living room Archives - Page 17 of 31

Enjoy a laidback New Year

You don’t have to get dressed up. You don’t have to stay up past midnight. You don’t have to start the New Year with a thumping headache. If you have always wanted to kick back at New Year, resting your feet on the rustic coffee table as you look at the fireworks on TV, we have some great ideas for celebrating the arrival of yet another year.

Small & informal

If you do want to ‘party’ then it doesn’t have to be a raucous, huge get-together. There are many of your friends and family who would enjoy a small and informal gathering. Is there anything better than enjoying the company of others, a roaring fire whilst snuggled on a delightful brown leather sofa? Or chatting at the rustic dining table? Ask guests to bring a few drinks and snacks and just let the evening unfold.

Pamper yourself

Want to stay home? Not a problem – there is no rulebook that says you have to party into the wee small hours. Enjoy your evening with a pamper session – take a nap, run a hot bath, soak in luscious bubbles and enjoy a drink or two with a loved one. Or drink tea, read a book or enjoy a film.

Potter in the kitchen

If you enjoy cooking or baking, then why not enjoy a few hours in your kitchen making the dishes that you love. From creating tasty tapas dishes to baking a delicious cake or tart, when it comes to enjoying the last few hours of this year, there is nothing better than good food and a drink of your choice. Enjoy with a fruity, punchy non-alcoholic cocktail is also a pleasant treat which you can enjoy with close family or with a gathering of friends. Your choice!

Night time walk

We spend winter dodging rain showers, being buffeted by wind and wrapping up against the cold. We rush from one place to another, not always enjoying winter. Talking a walk at night time in the inky-blackness of winter is certainly not on top of many to-do lists. However, why not drive to a well-known beauty spot and enjoy a twilight walk? Take a torch and a companion and enjoy the winter sky and the biting cold. Your choice whether you walk in rain or not but it can be invigorating! Return home to the comforting folds of your leather armchair, a great movie and snacks.

Movie marathon

Most main TV channels will have some kind of movie on during the afternoon or you could subscribe to one of the movie channels and enjoy back-to-back movies of your choice. Again, plenty of pre-made snacks scattered across the reclaimed wood sideboard for everyone to nibble at when they want and a drink in hand of your choice is one of the best ways to enjoy any winter afternoon, but perfect for New Year’s Eve.

Ditch the resolutions

New Year comes with many traditions including making resolutions to change things. But do we really need to? It may seem obvious to start something new at a New Year but the failure rate of resolutions tells us otherwise. Ditch the resolutions, dim the lights, enjoy a drink or two (if you want), read a book or go to bed. Either way, a laidback New Year is a great way to see off one year and welcome the new one, in our book at least.

Interior Design Trends for 2019, which will you try?

There are many exciting trends, styles and colours coming our way in the new year. With the grey of winter upon us and a chill in the air, it is always warming to look forward to seeing what designers have come up with. And there are plenty of trends that will work with every one of our collections.

1 THE must-have colour – Dulux’s soothing ‘Spiced Honey’

Let’s be honest, the majority of us need a space in our home that is soothing on all our sense, a chance to escape the worries and chaos of modern life. Dulux have come up with the goods in terms of the must-have colour for 2019 in the hues of a warm, soothing deep caramel beige. Even the name is soothing, ‘spiced honey’.

It’s a colour that can be used in any room, from the living room to the hallway and beyond. Great for all styles, including traditional and rustic, we think ‘spiced honey’ is the perfect partner to the reclaimed wood furniture of the Chelwood Collection – match with a cream rug and you’ll have a beautiful, warm but cosy feel to any room.

2 Want colour? You have it!

If you are not overly keen on neutral shades then you will love what the Pantone Colour Institute has in store for 2019. Their choice is ‘Living Coral’.

