Coffee is an art form. This beloved caffeine kick is a staple in every culture, and occupies the bulk of morning routines. Grabbing a takeaway coffee can get pricey when it becomes an every day ritual, so investing in a quality home coffee device is a great way to get your caffeine boost from the comfort of your own kitchen. The downside – classic coffee pot machines are bulky, and let’s be honest, an eye sore. We’ve rounded up our five favorite coffee appliances so you don’t have to sacrifice aesthetics in your modern kitchen!
Crisp, fall weather has us all dreaming of our winter hideaways high up in the mountains. Amenities such as ski-in-ski-out ability, wooden beams, log cabins, eclectic furniture and textiles, and a fireplace to cozy up to are just a few luxuries any modern slope enthusiast wishes for their mountain escape. The natural beauty of the surrounding landscape is not lost in the interior design of these ski chalets. Walls of natural wood, stone accents and fur covered seating is all inspired by the mountain terrain.
These modern mountain homes are sure to leave you warm after a long day of action in the snow.We’ve rounded up some of our favorite mountain home inspiration for your mental escape to the slopes!
Do you have a deep collection of records but have no place to display them? Is there a mounted television just floating on your wall with nothing to hide its cords and cable boxes? Need extra storage in your space, but want to avoid cluttering your walls with shelves or stuffing your cabinets? A mid century modern console will be the perfect fit to gain extra organizational space without sacrificing style.
The beauty of a console is, you can move it! This furniture is not set in place forever, therefore it can change with the flow of your feng shui, trans-seasonally. Check out these mid century modern consoles we’ve rounded up from enlightened designers!
Oceanside Living. Blissful, salty breezes blowing continually, rich breaths of humid air, the rushing resonance of waves crashing, and endless horizons full of sun-kissed pigments.
Designing your modern home alongside the oceanfront with ensure you pave your way to a blissful existence. Amidst peaceful elements, you are creating a lifestyle of tranquility and simplicity. Away from the noise of urban zones, you will embrace the sounds, smells, and sensations of nature.
Explore with us these exquisite modern homes, designed to welcome all of the natural beauty of the surrounding seascapes.
We are in the midst of the hottest part of the summer in Central Texas; your body is working hard, and it’s essential to replenish all the vital nutrients it needs!
Omega fatty acids can help lower the risk of heart disease, lower blood pressure, fight against depression, dementia, and arthritis. It’s important to remember that our body cannot produce them on its own; you have to consume them in food, or take supplements. The best source of omega-3 fatty acids, DHA and EPA, is in fish.
High intakes of dietary nitrate, like that found in arugula, have been shown to lower blood pressure, reduce the amount of oxygen needed during exercise, and enhance athletic performance. This is great when your body is working extra hard during the heat! Consuming 2 cups of arugula will provide an intake of 20 percent of vitamin A, over 50 percent of vitamin K, 8 percent of vitamin C, folate, and calcium needs for your day.
Did you know that Avocados contain more potassium than a banana? Avocados are packed with essential nutrients, and ideally should be consumed daily!
In avocados, you will find:
Vitamin K: 26% of the daily value (DV)
Folate: 20% of the DV
Vitamin C: 17% of the DV
Potassium: 14% of the DV
Vitamin B5: 14% of the DV
Vitamin B6: 13% of the DV
Vitamin E: 10% of the DV
Avocados also contains magnesium, manganese, copper, iron, zinc, phosphorous and vitamins A, B1 (thiamine), B2 (riboflavin) and B3 (niacin).
Safe to say, in this yummy medley, you will be consuming a meal of superfoods.
Ingredients You’ll Need
4 (5- to 6-ounce) wild caught salmon filets
1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil
4 cups baby arugula
1 ripe Hass avocado, pitted and cut into 1/2-inch cubes
The Dressing
2 tablespoons fresh juice from 1 lemon.
Himalayan salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 tablespoon dijon mustard
2 cloves of minced garlic
pinch of cayenne pepper
1 tablespoon fresh dill
Instructions
Begin by prepping your dressing so that the ingredients may have time to meld together. Mince your fresh garlic, and mix into the olive oil, lemon juice, and dijon mustard. Add in the fresh dill, cayenne pepper, fresh ground black pepper, and Himalayan salt.
