Hanging Art in an unorthodox Manner

First thing I noticed when I saw this photo was the wonderful light in this bedroom.But as usual I missed some art on the wall. As you cannot see in this vignette whether there is more space in the room besides the place  above the bed I decided to suggest to hang a silk painting in a different way than it had been painted for:

Not very often you have the opportunity to hang a realistic/representational motif other than it was meant to hang but in this case I thought it would work. Especially the colours of the silk painting with the sparkling of the mother-of-pearl pigments in the paint would match the light in this bedroom beautifully:

Here is the silk painting in its upright format (from the Magic Creatures series and one of my favourite paintings in general):

"Nautilus"
(from the Magic Creatures Series)
silk, 40" x 13"
©Petra Voegtle

But it wouldn't be me if I had not found another example for hanging this painting horizontally - in one of the next post...

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Autumn on the Balcony

No place is too small to not grow something, to not have some living plant in pots on a small balcony or loggia, or even only on the windowsill. The internet can give you plenty of ideas how to start something like that, non-costly, non-labour-intensive.

This year I decided to do something about the missing colours at this time of the year. In the past I was always quite depressed when the plants had to come in to protect them from cold temperatures. The balcony then looked grey and abandoned. A sad view. Now we have end of October and my balcony is still full of colours thanks to one of the most wonderful flowers which show their true beauty especially at fall: Chrysanthemum.

You get them in nearly all colours you could imagine, you get them in all sizes, from large to tiny and you get them in various blossoms shapes - with very large blossoms which unfortunately do not survive frost but there are plenty enough, smaller blossoms which do. Even my Oleander is still blooming and adds his wonderful pink colour to the chorus:

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FINDS: Green Walls for Indoors

After I managed to turn our balcony into a little green jungle this year, I thought it might be an extra to have green walls inside as well. I mean real green walls with plants growing vertically not horizontally.

There are a couple of companies who create breathtaking green walls for inside with immense advantages for your well being and enjoyment because who would not love to have a green living wall in front of you rather than a grey concrete monster? Here are a few examples which may give your interior designs a completely new twist:

The first examples are from a company in Stockholm, Sweden, Greenworks:

image source for all above images:

  http://www.greenworks.se/index.html

Wouldn't it be exciting to work in an environment such as this? Or imagine to have a green wall in your living room so that it would not be necessary to have an additional sunroom to enjoy the feeling of an inside garden?

The following examples are from Indoorlandscaping, a German company, located now in Munich but with subsidiaries in Los Angeles and Mexico City:

 image source for above images:

  http://www.indoorlandscaping.de/

And here are some more examples from a company in England, Bio Tecture which are specifically charming:

 image source for above images:

 http://www.biotecture.uk.com

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What is growing in your Balcony Garden?

This year I am really happy about my "balcony garden" because it is so lovely overgrown. In fact not very stylish as it could be and not even very tidy but greeeeeeeeeen and many blooms still to come.
I did not want to invest much money because you never know how the weather will be like and if the plants you lovingly potted will survive without mildew or other lovely pests. The question whether they will survive our harsh winters is also important because I have no possibility to put the more sensitive plants in a cool place inside.

So I decided to try something new this year:
I planted vegetable seeds and simple flowers. Vegetables can have some lovely blooms and depending on what it is, grow nicely in pots with climbing branches such as the small pumpkins. They have big yellow blooms - unfortunately they last only for one day. So this is something I am not going to repeat next year.

I also planted seeds of the Tropaeolum (Nasturtium) which is one of my favourites because it creates absolutely lovely blooms in various shades of glowing yellows, oranges and reds and their perfume is wonderful. They look very nice in small glass vases together with one of the leaves or two and can serve as lovely table decoration.

I also planted the seeds of sweet peas - which have started to bloom in the meanwhile. Their perfume is wonderful and the colours of their blooms are absolutely beautiful. They also look marvellous in small vases. I can only recommend these.

And then of course herbs in little pots or larger ones such as lavender and rosmarin may not be missing. I especially love to cook with rosmarin. There is nothing better than adding a branch of fresh rosmarin while roasting fish. Astonishingly these grow amazingly well in my balcony garden (the herbs not the fish) although we have the sun here only till about midday. Then it is wandering off around the corner of the building.

Here is what I am talking about:

So do YOU have a balcony garden and what is growing there?
Btw - something else is very valuable when you have a balcony with a green wall - it keeps the heat off considerably on really hot summer days and functions like a natural air conditioning.

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No Swirling in the Bedroom please!

What the heck did the interior decorator think when he placed those "panels" on the wall in that mode? It turns the whole room into a swirling movement. This is hardly applicable for any room where you have seating furniture and definitely not applicable for a bedroom. Imagine you enter this room and your glance goes directly towards the wall - you cannot overlook those panels - it will immediately effect your brain and your feeling will be that on a ship when it starts rolling. Not a good feeling when you are going to bed...

Btw - these panels are beautiful and probably handcarved wood. I assume that they are the remnants of a vintage coffered ceiling which have been saved from an old building. But this is not the right place for them to be displayed and certainly not in this way - please!

A bedroom per definition is a private place where people usually sleep for the night or relax during the day. Furthermore "in some jurisdictions there are basic features (such as a closet and a "means of egress") which a room must have in order to be qualify as a bedroom. In many states, such as Alaska, bedrooms are not required to have closets and must instead meet minimum size requirements." (Wikipedia) Funny isn't it?

I wished I had more paintings in a horizontal format which could be hung here but currently I haven't. So this one should only serve as an example. The colours in this room are nicely warm - still they could bear some additional slightly brighter colours to add a bit more serenity to this otherwise lovely room.

The painting I have hung here virtually as an alternative to the panels is a silk painting from the Magic Landscapes series and is called The Valley - inspired by the breathtakingly green valleys of the Hawaiian Islands.

"The Valley"
(from the Magic Landscapes Series)
silk, 21" x 40"
©Petra Voegtle

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Too boring to sleep here?

Imagine you cannot find sleep because you are in a room that is so "calm" that your mind finds nothing to concentrate on? This sounds paradox to you? But exactly this would happen to me if had to sleep in this room. The night is dark and you cannot see anything anyway - you might reply - but there is something else to keep in mind. You look at a room normally with daylight or artificial light. So you SEE how a room looks like and this is in your memory already. A boring room is not a room where we find peace and calmness - boring things can even annoy - and gone is the sleep...

The room below is probably "only" a guest room and not the master bedroom but in any way it looks boring I'm afraid to say. Maybe the owner is going to decorate this room a bit further - just a guess.

There is nothing in this room that interests the eye. That's a shame. You don't need much to add a bit of a focus, an object of interest. Without this the room just looks very unkind.

I would have chosen a piece of art painted in bright colours that build some contrast to the wall. In this case it is "Sari 2", a painting and handprint with an interesting pattern, framed in a decent gilded wood frame.

"Sari 2" is an acrylic painting on heavy water colour paper that has been additionally hand printed with some ancient Indian wood blocks from my collection in order to add some beautiful patterns which normally are used on Saris and other textiles.

"Sari 2"

(from the Prints series)

15" x 20", acrylic on paper

©Petra Voegtle

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