Luxury Interior Design Journal » Accessories

Italian Flower Arrangements and Luxury Lighting

Laura Bielecki — Sun, 30 Jan 2011 01:46:19 +0000

VG NEWTREND Lighting

I am still head over heels for the stunning artistry of Vincenzo and Marllena of VG NEW TREND. Their products are so refined and sophisticated. Unlike most Italian companies I find these products are very well presented with rich photography and backdrops, and from what I have seen of images of their stores every last detail of presentation has been considered. The VG of VG NEWTREND stands for Vanin Giancarlo Spa, an Italian company with years of experience and discernment in interior decor. The company is well known in national and international markets for the attention it pays to detail. The VG NEWTREND collection includes furnishing, luxury accessories, lighting and objects made of fine metals, resins, glasses, ceramics and exotic woods. VGNEWTRENDS’ aim is to create visually striking environments which incorporate influences and hints of different worlds and cultures.

I would love to see these light fixtures and chandeliers in luxury hotels, retail stores and restaurants… the mood and quality they exude would perfectly showcase a high end brand. I can imagine a hallway with the hanging wall sconces as the only lighting with rich materials and textures. the amoebic forms of these sea creature like floor lamps would be stunning in a lobby or even under a grand staircase.

Art direction for the company has come from Vincenzo Antonuccio and Marllena Calbini who started up the Scuola d’Arte Floreal Laboratorio Idee a school that teaches the art of flower arranging.

Here are some amazing examples of their floral arrangements that I could imagine in high profile spaces, luxury getaways and dramatic weddings. I love the way they present each flower and use the vase or base as a creative element that goes with the flowers rather than being a separate element. The photography of their products is truly gorgeous!

This image is of one of their shops- high end finishing, dramatic lighting and creative displays showing off all of their home decor, floral and illumination objects.

Laura Bielecki Oil and Acrylic portraits

Laura Bielecki — Mon, 17 Jan 2011 15:01:17 +0000

Laura Bielecki 2000-2006 Oil and Acrylic Portraits

I don’t share my personal work on my blog often, so when I stumbled across my folder of old works today I had to take a peek and share it with everyone. It’s been over 3 years since I last painted. On New Years eve 2011 I was at my dearest friends home and noticed the paintings I had given her carefully hung on her walls for all to view and I smiled having forgotten them all together. Another great friend just a week ago said he has decided to take up sketching again and wants to bring his sketchbook to Italy with me on our big upcoming trip. It clicked this week how much I miss expressing myself by drawing and painting… why had that not been my resolution for the year! I have been so wrapped up around advancing my career that I have been forgetting to take care of the other great things in my life that make me happy. Thank you both for reminding me of my passions, you know who you are!

This brings me to one of my New Years Resolutions…. Taking an evening painting course again!

Avenue Magazine article featuring Laura Bielecki

Luxury French Piano Manufacturer Gary Pons

Laura Bielecki — Wed, 05 Jan 2011 03:48:30 +0000

While I may not have the ear for playing instruments I most certainly have the appreciation required to enjoy the beautiful sounds of quality instruments and talented musicians. As an Interior Designer I love the beauty instruments can add to a space with their rich woods and metals with intricate details and timeless beauty. I recently stumbled upon the incredible French luxury piano manufacturer Gary Pons who’s pieces are worthy of any collector, pianist, rock band, concert hall or celebrity home.

These luxury pianos are all made by hand from the finest quality stings, felts, woods aluminum and Altuglass featuring curved, etched and sculpted designs original to each piece. These fine instruments are unequalled and cannot be compared to the Steinway, Schimmel and Pleyel pianos of the world. These are finely crafted works of art that make a dramatic statement to any interior and command attention. The SY185 grand piano shown can be yours for a heavy €35,900.

This world renowned piano manufacturer was privelaged in 2010 to be a part of Luxuria in Monaco, a gallery event that showcases the top luxury companies in the world. The show supports and promotes tailor made luxury, contemporary art and limited edition items for connoisseurs and collectors. All of the items are hand selected from discreet brands and seldom displayed ateliers for being renowned artists and cutting edge in their craft. The show represents the finest in Art & Design, Watchmaking, Jewelry, Haute Couture fashion, Leather goods, Automobiles & Motorcycles, Boats & Private Jets, health, Beauty and Fragrances, High Technology, Sports & Leisure and services. After all wikipedia even defines the word Luxuria as “the cardinal sin of extravagance”.

This year the Luxuria event – a quintessence of a world of privelages – will take place in the Grimaldi Forum July 07-08-09 2011

Black Christmas Tree

Laura Bielecki — Wed, 22 Dec 2010 16:14:55 +0000

How to pull off a flawless and bold BLACK Christmas tree and home decor for the holidays

Are you in the Christmas spirit yet? For a stylish Christmas that is sure to wow and create a bold look try decorating this year with the most unconventional Christmas decor color… Black!

