Materials – Home Office Charm

Creating a Japandi Office: Peaceful Elegance Meets Functionality

Corporate Training Room Decor, Corporate Training Room Design, Home decor, Home office decor ideas, Home office inspiration, Home office styling, Interior design, Japandi, office decor

Sleek and sophisticated fittings and Furnishings for Hard Working Zone

An Effective abundance of textures

While visiting some London City offices recently, I found some authentic Japandi. Working as a facilitator corporate trainer/ instructor I was able to see how the combination of textures used in the external meeting rooms and breakout area fittings created a captivating and calming atmosphere. Colours are neutral and highlighted by the colours from natural elements such as metals and woods and watery looking glass panels.

If you want to create the Japandi look in your home office here’s five things to remember

Natural elements wood, marble, wool and metal
Paired back details
Double the circulation space for that sense of spaciousness
Juxtaposition of natural textures such as mats verses glosses
Tiny elements of metal craftsmanship to admire

Comment below to share what your favourite elements are in Japandi office or home interiors. Do you like light Japandi or dark Japandi?

Cultured Complexities Series Released

About My Art, Home office decor ideas, Painting Skins, Photography, Poured painting

Welcome to this months’s edition of the newsletter. The cultured complexities series is being released and listed on Etsy this week. Artwork is ready to purchase.

The Cultured Complexities series is of about 30 mixed media painting made small enough for shelf display. It is a series that took me one year to complete as I started April 2023. Below are images that show the processes.

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Elvish: Hand Painted Lampshades

Artists, David Renggli, Ideas, Inspiration

I’ve been admiring the other artists on Instagram who also integrate their painting or mark making onto home decor items.

I had a go and added some of my usual extra embellishments

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Imperfect pink: High textured white black acrylic abstract painting

Home decor, Ideas, Paintings, Upcycling

So this is the same canvas that i showed you in my previous post. But I just painted over it. Feeling better about how this one looks.

Blue Planet Saver Idea: Using ESPA Optimal Skin Pro cleanser granules in teal, gold and black acrylic abstract painting

Home decor, Paintings, Upcycling

So I experimented with recycling some old ESPA Optimal skin pro cleanser as a textured base to this painting. It makes it smell of bergamot or something citrus-y. Wow this has a beautiful fragrance as well as a being a nice looking art work. It also has a touch of Very Berry lip gloss by Jane Iredale in the chocoholic’s range to lend a bit of pigment depth mid range of the painting.

After finishing I stood back and thought how ironic that the optimal skin exfoliate gel mixes interestingly with the acrylic paints helping to add to the painting’s watery feel.

When using it I first thought I was saving the planet (the seas and protecting the lovely marine life- inspired by Blue Planet TV Show) from the scrubs little microscopic balls. Then I remembered that the miniature balls in this skin exfoliation product actually dissolves when worked around and rubbed into skin, they break down because they are soy oil balls.

So the discovery of the virtues of the Espa Pro Cleansing medium means that this skin scrub will come off my up-cycling/ recycling shelf and go back into my bathroom.

However I’m keeping my eyes open for those other offending micro beaded face scrubs. Why? Well because I need them to add to the texture of my future paintings while I do my bit in saving our beautiful blue planet.

On a final note I like how the blue skye in the painting is close in tone to the deep blue of our planet that we all love so much.

Chili pepper lip-gloss pink helps create a black smokey river acrylic painting

Home decor, Paintings, Upcycling

This abstract painting I created using a bit of old Jane Irridale lip-gloss as they have great pigments (not a lot of people know that). I love the colours in this one. I worked hard to get the right balance of textures, colours and a bit of gold bling.

The tools I used include pallet knife and surprisingly found that a lip brush as well as eye shadow fan brush was great for blending lines in. How intriguing that the Jane Iridale Chocoholics pack Chilli pepper pinky pigment lip gloss actualy adds some striking depth to the painting and helps to make this dark foreboding river scene look a bit more appealing.

My new tools are very fitting for the new paint mediums I’m using. I’m so glad I’ve found a way to upcycle old cosmetics as well as find a new use for the tools of my old very distant trade.

Crimson Tide nautical Buoy: Environ mask and treatment gel textured abstract landscape painting

Paintings, Upcycling

This painting I used powdered treatment face mask and moisturizing gel that I don’t use to help give some texture to the rough seas of this nautical themed abstract. It reminds me of a buoy, lifeboat and choppy seas.

