BRICK FIELD STUDIOS

Style Pointers
WALLS AND CEILING
Fresh white walls and ceiling reflect the light and create a spacious atmosphere as well as a neutral backdrop for colorful furnishings and accessories.

ACCESSORIES
Framed posters reinforce the blue and white color theme and break up the wall space. A few well-chosen accessories – vases of flowers, bedside candlelamps, and simple knickknacks – add a personal stamp.

SOFT FURNISHINGS
Blue and white bedlinen in a strong, naive design adds a bold splash of pattern. A blue and white ticking roller blind, softened with voile drapes, provides night-time privacy.

STORAGE
Bedside tables provide storage space for books and other items. Clothes may be hung in freestanding or built-in wardrobes or from a screened-off hanging rail.

LIGHTING
Slender candlelamps are an elegant choice and provide ample light for bedtime reading. Wall-mounted torcheres, in white to match the walls, give restful overall lighting.

FURNITURE
A wrought-iron bedstead and wicker bedside tables and chair have a straightforward, contemporary feel and clean outlines which are perfect for the look.

Furnishings
Furniture: Apartment-style decorating revolves around maximizing space and minimizing cost, so try to choose furniture that offers plenty of storage space and serves more than one function. A well-lit, clutter-free dressing table, for example, doubles as a desk to make a quiet work place away from the main living area; a low, painted chest makes a perfect bedside table with room inside for bed linen; a platform bed with pull-out drawers or even a second, spare bed underneath is a real bonus; and in an older home, a built-in window seat creates a snug corner for relaxation and provides valuable storage space. If your bedroom is really small, consider installing a sofa bed to free up maximum floor space during the day. Futons have a suitably modern feel and are generally reasonably priced.

In terms of style, keep to functional furniture. Pale, stripped, or stained wood, in white or primary colors, laminate furniture, and polished or painted metal are just right. Avoid cluttering up the bedroom with too much furniture. In addition to the bed and built-in storage (see below), all you need are bedside tables and, if there’s room, a comfortable chair and perhaps a basic dressing table or desk. Wicker furniture is inexpensive and adds a friendly touch, especially if other furniture in the room is stark. Glass-topped tables take up little visual space and add emphasis to any ornaments or objects displayed on them – a clock or vase of flowers, for example, seems to float in the air.

The bed: Like the other furniture, the bed should be simple and functional in style. Choose a basic wooden bedstead, natural, painted, or stained, or a wrought-iron one for contemporary chic; or opt for a simple daybed and dress it up with boldly patterned and colored bed linen. Set against the walls with a bolster at each end and some scatter cushions along the back, such a bed provides sofa-style seating during the day.

Storage: With space at a premium, built-in floor-to-ceiling cupboards and wardrobes make sense, along one wall, filling an alcove or fitted in an arch over and down the sides of the bed. Mirrored doors on storage units double the sense of space and light and, unlike a freestanding mirror, take up no additional floor space. In a very small bedroom, choose built-in furniture to tone and blend in with the walls.

Check out office supply stores for functional filing cabinets and box storage systems, which come in a bright array of colors as well as traditional gray and black. Industrial suppliers are a potential source of clever storage units, such as galvanized metal high-security boxes.

On a limited budget, you can fit a clothes rail across an alcove and screen it with bright fabric curtains or with white or boldly painted medium-density fiberboard panels. For added storage options, build one or more shelves at various levels behind the screen.

With its emphasis on hand-crafted natural materials, informality, and simplicity, the country bedroom is stylishly restful and refreshing.

The hallmarks of the country bedroom – natural materials, unfussy and practical furnishings, airiness, restrained but rich color schemes, and a commitment to comfort – create an environment that is perfectly conducive to rest and relaxation at any time of day.

Whether stripped, stained, varnished, or painted, wood features heavily in country schemes as floor and wall surfaces, furniture, and smaller decorative objects. Other natural raw materials such as cane, wicker, and cotton play supporting roles. Colors such as teal blue, creamy yellow, conifer green, and rich Indian red are traditional, used on their own to cover broad expanses of wall, or in small doses to give character to large expanses of white or pale neutrals. Furniture has a timeless practicality, based on a mixture of Shaker simplicity, American Colonial elegance, and a hint of toned down Victorian. Generously stuffed cushions, pillows, and quilts ensure that comfort is high on the list of priorities.

Ornamentation, from stencils to children’s toys, is – in appearance if not in actuality – handcrafted. Likewise, fabrics have a slightly rough, homespun appeal, and patchworks and samplers continue the hand-crafted theme. The look is mildly eclectic rather than highly coordinated, but never chaotic – everything has its rightful place.