Black Christmas Decor

Start yourself off with an artificial black Christmas tree, preferably one that is big and bushy. Make sure it is covered in white Christmas lights (you may need more than an average tree due to the darkness of the tree branches). Find yourself some beautiful and unique Christmas ornaments with lots of sparkle and shine- stick with clear, white, black and silver ornaments. The less color in the decor the more dramatic the look. Keep it as black, grey, white and clear as possible! Red can be used as an accent as long as you have the self control to keep it to a minimum.

amazon.com-black and silver Christmas ornaments

Find yourself a super sparkly garland, large flowers (real or silk) with maybe a bit of silver lining and a bold uncoventional Christmas tree topper. Think of using a wide silver ribbon to create a bow for the top of the tree or sparkling tree branches or even long white flowing feathers…. get creative and be sure to stay unconventional.

At the Edmonton Festival of Trees 2010 one submission was perfectly done as a gorgeous black tree. The designers found a motor to slowly turn the tree and used a large mirror for the base of the tree to make the piece sparkle and shine.

Edmonton Festival of Trees black Christmas tree Topper

Be sure not to stop at just the tree. All of your presents should be wrapped in metallic silver foil paper or high gloss black with silver or velvet ribbons. Cover your table with ornate black ornaments (the same ones you used on the tree). Tie a black ribbon around your dining room chairs and switch out your lampshades for black ones! Be sure to add extra bling to your space with extra crystals hung off your chandelier/wall sconces and table laps and use them in your napkin rings and wine glass markers. Overflow an ornate clear glass vase with ornaments and consider an all silver wreath for the front door.

Let me know how it goes and be sure to send me photos!! (lb@laurabielecki.com)

Beach Christmas Decorations

Laura Bielecki — Tue, 21 Dec 2010 06:04:17 +0000

Christmas is a time for fun and festive celebration and giving, a time to show your heart and light up the world. What better way to express yourself than to personalize your home to your own individual tastes. Picking a theme, color or word that expresses yourself will create an astonishing decor that speaks to you and shows your true self to others.

In the next few days I want to share with you some great bold themes that are anything but ordinary and far more than just a green and red Christmas!

Beach Theme Christmas Decor ideas:

If you still can’t get summer off your mind or you are somewhere hot and tropical like California, Hawaii or even Australia this Christmas bring the seashells home! A beach theme offers a great personal decor statement at a low and DIY friendly price. Keep the decor simple and relaxed to make the decor pop.

Beach Christmas Decor

• Make a sea shell wreath for your front door, matle or window! Cover a styrofoam wreath in shells- all you need is a little hot glue and some patience. You can come up with some great designs using different colors, shapes and sizes.
• Make a seashell garland out of pre drilled shells and a fishing line,
• Wrap your presents in a light ocean blue or sea foam green handmade paper with twine or white ribbon and add a starfish, sea urchin or a cluster of shells instead of a big bow.
• Use mother of pearl or iridescent white charger plates
• Make all your accents either white, gold or silver (adding too many accents will make your theme scattered and too busy)
• Use varying heights of candles around the room for a romantic night at the beach setting
• Consider using sand, shells and white/clear and iridescent ornaments to make a grand centerpiece.
• Hang seashells and simple ornaments from your chandelier

BeachGrassCottage oranaments from Etsy

• Accentuate your mantle with a piece of driftwood, some candles and a large conch shell
• For a bit of extra bling and refinement spray paint some of your decorative starfish or larger shells in silver or gold
• Can you say mermaid tree topper?
• Mix your tree decor with large shells, water colour baubles and clear glass ornaments filled with beach finds

Decorated sea shells

• Give your gingerbread bikinis and toques and cut your shortbread into nautical shapes of stars, anchors and shells.

Gingerbread in Bikini's

• Serve oceanic fare for dinner
• Surprise your guests and paint a wall Sherwin Williams SW6477 Tidewater or SW6470 Waterscape as a brilliant backdrop to your Christmas tree or mantle wall.

• Keep your linens white and simple- a great backdrop to your decor.

Beach Christmas Decor in Australia via: australiaentertains.com.au

Merry Christmas!! May all your trees have Tiffany’s blue boxes under them

Tiffany Blue Christmas

Laura Bielecki — Mon, 20 Dec 2010 22:36:14 +0000

Tiffany Blue Christmas

When you are trying to come up with a color scheme for your Christmas home decorating take inspiration from your favorite things- flowers, food, nature, shoes etc. Try doing something bold and be inspired from your favorite fashion designer or boutique. Hermes orange, Valentino Red or in this particular blog articles case Tiffany & Co’s iconic blue box!

