Out Of The Picture - Van Gogh's Room At Arles Part Three

Today I’m finally ready to share the room design based on Van Gogh’s Room At Arles – as part of my Out Of The Picture series, which takes famous paintings and creates room designs inspired by them.

So here’s how this works. First of all I analyse the painting, and come up with a list of design elements. You can read more about this first stage here. Next up, I create an inspiration board based on these design elements – you can read more about this here. Finally I create a room design including furniture and accessories – and that’s what I’m ready to share right now!

Let’s get straight down to it. Here’s the painting – Van Gogh’s Room At Arles:

Here’s the inspiration board:

Here are a couple of inspirational interiors that work with the vision I have in mind via Desire To Inspire:

And finally, here’s the room design:

Here’s the supplier list:

Lamp shade, sofa, yellow cushions, plates, picture, curtains.

Coffee table, vase, coaster and mug.

Rug, seagrass baskets, square wicker baskets.

Wooden cabinet, cabinet handles, yellow candlestick, blue candlestick, lamp base, lamp shade.

Based on the inspiration board, the look I was going for here included:

• Vibrant colours - blues, yellows, browns, oranges and greens
• Interesting elements in the room to catch the eye
• Clean lines and shapes
• Rustic/modern feel
• Textures and layers
• Mediterranean/Provencal style.

So what do you think? Could you live in Van Gogh’s Room At Arles? I couldn’t – but then again I really don’t like yellow!

However, I could definitely stand to have one of those blue and white patterned ceramic vases by Virgina Graham in my living room – oh wait, I already do :-) 

And I also adore the chunky sideboard, which is made by an amazing company in Nottingham called Eat Sleep Live (who made our bedroom furniture – you can check out the wardrobe here) – I’ll definitely post about Eat Sleep Live in more detail in future.

To focus on one final element, the plates are by a Manchester designer called Elizabeth Prince – again, I love Elizabeth’s ceramics (thank you to The Beat That My Heart Skipped blog for bringing her to my attention!), and I'll share some more detail about her work in a future post.

Back tomorrow with some more tips on building a garden deck in a monsoon – stay tuned…

Comments

[Lydia, Clueless Crafter]

Amazing. Kudos. Accolades. And more! You have, of course, got my art history mind stoked to discuss. The formal elements are perfect. The couch and bed, both neutral and rectilinear, are perfect matches. The cobalts, sunflower yellows are again perfect.

The next step I would add is this: think about what Van Gogh was trying to express through the painting. The perspective is jarring, elements are disjointed. The room has a sense of confusion resting below the beauty. So, when I would style this room, I would think of intriguing ways to place the elements together to channel a bit of Van Gogh's expressionistic tendencies.

Adore this post!

[Simply The Nest]

Thank you for this uber-wonderful comment! In addition to the shapes and colours, I also incorporated lots of texture through the wicker, seagrass, cushions, sofa fabric etc to represent Van Gogh's impasto technique.

When Van Gogh wrote to his brother, he said he intended the picture to give a restful, relaxing impression. As you say, the result is anything but! The peculiar perspective (apparently the room was actually trapezoid-shaped) draws the eye straight to the window, while the weight of the floor pulls the viewer back out again. The eye darts around the room from the pictures, to the nightstand, to the chair. For me, this painting is full of life, energy and exuberance. I like to think that Van Gogh was finally happy in Provence (at least during his early years there, when he painted Room At Arles), and I see this in the painting. Yet as you say, there is also some chaos beneath the surface...

You are so right, it would be awesome to style the room to reflect these things! Using the accessories to create vignettes to catch the eye, arranging the furniture and rug at unexpected angles, making the most of the clashing patterns in the curtains and the rug rather than trying to disguise them.

I'll be tackling a Kandinsky next, or maybe a Miro... can't wait to get started!

[Lydia, Clueless Crafter]

I'm excited for the result! I thrive so much on the unexpected and to have my eye dart around, not knowing what it will see next is just how life should be. Step on it;-)