The Live Loud Girl

Blogging can open the doors for possibilities that you never expect. You can even find a dream job of decorating 7 room house in South Arabia…well, this is really happening to Linda right now from The Live Loud Girl blog , who I’m presenting to you today. 

Difficult to imagine that she started blogging only in 2014. This Dutch mom living in exotic Dubai with her family including 2 cute boys is one to follow! She started her blog because she wanted to share her inspiration of home deco, sharing pictures from her own, very bright and open house and this led her to her first interior project…. Well done, don’t you think ? Before I will tell you what I like about her style, let’s give her a voice: 

“ The Live Loud Girl signature look is based on mixing it up. Scandinavia meets Manhattan with a touch of my Dutch roots you could call it. Combining old with new, vintage with IKEA making interior styling accessible and affordable, creating an atmosphere with attitude… “ 

Well , I can only say, I really like the spacious and full of light atmosphere she creates. Also her choices for furniture, light and accessories are unique and often not products you would directly relate with kids, which I always like to see. A fresh air in the kids world. 

Dream house and WOTH

My followers probably remember, that my family is looking for a new place. Our dream was to adopt an old school in Rotterdam and I talked about this here. Unfortunately we were not the lucky ones to get this place but we still keep looking. 

A while ago we had chance to see a very special place in The Hague during Festivaldesignkwartier. I’m still not over this house and could move in there straight away. WOTH – Wonderful Things – creative studio of the former head of Eigen Huis & Interieur and More Than Classic magazines, Mary Hessing. She lives there together with Toon Lauwen and their tree daughters. It is difficult to believe that this enormous space is hidden in the heart of the city.  But it really is! This place was created in a former milk factory and the transformation is absolutely stunning. Of course the house was ‘decorated’ for the design event and became a gallery for few days, but using such a beautiful space on a daily basis is just a dream to me…..

 There is a NEW Design magazine created by Mary Hessing, 

soon to be lunched. You can support the concept and get the first edition here! 

Monday inspiration - flower power in children's rooms

The trend for all things flower has migrated from the fashion catwalks into our homes. I do like plants a lot but I’m not such a flower passion lady. I do like challenges and to try new things, so here we go with the botanical trend on our Monday’s inspiration blog post. 

Would you dare to cover your entire wall with flower pattern?  I collected few inspiring pictures for you to let this subject open. If you would like to get more ideas - how to decorate your home with flowers - here is a very nice article: ways-bring-botanical-style-home. Personally I stay with bold and simple in my home and wardrobe, but from time to time a bit of flower blossom is a great treat to start a day. 

Happy Monday ! 

Thank you for the inspiration :  1 - 2 - 3- 4 - 5&6 - 7- 8- 9 - 10

Ashes of Roses bedding set and how I get things my way….

I was questioned many times, where do I take my inspiration from. Well, it is not so easy to answer that question with one sentence.  Inspiration for me is a process of collecting fragments and putting them together like a puzzles into something new. I look at Interior magazines, movies, Pinterest , I like to discover new places and I’m carefully watching reality around me…even when I’m standing in a line making grocery. When I go to a caffe, the front window with the view will be always my favourite spot. 

When I saw for the first time this beautiful bedding - Ashes of Roses, I knew, we needed it in our Rafa-kids bedding collection and that I will create a new room with it.  As I’m not a pink fan, I’m glad to discover so many different tones of this colour and play with it.  This particular image of  iittala with issey-miyake I find very inspiring.  I automatically imagined cosy, warm and magic sleeping space for a little girl. Then I collected other elements around Rafa-kids furniture and created a new space called - Sweet dreams. 

What is my secret? Well, I learned to believe in my own feelings and taste. If i doubt, then I just don’t do it and go other way, I take a break, I take a coffee. It is not always easy, and I do have many doubts, especially if you do something out of your comfort zone, but well….this is just a part of creative process. The final effect is sometimes better, sometimes I’m not happy about it  ( there are some Rafa-kids photo sessions and furniture which are never published/produced  ) but we are not perfect, right ?  The most important is to try and to do the best we can. 

Sweet dreams with Rafa-kids

I always wanted to create a magic room which would be all about children’s dreams and sleeping time. Unique space filled with dreamy soft colours and textures….

and here we are : new room created by Rafa-kids - we called it Sweet dreams. 

I’m not afraid of dark colours for children’s rooms. I think they give a feeling of cosiness to a room. I decided to create a space, with different dark elements : curtains, wall paint and dark furniture - in this case R toddler bed in dark chocolate. The base of the room was then kept in one atmosphere and calm.  All the accessories, which gave this room a personal character where selected with more present colours in mind: pink, orange and yellow. I wanted to give the room more details and soft girly character. 

For example, dark knitted lamps were personalised by adding little pink metal butterflies. New bedding in Rafa-kids collection ‘Ashes of roses’ was just such a perfect choice for this room. Reach texture of stonewashed linen and the deep and elegant colour of it. Together with grey and pink lavender pillows make all this look so perfect. 

Do you remember animal drawings from our Rafa-kids lookbook? They were designed for us by Asia Gwis / Kavka design. Well, we brought them into real life with us and made wall stickers to decorate. Do you like it?  We think they should be part of Rafa-kids collection very soon. 

What do you think about the wardrobe / storage wall to expose the garments, shoes and toys?  The grey colour is such a good base for these kind of projects….and if you will look very carefully you might discover a new Rafa-kids design already……

Special Thanks to:

Rotterdam kids store - Bonbonontheblock

for all the beautiful clothes 

from Mini Rodini, The Animal Observatory, Kidscase, GreyLabel , Stella McCartney Kids, 

and store in Sliedrecht - Loods5 for furniture and accessories: 

Eames rocking chair, Bloomingville rug, great lamps and baskets. 

Monday inspiration - Rafa-kids furniture in children's rooms

littlekidsville

There is nothing so touching and inspiring for me than seeing Rafa-kids furniture in real homes of our customers. I thought I will show you few recent pictures for our Monday inspiration series. 

Our idea was to design a smart packaging for our furniture so we can easily ship them around the world. It is working so well now. Most of the time it takes only one week to deliver worldwide. It is so amazing that there are children sleeping in our beds in so many countries, even as far as US, Singapore or Australia.

Like you see, our furniture is easy to adopt to any modern deco. The simple design is standing out in a room without being too much. Our customers tell us, that our furniture is looking better in real than on the pictures. I think it is the matter of experiencing the quality in real. Only when you see the product you can truly appreciate how well it is made. Quality, that is what we care so much about. It is important how the furniture looks, of course, but how it is finished, packed and how it will hold for many years to come is as important too. 

Seeing pictures of kids using our beds always makes my heart bit faster….

We fill so lucky to be part of their every day life. 

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