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Today, we are continuing our subject of New Year’s resolution which involves the introduction of plants within the building interior. The presence of plants within building interiors could be seen as a step forward, towards what’s better. The use of plants could be seen as small steps towards saving our own health and through that, saving our environment. That is undeniably important. 

There are many design options within interior plantscaping. If wanting to consider a large number of plants, it is worth hiring an experienced interior plantscaper, who will not only advise on the visual aesthetics but also have the knowledge of taking care of those plants as well as their effects on the microclimate of a building interior. Those are the facts you may want to consider before deciding on a large number of plants. Professional advice may be needed.

Your plantscaper, if you decide to hire one, will definitely discuss all the details with you. If you would like to use a small amount of plants and try this on your own, it is important to consider two facts. First, while introducing plants to an interior, it is important to consider the amount of light within the room. Most plants will benefit from large amounts of natural light, which means if you have large windows within your portable office your plants will be glowing. The second fact is regarding interior design. It is important to consider the color of the interior. Bright colored walls will highlight the presence of plants. Green plants will look great particularly within white walls and maybe with the addition of natural colors such as wood, pebbles or sand. Remember, there are many more possibilities to choose from. Read about particular plants prior to introducing those to an interior of your portable cabin. Have a look at Wolverton’s list of 50 plants that purify the air (link to the list can be found in the sources section below, or within part 1 of this article).

For many, New Year equals new hope and a new start. We often decide to undertake changes in our daily life and daily routine in order to improve on some aspects of our life. It usually involves new commitments. Change, if required, need to be made. This is how progress is being made. Air pollution, discussed in part 1 of this article, is a serious subject. If we focus on small steps and improve the air condition of our interiors, we will improve our health as well as the health of others. If more people decide to consider this change, we will work towards the greater good. The impact is on all of us.

Summarising, we put together a list of some of the most valid reasons of why plants could be seen as beneficial when used within the interior design of an office/hospital/shop or any other type of organization or business;

– The presence of plants within our surroundings benefits our psychological and emotional health, reducing stress, and relaxing us. This leads to increased productivity within the working staff.

– Plants are cleaning the air by getting rid of carbon dioxide and producing oxygen as well as getting rid of many other harmful air compounds (such as VOC’s, explained in part 1 of this article).

– By cleaning the air and influencing positively our emotional health, the presence of plants influences our general health. Again, resulting in a smaller number of days off within working staff.

– It has been proven patients’ recovery speeds up in hospitals while spending time around plants during recovery.

– Plants create a balanced microclimate keeping the air temperature down or up (warming or cooling the room) depending on the indoor conditions. This means the use of indoor plants could be seen as economical.

– Plants have noise reducing qualities.

– By including plants in interior design, the look of the room can transform remarkably. There are many possible ways to do that.

Finally let’s remember, when we use the approach of small steps, we have the biggest chances of success, and let’s consider introducing plants into our surroundings whether we make it our New Year’s resolution or not.

Sources;

NASA SPINOFF (2018), available at https://spinoff.nasa.gov/Spinoff2007/ps_3.html (Accessed January 2018)

Wolverton Environmental Services (2012), available at http://www.wolvertonenvironmental.com/air.htm (Accessed January 2018)

Plant Air PURIFIER (2016), available at https://www.plantairpurifier.com/product_details_-_overview.html (Accessed January 2018)

Our House Plants (2018), available at https://www.ourhouseplants.com/guides/50-plants-that-clean-the-air (Accessed January 2018)

Many people decide on New Year’s resolution at the beginning of each year. New Year’s resolutions are often focused on improving our behaviors and improvement of ourselves as human beings. Also often focused on improving our health. On this occasion, by helping ourselves we could also help others. How can this be done? The answer we would like to offer is easier than you may expect. A decision regarding resolution depends on our particular needs. Because it could be a broad subject, our focus for today is not on all ideals we could strive towards, but a particular one. It is striving for a healthier working environment in order to improve our health. We would like to discuss the option of introducing plants within the interior design of your portable cabin, as a New Year’s resolution. It is something, we believe, you may find interesting and doable. The reason why we believe it to be a positive goal is mainly based on the vast health benefits plants give us. We will discuss those benefits further. In addition to health benefits, there is plenty more.

