I love visiting artists’ studios. Often, I am just so amazed how they make the spaces so livable with simple creative ideas and great cares. There are always fresh flowers and plants in their studio making guests feel so inviting and fresh. Of course, we can learn from them too. Here are 3 simple ways to bring spring indoors.
Having fresh flowers and greenery everywhere in your home. You can just pick them from your backyard–it is touch of nature.
Fresh flowers always make me smile!
2. Hosting a spring party in your garden with fresh-cut flowers , home-made organic cocktail and cozy seating , and your party venue become part of spring memory.
Spring is here. The warmer weather and blooms magically put everyone in a very cheerful mood. So, we took the opportunity and wander around LA street to immerse ourselves in the season and get inspired.
I always have a thing about bicycles. I love purple and flowers in this picture! It’s a dream if I can just ride a bicycle with full blooms in a small quiet beach town. If you happen to plan some make-over for your home, lilac is one of the good choices. I specially like lilac in matte finish. And also, remember have some fresh flowers at home! They will make you feel much happier!It’s a late afternoon. I like how the sun shines on the industrial building creating interesting shadows. This hot pink minimalism bench is such a eye candy in contrast with the grayish industrial surroundings. Spring finally broke through the coldness and is here with a little bit surprise and cheer. Take -away— for your interiors, don’t just pile things up, rather intentionly layer different things through creating interesting contrast!Graffiti on LA street is always my inspiration. Take-away for interiors: please always have some artworks for your home. They are the soul for each space. They make your lifestyle much deeper.Wood just brings the warmth for this high-ceiling modern space with a lot of whites.Cool rope lighting in this sun-lit cozy Japanese restaurant. I always love the room with a lot of natural lights
An outdoor space with a lot of greeneries, wicker peacock chairs and pink antique rug.
Finally, rain stops and sun is out. And most importantly, the weather is finally getting warm up to 70 degree in Los Angeles. I know it has been a weird cold for a very long time since last Nov. I think I prefer the warmer weather with a lot sunshines. Who wouldn’t?
Well, it is March and spring is just around the corner and Easter is coming soon. I just cannot wait to put up a beautiful outdoor tabletop for entertaining with some fresh color palettes and romantic components. What about you?
So, I decided to go through some photos and videos from the events we have been to recently for inspiration. Then I found this video I shot—I wish I could have done it better. Maybe next time. But the whole set-up, organic components, the sun-lights, crystals and yummy cookies in pastel colors and of course fresh flower pedals really talk to me. I love how they have a large wood branch as a center piece with elegant crystal sculptures scattering around. The contrast between organic elements and high-polished items creates such a beautiful , moody, refined yet relaxed and casual atmosphere. And fresh flower pedals all over the table are just such a romantic touch. It’s a dream afternoon.
When we just came back KBIS a week ago, we were really blown away by some of the innovations in the show. After all, the kitchen is the fastest growing sections among the whole home improvement industry. We always see some of the coolest things in kitchen from pro cooking appliances, range hoods, to refrigerators, faucets, countertop, smart technologies, lightings, etc… Although I am still working on the blog of KBIS 2019 (hope soon I can publish it), we were invited to a local trade kitchen showroom industry event several days ago, and actually were able to see some newer trends and technologies in the showroom that resonate what we saw from KBIS2019. This kitchen showroom is not that big but quite modern, neat and sleek even with a luxury walk-in closet and some cool technologies. Ladies, who doesn’t love a stylish, open and airy walk-in closet with a lot of bells and whistles?!!! And last but not the least, we had professional chefs working in the kitchen and making some yummy gourmet foods. Here are some of our wonderful moments from this beautiful night!
Fresh flowers always make guests feel so welcoming! I just love these saturated colors! They create a cheerful mood and beautiful moments. It is always such a good idea to have some fresh plants and flowers in kitchens. They make everyone happy and enhance the appetites!Hospitality! A stylish cheese platter is always a great idea to host a party in kitchens.What an eye-candy!Floral art
Here comes our pro chef! One of the things when we cook at home is that we can always use fresh veggies and other ingredients…
Yummy and beautiful!The kitchen is quite modern and sleek. Yet I like how the showroom styled the food with wood trays –very organic, warm and welcoming ..
Pretty and organic!
Here are some cool things in the kitchen area:
Touch-to-open sliding cabinet door! How cool it is! specially when you have a tight space, this type of doors can be a great idea!Miele Coffee machine—How neat it is! The coffee station incorporating a compact coffee machine in the kitchen is quite trendy in 2019. It’s convenient and very handy. Who wouldn’t love the coffee aroma in the earlier morning in our own kitchens?Here is my espresso just made from Miele coffee machine!
