Interior design inspiration: Etage 7 Berlin

Although disappointed that the futon sold are only inspired from their Asian models, not necessarily brought directly from Japan or other Asian countries, Etage 7 Berlin offers enough reasons to change your mind about the style of your furniture. The shop I visited recently is situated on Kanstrasse 13, but the company also has another shop in Berlin on Schonhauser Allee as well as an online boutique.

The design of the shop itself is relatively simple, spread on two spacious levels, stucked with various models of beds, mattresses and other pieces of furniture (especially book shelves). The furniture used is originally from Central Europe or Mediterranean area, but the overall inspiration is from the minimalist Asian models.  

The customer service was very friendly, offering me a lot of details about various woods used for the furniture, as well as other details about the products distributed. The shop is very flexible and it is possible to order your own size - compared to what I know about the Asian furniture, the models were anyway quite massive, fit for the usual large space of the Western homes. An order may take 4 to 6 months till the final delivery. 

The models are relatively simple, available in different colour combinations. It suits the non-sophisticated customers, practical and with a sense of minimal fashion design. Especially for the futons, there are different models available, some of them with a serious elegant touch. Most mattresses I've seen are designed according to the highest health and comfort standards. 

These shelves are my favourite, although you need a lot of courage and a safe ladder to move different objects from a part to another. But when you are out of space, it can save a lot. 

The same space concern can push you to buy this bed too. The prices are medium, with the average price for a minimal bed going to around 600 EUR. With different modifications, it can reach around 1,000 EUR.

Interior design shop review: Kokon Munich

Travel is a great way to learn and discover more. As for me, I always try to combine the passion for travel with new discoveries in the domain of cooking, fashion, lifestyle and interior design. Many of my trips should always include a short overview of interesting shops and ideas. While visiting Munich a couple of weeks ago, I discovered the very elegant and colourful Kokon Shop, situated relatively close to the main central area, on Brunhamstrasse 21.

The style is rather classic, and includes a variety of furniture and design products. The space is huge and you will need at least one hour to browse all the options. In case that you already know what you are looking for and no time, there are many representatives of the customer service ready to help. 

The main style is modern, with a touch of classic. The prices are middle to high-end, and suit a variety of spaces, especially for the home. Especially the chairs are very varied. If you have a very modern and non-conformist/creative office, you can dare to bring some of them as part of the office furniture as well. 

The materials and textile part has very often an ethnic influence, that can bring a lot of colour to grey ambiances. A colourful chair pillow can completely change the style of the room, without too much investment. 

There it is also possible to buy directly the materials and use your creativity to create your own curtains or table clothes. The materials are the strong point of the shop, as it was the first type of products distributed when the shop was created, in 1987, with products from India and Bali.

Most furniture belongs to the South-Eastern Asian style. Matched with some flowerly Asian prints, it makes you feel you are far away in sunny lands. 

My favourite category of products are the lightning solutions, very simple, but extremely interesting when was thinking to match them with various interiors and rooms.

I spent a lot of time, actually, trying to imagine various places for those lamps and still feel that I miss some precious details.

The shop has also a corner dedicated to children furniture and decorations, colourful without being loaded. In fact, children don't need a loaded room, but practical tools and a lot of space to enjoy their freedom of playing in the most creative possible ways. 

In terms of decoration and general style per se, the shop doesn't have a certain line and the big space is rather randomly crowded. I was expecting more coherence and a unified design message, but on the other hand, with so many options and products, there is almost impossible to do anything else but to offer to the buyer the best choices and guidance. 

The interior design corner: Play with letters

For some the holidays are over, for others the high season of celebrations is about to begin. You don't always need to have a special occasion to celebrate and embellish your house or your little personal corner. If you are not extremely talented to make your own drawings or create special patterns, for sure you know to count and to write. For people like you - and me - , playing with letters and numbers can be an opportunity for personalizing your house. You can either paint them, or made various paper cuts or even wooden cuts. If your hand is not sure enough, any hobby shop has various shapes of letters that can be purchased at a very modest price.

Especially if you are a big family, creating personalized corners for every member of the family is not only beautiful, but also helpful. Think about the messy mornings when your little ones cannot find their own things because too sleepy to see where is their closet. Such decorations can be done with the full participation of the children that can paint and chose themselves their own colours and decorations.

Time-wise, such decorations are easy to make and you don't need to wait a specific amount of time till you are ready. One or two hours in the weekends can prove to be inspired moments and you can have a lot of fun while doing it, alone or together with your life partner and/or children. The failure risk is also very low and thus, you will be motivated to continued with more similar works.

Such projects work too for a party or anniversary, but also when you are out of ideas for a special present wrapping. Are you preparing a romantic or family dinner? Add some small letters or numbers marking the anniversary on the candles set to light!

Do you have a small shop and restaurant, and a limited budget, but you want to welcome warmly your customers? Welcome them with a cute funny message made up by colourful letters!

What do you need: 3-4 types of brushes, box of colours, various rubber colours, scissors, glue, colourful papers. All those can be purchased with an investment of around $30.

Good luck!

