I WAS GUEST BLOGGING FOR NICOLA

I was asked to guest blog on Nicola Broughton’s blog, and in mid August she posted her choice of photos from my house together with my text. My only guideline from her was it should be interior related. I love it when I can be so free, and I have to admit I was a little nervous when I mailed my guest blogpost to her, as it was a little far off a typical interiors post. I also have to admit I’m having trouble catching up on her quite new blog, witch features a lot of my Instagram friends and favorites, because Nicola is way more effective in me! She writes and fix faster than I can read, haha! If you want to see Nicola’s choice of pictures (which I always find interesting when someone gets tons to choose from), have a look right here. Anyway, here’s what I wrote:

Hi Everybody!

This is Maren Ingeborg Gråblomst from Villa Betula (villabetula.com, @villabetulablog) who’s speaking from Nicola’s green sofa! Not literally speaking, unfortunately, but to be a guest blogger on here is not bad either, thanks for inviting me Nicola.

There’s much you can say about interiors, in my case dark interiors, and you have probably “heard it all before”. So where should I start, and where will it end? It’s not about trying to copy a fancy catalogue or trends or friends – it’s all about creating a feeling, a mood. Moods capture me, both in good and bad ways, and my main goal when I photograph our home is to capture just that, and to pass it on to my readers and followers.

I want my home to bring me closer to my dreams and longings. Dig deep inside of yourself and find big pieces and little fragments of yourself which you can use to create an environment where you belong. It might sound abstract, but I think interiors is so much more than furniture and decorating. The atmosphere comes from within, and there is no way I could create a lush and comforting home or music, paintings or photographs without using my emotions as my most important equipment.

The best thing: we all have the ability to do just that, because we all have emotions and can use them for decorating, how great is that? There’s no magic wand, there’s no right or wrong! You are you, let it shine through and trust your guts, and you are probably more brave and bold than you think. Go for it! It takes much more energy and time to do it your way, it’s not a straight line, but I dare to claim it’s much cheaper and much more interesting. And when you start to figure out how you do it, it will give you energy as well!

I would like to give you an example from my latest project to make my abstract rambling more clear: we had one room left on ground floor which was not transformed into anything good. Since it wasn’t nice, it turned into a storage room where the piles of things we had no idea where to put, grew. It turned out really bad, and the little 10 m2 room with no floor space left, really stressed me. For quite some time I had wanted an atelier where I could make paintings in peace and quiet, and we decided to transform the storage room. I longed and dreamed of a huge atelier in an old stone castle, so instead of limiting myself in this tiny room I thought big. I was thinking like I was inside of the stone castle of my dreams, and created a “dark old castle bohemian look”, and I feel like I pulled it off!

Others can disagree of course, but I know I have created that atmosphere for me, because that’s the vibe I feel in here. Mission completed with very little planning ahead. I usually don’t plan much in here, that would be wasted energy, I think. I create with emotions as I go, and I think more people could do that.

Don’t take it too seriously, and if it doesn’t turn out good, it can always be re-done with some paint and thrift findings. It’s not rocket science. If you want to know more, see more or ask questions, you’re always welcome to ask, post your comments here or at villabetula.com, or my instagram account or get in touch via contact@villabetula.com.

All the best, Maren Ingeborg Gråblomst