No matter what type of business you have, there are suitable plants for interior designs of most. Many interior designs involving plants overtake large spaces of lobbies and shopping malls.  It is done in order to impress clients and transform the space into fresh, inviting natural-looking surroundings. Plants often serve as temporary walls, dividing large spaces into smaller, more approachable looking sections. It has been proven that people are willing to spend more money in an interior filled with plants. People perceive architecture with plants included as more luxurious, especially if tropical plants are in use.

Plants are also used within small waiting areas and offices, adding an atmosphere of freshness and warmth. This transforms the area of an office into a positive space where clients are willing to spend more time in. Thanks to the variety of species and sizes, plants have the potential to transform an interior more suitably than real walls and furniture do. Potted plants, for instance, can be rearranged when the needs of the space alter changing the look of the interior instantly. Another important aspect of plants is their noise reducing qualities. This can be used to advantage with the interior design of a cafe, busy office, or large shopping mall. By designing the interior with the use of plants similar to those growing outside, we produce an extension of the natural world. Thanks to that, architecture is more balanced within the environment. There is more.

Our aim is to improve the working environment into healthier conditions by introducing plants within the interior design of our business. To prove that it is a valid goal we would like to introduce a man who performed extensive research on this subject, Bill Wolverton. Wolverton is an environmental scientist who was working in the late 1960s for the US military and has been later funded by NASA Space Agency to work on research into natural environment self-cleaning abilities. There is a vast amount of information that can be found through different sources, including NASA’s website and more on Wolverton’s research. We will discuss his findings partially, but if you would like more information, please follow the links present in the sources section below.

Wolverton first worked on improving the quality of water with the use of plants and then followed with research into improving the condition of air within the building’s interiors. There are many volatile organic compounds (called VOCs) present within the building’s interiors, reducing air quality. The existence of VOC’s was initially identified inside Skylab space station by scientists working for NASA. A problem of volatile organic compounds once known, was found to be particularly heightened in airtight buildings, made with the use of synthetic materials and insufficient air circulation. Wolverton believed in improving air condition not by changing the way buildings are made but by introducing the right amount of particular species of plants within the building’s interior. He believed in nature’s life support system as a solution.

After retiring from civil service, Wolverton opened his own company, called Wolverton Environmental Services Inc. Through his company, he continued his work. He published a book titled “How to Grow Fresh Air: 50 Houseplants That Purify Your Home or Office”. He also published his second book titled “Growing Clean Water: Nature’s Solution to Water Pollution”.

More information on the list of plants Wolverton included in his book. Find more at Our House Plants website following this link https://www.ourhouseplants.com/guides/50-plants-that-clean-the-air .

One of the conclusions of Wolverton’s research confirmed the positive influence of plants on hospital patients, Wolverton’s Company then started co-working with a Japanese company, Takenaka Garden Afforestation Inc, on designing ecology gardens for hospitals.

To be continued in part 2…

Sources;

NASA SPINOFF (2018), available at https://spinoff.nasa.gov/Spinoff2007/ps_3.html (Accessed January 2018)

Wolverton Environmental Services (2012), available at http://www.wolvertonenvironmental.com/air.htm (Accessed January 2018)

Plant Air PURIFIER (2016), available at https://www.plantairpurifier.com/product_details_-_overview.html (Accessed January 2018)

Our House Plants (2018), available at https://www.ourhouseplants.com/guides/50-plants-that-clean-the-air (Accessed January 2018)

After discussing Christmas branding and its possible destructive effect on our perception of Christmas we concluded with our belief into the values conveyed through Christmas and for that reason we desire to celebrate it as a business. If you agree, read on and you will find out that today our focus is of less of a serious matter – Christmas decoration.