Ethereal Bulrushes: Grey, blue, gold, rose, copper acrylic

Home decor, Paintings, Upcycling

I love this one I’ll let it speak for itself.

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Root chakra auras: Copper, grey, green, red acrylic fantasy landscape abstract:

Home decor, Paintings, Upcycling

One for you to interpret. I was at first lost for words. Initially I liked the combination of reds greens, yellows and grey. Then I decided it looks like a cluster of spirited trees beside a lake.

Fantasy lake tree clusterlandscape, brass, copper, green on grey background from Earthshine Arts

The trees look like they are giving off their warm aura and in this fantasy landscape it is very possible that their aura is visible. In eastern medicine, the colour of the root chakra is red -Chakra – Muladhara and that is about safety, survival, grounding. According to http://www.chakras.info/chakra-colors/

How nicely surprising that my fantasy landscape lake trees are grounding or at least signify being grounded.

Grey, brass and rose gold acrylic painting: Japanese illustration influence

Home decor, Paintings, Upcycling

I’m influenced by Japanese paintings, I guess, by the look of these two. I do like doing subtle brush strokes and for this I mostly used the socket filler brush and a fan shadow brush.

Dark grey, lime, turquoise fantasy landscape acrylic painting

Home decor, Paintings, Upcycling

Continuing my experiments with a painted grey background this fantasy landscape. I have no other words for it except that the marks are mesmerizing remind me of fine gold jewel like trees and a turquoise blue martian (perhaps) moon.

When looking at this its surprisingly easy to bring more images to from your imagination as you try to fathom out the landscape that might exist in the hinterland.

I feel I’m getting better at adding vertical and horizontal lines which is a real departure from the usual sweep curves across the page.

Grey rose gold in fantasy acrylic landscape painting

Home decor, Paintings, Upcycling

I’m calling this collection the fantasy acrylic landscape.

From an overnight thought of contemplating what painting would I have if I had a metal tarrarium and industrial chic furniture with rose gold metal legs.

So I created a collection of seven pieces within this theme. I was surprised to see how each piece appears to fit together nicely. Bit like the kind of wallpaper you’d see on 60 minute makeover.

A study in blue and lime: Acrylic painting

Home decor, Paintings, Upcycling

So I had this idea to do a painting with just blue shades. In fact I wrote this bit before I started finding the colors.

The other idea I had was to do one in lime as Elle Decoration said that lime is the colour of the season so here goes.

So these are done with a mixture of acrylics and fabric paints and I used some acrylic pouring technique in the center to get a mottled look with some of the golds and greens.

Using mascara brush and pouring technique with gold and blue acrylic to get some interesting marks. Created by Earth Shine Arts

Fan Brush Stroke Painting II: Inspired by M

Home decor, Paintings, Upcycling

These verticals, I think are curious brush strokes. And I am starting to call these pieces the Missoni influence. Since 1980’s I’ve loved the Italian knitwear designer’s collection.

Ottavio Missoni By Giuseppe Pino (Kind concession of Missoni S.p.A.) [CC BY-SA 3.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)%5D, via Wikimedia Commons

I have to admit that Missoni does come second to my love of everything designers Guild or maybe they come third if I consider Andrew Martin. More on that in a later post.

You know I once bought a lot of Missoni fabric (of an amount I could afford) from the Shepherd’s Bush Fabric shop where all the fashion students go to buy for their cloth for their end of year shows.

Love their new collection for 2018 HERE

I digress. So here is the rest.

Blue green landscape painting and floral attempt

Home decor, Paintings, Upcycling

So I had a go at doing an abstract landscape. I imagined a foreground sky and middle ground all based on my imagination. No I wasn’t in a poppy field but I think i was conjuring deep pink red tulips and buds of poppies. I’m still undecided about this one. Though I’m a bit pleased I did something that resembles a flower slightly. I was encouraged recently when watched a channel 4 ( or was it a more four) program that spoke of American painters of the 19th and early 20th century. Watching their work I began to feel comforted to see that my brushstrokes were similar to what has gone before there. Sorry I cant remember the artist’s name. It will come……

Anyway looking at this work, I think I still need to learn about making finer marks for stems and the earth. Nevertheless, let me know what you think.

