Though your home may not be perched on a mountain top or nestled inside a hill, you can still take inspiration from some of the most beautiful and out-there architectural feats out there.
Instead of choosing safe, generic furnishings or jumping onto temporary trends, set the design bar as high as our building standards. The following three buildings are true works of art, and if you want, borrow design inspiration from their exteriors and interiors. Don't ever be afraid to get creative!
Marrakech Ménara Airport
This Moroccan airport is just as popular among architecture buffs as it is among international travelers. Frommer's even ranked it among the world's ten most beautiful airport terminals. If you love the ambiance of open-air Moroccan markets but don't want to weigh down your style with heavy tapestries and carpets, focus on their lighting traditions instead. This airport is a larger-than-life version of the geometric mosaics and patterned lamps that make Moroccan culture so unique. Every detail was designed to maximize and manipulate natural light. The whole building is formed by cool white concrete, shaped into an interlocking network of diamonds that stretches from wall to ceiling. Colored lights, glass, and intricately carved patterns fill in these diamonds, and as the sun moves and sets, these surfaces cast detailed, arabesque-style shadows. Emulate this effect by hanging curtains with detailed cutouts and fitting light fixtures with kaleidoscopic shades. To resist tired kitchen backsplash clichés, arrange tiny white tiles in circular patterns, and accent them with larger pieces of colorful glass. [clear]
Netherlands Institute for Sound and Vision
A Dutch suburb might seem like an unlikely choice for innovative design tips, but this cube-shaped building is full of interesting uses of color and light. Its massive exterior walls offer a very modern twist on stained glass windows; cast glass windows are etched with colorful images that wrap around all four corners and stretch from top to bottom, creating a three-dimensional, double-sided mural that's just as stunning on the inside. That's probably why it landed on Travel + Leisure's list of the world's most beautiful buildings. If you love color and art as much as the graphic artists and architects who collaborated on this media center's look, consider fitting your cabinets, doors and light fixtures with glass panes that are stained with colorful designs. Both natural and artificial light will cast vibrant shadows across your floors and furniture. Or, for a truly panoramic approach, fill an entire wall or door with bright red, yellow, blue, and green LED lights. [clear]
Vena Cava Winery
If you're a garage sale junkie, your tastes might be more sophisticated and modern than you think. The most sustainable, eco-friendly buildings incorporate materials that were re-purposed from old buildings, and some architects and interior designers take this concept even further. NPR recently profiled the architects who built this Mexican winery almost entirely out of recycled material from a port and an eyeglass factory. Boat bottoms make up its curved walls and pointed ceilings, while the windows and wall décor include opaque glass lenses. If you love the look of nautically themed rooms, avoid cheesy anchor patterns and mass-produced figurines. Instead, be on the lookout for driftwood, second-hand canoes and kayaks, and boating accessories. Curl sailing ropes around photos on the wall, hang old masts in lieu of ordinary curtains, and incorporate cork into your shelves and floors. Central Florida might be landlocked, but your home can still conjure images of life at sea.
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