Make your bedroom bigger

We are thrilled to introduce Shrinivas Vaidya, author of the blog Interior Design Tips For Bedrooms, as a new guest blogger for PURE CONTEMPORARY. Focusing on bedrooms, Shrinivas offers unique insights to turning a bedroom into a personal sanctuary. In his first article, he addresses the common dilemma of creating the illusion of space.

For how do you spread out and relax when you are fighting for breathing room with your furniture? Shrinivas has some suggestions.

Today I am going to share with you a simple space enlarging trick which has proven to be a very comforting experience for my clients and me.

Let's look at your room from scratch. In any interior space, furniture plays a major role as far as comfort qualities are concerned. Furniture is the first thing that we see. When we say that a room is occupied it is primarily occupied by furniture. A room without any furniture pieces would be absolutely useless. But it is the balance between the overall volume of furniture versus free space that directly affect comfort factors in a room.

If we consider the case of bedrooms, a bed is the commodity that occupies maximum space. Now imagine if we removed the bed -- the room will start looking bigger because of the perceived volume.

Of course sleeping on the floor wouldn't be very appealing. So go up from the floor -- and down from a traditional sized bed -- in other words, try a platform bed. A platform bed is nothing but a bed with less height than a full sized bed.

Because of the reduction in height (as much as 15") the overall volume of the bed is less. And thus the room is perceived bigger in size.

Platform beds are available in a variety of materials -- both affordable and off-the-chart luxurious. Many manufacturers specifically manufacture mattresses and other accessories that would specifically help the easy and comfortable use of the platform bed.

In addition to using a platform bed, try bright color combinations such as white and yellow. You'll find a small bedroom will be perceived as a slightly bigger room!

Photo: Leather Platfrom bed by Rossetto of Italy.

Technorati Tags: Modern Bedroom, Platform Bed, Rossetto, Modern Design

Eames Movies Screen at DWR

DWR teamed with the Eames Foundation and Hermann Miller for the Home to screen Charles and Ray Eames's movies at DWR Studios throughout the country.

Starting August 5th and continuing through October 4th at 16 Studio locations, the Festival will show seven of the design duo's films, including Toccata for Toy Trains, Powers of Ten, and Design Q & A. Showings in San Fran, Milwaukee, Minneapolis, St. Louis and Birmingham will feature a presentation by the Eames's grandson, Eames Demetrios.

For a schedule of the cities and show times click here

Inspired by China: Contemporary Furnituremakers Explore Chinese Traditions

Contemporary furnituremakers from the U.S., Canada and China
come together to create works for the Peabody Essex Museum

Oct. 28, 2006 – Mar. 4, 2007

Peabody Essex Museum
East India Square, Salem, MA 01970

Twenty-nine original and historic pieces of Chinese furniture will be displayed along with 28 modern works they've inspired. The few shown below give a glimpse of the variety and quality of the modern pieces, which were all created specifically for this exhibition by artists selected for their innovations in studio furntiure.

Relax in Modern Outdoor Furniture

Jane Hamely Wells finds great furniture pieces worldwide and channels them through a handful of select retailers. We haven't seen these in person but love the sleek lines of the chaise lounge and fun curves of the plu'MO chairs.