There’s a lot of advice going around at the moment given this topic is so relevant – so this week we want to share some of the more personal lessons and tips we’ve learnt as seasoned ‘work-from-home/digital nomads’ for the past 5 years.

We’ll continue to provide bite-size pieces of information you can action over the next few weeks without feeling too overwhelmed, especially if you’re on a budget to setup.

Working from home: Tips from those in the know

Tips from Kylie:

1. Employ some furry friends

If you have pets, invite them into your workspace at home.   It’s been proven that pets have physiological benefits and can fulfil emotional needs in the workplace, so take full advantage of this when you’re working from home.  Designbx regularly features my 2 fur babies – Humphrey the Chocolate Lab and Sophie the Black Lab.  I often have them in my office with me – they keep my feet warm, they’re great listeners and they don’t talk back.  Humphrey is well behaved, but Sophie is a regular bin-chicken and always going through my rubbish….just as well I love her.

2. Step away from the kitchen table

Speaking from experience, I think this is the biggest mistake I made and a trap lots of people fall into. I worked from the kitchen table for 18 months too long – out of convenience but also because the thought of cleaning out my office (aka – the junk room) was too overwhelming.

The problem with working from my kitchen/dining living space, apart from the fact I annoyed everyone else who wanted to use it, is that I never really felt like I left work.   I couldn’t shut off.  It was always in sight, that computer monitor at the end of the table staring me down.  With my home office setup, I can shut the door and I’m done for the day.  Most importantly, it also meant I could style my office with some great home décor online purchases.

Tips from Kerena:

1. A picture is worth 1000 words

It can be easy to start feeling isolated or lonely as a result of working from home.  A trick I use to keep me in good company all day as well as keeping the creative juices flowing, is an inspiration wall at my desk.  There are no ends to what I put on my wall – photos of friends and family, inspirational quotes, cards and messages, inspiring design images, style and home décor.  Basically, anything that brings light to my day consequently making me feel a lot lighter.

2. Music to my ears

I’m not a fan of the sound of silence – an absolute must for my happy workplace is music.  I have Spotify running all day long.  Depending on what I have my head into will depend on the genre.  Some of my favourite playlists are:

Morning Motivation – A great way to get the brain ticking in the morning. https://open.spotify.com/user/spotify/playlist/37i9dQZF1DXc5e2bJhV6pu?si=L_ZUrn_1SQWWo_JEIdZlYw

Acoustic Chill – I use this when I’m working on design projects and need to be creative. https://open.spotify.com/user/spotify/playlist/37i9dQZF1DWYGZAMYFDM8S?si=e1EygI1PSfulv8x_2h9bYw

Kingswood – a band I recently saw.  It evokes happy memories so I stay positive throughout. https://open.spotify.com/artist/4zOw0E0NA7B4lIYyc3XNt5?si=oXMlYdOWSBeZizeC7dQgqQ

Feel-Good Indie Rock – more towards the end of my day when I need a boost in productivity https://open.spotify.com/user/spotify/playlist/37i9dQZF1DX2sUQwD7tbmL?si=7KW_Y_muRm6Njg6sqFF_XQ

We’ll be back soon with some more of our work hacks. Be kind to yourself and get some sun where you can.

Kylie and Kerena x

The post Avoid feeling lonely when working from home – part one appeared first on Designbx.

The younger they are, the more likely you’ll spend nights with them wedged between you and your partner instead of being trained to sleep independently in their own room. Not only does it prevent you from watching Game of Thrones; it also cancels the production of more children. In a way, choosing a cheap bed for your child reduces the usefulness of your own bed.

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Barring nightmares, there shouldn’t be any reason your kid can’t enjoy their haven. It should be a case of crawling between the sheets, settling in and—depending on their age—falling asleep a few pages into a bedtime story, a few songs into their favourite album, or midway through Facebook messaging.

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There should be a little sigh of relief once they feel the comfort of a quality bed, especially since they’re exhausted after spending the past 12 hours bouncing and crashing their way through another day, probably leaving a trail of destruction.

