homes to bring drama, mystery and a wow factor! Whether you are looking to impress in your guest bathroom or you want to add drama to your master bathroom, color and light are the two top factors to make it happen. See how your bathroom can become that dramatic space that you always envisioned.

• Bold and dramatic color: If you are trying to turn on the drama in your bathroom, adding dark colors is the top way to achieve this gorgeous look. From wallpaper and faux finishes to chocolate browns and deep royal blue colored paint, dramatic color evokes a sense of mystery and sophistication. To achieve the look without your bathroom feeling like a cave, ensure there is plenty of natural light or a mix of light finishes. Pairing white subway tile, flooring, or wainscoting is a good option for dark walls above.

Photo credit: Pinterest

• Create a focal point: Drama can lie in color, but drama can also lie in where the eyes are drawn to in your bathroom. Creating a focal point in your bathroom, such as using gorgeous vessel sinks atop a bold vanity, or an above ground tub that will make your mouth drop at the first sight of it. Add drama with a valance or fabric swag above your bathtub for added texture and visual interest. Consider adding contrasting hues of tone-on-tone color throughout your bathroom for attention grabbing ambiance.

Photo credit: Greige Design

Long gone are the days where the bathroom was a place where you hurried up and ran out. In today’s homes, you want to linger, relax and enjoy the ambiance of a dramatic bathroom. Try using these tips in your master bedroom and borrow decor ideas to bring into the main bedroom. A guest bathroom or powder room that is used to impress is the perfect place to try out these eye catching, dramatic details.

Photo credit top: Old Alresford House

Once the winter has set in, and the colorful holiday decor has been taken down, your home may be looking a bit lifeless. Wintertime tends to have us staying indoors to escape the cold, and the need for your interiors to feel warm and inviting is a must. Adding color to your walls can give your rooms an instant facelift, and painting is the most inexpensive way to warm your winter home, without raising your energy bill! Follow these tips to help your winter home feel just as inviting as in the summer.

Decide how much saturation you like: Choosing colors for your home is no different than choosing what to wear on a given day. Depending on your mood, your design style, and how much saturation of color you desire, will help you choose the perfect colors to ward off winter cold outside. If you think a soft hint of color is more your style, consider light greens, blues, and yellows. While if you want a powerful punch of color to warm up your room, try oranges, pinks, and purples. The beauty of color is that there is a light to dark spectrum of every color! Go ahead, pick one and paint over it if you don’t like it.

Photo Credit: Jonathan Adler

Feeling nervous about color? Try these tips:  For those of you less adventurous when it comes to choosing color, consider keeping your walls a neutral white, camel, beige, or gray and then use decorative wall screens and art work to liven up your walls. Color can be brought through paint, but also by decor. Pops of color in decorative wall hangings, that coordinate with accent pillows, area rugs, and table housewares can give you color, without the commitment. Window treatments can also add color to your wall, and draw your eye up to the ceiling to add height to the room. If you’re nervous about painting, these ideas will surely ‘talk you off the ledge’.

Photo credit: Pinterest

Color has a place in every home and in the winter months, it’s important to not feel like you are hibernating inside your home until spring comes. Instead, grab some color inspiration for your walls, windows, wall hangings, and art work and display color proudly. Try adding an accent wall to your room for a focal point and use lighter shades, or complementing colors on adjacent walls. Wintertime isn’t supposed to mean drab and cold, instead warm up your walls with these colorful ideas.

Photo credit top: Home Bunch

A modular system, the sideboard can be constructed in a number of different ways. The basic elements can be placed horizontally or vertically, and each compartment can be fitted with a rear panel, a door or one or more drawers.

The drawers have no handles and use a one-touch open system, and are available in a varnished or a veneer finish, or a combination of the two. The front and back of the sideboard are identical, meaning it can be used as a center-piece in the living room or as an actual room divider.

With so many differing sizes of compartments and shelves you’ll never run out of storage space, yet massive furniture pieces such as the Variare look most effective with modern ornaments placed strategically throughout.

Kitchen

Because of the holidays and the fact that you aren’t likely to be cooking outside much, the kitchen is probably going to be the room in which you spend most of your time during the winter. Therefore it’s important to put some effort into making the kitchen a bright and inviting space. This is most easily accomplished first by removing any clutter in the kitchen, which is as simple as getting efficient storage containers or cutting down on unnecessary appliances.
You might want to consider purchasing a small cabinet with several drawers to serve as a buffet, or just as a great way to remove un-needed items from the counter tops until they are needed for whatever task is at hand. In addition there are several ways you can clean up and organize your pantry, one of the best of these is to invest in some collapsible shelves that can be molded to the desired area. Another helpful tip in the pantry area that becomes even more important during the winter is to keep food completely sealed as to avoid attracting the attention of pests such as roaches and rodents that can come into your house when the weather gets harsh outside.