Creating the right atmosphere within the workplace will result in a friendly environment for both employees and customers. If you are thinking of decorating your portable cabin to summon Christmas spirit some will argue to follow trends. Others will say, focus on the type of clients you have and organize your decoration to fulfill their needs. The type of clients visiting business should not be ignored. If there are different age groups or maybe families walking through the doors or anyone from within general public in fact or maybe a specific group of people, they all may need to be taken under consideration because they will have different expectations and different needs. Generally though, if you are not deciding to follow through with any special Christmas activities and want to keep your decorations subtle you probably do not need to overthink it. We believe that your clients should never be ignored and yet we argue that simple Christmas decorating could be down to your own taste. The reason is simple, most clients who appreciate Christmas will value Christmas decorations because decorations are pleasing to the eye and most importantly because decorations fulfill two major tasks; remind us of Christmas and spread the love – which equals in making us feel cozy and welcome. On the other hand, those clients who do not appreciate Christmas will either try not to pay attention to most decorations or may simply dislike them all. To that, we have one advise, if you would like to respect those particular clients but still evoke Christmas spirit you may want to keep your decorations subtle. It is really up to you to decide on that.

Our idea to decorate portable cabin for Christmas 2017 is to start early on with few decorative items. Each week or alternatively every couple of days there could be more items added. That way, the office is not overfilled with Christmas items too early and your spirit is built up slowly, day by day, in preparation for Christmas.

Our favorite color this year is gold. Interior design does not often include gold but as a Christmas color gold is your perfect choice. It means that if you like gold, Christmas is your perfect excuse to use it. Gold emanates elegance and value and could be a good choice for your Christmas decoration. There are some not impressive looking imitations of gold color and for that reason, it is important to pay attention to the hue of gold you are using. Rich and deep hues will work best.

Color match for gold could generally be up to your preference but it is worth remembering to not overdo it and if you are going for simplicity and elegance, choose one or maximum two other colors to match them with gold.

If you are a fan of tradition you could go for obvious color choice such as gold with red and green and decide to have some handmade decorations which would look lovely in those colors with the addition of some natural wooden items.

Wanting to create rustic charm you could use more colors. Decorations could be with the addition of wooden items painted in white, turquoise or any other color of preference with the use of crackled paint. Rustic looking wooden items like these can be found in many craft stores or sold online. It is worth remembering that for any color combinations you are choosing, adding a small amount of white together with gold will emanate charm and elegance.

Gold and white on their own can also be a successful and elegant choice of Christmas decoration. White is often associated with Christmas for obvious reasons such as a reference to snow and purity. Together with gold white will emanate elegance and perfectionism.

Finally our personal preference for color combination this year is gold with persian-blue. This color combination is elegant and rich. The deep hue of persian-blue is sophisticated, graceful and luxurious on its own. Together with gold, it creates a breathtaking duo. A hint of white could finish off this type of design satisfactorily.

Let us be honest, we love all Christmas decorations because decorations remind us of Christmas and no matter what color palette you choose it is not about trends, it is all about Christmas. 

Because office space is the most frequent intended use of modular buildings, we would like to discuss hints for choosing the right color palette when dealing with the interior design of an office.

Colors generally divide into warm and cool. Using warm colors within the room will make it appear crosier and visually smaller. Those colors will imitate heat and energy. The larger the wall painted in a warm color the stronger the impression of warmth and coziness.

Cool colors will visually enlarge the room. The room will appear colder but also soothing and calming and those are often good reasons to use cool colors for.

When looking at the color wheel, warm colors are generally those areas of red, orange through to yellow hues. Hues of brown are also considered warm.

Cool colors are considered to be hues of green, blue through to violet. White, black and grey are considered to be neutral.

As a rule, it is not advised to use only warm or only cool colors. When using warm color as a base, it is good to add some cool colored details and vice versa.

Office space is often used to greet clients. Cool colors will make an office seem professional but if too many in use, an office will seem uninviting and cold. Hence a good rule for the office environment would be to use a base color which is either neutral or cool and add other colors which will be generally in warm or mixed hues of warm and cool colors to warm up space.

For the purpose of this article, we decided to divide colors of our interior design into three categories; base color, colors of details and finishing color.

Design Recipe; professional, refreshing and inviting office = one cool/neutral base color + two warm (or a warm and a cool) colors of details + (optional) one finishing color to give the space more edge.

