West Avenue Stairs

West Avenue is a project that I did some time back for the 1966 house but here we have the house more up-to-date and decorated in a much more modern style. I wanted to keep the walls looking plain but without using a flat and uninteresting painted surface and I therefore designed this pattern specifically for the walls of the room.

The purpose of the design is to give the walls an interesting and textured look which would work with modern ideas and modern designs but which also would create a little life and interest to the wall by creating this dimpled effect. The carpet, which is also the main feature of the room, is a pattern that I created some time back and which I felt would go well with the walls and would give the staircase and the interior a rich and inviting look. I have used the carpet pattern both on the carpet downstairs and also on the carpet on the stairs and it would, of course, run across the upper landing.

I have not created these patterns as fabric or as objects but if anyone would like to use them please send me an e-mail to miket (at) midcenturystyles.com and we will see what can be done.

These images are necessarily quite small but you can see much larger images of this, and my other designs and patterns for interiors, on my Flickr page, a link to which is here.

Sur La Beach en bleu

The last room was quite personal and various people suggested that perhaps I should, as I normally would, simply choose a theme for the room and redo it again. Blue is a colour that I like and which, for no particular reason, I tend not to use to any great extent so I thought I would create a blue room and see if my use of patterns found more favour.

The wallpaper and the sofa fabric are both Belle Epoque 2 patterns and, whilst the sofa fabric is designed to be very regular, the wallpaper was created with a slight jink in the pattern which takes the eye and relieves the monotony. Both the curtains and the carpet are variations of old patterns that I have done before and serve to provide pleasing decorative features to the room.

In this design the walls and carpet are light while the sofa and curtains are dark and the furniture in the room is painted white. An interesting alternative is to colour the furniture, perhaps a midnight blue to match the sofa, although this does create a rather sombre look to the room.

I have not created these patterns as fabric or as objects but if anyone would like to use them please send me an e-mail to miket (at) midcenturystyles.com and we will see what can be done.

These images are necessarily quite small but you can see much larger images of this, and my other designs and patterns for interiors, on my Flickr page, a link to which is here.

Sur La Beach Part 2 – The Finished Room

I thought, as I had done this with the previous room, that I would show you the finished room showcasing the wallpaper, designs for the curtain fabric and sofa, as well as the carpet.

The final result is very different from the look of the previous three images which showed plain walls and then similar, walls but where the plain surface was broken up by a surface pattern in order to provide decoration and relief from the unbroken, solid, plain surface. The decoration that I have created is very personal and reflects the way that I would like the room to be presented. The walls, curtain and window provide a sweeping mid-height surface which is light while the floor, carpet, sofa and furniture provide both light and dark areas with interesting colours and designs.

I have not shown the ceiling in this view but I would have intended that it was finished in a simple white paint although it would be quite possible to experiment with a painted ceiling.

The view outside is from an area near Nice in the South of France where the colouring is light and subtle and the days long, pleasant and warm and these have influenced the way that I have chosen to finish this room.

I have not created these patterns as fabric or as objects but if anyone would like to use them please send me an e-mail to miket (at) midcenturystyles.com and we will see what can be done.

These images are necessarily quite small but you can see much larger images of this, and my other designs and patterns for interiors, on my Flickr page, a link to which is here.

Sur La Beach Part 1 Easy Wall Covering

This is a project to look at a way to create a wallpaper that mimics the look of a painted wall but which takes that look further by giving the wall an identity and feel that make it much more interesting and which help to bring the room to life. So many modern rooms have single, neutral walls which create that now standard boring, clinical and somewhat drab look as though they were rooms on a university campus.

These images show an upmarket apartment living room with the walls painted in a bright, light neutral colour and then the same room with wallpaper in two different Belle Epoque 2 influenced patterns but which echo the colouring so that the overall look of the room is not changed. What is changed, however, is the feel and ambience as well as the character of the room both for the homeowner and the visitor.

