SL House and Garden Styling
Click for larger view
The room is large, 20 x 20 meters and open; in fact it is all windows with an open door. I had lived in Barbados, West Indies for a time and recognized the "outside - in" concept. It worked for me. 300 prims sounds like a hefty budget, and it is -- but when you are married to the "people sized" furniture concept, it takes many, many pieces to fill that large an area. Luckily, I have always been a proponent of white space, whether it was in painting, multimedia design or home interiors. My virtual tastes mimic my real life ones. I am a small scale, open spaces, let the vista in kind of gal.
Defining the large space was a first step. This, while not planned, I accomplished in the middle of the night shortly after receiving the invitation and the landmark to the staging area. I pulled out some of my favorite pieces, most that had come from my recent 10 x 10 skybox home. Obviously the did not fill the space. They did, however, help define the areas that I wanted to focus on. The next thing I did was to build a new floor, I wanted a darker, earthier color to help ground the space. I also added some orange ivy to some of the windows to help lower the ceiling visually. I echoed the rugs throughout the space to divide the living areas into three parts, living room - library, bedroom, and meditation area.
A quarter of the space was still empty. What to do? Outside - in. Yes, we definitely had the outside vista as the wallpaper of the living areas. Why not continue that idea? After all we can do most anything in virtual land. So I added a grassy hill and a few butterflies and the meadow was the first thing I would see upon awakening. Later I added a two step stage in the living room area to further define the space.
From there it was adding accessories and plants and it was all coming together. I liked the openness of the plan, but having lived in a situation where the bed shared the living room in one giant space (800 square feet and round) I realized that most anyone would be more comfortable with a bit of a barrier between couch and bed. So I made a room divider in the theme of a fence and the tone of the windows.
That is the story of how this space came into being. Interestingly enough I did the feng shui AFTER decorating. I find I learn about myself, my motives and sometimes hidden feelings if I analyze once the job is done. My bedroom was placed in the fortunate blessing bagua and the meditation area in relationships. I had situated a single chair in that northeast corner with two pumpkins and three squash. Interesting. A real life artist friend was visiting me as I started on this project and I was giving her a tour. We gave each other knowing looks as I mentioned the SINGLE chair *wink* and she suggested I add another. "No, I like the one.," was my reply. Later though as I was going through my plants in small containers folder, I found a pumpkin seedling and added that to area. Who knows what that seedling might produce in the future?
You can visit this display in November 2010 at the SL House and Garden sim's guest stylist building.
A big thank you to all the designers that created elements of this outside - in interior.
Later note: Unbeknownst to me the actual plan was to have pitsch Parx build a model for my design. As sometimes happens, serendipity steps in with lost notecards and IMs going astray. In the end I am happy I didn't know the real system; I love challenges. Well OK, "sometimes" I love challenges, and this one was definitely enjoyable.
It will be fun to see next month's design. I am happy with mine. I could DEFINITELY live here!