When using a base color we are thinking of large areas such as walls, floor, ceiling and tables.

When using colors of details we are thinking of chairs, small carpet, picture frames or advertising material on walls, stationery items, lamps, small design detail painted on wall (lines, dots), maybe text with the name of the company or perhaps one wall designated to one of the colors of details while other walls stay in base color. Colors of details are at least two so it is great fun to play with the amount of those two colors when choosing items for the space (example; stationery items and lamps in one color while picture frames on walls and a carpet in another).

When using finishing color we are thinking of an accent, a cherry on a cake. It could be stationery item additional to those which are already there, it could be one or two design highlights (line or dot painted on a wall) next to those which are already there, it could also be a lamp provided that other lamps are in different color.

When choosing any hue as a base color, it is good to go for its lightest version as it will appear professional, fresh and inviting instead of heavy and dark. Colors of details may be chosen in different shades, darker or lighter, depending on preference:

White – neutral color. When used as a base color, it will appear clean, fresh and open. White will need quite a few items in other colors otherwise it may appear as highly sterile. Accompanied details in yellow + violet or green + red will create an energetic, inviting and refreshing atmosphere. In fact, it is enough to choose any two colors opposite each other on the color wheel and add it to white base color to create a good combination.

Light-grey – neutral color. As a base color for office walls, it will appear professional and serious. Items in colors of details will not have to be as many as when using white. Light-grey is very nice as a background for other colors because it reflects them back. Orange + blue or yellow + violet would suit as colors of details for light-grey (great finishing color here could be white). Choosing any two colors opposite each other on the color wheel and adding it to light-grey should be a good combination as long as one of them will be a vibrant rich hue.

Light-blue – is a cool and soothing base color appearing as calm and refreshing. Items in colors of details added to light-blue will need not to be too many if wanting to keep the professional and serious feel of the space. Adding yellow-green + red-orange as colors of details will break it down nicely (black could be good finishing color here).

Light-green – is another good cool base color. Light-green will create calming and inviting environment for both clients and employees. When using green, it is important to not overdo it with items in other colors. Good choice for colors of details when using green would be violet + orange.

Light-violet – is also cool color. As a base color, it will also need small amounts of items in other colors. Good detail colors for light-violet would be green + orange (good finishing color for this combination could be black or white).

Our five favorite finishing colors for an office space are white, dark-grey, black, silver and gold. The most important rule to remember when it comes to finishing color is that it must be different than all other colors already used as well as it needs to be present in very small amounts. It serves as a highlight.

Therefore in case of white being chosen as a base color, it cannot be chosen as a finishing color.

White could serve as finishing color when base color was chosen to be light-grey, light-blue, light-green or light-violet.

Silver as a finishing color will emanate wealth, technology as well as elegance and gold will emanate elegance and wealth particularly when used with white as a base color.

It is worth to take samples of all five finishing colors and to visually check which one matches best to our design. When in doubt we could simply choose black or white as these are neutral colors and should match almost any design.

That will be all, for now, when it comes to colors of interiors. More to come on design hints and colors in the near future.

After purchasing a modular building it is time to work on its interior design. Uncertainties and questions may arise in regards to deciding on colors or even the whole process of designing. If that is the case you may find this article helpful.

Choosing colors is very important when it comes to interior design, therefore, it is necessary to spend some time considering what type of space and atmosphere you would like to create. In order to do that, there are two great tools which can help you, color wheel and color schemes. Knowledge of those tools when working on interior design is a big advantage.

While deciding on colors for space it is helpful to spend some time by simply looking at color combinations. Keep looking at our color wheel while reading this article, in order to give yourself an idea of what colors are of interest to you and how do they match.

It is important to know how to use the color wheel in order to choose a color scheme for your ideal interior design. To do that it is worth to know the types of color schemes – remember to keep looking at the color wheel, the most important part of colors is you need to see them, not just talk about them theoretically but to look at them.

