Sanya Arts Space

When decorating a modern bedroom, most people start with the bedroom set. A 5- or 7-piece ensemble that is perfectly matched in espresso wood or white veneer. And there is nothing wrong with this approach. However, if you’re looking for a way to create your bedroom from scratch – without relying on a pre-fab bedroom set – we’ve got some great tips.

A mix-n-match bedroom can look simply stunning, and it will always be unique. The first rule of thumb, as with any interior decorating you do, is to let your senses guide you. Style guides, trends, and advice are all well and good, but it is your home, so you should have final say.

When choosing individual bed frames, dressers, mirrors, nightstands, benches, tables, curtains and other accessories for your bedroom, you want to keep color, texture and materials in mind.

For instance, if you’re going for the shabby chic look like the image above, you’ll probably want some rubbed bronze, worn or exposed wood, distressed finishes and otherwise antique-looking textures. Or, if you want to do the ethnic eclectic look, you might want to choose texturized and colorful fabrics and natural finish woods.

It can help if you have an interesting base from which to sprout your unique bedroom set ideas as well. Exposed brick, like the image above, inspires all sorts of creativity, as does an oddly shaped room or an eye-catching floor.

Designing your bedroom without the help of a bedroom set can be daunting, but you’ll feel like a true champion designer when you’ve pulled together a jumble of furniture and created a harmonious room from scratch.

Check out our Modern Furniture collection on PadStyle Shop.

Welcome to another Friday Fun post!

Today, we thought we’d take a right turn from our last week’s 5 Glitzy Glass Houses That Make us Drool and show you that modern can be ancient, too. Glass is innately modern, but what about stone? Well, we scoured the four corners of the globe for this lovely collection of modern homes that are made of stone for your viewing pleasure. Without futher ado, the most modern ancient-looking homes you’ll ever see:

This bizarre stone house is located in Nas montanhas de Fafe in Portugal. It looks like a quaint cottage smashed between two giant boulders, but the view – on top of a rolling grassy plain – must be spectacular.
Image courtesy of Daily Mail

This house is a mix of stone and wood, but it looks so much like an art-deco cottage that we just had to include it. The house is a single-family dwelling on a five-acre lot, and comes fully equipped with modern accents like landscaping done in the style of the surrounding wildlife.

Image courtesy of ArchInspire

This stone house in Croatia is the ideal mix of old and new to create modern style. It features 15th century interior items such as the recessed sink in the image, but is fully fitted in modern furniture and appliance, with a lovely harbor-front view for that little something extra.

Image courtesy of CocoMale

This dreamy stone home has it all: intriguing and stylish architecture, a landscape to die for, and a large, spacious, sprawling layout. It doesn’t get better than this.

Image courtesy of FurnitureStoreBlog.com

This blocky stone house just screams modern – there’s no ancient-ness about it. Created by Zecc Architecten, it is a testament to the way stone can become a truly modern home building material.
Image courtesy of SirWal

Check out our Modern Furniture collection on PadStyle Shop.

Welcome to another Friday Fun post!

Today, we thought we’d take a right turn from our last week’s 5 Glitzy Glass Houses That Make us Drool and show you that modern can be ancient, too. Glass is innately modern, but what about stone? Well, we scoured the four corners of the globe for this lovely collection of modern homes that are made of stone for your viewing pleasure. Without futher ado, the most modern ancient-looking homes you’ll ever see:

This bizarre stone house is located in Nas montanhas de Fafe in Portugal. It looks like a quaint cottage smashed between two giant boulders, but the view – on top of a rolling grassy plain – must be spectacular.
Image courtesy of Daily Mail

This house is a mix of stone and wood, but it looks so much like an art-deco cottage that we just had to include it. The house is a single-family dwelling on a five-acre lot, and comes fully equipped with modern accents like landscaping done in the style of the surrounding wildlife.

Image courtesy of ArchInspire

This stone house in Croatia is the ideal mix of old and new to create modern style. It features 15th century interior items such as the recessed sink in the image, but is fully fitted in modern furniture and appliance, with a lovely harbor-front view for that little something extra.

Image courtesy of CocoMale

This dreamy stone home has it all: intriguing and stylish architecture, a landscape to die for, and a large, spacious, sprawling layout. It doesn’t get better than this.

Image courtesy of FurnitureStoreBlog.com

This blocky stone house just screams modern – there’s no ancient-ness about it. Created by Zecc Architecten, it is a testament to the way stone can become a truly modern home building material.
Image courtesy of SirWal

Check out our Modern Furniture collection on PadStyle Shop.

