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Forget the Titanic... It's time to rearrange those deck chairs!
April 20, 2020
Seeing as we've been spending a LOT of time at home of late, we're all probably quite sick of looking at the same old stuff, day-in, day-out. So if cabin fever has gotten you in its grip and you're climbing the walls to find ways to stay sane, how about taking a deep breath, taking a big step back and looking at your living space with a pair of fresh eyes?
Most of us are surrounded by the things we moved into our home with - our furniture, our knick-knacks and odds and sods. We brought it all with us and put it where we thought it should go and have never given it a second thought since. But now we're SO bored with it we want to throw it all out and start again!
We feel you, and as much as we would LOVE to help you completely refurnish your homes, we realise that given what we're all going through, that's going to be a bit beyond the reach of some of us for quite some time. So how do we work with what we have?
Well, let's share some tips we use when creating fantabulous spaces for our clients that you can use at home to make the most of the space you have and the furniture that's in it. The first thing is rearranging the deck chairs, so to speak, because the easiest way to give yourself a mini makeover at home is to take what you have and put it somewhere else!
Go and stand in a convenient corner and take a long, hard look at the space you want to revitalise. How different would it look if the pieces in it were moved around? Working around restrictions like windows, where you've located your television (cabling is often hard to move) see if you can visualise different options and alternatives for your furniture.
If you find it impossible to "see" space, then grab a piece of paper and see if you can do a rough plan. Do do this you'll need to measure your room and everything in it, and map it out properly. If this is too much trouble, there's an even easier, though much more strenuous solution - muscle power... Empty your room of everything but the biggest pieces and start moving them around to see where they might work better. Rope in your significant other and the offspring if you can.
Before you move anything, decide what is your focal point. In a living room it's often the TV or a fireplace. In a dining room it's the dining table. In a bedroom it's the bed/headboard. If your focal point is movable, move it to the best possible place and work around it. No matter what, stick to ONE focal point per room. In an open plan area there can be multiple focal points, of course. In this case it's important to create specific zones - the living area, the dining area, somewhere to sit and read, etc. Your focal points will relate to what a specific space is used for, so arrange around these, trying to keep focal points as separated as possible.
Arrange pieces around your focal point, but keep it simple - too much stuff can make your space cluttered and over-full. Arrange the large pieces of furniture to suit the space you have around your focal point, leaving enough room for traffic and moving around easily. With every move you make, go and stand in a doorway or somewhere where you can look over the positioning to see if it works. Do this as many times as necessary until you are happy with what you've done. It's important that you love the space you create so don't be afraid to tweak until you're feeling satisfied.
So go on, have a crack at moving things around and see what happens! Share before and after pics with us on social media if you like!
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Back in March of 2020, Bianca and Jana were dusting off their Fez’s and grabbing the pashminas out of storage in preparation to Rock the Casbah! However, as we all know and vividly remember - with March, came the eventual Covid shutdown, and instead of frolicking down the Moroccan streets, we all shut ourselves inside and watched the days tick by… 3 Years later, and now we can finally say - with conviction - that they’re going to Morocco at the start of September! This blog, filled with excitement and curiosity about all the weird and wonderful curios they might find, and endless sourcing they’ll do, stays as a reminder that sometimes plans change, things go awry and there’s not much you can do about it other than persevere - and that we did! So, here’s Bianca and Jana’s innermost thoughts about the trip, 3 years before it came to fruition, enjoy :) We've got our passports out and Jana has already picked out what she's going to wear each day… Come March [September] we'll be heading north with Air France to the Kingdom of Morocco, bright eyed and bushy tailed as we make our base in the ancient city of Marrakesh (also known as Marrakech to the French, but we're not French, so we'll go with the English version until all that fuss about Brexit is sorted out) - This turned into a year long negotiations trade, and now us outsiders would pay nearly double what we used to if we visit the UK - thankfully our flight is direct!! We'll be looking for inspiration and will be investigating what's there that we could possibly bring back to The Hoed. We can't wait to experience the atmosphere and afro-arabic influences of this amazing place as we visit the celebrated souks and off-the-beaten track artists and craftsmen that make Marrakesh so special. We're desperate to see the beautifully hand-crafted furniture, textiles, fabrics, rugs, carpets, objets d'art, accessories, lighting… anything that catches our eye and could possibly be brought back south. Berber mats and rugs are definitely on our list, as are the kind of furnishings you might find in a gorgeous Bedouin tent. If you think about it, the Bedouin refined the art of "glamping" into an artform - fabulous carpets on the ground, soft, billowing fabrics hung here and there, plump cushions spread on the ground, intricate leatherwork and carved wood, patinated metal… Total Glamping vibes! We just love all of it and will be tracking as much of it down as we can. We'll also have an eye or three out for wonderful ceramics and glassware and wonderful lamps that give off soft, filtered light. For us it's about workmanship, so we'll hopefully be finding the people who make furniture and ceramics using techniques that have been passed down over countless generations meaning that everything we look at will have its own, and its own special story. Our mission is to share those stories with you and, if it's feasible, bring some of that special workmanship home to the Rainbow Nation. We're most definitely inspired and are sure this is going to be a truly special trip! Counting the sleeps till then! Less than a month to go now - we will be keeping the updates going on our social channels as well as another few blog posts to explain in detail our wild adventures - Stay tuned!
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