Statement pieces at House Ashford and House Cecilia
Presenter: Here are certain decorative pieces that can fill an entire room with life. A statement piece or two allows a space to tell a story about those living in it. Lisa Swart of Oksijen Interior Design
has transformed two homes using unique buys as statement pieces.
Lisa: A statement piece is something bold and daring. A statement piece can also anchor the room. It influences and dictates the style of the rest of the house. It’s a feature piece and it is a conversation
piece. When people come into your house they’re going to say: “Oh my goodness! What is that? Where did you get that?” THAT’S a statement piece. I love using the clients things like the stuff they’ve been
accumulating over the years. I love using things they love. I group them together in a collection and that makes a statement. The style of this home is kind of eclectic but it is also classic. It contains a mixture of everything the client loves. It consists of inherited items and items she’s been collecting. It’s basically an amalgamation of her own style and who she is. This particular house is very much a reflection of the client.
In this room, your eye is drawn towards the armoire. Your eye gets drawn towards it. It’s holds everything together
We decided to put the plates together on the wall. We didn’t want to do it in a conventional way like one plate next to the other, so we put them together in one big grouping. The lights were arranged in the same kind of way as the plates over the dining room table.
The paintings used to be all over the house and on different walls. What we did here is bring them together where they can all talk to each other. It creates a kind of gallery wall. The lighting was also done to show off the paintings.
There’s also a Delft collection. Some of the pieces are antique and some of the pieces are not even Delft. You can also do that. I love putting something that’s antique and old with something modern. This works well
We extended the main bathroom by about a meter and a half, and we added in a massive window with some shutters. The client wanted the Victorian bath.
We also found an antique server which we refurbished into a vanity.
love using tiles as a statement and being really bold with them. The rest of this bathroom’s decor is plain.
My client always had a love of Mexican tiles so we decided to use some geometric patterns in pink and blue and yellow and green for the teenager’s bathroom. Everything else we kept white for the tiles to remain a statement on the floor.
Presenter: Lisa’s used a combination of old and new treasures to create a home that welcomes a fresh look whilst allowing family memories to live on. Not too far from this lovely home an apartment has been tailored to fit a well-traveled career woman whose life is definitely not short of colour.
Lisa: We’ve refurbished and decorated this apartment for a client who returned from living abroad. The apartment is open plan and we’ve created different living areas. The kitchen is kind of separate already because it’s got a bar counter. It’s got its own statement piece which I think is the tile splashback. It a kind of orangey red and this colour then carries through to the rest of the apartment.
The dining room area also has its own statement piece which I reckon is the light fixture
Then to divide the two spaces, the dining area and the living room area, we have the glass cabinet.
My client brought back all her items from Nigeria and from Ghana – especially these fabrics. Instead of putting all the fabrics in the closet and closing it up, we put it in a glass display case and made a statement piece out of it.
Presenter: In the living room Lisa’s displayed the clients books in a colour-coded arrangement adding interest to the space.
Lisa: There’s a lot of colour in the books and the art and it sort of complements each other. The art is very personal. Some were made by friends, and a lot of the art was acquired while traveling, so it makes the space very personal.
I call the style of this home Travel Chic because you can see from from the pieces that she’s collected over time that she’s been places and you can tell every piece that is here she bought because she just loved it.
Presenter: When looking for a unique item that’ll put your stamp on your home, choose something that’s special and meaningful to you, because you’re likely to live with it for a very long time.