Deep, jewelled colours have long been our favourite and so if you want to add a pop of colour but not on the walls, why not opt for our jewel-coloured velvet armchairs? Mix them with a metallic finish – we are still in love with the gold-colour metals and brass – to bring more than a dash of glamour to your dining room landscape.

In the living room, opt for velvet too, with a deeply coloured velvet armchair and velvet sofa too!

3 Reclaimed, recycled, sustainable

2018 was the year that more and more of us started to make bigger but more consistent changes to the materials we used and how we used them. Whilst some people love the upcycled look, for others sustainability comes in the beautiful shape of a reclaimed wood dining table.

Interior designers are pointing to the fact that this will happen more in the coming year and may even become the staple of how we shop for furniture in the future.

As well as reclaimed wood, materials from sustainable sources, such as the mango wood used in the Chalfont Collection, could also be a contender for a top interior design trend in 2019.

4 Dark wood is making a comeback

In fact, the beautiful depths of dark shades of wood, fabrics and wall colour is a possibility for any room in the home this coming year. From an incredibly inky blue in the kitchen to black in the bathroom, there will be plenty to shake us up this year.

We’ve also seen nods towards darker wood too. Sturdy in nature and appeal, there is drama and glamour to dark wood. Sit it alongside brassy or gold elements and you have a cursory nod towards the glamour of the 1920s, not unlike the sophistication to be found in our recently added Blackbone Collection. A collection aimed at the dining room, it looks fabulous against a reclaimed dark wood dining table…

Recycling at Christmas – How best to go about it?

It is becoming ever more important for our generation, and for future ones too, that we really start to make more of an effort to recycle more. Christmas is the time of indulgence but this doesn’t mean we have to be wasteful.

But what can you recycle from Christmas and how? Are there alternatives to the traditions we have always indulged in? Obviously, here at Modish we love reclaimed wood furniture as it is more eco friendly but what else could be recycled this Christmas?

Wrapping paper

It’s an amazing fact but in the UK at Christmas, we bin 227,000 miles of Christmas wrapping paper (according to Telegraph), a shame when you consider that the majority can be recycled at the kerbside.

When you buy wrapping paper, opt for paper-based one over the foil wrap or one that has bows and the like stuck to it. The latter can’t be recycled but paper wrapping with all the Sellotape and bows removed can be recycled along with your usual recycling.

Of course, there are other ways of reusing wrapping paper in the home, something that many of us are becoming more aware of.

Christmas cards

Apparently, Millennials are sending very few Christmas cards, if at all. There are certainly fewer placed upon many a tall chest of drawers than in previous years in most households. Most are also forgoing wrapping paper too, a sign that their generation is environmentally conscious. Others put this down to being crotchety about the festive period.

We would like to think it is about helping the environment, something we are all about at Modish Living. The majority of our collections are made from wood that served another purpose in a previous life and we are proud to think that there are many more households enjoying their Christmas dinner gathered around a reclaimed wood dining table, seated on comfortable upholstered dining chairs.

And when wood is not from a reclaimed source, we use wood from sustainable sources, such as mango wood, a waste product of the mango fruit groves.

Christmas cards are a delightful way of staying in touch and we still buy and send around 900 million Christmas cards each year (according to Greeting Card Association), even though this trend may be falling.

You can recycle Christmas cards, whether they have glitter all over them or are a simpler version;

Some councils accepted them at the kerbside
Supermarkets will also collect used Christmas cards at their stores for most of January – look out for the special cartons to pop them in
Recycled the back of the card but save the top of the card for shopping lists etc.

Find out more about how to recycle Christmas cards.

Christmas tree

If you opted for a real tree this year, there are two ways of ‘recycling’;

Remove all tinsels, baubles etc. and check with your local council for kerbside collections of trees in your area
Buy a living Christmas tree in a pot that you can plant in the garden and enjoy for years to come.
Invest in a life-like artificial tree that you can use over and over again – there are some fantastic examples of all shapes and sizes, ideal for sitting alongside your sideboard cabinet in the dining room or living room

Boxes and crackers

Boxes, both white and brown cardboard, can be recycled at most kerbside or collapse them and pop them down to your local recycling centre.

