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Posts Tagged ‘Wall’

Moroccan Furniture & Home Decor – Moroccan Lamps & Lanterns

Moroccan home decor allure, charm, grace, seductiveness should be enough adjectives to describe the coastal style of countries occupying the northern & southern side of the Mediterranean Sea where this decorating style originates. Moorish influence, the demands of it’s climate, available materials and maturity over time have set the tone for this design and decoration that has spread outward from the region. With bright colors you could get easily with a Moroccan-themed room.

As a much loved regional decorating theme, especially in south of Spain and north of Africa for the tradition it represents, moroccan style will always have an important place. Beyond, it is being altered by the popularity of other decoration themes having shared similarities. Mediterranean will remain an influence for sure as several themes merge into a new form. Already, in America, it’s purity has been lost in a blur of influences and mutations. But, that is all pure speculation. What authentic Moroccan decoration means today is cause enough for enjoyment.

Wall Texture

Walls are predominately textured. It is what gives that pre-requisite aged appearance. An over-all application of neutral sand paint supplies a good base. It’s easier than working with tinted sand paint at a later stage. There are prepared burnished Venetian plaster paints on the market that provide lots of texture. These can be used when working with color accents. Include plaster moldings, cornices and columns when ever you can. Oh the color The sea and the sky and the warmth of the earth. Lavender and creamy yellow make a whimsical appearance in this mixture. Blue is always making an appearance. You will no doubt be using lots of accessories –brightly colorful to muted earthy and aged metallic– in your creation. You can see these colors samples on our armoires, doors, ceilings…. That’s not a warning to exercise caution and agonized pre-meditation in your selection of wall paint. Most walls will exhibit atoned or maybe even a wash effect by mixing some degree of white into all your color choices. By applying some of these same paints at full strength, boldness can be added to appropriate spaces later as your overall project begins to take shape.

Color Accents

Incorporate brilliant mosaic tile designs into rich orange/red terra cotta or brick tiled floors. You can choose to continue the motif by applying the mosaics to the wall in the place of base mold, inlay them around door frames and be sure to make use of mosaic tiles for the kitchen or bathroom back splash. Select a foyer, hall or alcove to try a troweled on red or lavender burnished plaster paint application for a dramatic affect.

Furniture and accessories

Furniture may be elegantly crafted from fine hardwoods or simple rustic designs of common woods. Either way, pieces are low and heavy set and often include accents of tile, iron or marble. Lots of furniture on the market carries a Mediterranean tag but that is as close as it comes to having the authentic scale and quality of the real thing.

Glass, iron and terra cotta have been decorating basics for centuries. The appeal of these works that you’ll want to use in abundance is in knowing the materials used, the production techniques required and workmanship employed are time honored traditions that can’t be changed. It can still be captured! Hang wall tapestry from mounted wrought iron architectural pieces. Wrought iron grills can also be wall mounted to create the illusion of a window, above doorways to accentuate an entrance or to each side of a camel bone mirror to add interest and old world charm. Go back to some of those base paints to color in bulkheads or selected short walls.

Pottery has important application. Either in natural terra cotta or colorfully finished, over sized pots and vases in classic shapes add drama, form and color. Continue enhancing the allure with iron and wood wine racks in the dinning room. Add tapestry runners on side tables and top the one on the dinning table with a cast iron candle holder for quite, romantic dinners. Burnished brass urns, an indoor faux stone water fountain, and of course a thick relief, plastered fireplace hearth are “musts” if you can work them in. The most difficult task you face is knowing when to stop.

Some Final Meditarranean moroccan Inspiration What you want to accomplish is a point of interest, a touch that impresses, a subtle surprise at every turn. If there is one decorating theme with the abundance of choice and style to make that happen this is it. As you sit to work your plan be carried away to lunch at an estate winery near the Mediterranean coast. It is to be in a small, almost enclosed courtyard hidden behind an aged sunflower yellow stucco wall. From the stone pathway you can only catch short glimpses of the setting through grilled windows as you approach the heavy, weathered wooden door way. The door is adorned with cast iron florets and above is a slope of clay roofing tiles. Lying seductively behind is the romance of your own finished home.

Hisham Ben Arbi, owner of http://www.casbahdecor.com

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One could I be pardoned if, like Rip van Winkle waking up after a 20-year sleep, he finds himself most pleasantly surrounded by a plethora of objets d’art that have mushroomed, replacing the traditional framed pictures that have always adorned walls. I Instantly, he’s amazed to find them made of metal, a material normally used in construction, not in art. He’s even more delightfully surprised to find that such a material – which sometimes includes parts one can only find in junk yards – could be transformed into a thing of beauty and a bundle of paradoxes. I Metal, for instance, is heavy, yet here are metal sculptures ranging from delicate mobiles to gigantic stabiles that flutter or sway in the slightest wind. It’s cold, yet as a metal wall sculpture or any abstract metal art, the emotions it elicits is anything other than cold. He’s also amazed to find them everywhere – for instance as a 16-meter, 50-ton vermilion leviathan like Alexander Calder’s Flamingo which adorn the Federal Plaza in Chicago, or as an exquisitely delicate and life-like praying mantis adorning a lighted corner. From indoor metal wall sculptures decorating walls, to gigantic stabiles jazzing up public sites, metal art is here. Here are some facts would-be metal art aficionados might want to know.

