Designing Decor: Project Balcony Part 1.

Its summer! Its the 2nd of June and so far we’ve had glorious sunshine, most of May. On Saturday, I was unwell, very unwell and I ended up wasting away on my sofa looking out of the glass door, too exhausted to actually sit out there in the sunshine. After looking out at the balcony for two days, Sunday didn’t bring me much comfort either, I was inspired.

This is my view, admittedly at sunset, but you see what I mean, we’re really close to the water. Yet our balcony doesn’t really reflect that. It’s a bit scruffy! We have some nice pieces, a lovely black wooden lounge chair for example, but it really isn’t a cohesively styled area.

Retro-Style Me!

As you know, if you’ve been paying attention, I love retro. I love to dress in clothes in the style of the 30’s, 40’s and 50’s. I like to think I have an hour glass figure. I love my home to have the luxury of the colonial and art deco periods, so its really ridiculous that I haven’t taken the balcony on before.

As you might have guessed I want to go for a nautical theme. Now when I personally think of the nautical theme I immediately think of the twenties, of cruise ships and Agatha Christie. I know its a bit of a leap, but bear with me.

First Class Travel

The glamour and luxury of the twenties went hand in hand with international travel. Thomas Cook had introduced the package holiday in 1841, but it wasn’t until the 1920’s that the masses could afford to travel. Transportation was becoming more readily available, and the rail companies of Britain sent out a massive campaign to keep people using the railway instead of busses. Slogans like “See Britain by Rail” and “It’s Quicker by Rail” advertised the multiple avenues of holiday travel by train. The ocean liners were considered symbols of modern technology, and a tan was a status symbol. Winter cruises to warmer climes became really popular.

Art Deco Travellers

All of this was happening in the Art Deco period which had really been introduced to the world via the Parisian 1925 Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes (International Exposition of Modern Decorative and Industrial Arts). Today we associate the 1920’s with Art Deco and vice versa, just look at the aesthetic portrayed in the film “The Great Gatsby”, even the poster is heavily Art Deco in style.

So influential was it the Art Deco that it was even used by the French Line to advertise its most famous ocean liner, the Normandie which was launched in 1932, seven years after the World Fair in Paris. The poster has become iconic, and readily recognisable.

I have a copy of this as a postcard. I will frame it and hang it outside. If you want to see some of the ideas I’ve started to collect for this project, click on the link to my Pinterest page and check it out.

http://www.pinterest.com/daviealex/project-balcony/

This all has to be done on a budget, so I will be posting some tutorials as I try and re-create some of the things I liked on Pinterest.

I hope you will subscribe, so that you don’t miss out on the journey of this project. Comments are welcome below.

Until next time.

Davita