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Unfortunately intelligent parents are often unable to put two and two together when it comes to associating their child’s poor sleeping habits with a poor quality bed or mattress. We’ve all seen the horrible pine models with no springs and thin mattresses, lavishly covered with fun sheets and a novelty bedspread to overcompensate for cheap furniture that have a negative impact on a kid’s welfare.

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Sturdy beds with quality mattresses are crucial, and if you buy a beautiful unisex bed that’s built to last, it becomes an heirloom to be passed down from one grateful child to the next. Good beds not only help kids get to sleep but help them stay that way until the morning. They support rather than twist backs and necks, encourage and train a healthy posture that will last into adulthood, and ensure allergies and asthma aren’t exacerbated.  

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Making a choice of bedding should start with your feelings about a new bed. If it’s a big decision and a special treat for you, shouldn’t you assume the same applies to your kids? They need plenty of sleep (in their own rooms!) to make sure they wake up happy, energised and ready to spend the day undoing all the good work of adults.

The post Sleepless nights, for the wrong reasons – how to keep your kids in their own beds. appeared first on Designbx.

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But since launching Designbx, we’ve been seeing the gap between fashion and interior design trends close. The lag between runway and retail stores is diminishing, and more recently we’re seeing the clothing and interior design industries running side by side.

Has social media been a player in this? It’s hard to deny the influence of its reach and immediacy. As soon as a fashion launch takes place, images and videos are shared across social media and exposed to the masses (designers and customers alike) to review, share, and comment on. It’s not only Instagram, Pinterest and Snapchat. The traditional heavyweights like Facebook and Twitter are rapidly improving our ability to publish multimedia. This has created a fast-track for trends.

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According to Gretchen Aubuchon-founder of fashion & Decor, “The brands in fashion and home decor are now hearing the same things, at the same time and therefore not really influencing each other.”

Never before have these worlds been more in tune with each other. They’re neck and neck in the race to generate fashions. As an example, interiors catapulted ikats back into the design world and the fashion industry soon followed, deconstructing this trend and making the technique its own. The fashion industry returned the favour by forging the modern use of watercolour applications, bleeding colours and tones to create motion and fluidity.

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More than ever, customers are influencing designers. Increasingly educated, enthusiastic and actively involved in this space through social media, the customer’s feedback on posts, reaction to cross-testing and personal style, fuel the imaginations of designers. There are people out there, just being who they and unknowingly influencing the industry’s mindset.

The cookie-cutter approach has no place in anymore and people are confidently expressing their personal style.

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It’s great to see people stepping away from the beige coloured interior catalogues that shaped their interiors for many years, and embracing their own style. I feel it’s as simple as customers starting to dress their homes with the same personality they dress themselves. It’s here that fashion and interiors are becoming joined at the hip.

Rather than being force-fed styles, people are embracing the shapes, colours and textures that make them happy. With happiness comes individuality and change.

In the evolution of this encouraging development, the colour-blocking trend was a great stepping stone for many. This lead to the opposite style: a pattern wonderland that presented an array of choices, from florals to polka dots, stripes, and botanicals.

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As the expression of consumers ended the established dictatorship of designers and created a more inclusive environment, traditional roles and stigmas disappeared. Now designers are happy to seek inspiration from any source, as long as it leads to stunning, creative results.

This cross pollination of ideas isn’t limited to fashion and interior design. Ombre (a resurgence of traditional techniques) not only hit these industries by storm, but was lead by the hair styling industry.

While Scandi influences, with bleached and pastel colour-ways and geometric overtones, still have a place in the design world, it’s an interior design style that is slowly being deconstructed to build new combinations. It’s the detail that counts, as fabric construction, colour and style is relayed to surface finishes in the interior space with great success. What came first, and who did it first? The origins of this new interpretation are as blurred as they’ve ever been, but hey, it’s working.

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Interior mags are using fashion and models within their lifestyle shots, fashion houses are curating homewares ranges, and designers from both industries are joining their design superpowers to try and break through with something completely new!

Society at large is as educated and powerful as it’s ever been. In this melding pot of design, the playing field has changed, and I love it!

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Now check out our latest interior design trends

The post Vision Collision – fashion and interior design styles collide appeared first on Designbx.