Crackers can be recycled too – but you may have to dismantle them – the inner cardboard tube can be recycled at the kerbside. The paper outer can usually be recycled too, as can the inner ‘cracker’.

With all these options for Christmas recycling, will you be going more eco-friendly this Christmas?

Our most popular blogs of the year

Wycombe Oak Dining Table and Chairs with Bench

As the year draws to a close, there are award ceremonies and ’best of’ lists of all kinds. Not ones to be left behind, we thought we would do the same. We have, of course, created best-selling charts of our furniture items for you to take a look at, from the reclaimed wood dining table to the large sideboard but we also thought we would look through the year’s blog posts.

We use our blogs to provide information and ideas covering a broad range of topics, but which four blog posts caught your imagination most?

The Scandinavian style dining room

What is there not to love about the Scandinavian furniture style? A fusion of light coloured woods with natural materials, there is a clean, crispness to this style that makes it ideal for every home, from the family pad to the apartment of the Millennial.

Our get the Scandinavian style in the dining room blog with these new sets blog attracted a lot of attention, mainly because it gave ideas on how you can create the perfect backdrop against which the dining table can sizzle.

The best industrial coffee tables

As living room pieces go, the coffee table is a staple piece of furniture that can help to provide the balance and symmetry that the room needs. It can also be a talking point which is why we brought you a round up of the latest industrial coffee table to our range.

The new in: the best industrial coffee tables crafted from reclaimed wood blog brought together many beautiful industrial pieces that got people talking. From the round best of tables to the industrial coffee table on wheels, there was something in this blog for everyone of every taste and budget.

The industrial furniture look was popular throughout 2018, a trend that we expect to see continuing. There is something refreshingly uncomplicated about the fusion of familiar materials such as reclaimed wood and steel, one of the reasons why the industrial dining table too remains a popular style choice for many.

Stainless Steel in the dining room

Anything that shimmers, sizzles and glimmers is ‘gold’ in our eyes but when it comes to using metallic finishes, knowing when and how to use it in the home can be problematic. When is it too much? Can you have too much chrome, stainless steel or gold finish?

In our blog beautiful stainless steel pieces you need to have in your dining room, we shifted our focus on using metal finishes to an important room in the home and how, with the right backdrop and setting, a ‘silvery’ finish can lift the room from ordinary to extraordinary.

The busy hallway

A hallway is a place of transit, one of the reasons why we always leave decorating this space to the last minute. With this in mind, we have long championed the hallway as a space that should be stylish and functional.

In the blog what is the perfect storage for a busy hallway we gave you plenty of ideas for adding storage to the hallway. Versatile storage solutions, we looked at everything from cubed shelving storage units to hallway benches.

What’s in store for 2019?

There will be many styles and topics we’ll cover in the New Year too, from looking at the latest trends to how to use colour schemes, how to style reclaimed wood furniture and the reclaimed wood table and more. But of course, we want to hear from you too. What would you like to see more of in the coming months on our blog?

Adding festive style to the living room

The festive season is the time to add yet more style and aplomb to your living room, whether you have a small one with a 2 seater leather sofa or a large one with numerous comfy armchairs and like most other things, trends come and go when it comes to festive decorations and accessories. We’ve taken a look at what some designers predict will be making their way into the living room this Christmas.

Ring the changes with the tree

We know there is better smell or look than a real Christmas tree but if you’ve had enough of battling the dropping pines on the floor, then opt for an artificial tree. Ring the changes with a coloured tree.

In the Modish Living studio this year, we are working with silver and white, opting for a lush silver tree to add decadence and festive cheer this year. We’ve also opted for classic white decorations, sticking with wooden items when we can to sit with our penchant for reclaimed wood furniture.

