Claudia Ambrosi | Interior Design Portfolio & Blog
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Residential Project: The Process Step by Step

10/12/2020

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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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Lighting Design Tips for a Functional Home

11/11/2020

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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. 

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Autumn Style Ideas for a Cozy Bedroom

22/9/2020

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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.  

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The Best Interior Design Schools in Europe

31/8/2020

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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!

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Seven Golden Tips for Small Spaces

22/7/2020

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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!

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Outdoor Furniture Inspiration from the Nordics

26/5/2020

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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.

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Contemporary Nordic Style Inspiration

27/4/2020

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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.

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Home Office Ideas For Small Spaces

15/4/2020

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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! 

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Best interior design documentaries and books

8/4/2020

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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!
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Abstract: The Art of Design


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Stockholm Furniture & Lights Fair 2020

22/2/2020

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Kizu Table Lamps by New Works (https://www.newworks.dk/)
Another edition of the Stockholm Furniture & Lights Fair has recently occurred. With our greatest pleasure, we returned to the fair and we were impressed by all the stunning products we saw. High quality materials, creative design and the launch of new products, everything under the same roof.  We met again some familiar names from last year, and some new ones. If you have missed the fair last year, you can read all about it here.
This edition reminds me as well, that it is one year anniversary for my blog on this platform. It is rewarding to see the improvements of my writing and editing skills compared to the first articles. I have in project to keep learning and develop my blog alongside my studies at KLC School of Design. 

Here below, I will share with you insights and trends from Stockholm and the other Scandinavian countries. I hope all the Nordic style lovers will find lots of inspiration, and so any design lover. 

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Homeware textiles guide: pros & cons of natural fabrics

31/1/2020

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​As you may know if you red my bio in the About page or follow my social media, I am working part-time in a soft furnishing showroom in central Stockholm. My customers often ask me which fabric is more suitable for their sofa, curtains, bed valance or headboard. The choice of fabrics for homeware is so vast and each fabric has its own characteristics, which make it unique and more suitable for a type of furniture than another one. This is why I decided to write a guide with pros & cons of the most common textiles. 

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Christmas styling: centre table arrangement

29/12/2019

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The living room featuring cushions in velvet from Chhatwal & Jonsson

This Christmas 2019 has just passed and I am starting to mentally prepare for the new year ahead. It has been a calm and cozy Christmas in our flat in Stockholm. Unfortunately my family could not join us, however I will visit them in Padova very soon. With this blog post, I would like to show you how I styled my flat for Christmas. I really enjoyed it this year and I have chosen the typical palette of red, green, white and rust with accessories in brass finish. I hope you will like my flat and that it will inspire you for next Christmas. 
If you are interested you can click on the links provided and shop the same items. This blog post does NOT contain affiliate links.


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Martindale Test guide: how to choose the right textile for your home

11/12/2019

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​I have been working for few months now at Bemz, a small-medium size company specilised in soft furnishing, specifically on slip covers for IKEA sofas and armchairs. 
Embarking on this new adventure has taught me already great aspects of the soft furnishing business and what customers struggle the most with.
The most frequent question is surely: which fabric is more durable? Nobody wants to upholster a sofa or armchair and see the fabric scratching or breaking after a short period of time. We all want to invest our money wisely and consciously. 

The Martindale Test result is surely the answer to all doubts and this is how it works: 

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Above: Martindale Test machine

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DIY Christmas flower arrangements: easy & quick ideas to decorate your home

8/12/2019

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​Christmas 2019 is getting closer and closer every day. Today, on the 8th December, in Italy it is the day families gather to prepare the house for the imminent holidays.  I remember this time of the year being very magical with lots of expectations and excitement. Surely it is during this period that I started to experiment with interior decorations and flower compositions. 

In this blog post, I aim to guide you with some practical inspiration to create your own Christmas decorations with very simple materials and seasonal flowers, that can be sourced at your local florist.

Let's look together at some simple flower arrangements that you can do by yourself at home together with your family.


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Pavilion Design: my first degree project

26/11/2019

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​After a long absence, I am finally back! I had a very busy month working in the showroom of Bemz (still learning a lot there too) and putting together my first KLC project for the Foundation Degree in Interior Design.

I thought that there might be many others interested to know what we generally study at a Degree in Interior Design, therefore I thought to write a blog post slightly different that the previous ones, where I used to inspire my readers with decorating tips. A little deviation towards something more personal, I thought it could help you to understand my skills and development as interior designer, and how they could be useful for your home too.

Let's discover then the very first project I just completed: the pavilion design.

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Home staging: the tricks behind a successful sale

11/9/2019

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​You always wanted to sell your property and hopefully sell it at a higher price than you bought it to earn your investment back. Home staging can help you making your home looks gorgeous and attract many potential buyers and, therefore, a higher chance for a big sale. 

Which are the secrets behind all those perfect houses we often see on real estate ads?
How can we prepare our home for sale?
Let's discover together some DIY tricks for a stunning home staged property with before & after images.

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Simple ways to turn your home into a money-making property

11/8/2019

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Rent part of your home as an independent dependance

​Looking at your property as an investment can help you turn it into a great and easy opportunity to earn an extra income. 

Perhaps you have just done a refurbishment, built a new house or you are leaving for a long holiday. 
There are many easy ways for everyone to earn some money with your house. You do not need to wait until you will sell it to get that extra cash from your investment. You can start right now as you are to make money with your home.

​How to monetise your property and earn an extra income right away? Can anyone do it?
​Let's discover how in this article.

