Living Room Project: how to bring the OUTDOORS IN!

Scottish interiors featuring Mairi Helena contemporary wallpaper feature wall. Bringing the outdoors in

bringing the outdoors in, decorating your living room with farrow and ball paint colours

living room decoration ideas wooden floor

velvet luxury cushion mairi helena

Bringing the outdoors in with luxury scottish interiors. Featuring the Mairi Helena 'Harris Green Thistle' Wallpaper, lampshades and velvet cushions from www.mairihelena.co.uk

abstract art wall scottish design

With Scottish flora and fauna being the key inspiration and driving factor behind my designs, it's not surprising that I get totally hooked on experimenting with different ways of bringing the natural world into the home. I think there's something very tranquil about bringing a bit of the outdoors into your home. Maybe because it helps to make you feel a bit more connected perhaps? Calming? And I'm all for ways in helping to feel a little more cool and collected! So when a friend gave me the challenge to blog about creative ways in which to 'bring the outdoors in' to the home, I was immediately up for the challenge.So here it goes! Here are my top 5 ways of how you can bring the outdoors, featuring luxury Scottish interiors:1. Paint choiceConsider harmonising with colours you can see out your room window. This has the amazing ability to make your living space feel like it extends out to the outdoors, helping the room to feel even more spacious and connected to the outdoor environment.OUR LIVING ROOM COLOURSWe opted for a 'melon sorbet green' colour in our living room give a light summery garden feel and also it ties in with the fresh sycamore trees outside our window. (Check out our earlier blog post on 'choosing colours for the living room!)So time to get out that Farrow & Ball paint chart! Their range of colours and paint quality is sublime. We used slipper satin on our window sills - I just LOVE saying that name and had to have an excuse to write it in my blog!!!Farrow and Ball paint chart: perfect for help in choosing your living room colours. 2. WindowsThis leads on to the windows in which your room looks out of - we have yet to place curtains on our windows, but actually, it's made me realise we're in no rush! As it's lovely to make use of the full windows and help to open up the room even more. Maybe not so practical in the winter months... but when we do get round to it, rather than go for bulky curtains, we're opting for unobtrusive blinds instead.3. Soft Furnishings and AccessoriesOf course my favourite subject is when it comes to the soft furnishings and accessories for kitting out your home interior. Consider designs based on flora and fauna to help emphasise an 'outdoors in' home feel. Well funnily enough, I might just be able to help you out there!! We've decorated our living room with our very own Mairi Helena Harris Green Thistle Velvet Cushions and Harris Green Thistle Lampshades with designs based on Scottish thistles and influenced by rustic textures of the environment.'Harris Green Thistle' Living Room Colours 4. Flowers and PlantsA room is never complete without flowers. Flowers immediately add a punch of colour and a freshness to the home. A fresh bunch of flowers is always lovely to be presented with! Equally, house plants help to add rustic detail - or if, like me, you're not very good at keeping house plants alive, then consider dried flowers or even a bunch of false flowers.In our living room, we've kept to our Scottish theme by opting for a bunch of Scottish purple heather and placed in a gold jug for an opulent colour punch for the living room!5. Wall paperWallpaper can help to add a statement when it comes to bringing the outdoors in. In our own living room, we have created a feature wall using our Mairi Helena 'Harris Green Thistle' wallpaper featuring Scottish thistles, teasels and Scotland's rustic textures from the weatherbeaten landscapes. Another range I love when considering the theme of 'bringing the outdoors in' is the wonderful Woodland Walk Wallpapers from Sanderson. they have an amazing selection to fit a range of living room colours. Perfect for a modern, country project or elegant cottage renovation.

sanderson woodland walk wallpapers. bringing the outdoors in

sanderson colour choices, living room project

6. Wall Art and Photo framesIf you're keen on photographing the natural landscapes like me and find yourself snapping away at bright coloured flowers, vibrant leaves and rugged scenery, then perfect! As this photographic material I've found can provide amazing scope for decorating the walls..

photographs of scottish landscapes

..either in the traditional form of printing onto canvas or framing. And of course you can make bespoke to fit your own living room colours!

Bringing the outdoors in to the living room. Decorating the living room with reclaimed wood furniture

7. Natural TexturesIt's always fun introducing as many textures into a room as possible. It makes it more visually pleasing. On our theme of 'bringing the outdoors in', for our living room, we've decided to add as much rustic wood as possible! We've laid a wood floor as well as introduced reclaimed wood furniture - which we found at our local Edinburgh Interiors shop J B McLean - featured here below is our round coffee table which we sourced at JB Mclean, with reclaimed rustic wood top - the colours of which, match our living room colour hues!

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And there we have it! Seven ideas for helping to 'bring the outdoors in' to create a rustic, airy, spacious living room. Featuring of course our wallpapers, velvet cushions and run lampshades in 'Harris Green Thistle' from our Mairi Helena soft furnishings range!How have you created yours? I'd love to know - please feel free to pop a comment below!Have a fab weekend!!XP.S...

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