Thursday 23 October 2014

Bring Vegas Home Challenge

A little while ago, I was asked by Vegas.com to join their "Bring Vegas Home" Challenge. I was asked to use the Cosmopolitan Las Vegas Hotel for inspiration.

When I think of Las Vegas and the Cosmopolitan Hotel, I think of luxury and opulence. These things are easy to add to your own home with little touches. Looking through the pictures of the Cosmopolitan Hotel on the Vegas.com website I found lots of ways you can bring Vegas without breaking the bank.
Bring Las Vegas Home
#BringLVHome. Check out my Olioboard board.

Here are some ways you can accomplish your own luxurious look:

1. Have a Neutral Background - Paint is such a cheap and can easily be done in a weekend. Most of the guest rooms at the Cosmopolitan are either white or light grey which allows the artwork and one or two accent colours to really pop. The Cosmopolitan uses navy as one of it's main "pop" colours.

2. Lots of Layered Lighting - Lighting creates mood and atmosphere which very important to a glamorous look.
    Three Types of Lighting are:
          a) Ambient lighting is the main source of lighting in a room such as a beautiful chandelier or                         ceiling fixture.
          b) Task lighting is like a floor or table lamp for such tasks as reading.
          c) Accent lighting is used to add drama to a room or highlight a feature. For example, artwork                       lighting highlights art pieces and candles add drama.
The key to keeping the room united is to keep the finishes of the lighting fixtures the same. The Cosmopolitan does this with Chrome.
Another thing this hotel does along with the lighting is that it uses lots of mirrors to reflect the light around the room, which makes small rooms look bigger, and adds sparkle.

3. Patterns - Layered patterns create drama. The key to working with pattern is layering and playing with scale. The patterns need to be different sizes. For instance in my inspiration board, the pattern on the rug is largest size, the artwork is the next size, and then the drum lighting fixture and pillows are the smallest pattern size.  It keeps your eyes moving and things interesting when you layer patterns in a room.

4. Textures - Instantly add luxury to a room. Examples of great textures: velvets, leathers, natural stones, silks and woods. It could be as simple as adding a velvet accent chair to your living room, silk pillows to your bed or a leather bench in your front entrance. These textures make things look more extravagant and luxurious because of their richness. But they don't have to cost a fortune especially with so many great faux textures out there in the marketplace. Faux leather and faux silk can be so good they can trick even experts. You really do not need to win the casino jackpot to duplicate these looks at home.

5. Artwork -  This one you can make yourself with some canvas and paint from an art supply store or find at locally at all price points. There are a few keys to having great artwork: it must speak to you and be the right scale to your room. My belief is that it is better to have one large piece than many tiny pieces (unless you group them so they look like a big piece). One thing I love about making your own artwork, is that you can blow up your own photographs that have meaning to you. For example, in my living room I have a series of four photographed landscapes and each one we have taken on a trip so they all have special meaning to us. Another thing about your own artwork, you get to select the colours that work best for your room.
Don't worry if you don't have the time or a creative touch, you can buy some really great pieces in stores and on Etsy.

I was so inspired by the rooms at the Cosmopolitan Hotel that I can't wait to recreate my own glamorous guest room.

How would you bring Vegas home?

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