Turquoise and Teal are unconventional Christmas colors but are very in fashion is both large and small portions. This color always makes me think of the perfect shade that is Tiffany blue. Imagine turning your home into a Tiffany’s Christmas masterpiece. This color goes well with light medium and dark woods, light and dark modern or traditional homes…. there is always a great way to bring Turquoise in!

Here are some fabulous Tiffany decorating ideas:

Teal and blue Christmas decorating

My favorite combination for Turquoise or blue Christmas color schemes is white. White is the freshest way to make a color pop, as if the Christmas ornaments had been dropped in the snow. Add a hint of silver and you have instant sparkle and shine. Turquoise is very in style for Christmas 2010. Try it at home in varying shades from blue to sea foam green in both bold and pastel shades. This look is both fresh and icy! Use vintage mirrors and crisp white lace on your table, don’t forget the silverware! For a great shade of blue for your walls or invitations pick something similar to Sherwin Williams SW6464 Aloe.

Teal & Turquoise Christmas Decor

Have you created a beautiful Tiffany’s blue Christmas for yourself? I would love to see the results. Let me know how it went and how you made it extra special.

Pink Christmas Decor

Laura Bielecki — Mon, 20 Dec 2010 05:56:04 +0000

Princess Christmas Decor in PINK!

Color themes for Christmas are growing in popularity. Expressing your individuality in your Christmas decorations will impress your guests and make you feel right at home through the cold winter months. For the princess, barbie or all around pink fanatic the color can be a great bold statement to make a fresh and fun home that looks like cupcake icing and plush animals.

Pink Christmas

Keep your Christmas tree itself as either white, ivory, pink or silver for the best effect. Pick unique ornaments that are sentimental and girly. Think figure skates, cupcakes, teddy bears, unicorns, Barbie, picture frames and lollipops. Use all different shades or pink from pale to peach to rose. Play with fun, colorful and unusual items to spice it up.

Even with the bold theme of pink there are many variations to the hue. You can choose a classy mature woman dusty rose and coral or a Victoria’s Secret fun loving PINK or even a juvenile candy cane and Barbie’s pink. It’s important to stick to the vision and theme or you could make it a flush flop! Personally my favorite pink for Christmas decorating is the mature woman pink with rich tones of coral and dusty rose and accents of pearls and flowers (just like my image above).

For the fun loving Victoria’s Secret Pink decor be loud with black or deep purple and fuchsia for your color scheme. Don’t make the Xmas ornaments too dainty, with this theme you have to keep it loud and graphic. This look is ideal for a teens bedroom, dorm room, retail store or decadent Christmas party!

PINK Victorias Secret Themed Christmas

Teenage Pink and Black Christmas

For the juvenile cupcake pink Christmas add subtle pieces of other colors like turquoise, pale yellow and light purple. Fuss over details with polka dots, stripes, ribbons, bows and texture through your wreath, ornaments and nicknack’s. Make everything feel frosted with sparkled and iridescent shine for a fun and cute xmas. Christmas lights should be soft and sparkling… white is always the best and most versatile option!!

Via: canvasandcanopy.com - colorful pink christmas decor

Candy cane cakes

Send me photos of your pink Christmas. I would love to see what you have accomplished!

Merry Christmas

Top 10 Handmade Christmas Tree s 2010

Laura Bielecki — Mon, 13 Dec 2010 05:53:06 +0000

Christmas Trees are like people, they come is all different sizes shapes and colors. To me nothing is more special than a one of a kind unique christmas tree. Here are my top 10 favorite non living Christmas Trees made out of fun and fascinating materials.

Here are my top 10 favorite unique handmade Christmas trees

10. A Swarovski Christmas Tree in Austria. Beautiful, simple and sparkling crystals!

Glistening Swarovski Crystal Christmas Tree in Austria

9. Murano glass looks amazing in all forms. Here is a stunning Murano Glass Christmas tree in Venice Italy. This glass tree is 8.5m tall and 3m wide weighing in at 3 tons which makes it the world’s largest glass blown tree. It was made by local glass blowers out of 1000 glass tubes and 2000 metal rods.

Murano Glass Christmas Tree in Venice

8. Here is a cool Cardboard Christmas Tree made from 200 sheets of cardboard glued together with Starch and sprayed with fire retardant. This Innovative tree could be created in numerous different shapes as a great DIY weekend project.

Eco Friendly Cardboard Christmas Tree

7. Nothing can be richer on the senses than a tree you can eat or drink! Here are 4 favorites… Sushi, Wine, Chocolate and Beer trees! This beautiful Chocolate tree was done by Ferrero Rocher.

