 Another term of my Foundation Degree in Interior Design at KLC School of Design has passed and with it our first residential project and third project. It has been a roller coaster of emotions from frustration, satisfaction, disappointment, frustration again, stress and finally pride. I think it is all very normal when you care a lot for what you do to feel all these emotions, mostly at the beginning when you are still not 100% confident of your decisions. At KLC when we do a project, we learn and do the project at the same time with deadlines every week, which means we need to be sharp and receive new information quickly. This process can be stressful but all very rewarding when looking at the work done in the end. This is why I'm thrilled to show to the process, step by step, and the final design proposal here below.
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 Recessed ceiling with LED strips and spotlights (pic via Pinterest) Functional lighting is the most important element of a design scheme. Without the correct lighting, even the most expensive and well-thought decorating scheme can appear flat and uncomfortable. Good lighting is all about creating layers in the correct amount and location in your home.
For a year back in 2014-2015, I worked at Tom Dixon Design, a highly regarded lighting design firm, at their concession in Harrods Luxury Department Store. Being part of this fast growing brand and a globally renowned designer, was such an incredible experience that was both educative and gave many fond memories. During this year, I more or less constantly found myself in front of customers worried about finding one exclusive lamp bright enough for the whole room. With much thanks to my studies at KLC School of Design, a resourceful seminar with lighting expert Rebecca Weir from Light IQ, and my working experience, I was more than well equipped to educate my customers to plan a lighting scheme with different layers and light sources. Let’s discover some simple steps that I learned, that also you can apply to your home to create a successful lighting scheme.  Cozy autumn bedroom (pic via Pinterest) Crisp mornings, shorter days and yellow leaves falling from the trees call for autumn; the season were it is mandatory to lit candles, sip endless cups of hot tea and cuddle in bed under the warm blankets. I am sure that for many of you, like me, are already a bit nostalgic of the long daylight of summer days. Nevertheless, we can try to enjoy this new of season as best as we can. Personally, I enjoy cooking anything with the local Swedish mushrooms called "kantarelli", creamy risotto, pasta sauce, with toasted bread...you name it! Secondly, of course, I enjoy decorating our apartment with the autumn colours, so I change the cushion covers, the tablecloth and the bed linens. They are small budget-friendly changes but if you would like to change more, I hope you will like the mood boards that I have pulled together and that you will find the following steps useful to identify your style.
 Hand sketch and rendering It is very common that at the end of our holidays, back to our job and routine we start wondering if it really makes us happy or not at all. Probably, you have been tempted for a while to switch your career into the interior design industry and question how to start. The most important thing, it is actually realise how much this job is made for you and if it is something that you are willing to commit to in the long term. There is a bit of confusion about the role of an interior designer (I will go in depth about it in another article), to summarise it an interior designer takes in a brief from a client and then will try to find the best solution to optimise the space, considering the different functions, needs and wishes of the client. To reach this result, the interior designer will create a cohesive and appealing scheme with a specific style and colour palette, strategic lighting and eventually through renovation works. It is a job that requires great communication skills to present your ideas, an eye for detail, creativity and to master many different software. As it is a very articulate and complex job, education is crucial to keep up with the technologies and all the other competitors out there. With these top schools, your career change will be smoother no matter which background, age or skills you have. All you have to do to become an interior designer is start somewhere!
 Studio Flat (picture via Pinterest) Designing a small space, be it a studio flat, a cloakroom or a lavatory can be challenging and sometimes even frustrating. During the lockdown period following the spread of Covid-19, I had the opportunity to watch many interesting Live streaming on Instagram by renowned interior designers. Thanks to two great designers Cinzia from Moretti Interior Design and Nicola from Nicola Burt Interior Design, I received lots of useful tips and inspiration to make the most of our small spaces. I am thrilled to share it with you in this blog post seven golden tips to make your small space feel cozier and bigger!
 Outdoor furniture by Slettvoll I am so thrilled to share the big news that we bought our first apartment in Stockholm! The flat is really gorgeous and modern, built in 2016 with a living area of 46,7 sqm plus 12 sqm balcony with stunning view over the seaside. We feel very lucky to live closer to nature, yet only 15 mins by boat from the city center. For the first time, we can also design our outdoor space and we are so excited that we started already to look around. All the brands I love the most have published their outdoor collections and they are marvelous. I decided to summarize some of their furniture in this blog post as an inspiration for your garden or terrace with Nordic Style furniture brands. If you are keen to discover instead exclusive Italian outdoor furniture brands, you can find out more in one previous blog here.
 Dining table and chairs at Fogia' showroom (www.fogia.se) It was a sunny Sunday day in Stockholm, and so we decided to take a boat trip to the south side of the city and to finally visit the showroom of Fogia https://www.fogia.se/. The location is absolutely stunning, and so the whole concept of having many things under the same roof. I was really positively impressed by this place, and I hope to return very soon. If you keep reading this blog post, I will tell you more about this award-winning Swedish design company and their headquarter.
 Home Office (Image via Pinterest) In these weeks, many of us found themselves in lockdown due to the coronavirus and like me, many are working from home. Perhaps you had already a home office station and now you have to share it with your partner, or you never had it before. You may now find yourself rushing into buying furniture that you don't know if they will fit together, because this is an emergency and you weren't prepared for it. This doesn't mean that you can't still have a nice solution for your home office, something that can be durable in time. Like experts say, we don't know how long the lockdown can be and if the virus can return. Therefore, I pulled together four furniture boards with essential elements for a small, practical and cozy home office that you can quickly get into your home. The boards are in slightly different styles, all very sleek, airy and with a colour palette fairly neutral. My idea of a home office is that it should be a complement to your home, if it is located in the living room or in your bedroom, it should not be the main focus. If you are lucky to have an independent room, you can really study a colour palette that can go over to the walls, curtains and flooring as well. Find inspiration from my boards and get the look of your favourite/s one/s!
If you came across this article because you are looking for inspiration and things to entertain yourself during this Covid-19 lockdown period, you are not be alone. We are so many people around the globe, close in our homes for a uncertain amount of time. In this difficult time, it is very important to be nice to ourselves (I struggle with this too) and if we have a less productive work-from-home day or simply we just wanna dream to be somewhere else rather than at home, we must allow that to happen to make the whole situation bearable. Therefore, I try to do what I can with my days. I had so many topics for my blog I wanted to write about, but at the moment, they all feel out of contest. This is why I decided instead to share with you what is keeping my motivation and inspiration for design in this period. I summarised here below my favourites of the best documentaries, series and books in architecture and interior design. Let me know in the comment if you have seen/read them too! Stay safe people, we are strong, we can do it! Abstract: The Art of Design
 The living room featuring cushions in velvet from Chhatwal & Jonsson
 Interior of a restored church in the Chianti region in Tuscany by architect Marco Vidotto
1. Granite
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