Bedroom

One great idea for bedroom design is to scour garage and yard sales in your area. Often there are great deals to be had on furniture that is in surprisingly good condition. One small issue you might need to be aware of when searching for a bargain in these areas is that the furniture you find can be harboring certain types of insects such as bed bugs. This is hardly reason enough to avoid these types of opportunities, but you should be sure to check whatever furniture you decide to add to your living spaces for this possibility.
Although these aren’t the only things you can do to brighten up your living spaces for the long and harsh cold months, they will go a long way in making your home more hospitable and a more comfortable place to cozy up near the fireplace.

Inspired by the classic game where players would strategically rearrange prefabricated shapes, tetris’ designer Julia Dozsa from Fiam, brings that to life. The pieces are fitted with magnets making sure that each pattern you create can easily be altered to your mood. As of now the mirrors only comes in red and silver.

Reminds me a little of the Pacman Chair and the Super Mario Wall Art…

The flooring is made from warm oak and the walls and ceiling painted in ivory. Along two walls run contemporary brown sofas, with three unusual coffee tables in front of them. These brown tables with lacquered ivory surfaces are very flat, each with a drawer.

In the corner of the room is a small table and four bulky lounge chairs. This are looks like something from a modern coffee shop, but could be used for conferencing, playing cards or a small dining area. Accessories in the room are quite minimal and come in the form of a tall yucca plant, simple table and lamp and a modern art wall picture.

“Gola” is formed by two asymmetrical wings made of bent wood. The surface of the “opening” starts from a solid color (in this case, it’s purple), but the color fades to white-plaster while bending out on the horizontal plane. The central support and the presence of a single leg create a visual effect of lightness and suspension in the vacuum, despite the large size of the table and the rigor of its geometry.

The sophisticated dégradé color effect is achieved by digital printing on laminate. “Gola” has an elegant and dynamic image that animates the object even when not in use. It plays a creative way to “dining” and to characterize the domestic landscape. In line with the general philosophy of Enzyma, “Gola” fully expresses the contemporary size without sacrificing the timeless style and without accommodating the sudden changes of fashion. The catalog by Enzyma also offer the console version. The “Gola” table (and the coordinate console) can only be purchased through the website www.enzyma.it, where you can also see the other products available today in the collection.

Data sheet

• dimensions: cm 231 x 81 x 73h; thickness cm 3 (length that can be adapted to the needs of the customer only on the longer wing; fixed width and height)
• depth of the console version: 36 cm
• materials: curved multilayer sheet wood; steel leg and components
• surface finish: Laminated Digitalprint on an exclusive dégradé design
• available colors: all Pantone colors (as indicated by the customer) on a white-plaster background

Gianluca Sgalippa

(Milan, 1966) graduated in Architecture at the Politecnico of Milan, where he also completed his PhD in Industrial Design.

In his capacity as a freelancer, he is active in various areas of small-scale design: interior design, product design, lighting, staging, visual communication and street furniture. Projects and achievements signed by him are reviewed by numerous magazines.

He is Professor of Design System at the Academy of Fine Arts of Brera in Milan.

He also plays an intense journalism activity as a writer and design critic.

From 2003 to 2011 he was director of the magazine “BagnoDesign” and in the years 2010-2011, he directed the web magazine www.mixdesign.it.

He published the following books: Quando il prodotto diventa luogo (Franco Angeli, 2002), Post-bagno. Corpo, ambiente e design nell’età delle mutazioni tipologiche (Tecniche Nuove, 2006) e Trans-Design. L’identità ibrida e contaminata dei prodotti d’inizio millennio (Tecniche Nuove, 2008).

A burner is integrated in the high?pressure laminate corpus. The open flame, run with environment friendly, smokeless and odourless bioethanol, pervades the room with cosy warmth. The Fire coffee table is available in a matt or glossy finish in uncoloured or in Macassar wood, Zebrano, Wenge, Walnut or Pine and now additional in polished stainless steel.

The standard coffee table measures 130 x 60 x 42cm, special designs e.g. for a wall installation are also possible on demand. The standard version in unicoloured of the FIRE coffee table is available for 3.000 Euro onwards.

For more on the FIRE table and more great designs, visit BerlinRodeo.com