Showing posts with label interior decor. Show all posts
Showing posts with label interior decor. Show all posts

11.21.2023

Decorating for Characters

LOVE interior decor and I have such a GOOD time using my interior design background to create environments for my book characters… These are an example of what inspired Chanel Devlin’s office space (top two) and murphy bed for her studio condo…


STEALING HEARTS unedited book excerpt…

I was going to select a corner office but I had my heart set on painting a wall in a rich turquoise to make two white chairs with chocolate brown legs on either side of a medium-sized white Saarinen-knockoff dining table pop! I had a good sized signed and dark brown framed print—because I couldn’t afford an original—of a Renaldo Rossellini painting on the same turquoise wall. The opposite wall was filled with inexpensive dark stained wood bookcases with adjustable shelves to allow me large spaces for different colored glass vases and some large coffee table-sized fashion books. A basic three-drawer-across-the-top stained wood desk sat in front of the bookcase with a modern white ribbed leather office chair. All of the wood in the room was the same dark chocolate brown shade including accordion folding shutter doors to block the windows on sunny days and to hang clothing to be photographed. The floors were polished concrete throughout the office building but I had a larger low-pile navy blue area rug with a slight line pattern in it covering the floor, only showing about two feet of concrete from all four walls.


Of course… Levi Laurent needed a look for his office desk…

Another unedited book excerpt…

Sitting in my office, folders had been placed on my solid wood conference-table-looking desk minus drawers. “Take your pick” was scribbled on a post-it note. After careful research, my assistant working along with my top-analysts had found three good-bets—sound online businesses for my company to purchase.

This book will steal your heart!

Chanel Devlin has been a fashionista since the day she was born.

Levi Laurent has always been a successful businessman with compliant employees.

When Levi purchases a very successful fashion blog, he is faced with one very unhappy fashionista and she plans to fight every change management tries to make. Chanel knows what is best for Fashionista Forward but does she know how to keep Levi from stealing her heart?


Release date… stay tuned for more information



 

10.24.2023

Hemingway Inspiration

Time for another look into my romantic comedy WRONGED… and my interior design inspiration when writing about ASHTON (my main male construction business owner) competing on a design reality show… these are the inspiration photos (some from Hemingway's Home museum website) for his first challenge… Ernest Hemingway Library Suite is his theme…

 

UNEDITED EXCERPT from WRONGED by Fifi Flowers… 

Chapter Seven
Ashton

…I got a good look at my competition. Fourteen men and fourteen women... One woman was familiar. How had I gotten so lucky and at the same time unlucky when teams were selected and we weren’t on the same one? 

Not to worry. 

I would get my time to talk to her when we got to working on our rooms. For that moment it was time to look at the list I had create according to what I hoped to achieve:


Bookcases everywhere: one big with TV in middle and two side tables.

Two big chairs (hopefully) with a café table.

Paint walls hunter green textured like a billiard table.

Remove carpet and paint a faux hardwood floor.

Bed with massive dark headboard, bedding with dark colors.

Lots of decor items: martini bar setup, fishing rod, figurines, art.

Typewriter a must!


Copyright 2023



Photos of six-toed cats at Hemingway's Key West home








A lot of research goes into writing a book and photos are often helpful... I love to learn new things and pass them on to my readers. You will read more about Ernest Hemingway and Ashton's room in WRONGED(& FOOLISH) book four of a standalone series.

MORE information is coming soon about my contemporary romance book WRONGED... hope you liked my little excerpt and inspiration.

LOVE to write!


10.17.2023

Firenze Apartment Inspiration

I’ve been working on my soonish-to-be-released romance novel—WRONGED. It’s important to get things right… today I found some photos I had gathered when writing a GIANNA (my main female interior design character) chapter about her apartment transformation… visuals are very helpful…





EXCERPT from WRONGED by Fifi Flowers… 


Chapter Four

Gianna


I had learned painting techniques and applied them to smooth out crumbling walls that my papa insisted someone fix. “Nope” I said and painted exposed brick white while the rest were streaked with lavenders, blushes and brighter whites to create the marbled look in the sitting room and kitchen area. In the bathroom I had old used mirrors installed on a wall behind a free-standing white porcelain tub. To some they looked like the mirror needed to be trashed but to me it gave the perfect antiqued mirrored look and reflected the other walls painted a pale lavender. My bedroom got a coat of blushed paint and a faux wood paneling look that was perfect with my lavender and dark midnight blue bedding. I even made a padded headboard and hung my own crystal chandeliers. Old furniture that had been in the space with a bit of refurbishing and reupholstering mixed with modern fabrics and vintage Italian damasks blended well with the walls. And lastly, I had a friend make me wood-slated shutters for window treatments. 