A Purple Reign: Acrylic abstract painting

Home decor, Paintings, Upcycling

For me the color purple will rule all the time. So I did this work based on my pallet of pinks.

A 70’s themed study in brown

Home decor, Paintings, Upcycling

So I did this study in various shades of brown. It’s not really an on trend color but i was at the end of a painting spree and had quite a few shades left over.

When i took pictures of the painting and situated them in various parts of the the house I noticed how much it reminded me of African safari with a 70’s vibe. Again not a look that is on trend at the moment, unless you include the appetite for mid century. However I’m rather proud of this. It’s feels like the neatest and more balanced of my works so far.

Buds of gold: Floral like abstract acrylic

Home decor, Paintings, Upcycling

This time last week, I brought this painting home. You see I had joined a deep art work project. I think the philosophy is about the functionality of art. But some of them described it as going deep into the painting and just switching off from the outside world, no distractions, they said and not phones. I kind of took that as my signal not to chat and paint at the same time. So I went deep ( you could say) into creating this with my fabric paints and some acrylics i had to hand like true red (which looks like magenta) and gold metallic.

Golden bud picture

When it can time to pass around the Minstrals (chocolate button sweets for sharing) then it seems were were able then come out focus to talk.

Many said they liked this. I rather like it too.

You see the day before I had learned how to do the special I painting method and how to put the colors together so that there was balance and an appealing composition. So far my learning about doing acrylic art paintings seems to be working. I think this is my favorite of all the pieces I have done so far.

Next time I shall use less fabric paint and more acrylic. But the mix is interesting as fabric paint gives a flat matt finish which helps the gloss of the acrylic and metallic gold stand out.

Maddening mix media

Paintings, Upcycling

So this week i used some fabric to create a mixed media piece. I was being lazy and I had just watched a video on doing abstract art and the rule of thirds so I experimented with this rule and added some very expensive 100 percent purse wool chalk stripe suiting. I also added a tiny pit of fur that was passed down to me from a friend that got it from a vintage clothes shop in Nottinghill.

Not sure yet what it says. I guess I was experimenting with circles. And where I have incorporated the pinstripe fabric into the painting with pain it reminds me of braces. The red dots look like buttons an all that bling looks rather vulgar to me. It smacks of the ostentatious and excess and commerce for some reason. Perhaps the circles represent coins, money perhaps the red symbolizes blood I don’t know. I’ll have a think….

Fabric paint experiment: Floral abstract

Paintings, Upcycling

The up-cycled ( re used) easel came with two pots of fabric paints and I used them to experiment in some deep art work this week. Working among a group of other artists, I started this project on Tuesday and finished it off today (Sunday). The fabric paints on paper have a rather washed out look. But the black, premium red and gold acrylic give it the texture that I much prefer to see in paintings.

So note to self about using fabric paints only on fabric and not on paintings for walls and interior decoration.

I think it the painting looks like some post apocalyptic flower trying to burst through into a beautiful bloom. I wonder if it will make it.

Nevertheless, I am rather glad that I got the easel and the fabric paints from the show flat of the apartment block. Who knows where they might have ended up.

Taupe, black, rose gold painting

Beauty influence, Home decor, Paintings, Upcycling

I just finished this piece so that it will match my cushions and curtains.

In this piece, I layered the paint out on a base of red and then built up the colours, textures and shapes. I managed to create lovely rose gold. It was all to echo the beige/ taupe black and white pattern in my upholstery.

I took in what I learned from two professional acrylic abstract artists who sell their work for £300. And the up-cycling elements used were the brushes. Blusher brush for the black for smooth light application. Eyeshadow fan brush and eyeliner brush for the other colours.

But I was surprised at how oriental the piece ended up looking. Although there are some similarities between the painting and the cushions/ curtains. The painting seems to have an identity all of it’s own. And I am very glad for that.

The Painting Journey Begins

Home decor, Paintings, Upcycling

Thanks for joining me!

This is my first work. I was inspired by the colors of my sofa and cushions. You might call it cliche but I did actually want a painting that matched my sofa.

So I did this one. It’s a rehearsal to a bigger 2m version I shall do when I get a bit more confident. I up-cycled an 17 piece makeup brush kit to help create the minute marks in this painting. I used the blusher brush and eye shadow fan brush to provide the lighter strokes. I also used the wooden trays of the gourmet takeaway brand. And the rest of the dish makes for a usable paint pallet.