Playing With Interiors

Art Walls &

Creating a Bedroom Where There Was None

"Never stop to think... do I have a place for this?"

Mary Randolph Carter

The blue pillow cases are made from old kimonos by a Japanese lady (charity bazaar). 

Window curtains from Russia (gift from Mama). 

Quilt - Macy's (sale).

Justin bought me a new pocket camera: my old one went dead after extremely productive life, and another one was lost for a while, and when we found it, the battery exploded, and instead of buying a new battery for $30 to $50, he decided to invest in a new camera. So I'll most probably be getting back to my habit of taking tons of everyday pictures (which is both a wonderful hobby and good for family archives). I thought I'd share some with you - nothing super artistic, point and shoot, but with lots of character, warmth and attention to details, you know - the way I tend to do things.

I showed you our little cottage in this post, but those were photos taken over the course of two or three years, and, as you might realize by now, changes are the only permanent thing in this household. So in this post I'll bring you up to speed about a couple of aspects of our ever evolving interior, as it says in the subtitle for this post. I'll start with creating a bedroom where there was no such thing.

Part 1. Creating a Bedroom Where There Was None

When my parents were coming to stay with us this time, they worried about occupying our daughter's bedroom again - we are talking a few months stay, not a couple of days or weeks, and Anya grew up and definitely would feel the lack of privacy if she had to camp in the living room during these months. Even though she volunteered to do so (very kind of her), she'd start resenting this probably pretty soon, and my parents were sensitive, smart and absolutely lovely about it, and instead of creating a situation when everybody is annoyed with everybody, they created a situation when everybody has their own space and their privacy. As Justin puts it, "our house feels bigger when your parents are here."

Art Wall #1: Flower Power.

Do you recognize the purple and orange painting? It's by Shawna - I wrote the story of it in this post. 

The largest painting is an antique mall find.

The watercolor of a clothes pin is by a Michigan artist, I bought it directly from her many years ago, back in my shows and festivals past. Unfortunately, I can't remember her last name, only the first one - Marylin. We kept in touch for a while, and I know that she lived part time in Florida. Very talented.

The little painting of trees is a Goodwill find ($3 or so).

The Goose is mixed technique - hand carved and painted on beresta (birch bark), by my very gifted brother Andrei.

Finally, two embroideries. The one on green canvas (fall leaves and berries) is made by me 13 years ago (started it back in Russia, finished when I first arrived in America).

The one of flowers and butterflies is made by Mom's oldest sister Nina who passed away 12 years ago.

So how to do it in an old rental cottage with two small bedrooms, kitchen, living room and an odd room in between with practically no walls (windows and doorways on each single wall)? My folks just hung curtains to separate a corner of our "odd room" from the rest of the space. The project cost us nothing as the curtains were old linen ones from Ikea, and the rods are mismatched old rods. The "odd room" has never been used to its full potential before - it used to be sort of a dining/project/wardrobe room all at once, at times cozy, but mostly just a large wasted space. Not any more. Now we practically have an extra bedroom or study, or guest room for the cost of nothing! The bed is from Anya's room which, I will admit, was in my cottage style, and not especially in hers anyway. Making an additional bedroom was such an excellent example of creative thinking. Just think that you do have a space for this ... even if "this" is a new bedroom.

Part 2. Updating Kid's Room

But first of all, before they organized a room for themselves, my father focused on building from scratch a dream loft bed for his granddaughter. Anya wanted to have a loft bed since the age of 7 at least, but all the manufactured loft beds we've seen were way too tall for our home. When Anya heard that Dedushka can build her a custom bed, she was over the moon. At first, Anya drew a picture (in color) of her dream bed which we shared with my parents while Skypeing, so Dedushka/Papa had a chance to soak the idea for a while. (I wanted to include her drawing in this post, but unfortunately cannot remember where it is at the moment.) Using that drawing, my Dad made a new bed for Anya's bedroom. Such a great father and grandfather he is. The whole family was somehow involved in the process - purchasing wood from Home Depot, finding tools, and at the end painting in the color that Anya envisioned for her room. The whole project took about two weeks to finish, with designing, building, painting, drying and assembling time - the first two weeks after my parents' arrival.