Silver may be our metallic of choice this year but we still have a hankering for gold and brass finishes too. The gold coloured trim and the dramatic black oak combination of the Blackbone Collection is new in and is already proving a popular collection – and no wonder with its festive tones and finish.

Go miniature

The minimalist style is popular. Uncluttered with stylish lines and a crisp white backdrop, the minimalist style you may think, won’t sit easily with the festive cheer of Christmas decorations.

But you’d be wrong. We love the idea of a tiny potted tree, perfect for the minimalist look as well as for those of us enjoying a bijou living room in our home. Sit it on the mantelpiece and use delicate fairy lightings in its tiny branches to add a pleasant detail.

You could also tie a pretty bow or two and opt for small baubles, sticking with one colour to maintain the link between the minimalist style and festive cheer. Add texture and warmth to a room with a neutral tone rug too, such as our salt and pepper rug.

Stick with recycled Christmas decorations

As well as attempting to use less single-use plastic, many of us are very conscious of things like glitter and tinsel being environmentally problematic.

Of course, the sparkle is now synonymous with Christmas so if you must have glitter, opt for the environmentally friendly stuff. Take a peek online and you are sure to find a provider.

If you love our reclaimed wood furniture, you will love the idea of recycled Christmas decorations too. From ornaments carved out of reclaimed wood to Christmas decs that have been upcycled from other materials, anything made from recycled material will look fabulous on your large sideboard or your reclaimed wood coffee table.

Buy local

We all know the pressure the high street is under – now magnify those difficult trading conditions tenfold and you have some idea of what local small businesses face. Buying local means supporting your local high street, whether that is a small village shop or a cluster of shops in your local town.

Artisans crafters create truly stunning and unique pieces, Christmas decorations that will last for years to come. Small Business Saturday at the beginning of December will hopefully remind many people to buy local, buy small and support local craftspeople.

3 Great ideas to style a gold rug

Gold doesn’t have to be a difficult colour to work with but with brassier tones, you may be worried a gold rug could look out of place in your home. If you are decorating a room from scratch, start with the rug and build the rest of the room, including the reclaimed wood coffee table and other items around its beautiful hues.

IDEA 1 – Traditional, classic, super-elegant

Starting with the sandy gold rug, we love the traditional look that works so well with it.

Maintain the traditional look with the iconic shape of the brown leather Chesterfield sofa, completing the frame of three with an industrial coffee table.

The golden tones and brown hues of this traditional and industrial combination are ideal for when you want to add warmth and texture to a space.

Lighter colours open up a room and with the lighter sandy gold rug on the floor, it instantly creates a more open feeling to the room. Keep the wall colours neutral with light hints of cream or beige. We know that statement ceilings are predicted to be on trend in 2019 but a crisp, white ceiling would complement the rug.

IDEA 2 – Gold industrial glamour

Occasional, a trend comes along that everyone falls in love with and we love the fusion of gold glamour with the edginess of the industrial look.

Still warm and inviting, we love the combination of the deeper golden tones of the Columbus gold rug alongside the strands of grey.

Paired with our new arrival, the Hanbury gold linen sofa, it is a combination that shrieks delight from every angle. Continue this edginess with the beautiful side bookcase, a statement piece if ever there was one.

The final piece of this jigsaw has to be the beauty of an industrial coffee table. We’ve opted for the chunkier but still as delightful Maddox industrial large coffee table, complete with rustic reclaimed wood top.

IDEA 3 – Spicy warmth

In a larger room, a darker colour can help it feel cosier and ‘brought together’. In the winter months, we often seek warmth and comfort from darker colours, a great way to balance the grey of winter days and the chill of winter evenings.

This spicy gold rug from our collection is a great starting point for adding drama to a room and pairs perfectly with reclaimed wood furniture. Available in seven sizes, you are sure to find the correct size for your room – don’t forget, rug size is important because too small, its impact will be lost but too big, and the room will look cluttered.