Time for some desserts
Yummy and pretty!
Well, after being through all of those above kitchen experiences, I think everyone just cannot wait to create a pretty live-in kitchen for ourselves or host a family/friends get-tother event soon in the already-pretty kitchens. After all, it is a life style!
Ok, let’s continue our beautiful evening by walking to the rear of the showroom. Wow, here is the large walk-in closet:
Love the central island and above chandelier and of course the lovely tufted leather bench.What a nice touch to be able to see your jewelries on the top island surface.Here is the overview walk-throughObviously, I don’t have any problem to just chill out here for the whole day!
When the sun shines through the windows, that is when magic happens. We realize it is spring time. Fresh, fashionable and feminine, this IS the theme for our Spring Story collection in fashion, home and art:
Every time when people talk about California coastal interiors, it is always kind of either white, cream or blueish color palettes with signature California lay-back vibes. But not for this one. It is located right at Corona Del Mar , So Cal and has a perfect polished modern classical style with maximalism in mind. The home is owned by Jerrod Blandino and Jeremy Johnson, the co-founders of the California-based cosmetics brand Too Faced. Then, I guess you expect some big wows!
Interior designer Mary MacDonald create such wonderful color palettes for each room:
Feminine hot pink pops up from cream, white and grey background with masculine architectural elements.The entry hall staircase is so French featured with gilded rails, hand-painted wallpaper, marble stairs. White, gold and black create such a modern classic tone for t5he whole houseLove this teal color in the libraryGrey, white, gold again create classic atmosphere in the master bath and wooden ottoman add a touch of warmth to this all marble-covered space.Love this pink guest bathroom. Pink, black and strong geometric patterns balance off each other.
Finally, the rain stops today here in Los Angeles after a whole-week wet weather. And as usual, we start to enjoy sunshine. When the sun shines through the windows, that is when magic happens. We realize it is spring time. Fresh, fashionable and feminine, this the theme for our Spring Story collection in fashion, home and art.
Often time, when we try to furnish the room, we just cannot find that right piece to fit the space, match the current interiors, add piece of personality and have all of the bells and whistles clients want. This, then, will be the perfect moment to customize whatever the pieces we need. Sometimes, the process can be really tedious since we have to make prototypes and get approvals from the clients. And of course, the clients usually have their budgets. For the following project we did, the client has dark brown wood cabinets in her kitchen—kind of cookie-cutter style. . We had a very hard time to find the right bar chairs for the island. She wants something light, elegant yet very cool. So we decided to customize the chairs for her. We have two purposes on our minds before we started the jobs: 1) Light up the dark brown kitchen cabinets 2) Add a touch feminity. We tackle the issues by focusing on creating the shape of bar chairs and searching the right fabric. we chose sky-blue performance velvet for the chair fronts and rose embriodery silk for the back. The clients really like the end result.
We are creating the bar chair prototype. The shape of the bar chair is cute and playful, which ease off the seriousness of the dark brown wood cabinets create in the kitchen. The chair can be rotated and the large seat area offer extra comfy.Whimsical rose emboidery blue silk adds a touch of elegance to the dark kitchen.The end result that the client falls in love with. Yes, we do the floral arrangement too.
There are 5 take-aways from tones of the projects we did to streamline the whole furniture customization process:
Always keep eye on vendors’ offers and options to simplify the custom-made work.
Understand exactly what clients want and their top priorities.
Develop good relationship with local workrooms and stay with ones who are able to understand and express your ideas better.
The finishes and fabric of custom-made pieces are always very important. They will either make or break the jobs. So the key thing is always to look for and learn the new fabric and finishes out there.
Be inspired all the time. the inspired mind can create magical.
It might be a little bit late to post our Holiday ShowHouse 2018–2019. But come on, it’s still Jan of 2019 and Chinese New year is coming. So it’s time to be festive and it’s time to celebrate.
The inspiration of our Holiday ShowHouse 2018—2019 is inspired by Pantone Color of the Year 2019–Live Coral—fashionable, bold, youthful, energetic and innovative. After several years of muted color palettes, millennium pink and grey, we feel it is time to break through to celebrate holidays with something fresh. Therefore, we are able to stay prospective for the future. Meanwhiles, Holidays are truly about traditions. We mix and match traditions with modern, Live Coral with vintage pink, emerald green with hot pink, camel with purple, Chinoiserie accessories with minimalism furniture, geometric patterns with classic forms and fine crystals with organic ceramic. The end result of this year’s holiday show house decoration is fun, edgy, playful yet still elegant and sort of traditional. Enjoy!