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Classic Contemporary: guide to decorate in the most elegant style

4/8/2019

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Pastel colours and beautiful lighting for a fairy tale living room. Designer: Laura Hammet

​It is getting popular even in the white dominated Scandinavian capital, in London is the secret to success of many designers, loved in the Middle East and in new markets like China and Hong Kong. 

What is it so attractive of this style? How to create it? Let's discover it together!

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Decorating with plants: how to bring the outdoor indoor

18/7/2019

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Nowadays people are more aware of the benefits of a healthy lifestyle, which includes walking regularly in the outdoors to inhale fresher air that helps us relax and live longer. Decorating with plants is a trend that has recently increased as well, as more homeowners wish to bring into their interior a reflection of that outdoor lifestyle. I honestly think that nature has given us one of the best decor element we can wish for and we should definitely use it as much as possible. 

Which are then the right plants to choose for our home and, how to use them?
​I will summarise the properties of my favourites here below and how to locate them into your home.
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Mediterranean style: how to bring the charm into your home

2/7/2019

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​This gorgeous style finds its roots in the hot and torrid Mediterranean countries in Southern Italy, the Greek Islands and Morocco.
 The high temperatures during the summer months, the flourishing Mediterranean vegetation and the proximity to the seaside, have always had a high impact on the interiors and houses of this region. 

Even if you are located far away from these scenarios, you can still style your home with the same typical features.
Here a mini guide through the characteristic elements of the Mediterranean style,
to bring that charm into your home.
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Interior of a restored church in the Chianti region in Tuscany by architect Marco Vidotto

If you live in a historical property, be always respectful of its history and try to style it enhancing its previous function and use. Find out typical furnitures of that age and with the help of a skilful carpenter, reproduce some of that furnitures. Mediterranean style is very antique and therefore very beautiful and very charming. 

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How to choose the shower: box, walk-in or combo?

13/6/2019

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​To create a stunning look in your bathroom, the shower plays an important role as taking the majority of the space in your bathroom. With so many options in the market, it can be really a difficult choice.
How to choose then the best shower box?

Here below, a helpful mini guide to help you achieve the bathroom of your dreams. 
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First of wall the shower box must be practical and functional. 
It has to made in materials that last in long time, be easy to clean and maintain. 
With limescale as our worst enemy for shower box, it has to have the right system to avoid too much of them.

Homeowners, can choose among different type of shower box, usually according to their taste and the use of the shower.
The shower can be done in different ways, here the most common:

- Walk-in shower
-  Shower box with plate above the floor or floor-level
- Spa shower or multifunctional
- Bathtub-shower combo
- Built in shower without doors or glass



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Compact living solutions

31/5/2019

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​One of the greatest interior design challenge nowadays, I think is cleaver solutions for small places. 
With so many families or couples living in the city centre in very small apartments, designers are asked to come up with smart ideas to provide the largest amount of storage and a comfortable living for their customers. 
I personally lived in different European cities and always found very small apartments to share with other tenants. While I was at Salone del Mobile this year, I've seen some incredible solutions that will allow you to save space and decor a small apartment, without giving up a stylish design. 

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Compact living unit - day version with sofa and desk

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Countertops... what to choose?

23/5/2019

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Are you also going throw renovation of your kitchen or bathroom and struggling with the choice of your countertop?
With so many options available on the market, homeowners usually find it difficult to choose what it's best for them.
In order to take your decision, it is important to consider the size and age of the components of your family, the use of the kitchen or bathroom and finally which style you are wishing to accomplish. 

Let's look more in detailed to the characteristics of the different materials for countertops, with their pros & cons.

1. Granite

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Granite is probably the most loved material for countertops. Granite countertops are gorgeous and their durability make it a natural stone that you will hardly regret. Let's look closer to pros & cons:

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Scandinavian dining chairs

16/5/2019

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Hans Wegner for Carl Hansen & Son, Wishbone chair

​It was with great joy that I connected, through my account on Instagram, with many fans of the Scandinavian style in Italy. I'm thrilled to see so many embracing this style even in Southern Europe. 
Many think that Nordic design is synonymous of cold and characterless interiors. However, I see this style as very sleek and tidy indeed, but also very cozy and full of stunning decorative objects carefully chosen.  
For any Nordic style's lover out there (but also for those willing to take some reconsideration),
​I would like to point out my favorites iconic Scandinavian dining chairs, that will make your dining room looks perfect. 

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Trends from Milan Design Week 2019

30/4/2019

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​For the first time this year, we managed to visit the extraordinary Salone del Mobile during Milan Design Week 2019.
If you are not familiar with the event I will explain it to you here: it is a major event for architects, designers, interior designers, contractors, lighting designers, interior bloggers, and anyone working (or loving) within the main topic: Design.
The Design Week is divided into two events that stroll during the week: the Fuorisalone and the Salone del Mobile.
At Fuorisalone, anyone can visit showrooms of interior and lighting brands, plus in the city you will find exhibitions held by famous designers and architects. This is the most artistic and creative event and what distinguishes Milan Design Week from others in the world. We decided to focus on only one event, the Salone del Mobile. 

This event is held in the pavilions of Rho-Fair, a bit outside Milan city centre. The space was very large and we could not visit all in the only day available. Here, we found many inspirational brands for indoor and outdoor
furnitures.
From the most famous iconic Italian brands, like Minotti, Giorgetti, Poliform, Flexform, Porada, to some new discoveries like Mambo Unlimited Ideas, Casa, Pianca Design & more.
​Everything was stunning, innovative and of very high quality like only the "Made in Italy" can provide.

Here below a summary of the trends and most extraordinary furnitures we explored.

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    ​Claudia Ambrosi
    Interior Design Blog

    Certified Interior Designer & Foundation Degree Interior Design Student
    @KLC School of Design.
    Italian based in Stockholm.

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