We’ve added yet more spice with this beautiful velvet sofa, a deeper shade of mustard yellow that adds zing and zest to any room.

We’ve retained symmetry and cohesion by choosing two pieces from the same range. The gold-framed Belfort industrial coffee table frames the lush sofa perfectly, whilst a Belfort industrial side table on either end of the sofa would add to the beauty of this room. Top them with identical table lamps to ooze sophistication.

In our eyes, everything that shimmers IS gold. Don’t you agree?

Gold in the living room, does it work for you?

At Modish Living, we see trends come and go. Some have proved popular for a season or two, whilst others have hung around for some time, with small tweaks ensuring they stay up to date.

In most designs, there is some kind of metallic finish. Some metals add more drama, whilst others add glamour. Gold adds everything: drama, glamour, decadence and elegance. And we love it!

But we are also conscious that there are times when gold, along with brass finishes, gold leafed pieces and even gold rugs, can look out of place.

We wanted to know what you thought. Is the gold rush of late one that will last for the festive season or do you see it lasting longer?

We Asked, You Answered

We took to both Houzz and Instagram to ask our followers what they thought about the gold trend and whether they thought it would last beyond Christmas or not.

The results were conclusive – the majority of votes cast were in favour of seeing this gold trend continue beyond the festive season.

With this in mind, we wanted to make sure that you have plenty of choices when it comes to the gold trim, brass edging and gold rugs.

Glamour with an industrial edge – the Belfort Collection

Gold, no matter how you present it, has a glamour to it that other metals can only allude to. The golden hue of brass is similar but there is decadence to a gold-coloured trim that makes it a sheer delight.

The Belfort Collection is popular for its edgy appeal, the rustic finish with the smoothness of gold coloured legs and framework.

There are several items in this collection but anyone who invests in this narrow console table will be making a fantastic impression on guests, as well as a delightful backdrop for you and your family. Put it next to a velvet sofa and it’s sure to impress.

Drama with the depth of black and gold coloured trim – the Blackbone Collection

A recent addition to our oak furniture range is the Blackbone Collection, a heady fusion of dark oak wood, black tones with gold coloured trims and edging. Suitable at any time of the year, if you want to create a living room, dining room or hallway that is truly different and unique, then the Blackbone Collection is where you need to be.

Industrial chic meets glamour, a combination that is delightful. Brought together beautifully in this industrial coffee table. Just look at the pleasing cleanliness of its angles and clean lines…

If you want to make a bigger statement, the industrial dining table from this collection is the one investment piece that will keep on giving for years on end. Complement its beautiful tones of gold with equally decadent velvet dining chairs.

Light, airy with lashings of gold – the Chalfont Collection

If you prefer lighter toned wood, then the contemporary take on the industrial look which you’ll find in the Chalfont Collection with gold coloured trims is the understated allure you are looking for.

The detail etched into the wood – you can see the design in the large sideboard – and the brushed gold coloured finish gives this collection an appeal which we know our customers find delightful.

So the results are conclusive – the gold look is here to stay so how will you use this trend in your home?

Grey rugs, the perfect partner for almost any style

Grey is a fantastic colour to use and works well in every style from rustic to industrial and contemporary, just at home with an oak table with metal legs as with a reclaimed wood bed. You can just about get away with grey in the Scandinavian style too, although to stay true to its roots, keeps the addition of grey minimal. Introducing this neutral colour in the form of a grey rug also adds texture to space. Even better, a grey rug works in any room.

The dining room

A grey rug in the dining room provides a platform around which the entire room can be styled – no matter what room you are styling, always start with the rug and build around it.

What we love about grey rugs is their versatility and for the texture, they add to a room. In the dining room, you want to create a style that lends itself equally to occasional formal dinner parties as well as acting as an informal family dining room.

This patchwork patterned grey rug is a superb base, fitting well with both the formal and informal look we need.