Both of the two images where wallpaper is used in the room seem to have a much more decorated and planned look and both of these images, to me, look more homely and make the room seem more inviting. It is not often that comparisons like this are made and it is very interesting to compare the three different images and see how one feels about each one. Perhaps then you can choose which one is the one that creates the room in which you think you would feel most at home

These images are necessarily quite small but you can see much larger images of this, and my other designs and patterns for interiors, on my Flickr page, a link to which is here.

N08 Fabric Design

This pattern, which is a variation of a pattern created previously, has been made to use as a fabric pattern and in particular for soft furnishings within the home.

The design, I suppose, falls within Belle Epoque 2 as it has a small motif and a reasonably fast repeat along with bright colours that have a good contrast.

I have tried this design as it would look if it were made into curtain material and I was pleased with the result and so it is likely that you will see this design again in one of my finished rooms. The light background makes the colours stand out and shows off the pattern and the way the design should be used. For this reason I had in mind longer areas of fabric than cushions.

If you wish, you can also see larger versions of this and, of course, my other designs and patterns for interiors on my Flickr page, a link to which is here.

Ryelands Part 3 – A Final Cosier Feel

I was pleased with the previous version of the room but I wanted to make one final version where I made the room look, in my opinion, cosier and give it a more comfortable and mature look.

The final result, which you see above, is very different in feel and taste and takes us away from modern design into an area which is more homely, easier on the eye and which has a certain style and interest that used to be present in rooms but which has been lost over the last few decades.

I have replaced the panelled door by a modern flush door mainly because I never did like the way that I had modelled the panelled door which is rather my lack of expertise at modelling rather than a fault with the design. However, having done this, I immediately began to think that this was a much better surface to have as a door because it made the door less prominent and less of a feature in the room. I have also removed the rugs and removed the laminated flooring substituting a carpet. The carpet appears to be a fitted carpet but it could just as easily be a free carpet which occupies most of the area over the existing floor.

The wallpaper is a pattern that has a horizontal feature which gives dimension and size to the room as well as taking the eye across the room. The pattern on the carpet runs from the viewpoint to the far wall and again serves a similar purpose. It also, in my opinion, gives the room a cosy feel and invites the visitor or homeowner to walk on the carpet over to the sofa.

The patterns for the pouffe and the curtains are pure fun and were chosen simply because I like the look of them.

I have not created these patterns as fabric or as objects but if anyone would like to use them please send me an e-mail to miket (at) midcenturystyles.com and we will see what can be done.

These images are necessarily quite small but you can see much larger images of this, and my other designs and patterns for interiors, on my Flickr page, a link to which is here.

Ryelands Part 2 – More And Bigger Changes

The previous two images in this series took a room which was decorated in a modern form with plain white walls and applied wallpaper in order to create a quite different and, I think, engaging look.

I commented in the last post that this room could perhaps be improved by improving the rather anaemic looking patterns that are being used on the cushions, the curtains, the pouffe and the carpet. I admit that the patterns that are used are somewhat unimaginative but they do, in my opinion, represent the sort of patterns that people are using now.

My idea was to create a stronger, bolder design that would bring out the dimensions and shape of the individual objects rather than seeking to camouflage them against a uniform backdrop of colour.

I therefore created five separate patterns (in fact these are Belle Epoque 2 designs that I had previously designed) and applied these to the items above. The result is the image that you see and, to make this clear, I have combined all of the patterns into a composite which you will also see above.

I think, and it is a matter of personal taste, that this room looks infinitely better than the previous two because each of the individual components in the room has a definite and understandable identity. However, I have tried not to make the room look too strong or too bold because I want this to be a room which is also relaxing for the homeowner. But I did want to create a room which would be a statement for the owner and a representation of their own taste and style and thus make the room look unique rather than it simply looking like all the other modern rooms that one sees so often.

I have not created these patterns as fabric or as objects but if anyone would like to use them please send me an e-mail to miket (at) midcenturystyles.com and we will see what can be done.

These images are necessarily quite small but you can see much larger images of this, and my other designs and patterns for interiors, on my Flickr page, a link to which is here.