This post is for all of our do-it-yourself readers: those who aren’t afraid to get a little dirty, work with their hands, and create home accents on their own. Making decorations for the fall can range from the very easy (think carving a pumpkin) to the extreme. We’ve hand-picked three DIY projects that beginners can tackle over the next few days to have a beautiful autumn-ready home for September 22nd when the seasons change.

1. A nature walk’s bounty. When the leave begin to turn, take your family out on a relaxing walk through a forest or other area surrounded by nature. Bring a tote bag with you, and gather up all of the fall goodies you see – leaves, acorns, pine cones. When back at home, you can make a family project out of combining these fall items into several displays. Using earthy, woven bowls or flower vases to hold your found items, you can be really creative with colors, textures and placement around the home.
2. Life’s about the little things. You can use dried fruits, nuts, grains and seeds to create beautiful accents as well. Small grains like dried wheat or corn kernels can be used to fill up a glass jar about two thirds of the way, surrounding a thick, honey-dew candle in the center. Or, you can take one or two handfuls of dried cranberries and fill a wineglass, adding a red candle for effect.
3. Pumpkin 2.0. Pumpkin carving is a nice activity to do with the kids, but why not make a more adult-friendly pumpkin for your home? Cut a circular hole in the top and scoop out the insides like you would when preparing to carve, but don’t cut any holes into the sides or base. Instead, fill the pumpkin (which is conveniently waterproof) with water and use it as a fall flower vase.

Check out our Modern Furniture collection on PadStyle Shop.

Curtains can make or break a room. They line the walls and can be as stunning as a modern piece of art or as dull as a rusty nail. There are many factors that go into choosing the right curtains for your home, including price, length, the rod and rail system, and fabric. Today we’ll give you the low-down on some of the most common modern curtain fabrics, so you can choose which one is right for you.

Cotton
Cotton is not usually used as a solo fabric in curtains – it is normally mixed with other materials such as silk, synthetics, and wool. When cotton is combined with linen, for example, it creates a beautiful chambray fabric that is lightweight, sheer, and has a frosty sheen. Organdy, bastiste, and damask are common types of cotton or cotton blends used in curtains.
Silk
Silk is a gorgeous material to work with, as it has a reflective surface that appears to radiate in many colors. Silk is woven alone or with other fabrics to produce everything from a solid color curtain to a translucent, wispy gauze. Moiré, voile, pongee and satin are common types of silky fabrics used in curtains.
Lace
Lace can be made with almost any fabric, as the weaving pattern is what makes it unique. A lacy curtain is often made of lightweight material like cotton and features intricate cut-out patterns in the weaving.

These fabrics and other can be cut to different lengths, dyed different colors, and feature different patterns based on your preferences.

Check out our Modern Furniture collection on PadStyle Shop.

Curtains can make or break a room. They line the walls and can be as stunning as a modern piece of art or as dull as a rusty nail. There are many factors that go into choosing the right curtains for your home, including price, length, the rod and rail system, and fabric. Today we’ll give you the low-down on some of the most common modern curtain fabrics, so you can choose which one is right for you.

Cotton
Cotton is not usually used as a solo fabric in curtains – it is normally mixed with other materials such as silk, synthetics, and wool. When cotton is combined with linen, for example, it creates a beautiful chambray fabric that is lightweight, sheer, and has a frosty sheen. Organdy, bastiste, and damask are common types of cotton or cotton blends used in curtains.
Silk
Silk is a gorgeous material to work with, as it has a reflective surface that appears to radiate in many colors. Silk is woven alone or with other fabrics to produce everything from a solid color curtain to a translucent, wispy gauze. Moiré, voile, pongee and satin are common types of silky fabrics used in curtains.
Lace
Lace can be made with almost any fabric, as the weaving pattern is what makes it unique. A lacy curtain is often made of lightweight material like cotton and features intricate cut-out patterns in the weaving.

These fabrics and other can be cut to different lengths, dyed different colors, and feature different patterns based on your preferences.

Check out our Modern Furniture collection on PadStyle Shop.

Fall is here, and you’ve no doubt already seen its withering effects on your perennials as they die off for the colder months. Gardens are a lovely addition to any home’s landscaping, but it can be a bit disheartening to care for them all spring and summer, only to watch them fade to brown come winter.