Creating the Look

Walls: Whether they are plastered, papered, or tongue-and-groove paneled, keep walls plain. Combining low-level, tongue-and-groove paneling with a plain painted surface above is traditional. Consider narrow, vertical tongue-and-groove paneling up to wainscoting level if funds allow, with wide, horizontal tongue-and-groove paneling above, or vice versa. The paneling can be left natural, stained, or painted in solid, matte tones.

Patterned wallpapers are unsuitable, as are chalky ice-cream pastel colors such as light pinks, blues, and mauves. Earth colors, natural dye colors, off-white, and white are ideal for the look – the latter two especially for small bedrooms. For an authentic touch, paint the woodwork – doors, architraves, baseboards, wainscoting, and picture rails – a rich color to counteract the impersonality of white or off white. Varying the density of this color from paneling to architraves, reveals, and baseboards is typical. Consider high-level stencils and friezes with simple geometric motifs or motifs based on fruit, flowers, or leaves; grapes, pomegranates, pineapples, willow and oak leaves, and tulips are all authentic.

Floors: Wide, stripped pine floorboards are ideal, but if your house doesn’t already have them, modern wood-look floor covering strips make an acceptable alternative. You can use subtle paint effects, perhaps even a stencil around the edge to mimic a rug. Hooked, crocheted, knitted, or braided rugs, and embroidered needlepoint rugs, or Berlinwork with rose motifs, look perfect and make walking barefoot comfortable. Plain or striped, inexpensive cotton, hand-woven rag rugs can work equally well. Although not strictly authentic, wall-to-wall carpets in near white or neutral tones won’t detract from the look, provided they aren’t too sumptuous or shaggy.

Windows: As the look depends on plenty of natural light, make the most of windows. Outline small windows in the same color as baseboards and picture rails; you can paint wooden window frames, reveals, and sills, or simply apply a band of color to the wall surrounding the window. White-painted internal louvers, wooden Venetian blinds, and plain, checked or striped fabric shades are fine for the look. If privacy is a problem, or the view is far from leafy and rural, hang simple white net or muslin curtains. A little swag made from patchwork fabric adds a pretty finishing touch on its own or with another window treatment.

Lighting: For practicality, have several light sources: low-level, sited near to the bed for night reading, plus wall-hung and/or ceiling-hung for general illumination. Candles in sconces, freestanding or wall-hung, add to the mood; electric lights mimicking candles are useful as well as attractive. Table lamps with simple shades in checked, striped, or plain fabrics, and earthenware bases, such as old jugs, are ideal. Victorian-style brass table and floor lamps with translucent glass shades, or plain, small contemporary lights, also suit the look.

Apartments are designed to be generic living spaces. They all have similar floor plans and not matter where you go those floor plans do not seem to deviate much as a result the space that an apartment provides can be unappealing and lack that is why it is up to you to create a space that is uniquely yours. Lighting is one way that you can provide your apartment with a life of its own. You can use it to express yourself as well as add function and style to your decorating scheme. While sun light is one of the best, ways to add a warm light to your apartment that can brighten up any room it is not always an available option.

Lamps are one of the fastest ways that you can lighten up a room and add a sense of personal style to it. You have the option of a variety of different sizes ranging from small bedside lamps to tall floor lamps. Every lamp has something about it that is unique whether it is the size or the shape of the lamp or even its color there is something that can bring a sense of style to your apartment at the same time it brings in needed light.

Table lamps are available in a wide variety of sizes ranging from small to larger. They are also more likely to be more creative than floor lighting because they do have something to work with that has enough mass to be carved into a variety of different shapes as well as presented in a number of different styles. There are lamps that are a simple shape but painted with a variety if beautiful scenes that can add a definite tough to your space. Lampshades are also a great way to be able to enjoy the benefits of bringing something unique to the room.

While the same types of designs are not always available with floor-sized lamps, as with table lamps there are still a number of different styles to choose from as well as colors and shapes. There are even floor lamps that are designed to be positioned wherever you want them to allow you to accent a variety of different objects or just control the amount of light that comes into the room. Many of these floor lamps come with adjustable switches that allow you to control the amount of light, to a certain degree, comes from the lamp at any given time.

You can also use the option of multiple colored light bulbs. Light bulbs come in all different colors and you can use these to accent or even create a mood for the room. Just as with paint or other colors, you can create a feeling by altering the color of light in a room. Use yellow or orange to warm a room up, red for romance or blue and green to add a relaxing and calming atmosphere above all else do not be afraid to experiment to find out what works for you when it comes to adding light to your apartment and taking a general space to a unique space.