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Paint..a life saver for a dull room
April 3, 2017
It’s simple: one of the easiest ways to liven up what may seem like an uninteresting corner, room or bare wall comes with the lick of a paint brush. In today’s modern and creative age of design, wonders can be done with paint!
It’s all about keeping an open mind and discarding the ‘norm’ or usual methods of how to use paint. Not only can imaginative approaches to applying paint add character to a blank space, but textured paint can also help to hide dirt and hairline cracks in both the interior and exterior of your home.
Channel your artistic flare with some of our top paint applications to liven up your home:
Colour waves
This is a great way to connect all the colour accents you may have used throughout a room. Colour waves allow you to be artistic by free-handing the way your wall colour is presented – almost like creating an abstract painting. You can still use painter’s tape to set up the colour parameters, but colour waves are just a more interesting and unique take on the traditional wall stripe.
Creating ‘Off Effects’
There are a number of DIY ‘off effects’ that can bring any dull wall to life with something as simple as a sponge, rag or stippling brush.
‘Ragging’, entails pressing a dampened and crumpled cloth into the paint and then randomly across the surface of the wall, leaving a textured finish; while stippling allows you to create a finely textured, velvet-like finish by patting a stippling brush into the wall’s wet surface, in a random pattern.
Sponging is also a popular ‘off effect’. Here a damp sponge is pressed into the wet paint on the wall and lifted off to leave behind a mottled impression. Additionally, these textures can also create an illusion which may help to hide dirt and hairline cracks that you might prefer to cover up – perfect for children’s rooms and outdoor areas.
Patterns and Designs
There seems to be no limit to the variety of patterns and designs you can feature on your wall/s – depending on your personal style and how ‘busy’ you want a room to look. Patterns range from the ever-popular chevron print, to simple stripes, typographic designs – especially in children’s rooms, and even the ombre effect – fading out the intensity of colour on a wall. Most of these designs can be created with something as simple as painter’s tape and sponges!
Faux patterns
This is a great technique to use when you love the texture and warmth of a product, but cannot use said product in a particular room. For example, creating a faux wood pattern on your wall can translate the character of that material in an authentic way – you will need to practice this technique a few times before applying it to your wall first though, and will require specific brushes to create this effect. You can visit your nearest hardware store to find all the products you need.
Colour blocking
Will this trend ever go out of fashion? We don’t think so! Don’t shy away from solid blocks of contrasting colour to add depth and warmth to any room – although it is recommended that your room be quite large to begin with. You can even colour block a single wall with the use of painter’s tape by creating a single thick stripe between the two contrasting colours for a truly bold effect.
If you are prepared to let the paintbrush flow you can get creative with just about any room, or even all the rooms in your home. Turn a dull corner into a unique display, add excitement to the bedroom with a graphic wall or bring a touch of colour with itemised hues, but whatever you do – do it with passion and bring your home to life with colour.
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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!
A safari theme never really runs out of viewing time and is particularly popular for interiors at the moment. The warm, earthy tones give a sense of comfort and the accessories offer the anticipation of travel and adventure.
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