The colors of the walls stayed the same - Anya's taste hasn't changed all that much since we moved in to this cottage in 2011.

She loves her new bed, and frankly her "new" room - and I heartily recommend a loft bed as a space saver, look how much it added to the little room.

Part of Anya's dolls collection (it seems, she's winding down with this one).

Mirrors and other cute purple and turquoise things are retail and antique mall finds and all cost close to nothing, but make the owner of the room very happy.

Sun shines through the Ikea curtain which Anya has loved for a while (bought at 50% off just recently). The cushions are Target (they have some talented designers working for them). The woven purple throw is from antique mall.

Part 3. Living Room Art Wall

I think your own style can basically come together in two ways: you make mental notes every time you see something striking and make a conscious decision to go with a certain style, whatever attracts you to it: comfort, status, whim, etc. Or your style forms almost randomly, evolves naturally over time, and only later you realize what it is. I still don't know what my style is called. What I know is this. It is comfortable, colorful, cozy and unpretentious, very informal. You don't need to worry about misplacing something or leaving a red wine stains in my house - no need to stress about all this nonsense. I want you to feel comfortable, to get on the sofa with your feet, have a nice cup of tea or coffee, write, draw or share creative ideas, and hopefully get an inspiration from some of the creations around you. I did not do it for visitors - I did it because that's how I want to feel at home. I felt self-conscious for quite a while to invite people because I don't know anybody with a busy, colorful, mismatched style like this. I recognize that for a minimalist at heart, my home might feel like a disaster, and as a "good girl" I don't want to cause any discomfort and don't want to be judged either. But I eventually came to acceptance within myself. Minimalism, thorough organization and thinking of color schemes is just not my cup of tea when it comes to my favorite home arrangements. What I love about homes is character, flavor, layers, colors, creativity, informality and warmth.

Art Wall #2: Flora and Fauna.

The central photograph is an art show find from Cincinnati, OH (the photographer was from Florida, the dusk shot was made in South France).

The fruit painting is an antique mall find, dating to the 1970s.

The little ceramic tile picture is from Goodwill.

The whimsical birch bark carvings are by my brother Andrei Lialin (visit his web site here - if you have any questions about his art or want to purchase a unique jewelry box or other art piece, don't hesitate to email me about it).

This art wall is ever changing. Recently, the landlord made some upgrades in the house (you can see the ugly white box on our central wall - it's our new heat pump, great in the long term as it supposedly saves our electrical bills, which used to be really high in the winter because the house is old and, as many old houses are, poorly insulated). We had to work around it, to drag attention from it to the wonderful art - thankfully, there is plenty because I started collecting things years ago (some of them are from Russia), and I have very talented and generous family and friends.

Another still life is from an antique shop on Bainbridge (I think that one is closed now), and the bird feeding her babies is from the Fife antique mall. The little "barrel" is carved from walnut, and I believe it's a traditional Ukrainian craft (I have a box carved in a similar way).

Finally, to the newest addition to my art collection - very special to me.

This is by my friend Slava Fedorchuk, a self taught artist, photographer and poet (also known as a gifted programmer during day hours). I met his wife Irina via blogging many years ago (I'm an old bugger... I meant blogger), in another state, and what sometimes feels like another life. Since then, so many things changed - new children were born in both families, everybody changed jobs or occupations, and not even once, we all changed locations, but still stay connected, and when Slava shares his art on his Google Plus page, I like to comment - and this painting was one of my favorites of his. What do you know - the artist just decided that he wanted to gift it to me. I love the double effect of sunny oranges reflected in the tea pot, the tea pot itself (such a symbol for us Russians and Ukrainians - we just love tea and long heartfelt conversations with it), and gifted by the artist himself, it's such a treat!

