Bright ideas for a cloudy day

With an airy and geometric frame, this fixture
looks more like a sculpture than a light source.
Photo: West Elm.

The weather might be dull, but inside it's sure luminous! Lighting is enjoying a revival today as one of the key ways to set a room's style and boost its personality. 

For contemporary lighting, the trend continues to be "less is more".

Geometric shapes are in focus, making many fixtures look more like sculptures than light sources.

The pared-back industrial style is also still making strides, featuring fixtures with little more than a bulb and a wire. Simple and efficient.

Too simple, you might say?

But easy is good, especially if you're into DIY. And DIY is great if you're on a budget but still want high style. 

 

Ready to challenge your creativity? Below are links to three awesome lighting projects to try on a cloudy day. As always when it comes to electrical work, leave the final installation to a certified electrician. Here we go:
 

1) These fashion-forward fixtures are made of drinking straws, pipe cleaners, spray paint, cord and light socket. You get the idea just by looking at the pictures of the site.

http://blogg.skonahem.com/mormorsglamour/gor-en-lampskarm-av-sugror/.

 

 



 











 

 

2) To complete the Lindsay Adelman's Hanging Pendant above, you buy a complete kit here ($57) and follow the instructions. Lindsay Adelman's DIY projects also include a chandelier, mobile, desk lamp and sconce. Photo: Remodelista. Here are the parts for the Hanging Pendant kit:

 



3) Finally, here's a link to making an industrial pipe floor lamp (below).

http://howaboutorange.blogspot.ca/2014/04/how-to-make-industrial-pipe-floor-lamp.html. Make sure to read all the comments regarding enhancing the safety of this lamp.

 

 

Fall in love with orange

There's no escape: fall is here. It is surrounding us with warm reds, oranges and yellows - the same hues that we like to use as accent colours in our homes.

And while red really brings life to beige and taupe interiors, the vibrancy of orange and yellow is best appreciated when used in grey colour schemes, which are so in vogue right now. It's the contrast between warm and cool that makes the combination interesting.

Orange has been a popular accent colour for some time now. If you consider it for your home, first assess how pure or muted the other colours in the room are. Adding a vibrant orange to an otherwise muted colour scheme will not look right.



Interior decorated with pieces from Target's

Beaver Canoe collection.

I saw some neat orange pieces when visiting the Target store in North Bay last week. They were part of the Beaver Canoe collection - a collaboration between Target and Roots. Make sure to check it out! It's a contemporary, organic collection that feels warm and inviting for this fall!

Pieces from the Beaver Canoe collection

at Target's North Bay store.

Easing out of summer

Summer is not quite over, but with school starting next week, many of us are already in a fall mindset. But don't go too fast - there is still time to get your home ready for cooler temperatures. What we can do already now, though, is to start making plans and getting inspiration.

 

I subscribe to a variety of design newsletters, and one such publication is from Designers Guild. The company's relaxed, beautiful interiors and lush colour combinations always put me in a good mood. 

Here are some selected highlights from their Fall 2013 catalogue. I hope they will inspire you too! Enjoy the long weekend!