This nature and New York themed bachelor pad is one of my favourite interior design projects, I was involved in.
“Interior Design is the secret ingredient of feeling at home anywhere in the world” is something I truly believe in. Having lived in 8 countries and on 3 continents myself, this has been my personal experience. Now I use this experience to help clients from all over the world (mostly expats), create a home or vacation home that reflects who they are and also reveals a bit of their story. This will give them a true ‘Sense of Home‘. Your home can provide you with a sense of belonging, which is essentially something all humans crave one way or another.
With my recently launched blog series ‘Interior Design Project‘ I give you a glimpse behind the scenes. I share insights about the interior design process from concept to realisation and plenty of design inspiration.
As an individual, let alone as an interior designer, I strongly believe that our home has an impact on our health and wellbeing. I think it’s fair to say that the pandemic and the lockdowns have brought this to light more than ever. Our home truly is our safe(st) haven.
Hence making your home beautiful, cosy and comfortable has never been more important.
Re-designing and re-decorating your home is not only a creative way to keep your mind occupied but also a way to bring hope and positivity into your life. Our surroundings impact our mood and emotions, whether we like to admit it or not. With this said, I’m happy to present you with one of my full-service interior design projects that shows that even a minimalistic interior can be a cosy interior.
Interior Design Project Description
The modern building complex ‘Magnolienpark’ was still under construction when I first met with the client. The complex is located in the sought after neighbourhood of Gellert in Basel, Switzerland.
The complex features several multi-storey buildings of up to 6 floors. My client’s apartment is located on the top floor featuring great views across Basel, including views of the Roche Towers, the tallest buildings in Switzerland. The kitchen and bathroom were finished to a modern and high standard and the floor was laid out with beautiful dark parquet flooring. This provided us with a contemporary and neutral background to work from.
Client Brief for Interior Design Project
My client wanted a fresh start in his new apartment, a true bachelor pad. When we first met at his ‘old’ apartment, he made it very clear that he would only bring his big flat screen TV and his personal belongings to the new flat. At the same time, he emphasised that he had no interest, let alone giftedness in interior design and most importantly no desire to visit furniture showrooms.
He envisioned a contemporary and minimalistic interior that would be easy to care for.
As a bachelor with a busy career involving frequent international business travel, he was simply looking for a comfortable and welcoming home (aka bachelor pad) that he could look forward coming home to. At the same time, he wanted a home he could be proud of and a place he could invite friends and colleagues over for drinks.
The keywords he used to describe his future bachelor pad were: cool, relaxing and masculine interior design. He then went on to tell me about his passion for the outdoors, forests and trees. He also told me about his love for New York City, where he used to live. In fact, it’s the only urban place he really loves. He confessed that he deeply missed looking at the skyline of New York from his apartment, especially at night.
With this information and some further observations I made, such as his preference for (navy) blue clothing, an interior design concept started to form in my mind. The Full-Service Interior Design process encompasses everything from the initial Interior Design Consultation, to the interior design concept, to the sourcing of furniture, lighting, soft furnishing, curtains, home accessories and art through to the implementation and installation down to the final interior styling.
Interior Design Solution
Based on the questionnaire, the initial working Interior Design Consultation and the design brief, I suggested a neutral background using taupe and white throughout the entire apartment. To the overall neutral interior design, I then added dark royal blue to the living room and terrace, ice blue to the dining room and sage green to the bedroom design.
Both hues, blue and green, are cool and soothing colours that help create a relaxing ambiance. They’re therefore great colours for living room and bedroom design and quite popular in home decorating. At the same time, dark blue is a great colour to add a masculine touch to a space.
The wooden floors as well as the taupe area rug on the other hand, add warmth and coziness to the colour scheme. Not having to worry about any sticky fingers, I was able to add this light coloured rug, creating a lovely contrast against the dark wooden floors and the dark blue sofa.
Creating a focal point in a room is a great way to add interest to an interior. In a living room, where you welcome guests, it can also be a great conversation starter.
The living room focal point is of course the accent wall. We painted it in a deep royal blue to beautifully offset the large scale photograph featuring the New York city skyline by night (YellowKorner Basel). The blue wall and the photograph set the tone for the entire space. The blue background, which was perfectly colour matched against the photograph, gives the impression of looking through a window, especially at night. I basically wanted to re-create that emotion my client described when he was living in New York.
At the same time, I integrated some organic design elements in several subtle ways, reflecting his love for nature, trees and the forest. These design elements include the balcony chairs reminiscent of tree branches, the branch shaped floor lamp in the living room and the table lamps in the bedroom.
The most prominent organic style piece, however, is the bespoke area rug. Looking to bring more nature into this modern and minimalistic bachelor pad, I designed the leaf skeleton rug. This custom made rug features two overlapping leaf skeletons in blue complementing the dark blue living room design.
This is how the nature and New York themed bachelor pad was born.
The subtle sage green bedroom further adds a touch of nature to the interior design. To create an overall modern and minimalistic design, I used a combination of straight lines and curves. Few, but meaningful home accessories, including my client’s favourite books and the elephant, reflecting his home country, complete the look.
The different layers of texture, using linens and velvets add coziness to the space and create a welcoming ambiance.
With custom interior design anything is possible. It’s important to allow the client’s personality shine through, whilst maximising the space to suit their lifestyle.
Client Feedback for the Nature and New York themed bachelor pad
Interior Design is my passion. Creating a Sense of Home, my superpower. Happy clients, my reward. Seeing my client’s eyes light up when they see the final product always gives me goosebumps and a great sense of accomplishment. Contributing to someone’s happiness by helping them improve their quality of life, is indeed my mission as a full service interior designer.
And here’s what my client said:
“Simone has a friendly, outgoing attitude that she easily maintains while remaining solution-focused. She has great communication, listening, and organizational skills, which kept us on time and on budget. To summarise in one sentence, Simone was able to translate my personality into a beautiful and functional living space and I’m in love with the blue wall and the New York skyline. I can’t stop looking at it.” Dr P. Rege, Basel, Switzerland
Needless to say, happy clients are my favourite clients. This project not only made the client and myself very happy, but it also got published in one of the best Swiss interior design magazine Das Ideale Heim and the online design magazine meter.
I hope you enjoyed learning more about the design process of this nature and New York themed bachelor pad. It probably also gave you a taste of how to get from point A to point B when designing a home. Do you feel inspired to get started on your interior design project or would you rather have someone take the project off your hands? If the latter applies, then please get in touch. Let me do what I do best so that you have the time to do what you do best and love the most.
Changing lives, one room at a time!
Simone xx
Photography: Tracy Crevar Warren