Copyright 2023





I hope you enjoyed seeing one of my writing processes… and reading my UNEDITED words… maybe I will have to share something about my male character, ASHTON (owner of Tate Construction & Sons), next and maybe some real photos of a small town cafĂ© area I used in this book and some related books to the WRONGED book… 

Stay Tuned!



9.08.2023

Sketchbook: Flowers and More

Filling and editing pages… I just can’t allow pages to be blank… they just look to sad… my art is all about being happy… being whimsical… FUN…

and the before… artwork bleeding through the page before and pink smudges of flowers from the right page… the chair didn’t have background color…


the sketchbook has thin paper—not meant for wet media—but I like to break rules…


this before sketch, again, shows the outline of artwork on the page before and I potted the flowers (may give them a blue sky tomorrow… and the color wasn’t as vibrant on the bistro/Arc de Triomphe scene…


I had fun experimenting with watercolor pencils… first time using them this week… only had four, so I bought a set and they arrive tomorrow… EXCITED to try them… I worked with all four in this sketch…


this before was not easy to cover up but I did my best… you can see a lot of the Paris scene through the page so I did bolder color… and the flowers were not planted nor had a sky—now they do!


ONLY one more page is blank opposite a drawing… I will conquer it tomorrow and share… then onward with new entries!



9.06.2023

Flowers for a Chair

Yesterday… while I was looking at the OLDEST sketches in my (MOCA) sketchbook… I finished an old doodle of an antique chair that only had a seat and an arm… the colors don’t exactly match but that could show that the sun was hitting the upper portion making the colors a bit lighter… LOL… works for me! Sooooo… working on that, I thought FILL THE BLANK PAGE OPPOSITE THE CHAIR… Hmmm… where did the chair’s flower pattern inspiration come from? PERFECT… a pot of pink flowers on a nearby table… and PERFECT for a 20 minute art challenge…


20 minutes does not allow for erasing or clean-up on oops… but I got the flowers painted that mimic the chair pattern…


Anddddd…. Now! they sit side by side in my sketchbook for all eternity… FAB!



Day 6 of 20 completed!
I’m thinking… I should do the same on other blank pages in my sketchbook



7.01.2023

Black Butterfly Wallpaper

First painting of July… still life inspired by three photos… I really like the combination… BUT… I decided the painting needed a bit more color… see the change: scroll down


The photos…



The process…






NEW VERSION…



Painting AVAILABLE as a PRINT: EMAIL TO BUY




6.23.2023

Floral Arrangement Interior Decor

I don’t really care for floral arrangements in my house… nice quality fake flowers: yes… BUT I prefer flowers in nature… probably because I hate when they die… if you want to give me flowers—make sure I can plant them in my garden after they’re done blooming… I’m going to imagine this arrangement is faux and they will live in this room forever or until the owners desire a new bouquet…


Here is the art challenge prompt…


Yep… I zeroed in on the flowers!!!



6.15.2023

Room Portrait Striped Chair

Another challenge... room portraits... I have painted many over the years... usually set in Paris... this one is from an interior designer show... I didn't do the wallpaper as intricate as it in the original photo... a whimsical approach is my usual go to...





Pretty design! Okay painting… lololololol


6.08.2023

Tropical Tea

Inspiration comes from different sources… people… companies… photos… In this instance, Iris Apfel—oldest living designer at 101–is designing rugs with the company Ruggable… I loved a photo advertisement and had the desire to use it as inspiration for my daily painting…


The photo that captured my attention…


What will I find to paint next or will I paint from the MANY photos I collect from Instagram and Pinterest… I never know until I move my pencil on watercolor paper…

Painting: AVAILABLE HERE



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