Colors divide into primary (“blue”, “red” and “yellow”), secondary (“green”, “orange” and “violet”) and tertiary (all other shades – which are created by mixing primary and secondary colors, for instance, “blue-green” and “yellow-green” are both tertiary colors).

It is important to say that our color wheel is limited when it comes to tertiary colors, for instance instead of having just “yellow-green” between “yellow” and “green” there could potentially be a whole range of hues created between “yellow” and “green”. That way you could create almost infinite number of hues to choose from. When starting, it is good to keep it simple.

Below you can find some typical color schemes;

COMPLEMENTARY COLOR SCHEME – this scheme uses colors which are opposite each other on the color wheel, for instance, “yellow” together with “violet” or “red” with “green”.

SPLIT-COMPLEMENTARY COLOR SCHEME – this scheme uses one color and its two complementary hues, for instance, “violet” together with “yellow-green” plus “yellow-orange” or other option would be “green” with “red-orange” and “red-violet”.

TRIADIC COLOR SCHEME – this scheme uses three evenly spaced colors on the color wheel, for instance, “blue” with “yellow” and “red” or “green” with “orange” and “violet”.

SQUARE COLOR SCHEME – this scheme uses four evenly spaced colors from the color wheel, for instance, “blue-violet” with “green”, “yellow-orange” and “red” or another example could be “blue-green” with “yellow”, “red-orange” and “violet”.

ANALOGOUS COLOR SCHEME – this scheme uses three or more colors next to each other on the color wheel, for instance, “blue violet” with “violet” and “red violet” or as other option we could use “blue violet” with “blue” and “blue-green”.

MONOCHROMATIC COLOR SCHEME – this scheme uses one color and variation of its shades but with no other hues involved, for instance “blue” with “dark blue” and “light blue” or “red” with “dark red” and “light red” (note: darker and lighter shades are not present on our color wheel here because you’re using the same hue, if you’re planning on using this scheme you can easily find color wheel which is divided into lighter and darker shades). 

It is important to say that some of the most successful designs are created by choosing the simplest possible option, for instance using complementary color scheme or split- complementary color scheme. That way you choose one color as the main color and you use complementary color (or two complementary colors in case of a split-complementary scheme) to accentuate with details. For instance, if your room is mainly filled with blue furniture you could place orange lamp together with some other orange details such as orange picture frames within the room (note: “orange” is positioned opposite “blue” on the color wheel hence it is seen as a complementary color for “blue”). This would mean you’ve chosen to use complementary color scheme in your design. Remember to not overdo it, the main color needs to fill the room and complementary color should be present in smaller amounts. It could be nice to experiment with a number of details though. You may find that you decide to add another color to give the space more edge; that way you would choose to go with a split-complementary color scheme by choosing to have one main color and two complementary colors. Experimenting enables to visualize the outcome. In other types of schemes such as triadic scheme, you may try to use all three colors in the same amount or again experiment with different amounts of all three colors.

If you’re still unsure about how to match colors together you may find paletton website as a helpful resource, just click the following link and have a look at what colors go together, you can choose one or more shades or hues. You may be amazed by how fun it can be to play with colors http://paletton.com/#uid=1000u0kllllaFw0g0qFqFg0w0aF

In our next article, we will discuss in greater detail what type of colors are considered good for certain types of spaces as well as discuss the importance of warm and cold colors when creating the feel of a space.

Our modular buildings are designed in order to fit the space to your needs. Whatever your idea for the space – office, storage, manufacturing or any other – at KC Cabin Solutions Ltd we will discuss it with you in detail in order to meet with your idea of the space.

We find series of catering units designed and manufactured for Kaufland, German hypermarket chain, as an interesting example of versatility of our modular buildings. These units are easily transportable from location to location. Units are also functional. With regards of the visual design and functionality of these units, every detail was manufactured for the purpose of catering unit including window solutions as well as space for advertisement. Each unit is manufactured exactly the same as part of a series and spread out into different locations around Germany.

As a client, during the process of designing, manufacturing and installing modular building of your choice, you will be advised on types of solutions available within the design in order to create perfect space fulfilling your needs.

We hope you enjoyed our realization idea of the week.

KC Cabin Solutions Ltd