Finally I get to show you some little bits & bobs from the aPRAGUEment, hurray! But it wouldn’t be all that useful for you if I simply just added a bunch of photos and said LOOK DAMMIT, would it? Instead I’ve decided to incorporate these random home snaps into a few home decor posts. To give you a bit of a context – the apartment I’ve moved into is right in the very heart of the historic centre of Prague. It’s in one of those old tall terraced houses that have multiple flats in them connected by a huge stately set of stairs with ornate railing and heavy granite steps. The apartment itself is pretty spacious – with one large room that’s divided by a couple of exposed beams and features a little kitchenette. The other room is the bedroom and is rather tiny but it only takes you one leap out of the bed to come onto a cosy terrace overlooking red roofs and a bunch of trees which are turning all golden & amber right now. It’s a period property or apartment, if you like. With lots of history and character. And a place like that does not deserve to be furnished by imitating an IKEA catalogue. It needs a gentle touch of a mix of antique, vintage and modern (because, no offense intended, you don’t want it to look like your nan’s caravan either).
HOW TO STYLE A PERIOD APARTMENT WITH A MIX OF OLD & NEW
Mixing colours & textures
An easy way to achieve a pleasant balance between the historic character and modern vibe of your home is to mix colours and textures. It’s ever so simple and doesn’t cost a heap of money either. I got a lovely dark green sofa which feels almost velvety on touch (a pretty modern design with an old fashioned finish) and I’ve adorned it with a couple of old school looking cushions with faces of famous people. The cushions are in tones of mustard, amber, grey and beige with a hint of red and really compliment the moss green colour of the sofa itself.
Alternative period pieces
Another way of incorporating a modern twist into your period home is to play around with furniture from various eras. My favourite thing to do is to go online shopping for vintage and antique pieces from second hand stores. It doesn’t have the same charm going to an actual outdoor flea market does but it allows you to find a lot of larger pieces much easier. That’s exactly the way how I found my new old dining table – a beast of a table if you ask me! It was so heavy it took me hours to drag it up 10 flights of stairs to my flat. But it was so worth it! Now I have a modern IKEA kitchen with sharp angles and harsh steel extractor with a dash of 1970’s in the form of my humongous dining table with 6 mighty chairs (in my old house I had 2, say what!) and two of them are actually a fairly trendy type called ‘Eames’ which you might have seen popping up here and there over the past two or three years.
Flooring
When you have the budget and room for a slightly bigger change then I absolutely recommend doing up the flooring. Rip out the old magnolia carpets covered in cat hairs and replace them with a sleek wooden flooring option paired with an MDF skirting board. Skirting boards add a very different touch to the room, especially if you’re looking to redesign a period apartment outside of England where skirting boards are not as popular. As I’m renting I won’t be able to do that however I’m most definitely having that little bit of an English interior touch in my apartment once I buy one.
The jungle card
All else fails I say pull out the wild card – the jungle ace! Plants of any size and shape add a certain sprinkle of magic to your space. You can dot them around the apartment or you can even create a whole indoor jungle! Add your modern twist by using metal plant pots that will compliment the chosen plant. I find that bright greens usually look great in rattan or wicker but slightly muted green tones or even dark reds look amazing in metal pots! Like this one from H&M, how bloody beautiful, right?!
What’s your take on decorating a period house or an apartment?