Place freshly sliced smoked salmon in a bowl, and pour the dressing over, set aside, and allow the fish to marinate.
You may leave the arugula in whole leaves, or slice into smaller bites. Dice the fresh avocado into cubes, and mix into the greens. Add in the salmon, and pour the remainder of the dressing over the ingredients, stirring together.
The entryway to your home, whether through an open porch or sunroom, is the area that presents the first impression of your space.
Your front patio or sunroom is also be where plentiful downtime is spent reading or resting, and where you entertain guests for coffee, tea, or apéritifs. Your patio space with set the mood for the rest of your home, and should emanate comfort and elegance.
For luxurious decor, you will often see large hanging porch swings with an array of cushions, wide lounge chairs, and reclining chaises. Lighting should be kept soft and ambient, incorporating hanging lamps and candlelight. Adorn surfaces and corners with tall house plants, hanging plants, and flowers for an earthy, fresh feel, and keep surfaces clean lending room for books and beverages.
We hope you enjoy some of our favorite selections of modern luxury porches!
Sitting on or nearer to the floor will help you bring grounding energy to your body and your environment.
Beanbag chairs are a way to enjoy the luxurious, lounging element of floor seating, while still enjoying some support to the spine. In a beanbag chair, you are allowing some additional extension to your lower body by having less strain on the psoas muscle, therefore helping to maintain a higher level of circulation in a seated position.
“Floor culture” has been widespread across Asia for centuries. In Korea, sitting on the floor was a way to stay warmer due to the ondol, or underfloor heating systems. In India, sitting on the floor while eating is part of the Ayurvedic lifestyle, aiding in digestion, circulation, and portion control. In Japan, there is at least one room of the house with washitsu, a traditional style room that is adorned only with woven tatami mats across the floor, a simple low table, and some floor cushions. In modern times, we enjoy floor seating as a means to feel more cozy and comfortable in our own homes, and when welcoming guests. With an array of contemporary designs to choose from, one can maintain a modern look in their home, while still offering a relaxed and inviting aesthetic.
We hope you enjoy some of our favorite modern beanbag chair selections!
Keeping your home free of stagnant energy will help you live with lightness of being.
August is the fall of the summer, and autumn right around the corner. With luck, this summer you have spent countless hours bathing in sunlight, or adventuring in new territories. Now is the time to spend some time inside your home, take a look around, and begin to cleanse all the corners and surfaces to ready yourself for the last third of the year. Having a clean and pure living environment is clinically proven to increase brain activity, calm your nerves, and improve overall productivity.
The first step to minimizing clutter, and maximizing peaceful, clean energy in your environment, is to discard any of the following items from your surfaces and drawers.
Old Magazines + Newspapers – If you have stacks of old magazines and newspapers lying around your coffee tables or bookshelves, toss them into the recycling, and clear space for new projects and books!
Receipts + Bills + Documents – Have you already logged or filed necessary information from any receipts, bills, or documents you’ve been saving on your desk or in your kitchen drawers? Throw them all into the recycling bin! Anything that you truly need to save for your personal files or taxes should be neatly organized and placed in a file folder or cabinet.
Clothing – Take a long, hard look inside your closet, boudoir, or dresser, and remove anything you haven’t been wearing regularly (seasonal clothes aside).
Books – Do you have stacks of books that you have already read? Pick your top three, and donate the rest. Trade collections with your best friend, create a neighborhood “Take One, Leave One” bin, or find a coffeeshop with a bookshelf and leave them for someone else!
Medicine + Vitamins – Check the expiration date on all of your bottled medicines an supplements, and discard anything old, or anything that you are no longer in need of.
Makeup + Perfume – Cosmetics and toiletries expire also, and usually aren’t of the same quality after spending too much time laying around in a drawer. Go through everything an toss out those mostly empty compacts of powder or dried up mascaras!
Jewelry – If you aren’t going to invest in basic jewelry pliers or a small repair kit, it’s time to discard all the broken jewelry that you have cluttering up your drawers.
Old or Unused Electronics – Do you have a drawer for old cables, phone chargers, cell phones, or any other obsolete electronics? Get rid of all of that! Donate to your local Goodwill.
It is of utmost important to the balance of your mind and your home to dedicate an area of your space to setting intentions. Find a coffee table, bookshelf, or atop your mantle to place powerful items of significance, peace, abundance, and prosperity. Here are some things you can get started with:
An Altar Cloth sets the foundation for the space you are creating, reflecting all that is within you.