Rock gardens can help combat the retreat of your flowerbeds. Always a staple in modern landscaping, rock gardens feature large and small colorful rocks scattered artistically across a front or back yard. Here are the basic steps to create your own rock garden, so you can have a beautiful yard all year round:

1. Choose the location for your rock garden. If you want to place it in a large, sprawling space, you’ll need more rocks and a more natural design concept than if you want only a small rock garden bed amidst other landscaping elements.
2. Find the rocks that you’ll use in the garden. When choosing rocks, consider the color (do you want red sandstone or grey limestone?), size, and shape of your rocks. Large, oddly shaped rocks are often the centerpieces of a rock garden.
3. Choose the plants that will accent your rocks. Some believe that the plants you choose should only be those that grow naturally amongst rocks, while other go for sprigs of bright color amidst the stones. The choice is yours.
4. Place, plant and position your rock garden. You’ll likely need help from a strong friend or a landscaper when moving the heavy boulders and rocks around your yard, so before you even begin you should have a solid design plan in your head to minimize the amount of lifting.
5. Enjoy your year-round landscape!

Check out our Modern Furniture collection on PadStyle Shop.

Modern design is not only about aesthetics – it is about functionality, too. And in today’s world, functionality includes being good to the planet. We here at Padstyle embrace going green in our homes and our office, and we wanted to share some of the ways we are helping the environment without sacrificing our modern style.

1. Consume less, recycle more. This might sound intuitive- and it is! But it also fits with a modern minimalist sensibility. Think about it – if you have fewer “things” cluttering up your home (think about that old china you haven’t pulled out since you were married, or those knicknacks on your shelves), it will appear more soothing and sophisticated.
2. Upgrade your appliances. If you’ve ever wanted an excuse to re-do the kitchen, now’s the time. Newer appliances are usually energy-efficient, and will consume less electricity than their older counterparts. This not only means you can get that stainless steel kitchen set you’ve always wanted, but you’ll save a little money on your monthly bills, too.
3. Use green cleaning products. Harsh chemicals are going the way of the dinosaurs, which is good news for the environment and your modern furniture as well. Natural, organic, and gentle cleaning formulas will be nicer to your wood veneers, microsuede and granite countertops than your old cleaning supplies.
4. Going hardwood? Think bamboo. Bamboo can be harvested with more energy efficiency than other hardwoods, and it will be an eye-catching, unique addition to any living room or entryway.
5. Consider your lawn an extension of your modern eco-friendly attitude. Landscape using trees to shade your house for extra insulation and flowerbeds or rock gardens over grass to reduce water consumption. This will help your home move to the next level of energy efficient, and gives you a good reason to re-design that boring sod into a beautiful style.

Check out our Modern Furniture collection on PadStyle Shop.

Modern design is not only about aesthetics – it is about functionality, too. And in today’s world, functionality includes being good to the planet. We here at Padstyle embrace going green in our homes and our office, and we wanted to share some of the ways we are helping the environment without sacrificing our modern style.

1. Consume less, recycle more. This might sound intuitive- and it is! But it also fits with a modern minimalist sensibility. Think about it – if you have fewer “things” cluttering up your home (think about that old china you haven’t pulled out since you were married, or those knicknacks on your shelves), it will appear more soothing and sophisticated.
2. Upgrade your appliances. If you’ve ever wanted an excuse to re-do the kitchen, now’s the time. Newer appliances are usually energy-efficient, and will consume less electricity than their older counterparts. This not only means you can get that stainless steel kitchen set you’ve always wanted, but you’ll save a little money on your monthly bills, too.
3. Use green cleaning products. Harsh chemicals are going the way of the dinosaurs, which is good news for the environment and your modern furniture as well. Natural, organic, and gentle cleaning formulas will be nicer to your wood veneers, microsuede and granite countertops than your old cleaning supplies.
4. Going hardwood? Think bamboo. Bamboo can be harvested with more energy efficiency than other hardwoods, and it will be an eye-catching, unique addition to any living room or entryway.
5. Consider your lawn an extension of your modern eco-friendly attitude. Landscape using trees to shade your house for extra insulation and flowerbeds or rock gardens over grass to reduce water consumption. This will help your home move to the next level of energy efficient, and gives you a good reason to re-design that boring sod into a beautiful style.

Check out our Modern Furniture collection on PadStyle Shop.

Although June may still be the most popular month to say, “I do,” autumn is quickly climbing the ranks as one of the most popular times of the year to get married. With deep, dazzling hues and crisp, fresh air, Mother Nature herself offers a stunning, romantic, and eco-friendly backdrop for a fall wedding. Lest [...]