Casting
Some metal sculptures are made by casting, sometimes called lost-wax casting. One of the most famous in this type is Benvenuto Cellini’s Perseus with the Head of Medusa statue in bronze with its startling detail and immense grace. I Here, the artist pours molten metal-which can be aluminum, steel, bronze or some other alloy — into a mold, which, after some tedious process, is removed, revealing the masterpiece inside. Then the masterpiece is cleaned up, and, often, a patina is added. I Casting dates back 6,000 years, its oldest surviving example being a copper frog from 3,200 B.C.
Fabricated Sculpture

Here, the artist welds metal pieces together, which, often in combination with lighting accent results in a breathtakingly beautiful piece of art possessing the power to transform any drab corner into an electrifying area of glam and even chutzpah. These art pieces endow the lucky owner instant pizzazz, marking them off as possessing style and grace. I
Patinated copper abstract contemporary wall art is an example. I Other examples could be abstract brass or steel sculptures given a torch coloring or transparent tint finish. I All share the same characteristics: I handcrafted, hand-painted, and unique. I There are small ones and big ones. I Some are intended for outdoors, others for indoors. I Each artist has its own style, and some have even gone so far as to specialize in one specific category, honing their skills to perfection. I There’s one artist, for instance, who specializes in animals and insects, and whose frogs and I praying mantises are incredibly life-like and look like they couldn’t possibly be made of metal. There’s practically everything for everybody. There are human forms, animal forms, and yet still others which can’t be described by any other adjective than “alien” form. I

Found Art
One artist in this category – which is also called “found object,” I “objet trouve,” “ready made,” or “junk art” — describes his work as “sculpture fabricated from twentieth century by-products,” which aptly describes art of this type. I Found art sculpture differs from fabricated sculpture in one significant way: I found art starts with an already finished product, e.g., a piece of copper tube, an elbow joint, a nut, a dented car fender, the base of a table lamp, and turns it into something totally different from the original. I In this sense, found art finds kinship with the green movement slogan: I re-use, re purpose, recycle.

Gardens are great! Many of us have worked with some sort of garden, even if it was a mini garden in our front yard or backyard. While gardening can be hard work, there is something invigorating about the hands-on activity of working with soil. Also, it is rewarding to taste the fruits (and vegetables) of our labor. If you want to capture the glory of gardens as a bedroom theme, then follow these basic guidelines:

1. Select a light bed
The bed does not have to be lightweight in weight per se. Consider:

-ornate brass beds
-white or off-white beds
-headboards with a floral design
-cast-iron beds with wicker

2. Add floral wall art to the walls
You can add a variety of wall art with either floral or garden themes. Pressed flowers or ferns are one idea. This amazing process can increase the flowers life while allowing it to retain its beauty. You could also hang up pictures, such as botanical prints, on the walls. Finally, consider lovely botanical wall art, such as leaf metal wall art. Various styles and sizes of such art are available.

3. Choose a painted wood or pale wood dresser, or chest of drawers
Use a Battenburg lace or classic floral print tablecloth (circa early 1900s) atop the chest of drawers or dresser.

4. Choose curtains that create a light and spacious appearance
You have several styles from which to select, including eyelet, floral-print cafe, ruffled curtains, and tab-top.

5. Choose beside tables that support a garden theme
You could select skirted round tables topped with a fabric that complements your bedspread. Another option is a table with a glass-top, such as those for outdoors. Yet another option is a painted wood table that looks weather-beaten.

6. Accessorize, accessorize!
Accessories always put the finishing touches on any themed room. Likewise, you can use a wide array of accessories for a bedroom with a garden theme. Your options include:

-animal figurines
-birdhouses
-dried flowers
-fresh flowers
-lace doilies
-potpourri
-wreaths

7. Choose lamps with a basic appearance
Consider ceramic and wrought iron lamps as options. Of course, you could also select a lamp with a floral pattern. Once again, the importance is that the lamps provide a light appearance. After a tough day in school or at the office, such lamps can create an ideal aura for reading a book or magazine.

8. Use beddings that are light
You have many options, including chenille, delicate floral, eyelet, gingham checks, lace, and pastel quilts. Such beddings can effectively complement various types of floral and garden wall art, such as leaf metal wall art. Regardless of which style of bedding you choose, make sure that it has a light appearance.

While putting a garden in your bedroom is somewhat impractical, the next best thing is to create a garden theme for it. You can use various items, such wrought iron wall art, to create a light and relaxing environment!