Salt is an important ingredient to place in a bowl on your altar, as it is protective, purifying, and represents the Earth’s energy.
A Chalice represents the Mother Goddess, or divine feminine energy, and is used to hold ceremonial drink, or salt water.
A Wand can be made from any organic material, and is used to direct and channel energies in and around you.
Candles are used to invoke and hold the power of each cardinal point, and are used to balance the masculine and feminine energies.
Bells or Singing Bowls call upon healing energies on your altar, clearing any stagnant energy, and can signify the beginning and ending of your personal practices or rituals
Powerful Stones like crystals and minerals each vibrate at their own frequency, and hold unique significance than can represent different feelings, intentions, and affirmations you would like to focus on.
When designing the interior decoration of a larger space, it is important for the room to feel cozy, while maintaining the flow of openness. Here are some tips on making a large room have the perfect balance!
Large Room, Large Furniture
Depending on the shape of the room, or where windows are placed, you may easily divide up areas of a larger room with and L-shaped sectional. In addition, you may even compliment your sectional or sofa with an oversized ottoman.
The perfect way to create environments for lounging in a larger room are to align your furniture atop an area rug. Use the rug to define the borders of a particular zone for sitting or laying.
Placing a day bed or chaise lounge chair in the center of a large room can be the perfect divider between different areas. If your living room and dining room are conencted in the same large space, separate them with the bold placement of a larger piece of furniture.
A wooden or paper Japanese screen can be used for shade, privacy, or be a means to section off different areas within a larger space. Create a reading nook, or separate your dining area from the main living space by placing a screen between the two environments.
If you’d like to tone down the openness of a large room, or simply give it a little warmth and character, try adding an accent wall showcasing your favorite pigment. Use a color that is calming and comforting, but makes a statement nonetheless.
A perfect way to fill a large room with warm, earthy energy is to place taller house plants along the edges of your furniture, in corners, or on side tables. Try a potted ficus tree, a majesty palm, or Madagascar palm to fill out your environment with forest vibes.
One of the Five Arts of Chinese Metaphysics, fen shui, or wind-water, is a ancient traditional belief system that guides and governs the energy forces within architectural structures.
Closely linked to Taoism, feng shui practice discusses the arrangement within architecture in terms of the “invisible forces“ that bind the universe, earth, and humanity together, known as qi. In traditional Chinese culture, qi is believed to be the vital force, life force, energy flow, or material energy forming part of every living entity. Qi, in relation to feng shui, includes the orientation of a structure, its age, and its interaction with the surrounding environment, including the local microclimates, the slope of the land, vegetation, and soil quality.
The use of feng shui is dated back as far as 5000 BC to the Yangshao people that lived along the Yangtze River in China. Between 4700 BC and 2900 BC, the Hongshan people in Northeast China, who interacted with the Yangshao, adopted feng shui into their culture. Before the magnetic compass, feng shui relied on cosmography to set the orientation of structures. Early Chinese astronomers utilized a gnomon, or the part of a sundial that casts the shadow, as the first instrument to use circumpolar stars to determine the north-south axis of settlements. Rituals for using a feng shui instrument required a diviner to examine current sky phenomena to set the device and adjust their position in relation to the device. The magnetic compass was in fact originally invented by the Han Dynasty for the purpose of divination and feng shui.
In Western civilization, feng shui has become widespread, and is commonly utilized in interior design and architecture.
Bagua
In Yaodian, the cardinal directions are determined by the marker-stars of the mega-constellations known as the Four Celestial Animals:
East: The Azure Dragon (Spring equinox)—Niao (Bird 鳥), α Scorpionis
South: The Vermilion Bird (Summer solstice)—Huo (Fire 火), α Hydrae
West: The White Tiger (Autumn equinox)—Mǎo (Hair 毛), η Tauri (the Pleiades)
North: The Black Tortoise (Winter solstice)—Xū (Emptiness, Void 虛), α Aquarii, β Aquarii
You can use the bagua diagram in your own home, by using a compass, or the compass app on your phone, to check how you have intuitively placed things around your home, and re-arrange accordingly. Using the bagua diagram can, if anything, be an excellent way to decorate and arrange parts your home with intention!