My daughter painted the big picture with a vase and apples (in Cezanne spirit) during her art class - I think she was 8 or 9 back then. The delicate sepia photo touched my heart when I saw it in a small Russian store in Cincinnati. Other little pictures (on the left) are watercolor on birch bark, above them is Russian fairy tale decorative plate (gift), and below is a little embroidery one of my coworkers gifted me for my relocation to the US. Old stuff with lots of memories. The curio is full of small trinket boxes - one of my hobbies a few years ago (I have probably about 200 boxes in my collection).

Since we have a large family in a small space at the moment, all of our rooms are multi-purposed, and our living room is also our dining (and breakfast, and lunch) room. The dining table was by the window for a while, but for now we moved it to open up more space. Below you can see the way this space looked just a couple of weeks ago. You can play with large pieces within a small space very successfully, I believe - the most important is to not overwhelm the room with the amount of such pieces (in our case, it is a couple of sofas and a dining table which get a lot of use and get moved around from time to time).

The wooden cutting board is hand painted, as is the metal Zhostovo tray, both are traditional Russian crafts and antique mall finds (Port Townsend and Port Orchard, respectively). I only use them for display, though they are perfectly practical and functional.

The antique rice container is from China, the beresta samovar and container from Russia (my parents' gifts), the paper box from the Phillippines (gift), and the printed tray is from England ($5 find at the antique mall in Fife).

The love seat fits perfectly into this strange little corner which originally was an entrance to the cottage (you can see the door with shelves which became a wall when they added another room to the house). I love fabrics, they soften and warm everything. Granted, these are not those gorgeous exotic woven rugs or blankets which you can see in bohemian style homes. But they still are lovely! The quilt is from a supermarket (Walmart or Meyers, don't remember which, bought on sale many years ago - it's actually quilting, not print). The cushions are tapestry: the flower one is Russian, the fruity one is not (found at Goodwill). And you can see my tapestry wall too. The upper tapestry is Russian, with me for years. I framed it in a way that cannot be undone without damaging the tapestry. I have no idea what possessed me to do it, but I guess at least it does not collect dust. Oh well, do it better the next time. The lower one is an Italian scene, and I found it in our local Goodwill for $2.99. The plate and plaque on the wall are also of an Italian spirit - Romeo and Juliette is an art plate, limited edition ($5 at antique mall), and the plaque is traditional golden leaf technique.

The view from our windows is still the main decoration of our modest little home. I just love it. It is one of the reasons that keeps me here, despite my nomad nature and constant willingness to relocate.

Conclusion

So I'm thinking now... what is it, my home interior style?

I think it started evolving into what it is back when we lived in a beach house (a small cabin) for a few years. I met a very talented woman, a self taught interior designer, who was very much into antiques country style, folk art, etc. She was incredible. I used to borrow some of her home magazines and just go through them over and over again. Then I started buying books about interiors (I have quite a collection of those now). And over time, I think, without much analyzing, I just started adding things that I loved, which bring me the feeling of warmth, acceptance, and joy of life, and at the same time awaken my imagination - the way fairy tales warm my heart and amaze me with their wit and fantasy. All of it together makes my home what it is. A little bit of English cottage, a little bit of Russian dacha, a little bit of whimsical artistic home - easy going, ever changing, and more than anything, cozy and comfortable. I'll include some of my most favorite images which inspire me, and without copying what I see, I create a home which has a similar feel, and yet is totally and only mine.

The three images of Russian Dacha above are from Dream Homes Country: 100 Inspirational Interiors (Merrell, London - New York). I love this book, my only complaint is that images are way too small - but on the other hand, there are TONS of them, which is a plus.

This one is from Rooms to Inspire in the City by Annie Kelly (Rizzoli, New York)

The last one is from Perfect English Cottage by Ros Byam Shaw (Ryland, Peters and Small, London - New York) - one of my most favorite books.

Phew, that was a long one. Are you still with me?

Tell me about yourself! What is important to you when it comes to your home interior?

Love,

Natalia

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