Book of the week: The beautiful home

A Beautiful Home must not be necessarily luxurious and the result of a 6-zero investment. Beyond the love for beautiful simplicity, it is the practical ideas and some good advice that may help you to create a space of your own without too much effort and huge debts. A book I strongly recommended to beginner and advanced home decorators and anyone interested to build easily the ambiance they were longing for a long time.

After all, creating a good environment for a healthy emotional and personal life isn't such an impossible mission. You don't have to be rich, talented designer or updated with the latest sophisticated trends. You need to know what can make you happy, what colours and arrangements are recommended for your space and to organize your time according to your priorities. You don't even need to take a leave from your office, as most of the changes can be done during the week-end or in the afternoon, especially if you are a couple and there are four hands involved. 

Michelle Stewart encourages everyone, with or without previous experience in the area of decoration and home design: 'Anyone can have a beautiful home'. For instance, you can turn your kitchen into a small coffee shop where you will enjoy spending time and finding inspiration for the good life of you and your entire family. 'A fresh coat of paint and a little bit of color goes a long way to making a room look attractive', advices Stewart. 

How the planning goes

Before you plan the interior design and refurbishing projects, you should know where do you stand for: how much money do you have, how many people are using the house regularly, what the owners want to do in the house - many social events, evening lunches etc..Also, the presence of pets and small children will assign different functions to the space.

The house is a business card of your personal style and try to adapt the environment as much as possible to your personality. As in many creative domains, having ideas is not enough: you need to read and see as much as possible, collect inspiration, use social media - Pinterest especially - for sharing impressions and finding out people with similar interests. Don't hesitate to ask the opinion of the experts and recognize your limits. With Michelle Stewart's words: 'The freedom to be creative involves the freedom to make mistakes'. 

What's trendy in the kitchen

The book covers all the spaces from the home, but obviously I focused most of my attention to the ideas for the kitchen. In many cases, the recommendations suit any space and can be easily used for embellishing your cooking space. It is important to find out the ads and prints that may set a special theme for your kitchen - like apples, family, joy in the kitchen, the mother in the kitchen etc. As in writing, it is important that the space says a story about yourself in a very articulated way. 

Wallpapers are recommended, but if you want to do some painting, don't hesitate to use high contrasts as it may add a different dimension and depth to the space. It is useful especially if your kitchen is small and you need to better feel the space. Let the natural light enter into the room and keep the windows open as much as possible. 

More than any other space in the house, the kitchen should be functional and the items added need to be strictly of immediate use. Flowers in the kitchen? Maybe, but only if you have enough space, otherwise, you better try to put your pans and towels in the perfect order. Especially if you are busy with job, family chores and cooking, you have to know where you find what and move easily for preparing the food as fast as possible. Get rid of the pieces of furniture which are not useful, repaint the old ones and think your space in relation with your cooking priorities. 

Wallpapers ideas: Louise Body

The search for the almost perfect decoration for the kitchen may take time. One may be in a certain mood for a colour or a special print, but once the new patterns are on the market, the change is in the air. But how can you change it without going through the big mess of the painting? 

The wallpapers are the easiest solution for a dynamic person with complex tastes. A wallpaper is easy to apply and is a relatively good investment in terms of quality. Especially when for a price of less than 100 you can have amazing walls that can be changed as often as you can afford it. 

A favorite of mine Source: Louise Body

During my researches, I discovered Louise Body, whose flowers and birds painted in soft light colors create that ambiance that I always expect from the place I would love to call 'home'. It brings peace and joy into any house. Body's website has many interesting models, many of them looking like out of the covers of a children's book. 

The wallpapers can go in any room and the prices are quite affordable, compared with the fine detail and unique lines. 

Colours of my kitchen

As in the case of your home, the kitchen needs to be more than the place where you go to eat something because you are hungry. A pleasant ambiance created with the help of the wall painting and the design of the furniture will most likely invite you to spend more time there because you simply feel good around. 

My kitchen is quite simple, as I prefer to have a big table in the middle where to put all the ingredients and tools used for the preparation of the recipes. Especially when I am baking, I need more space than usual and I want to use the entire area of the table. The space of the kitchen is not as big as I wish to, but it is one of the best arrangement I enjoyed in years. 

Besides the table, the oven and the sinks, and the fridges, I have another wood closet where I put some of the cooking spoons and the reserves of flour, different bottles of oils and the usual pasta savings. The colour of the kitchen is not at all my favorite choice in terms of interior design - a combination of grey and dark blue - but I can live with this. 

But if asked, I would have said that I want my kitchen to have as much green as possible, in trends with my healthy diet, based especially on vegetables and fruits. I would have preferred a lot of wood furniture, with enough space for flowers. Maybe the idea to have different wall prints for different seasons, especially for spring and winter, is not an outrageous idea: for instance, I would prefer a lot of colourful wallpapers in the spring, with red and blue and orange and some purple. 

As for the tablecloth, I do have a lot of interesting models: during the week, I change between nuances of blue and green, but also some elephants print - a memory of a trip to Thailand. As I am waiting for the spring, I introduced the table clothes with flowers - right now, I have a light green one with yellow and red tulips. 

Honestly, I realize the lack of coherence when it comes to the style of my kitchen and I wish that I have more time and resources to redesign completely the concept of my house. But for the moment I am only looking for inspiration and I promise to share the best ideas here soon!