Food and Alcohol Christmas Trees

6. Last year my Kasian crew got together to make a stunning Wood Veneer Christmas Tree for our annual Edmonton Festival of Trees entry. Metro Wallcoverings donated all of the wood veneer wallcovering for this piece in 2 species to create the stunning wood tree.

Wood Veneer Christmas Tree

5. This ice tree sculpture made from 300 recycled water bottles suspended from the ceiling. Designed by graphic design firm Paprika it was hung in the window of Montreal furniture store Domison in 2008.

Paprika Design Ice tree made of water bottles!

4. Here is my favorite Glass Christmas Tree! Once again by by great coworkers at Kasian, this tree is our Gold medal winner from the Edmonton Festival of trees. See my full article for more about this elegant and icy creation that would fit beautifully into any decor.

Kasian Glass Christmas Tree

3. This sparkling tree is at the Swarovski Boutique at Singapore’s Landmark Tower. Elegantly crafted it has the quality and construction of a chandelier.

Swarovski Tree Landmark Tower

2. Gorgeous and festive Istanbul Christmas Tree

Outdoor Christmas Tree in Istanbul

1. Swarovski Tree in Shanghai’s Grand Gateway Shopping mall

Swarovski Christmas Tree in Shanghai

Kasian Festival of Trees entry wins GOLD!!!

Laura Bielecki — Thu, 02 Dec 2010 21:19:39 +0000

Festival of Trees Mock up in the Kasian office

Kasian has made a tradition of coming up with exciting and beautiful orginal entries for the Edmonton Festival of Trees each year. This year with aspirations of gold we took to our toughest challenge yet. The theme of this years competition was “Sparkle” and what better way to embody the theme than to make a Christmas Tree out of glass with sparkling silver oranaments! Our Kasian team joined forces with renouwned glass artists at Panache glass and ceramic to create this innovative and sparkling tree. Ewa, Marlene and Rose from panache volunteered their time and glass to create each individual glass stem a different size and shape to form the tree. On Kasian’s end we made a form for our glass filled concrete base with castors and purchased a threaded steel rod, bolts and washers to secure the glass.

The Edmonton Festival of Trees raises funds for patient care and research at the University of Alberta Hospital.

Myself and Simon adding finishing touches to the glass tree

It took Panache a few weeks to create all of the individual glass pieces and once they were finished the Kasian team came down to test out the weight of the glass on the structure and to determine if we wanted to paint the pieces of not. We opted on leaving the natural green tint of the glass as it was classic and elegant. We also believed that the glass in its natural color would appeal to more potential buyers. Once we brought all the glass back to the Kasian studio we assembled the tree and worked on determining the best light sources, decor, skirt and tree topper. Taking the tree apart one more time we transported it over to the Shaw conference center and reassembled it within a 2 day window. The feedback we have already recieved from the event has been spectacular. Please go check it out if you have the opportunity before the afternoon of Sunday December 5th.

Christmas Tree decor closeup

Some notes about the tree: Their are 74 individual glass pieces, 8 strings of white lights, 125lbs of concrete and the overall piece weighs roughly 250lbs!

Edmonton Festival of Trees Gold Winner

Kasian Glass Christmas Tree Installed

Bird on glass tree

Restoration Hardware Edmonton

Laura Bielecki — Tue, 16 Nov 2010 06:28:03 +0000

Its Time… Restoration Hardware is finally coming to Edmonton!!!

Restoration Hardware Gallery Store

Just in time for the Christmas shopping season the store will open its 9,100sq.ft. store this Saturday in its brand new Southgate Mall location. This is the second Restoration Hardware store in Alberta. The first one opened 2008 at Southcenter mall in Calgary with great success. This location will feature their new “gallery” store design with a warm loft look and feel. This Gallery concept showcases higher end products for a designer clientele. These new store pieces all worthy of both the hospitality and residential market.

Restoration Hardware Holiday Dining Room

Restoration Hardware was founded 30 years ago in California and has since become a leading purveyor of fine furnishings for home, hospitality, baby and child. With more than 100 retail and outlet locations across Canada and the United States they offer a broad range of products from bed and bath linens to sink into deep sofas, hardware and rustic to chic lighting.

If you appreciate quality, craftsmanship, design and sustainability and have a decent budget Restoration Hardware will turn your House into a dazzling masterpiece of a home. Their pieces have a Ralph Lauren type quality to them with rich smoky masculine leathers, button tufting and linen which is right in line with my design style!

Restoration Hardware Living Room

The Resto staff are all warm, bubbly and super excited about the company, its values and the great product lines they carry. When you pop in be sure to speak to my great friend Stefannie and the Store Leader Dawn, tell them I sent you!

Restoration Hardware Furniture and Accessories

Happy Christmas Shopping!!