It is a divine partner to the industrial dining table, complementing the grey dining chairs, ideal for adding cohesion. An open shelved, slim console table is the final piece that complements the industrial style dining room.

In the living room

You may want to opt for neutral colours in the living room but in a home with pets or a family home, neutral shades of beige, cream and white are simply not functional. Grey offers more leeway in terms of neutrality with the warmth of dark grey rug with a traditional pattern a sheer delight.

Add the ‘glamour look’ with the use of high shine metallic surfaces such as the Hanbury sofa, available in a two and three seater option.

Against the backdrop of cream and grey, this golden yellow velvet armchair is a sheer delight. In fact, if you are looking for a pop of colour against grey, golden or mustard yellow with deeper, earthier tones is ideal.

The golden frame of the industrial coffee table, from our new-in Blackbone Collection, makes the ideal addition too.

In the bedroom

Grey is a beautiful colour in the bedroom. We’ve opted for a blue-based grey in this lighter grey rug from the Lois de Poortere collection. Cooler and lighter in shade is a refreshing backdrop for the bedroom. Married with the warmth of a reclaimed wood bed, the appearance is not too cold or harsh.

We’ve opted from the solid wood sleigh bed from the Winchester range, a superior example of the beauty of reclaimed wood furniture. Sitting atop the grey rug, you have the perfect backdrop for moving your style in any direction – opt for warmer shades for the Scandinavian look, or pastels to bring a hint of the farmhouse, for example.

We’ve aimed this look towards the rustic adding a wooden blanket box for storage as well as this light oak small shelf ladder. Unassuming, it is an exquisite piece and one that is proving popular.

Is grey rug something you have considered? Which room do you think it works best in?

How to add charming farmhouse style to the living room

The ‘farmhouse’ decor style is perfect for decorating living rooms – full of character, cosy and warming, it perfectly combines classic shapes and tones with imperfections (often associated with the highly contemporary industrial style) for a surprisingly stylish overall appearance.

Originally, farmhouses were decorated with whatever was practical. That means whilst style is important, nothing should be too delicate or showy – it’s a style which is functional first.

So make sure to think about the items, or farmhouse furniture, that you need to make your living space work for you. Do you need a reclaimed wood coffee table providing space for books and games, for example? Or perhaps something which provides tonnes of storage – like a sideboard?

With farmhouses traditionally being practical, consisting of whatever could be found, matchy-matchy style isn’t really something which is associated with farmhouse style – in fact, that’s part of the charm. Opting for furniture which looks great together but doesn’t necessarily perfectly coordinate is exactly the look you should aim for with farmhouse style.

For example, the wooden table top on this farmhouse coffee table looks wonderfully chic paired with this light wooden ladder, whilst not matching exactly. Speaking of adding a wooden ladder – they are fantastic decorative pieces for a farmhouse living room, reminiscent of the traditional orchard ladder which may have been used to pick apples, whilst doubling up as a space to pop cosy blankets.

Beyond functionality, think about how you can add texture to your living room. A large beige rug is great for many reasons.

In open plan spaces, a floor rug will section out your room to create a cosier feel in your living room. But it also adds interest and a pop of colour or texture – perfect against the sometimes harsh-looking wooden floors.

Fabric armchairs are also great. This simple grey studded armchair offers timeless style with a highly contemporary twist which you’ll love for years to come. Pair with something slightly different to maintain the imperfectly-perfect style of farmhouse style like a fabric and leather Chesterfield sofa.

And what about your walls and flooring? There are plenty of options, depending on how much inspiration you wish to take from farmhouse decor. However, a popular trend at the moment is painting floorboards bright wight. White floorboards create a great contrast against wooden furniture and also really help to brighten up a space and keep it feeling airy.

Have you got any reclaimed wood furniture pieces already in your living room which would be absolutely perfect for creating a farmhouse inspired space?