The Ultimate Creator’s Space

Nature’s palette serves as the ideal inspiration for home design. A stormy sky may inspire a deep blue wall color, and the pigment of a wildflower may be the perfect hue to complete a look. Every aspect of designing a room can be aided by the tools that nature has provided.

Working with Interior Designer Kayla Simone, photographer Ian Shive set out to bring the outdoors in for the ultimate creator’s space. Inspiration shouldn’t end when the adventure ends – it can continue into the home office. For photographer Ian Shive, the process of editing his photos is as much a part of the creative process as climbing a mountain or rafting a river in search of a great shot. He believes having a room that is warm, welcoming, and inspiring is a key part of this process.

Ian and Kayla pulled together a gallery of Ian’s favorite Texas images as a jumping-off point for inspiration. His favorite images included rock formations and sunsets from the Chisos Mountains in Big Bend National Park, Texas, bright green jeweled scarabs, evening light and cloud formations from a thunderstorm, Native American pictographs, and a pastel-colored sunset over the Rio Grande River.

Kayla identified key themes within each photo and then interpreted them into her design. For the wall color, she felt that a strong, bold color was necessary, so she leaned into the deep blue of the stormy Texas sky. She then identified a few other key themes, such as the use of natural colors and wood fixtures for the furniture and shelving and the introduction of brighter colors, like you might see in a cactus wildflower, for accessories.

Overall, Kayla kept the room modern, using brass sconces on the wall and a ceiling light to balance light in the room, making it feel fresh and open, even at night. Of course, the final step is about bringing it all together. Kayla used a staggered style gallery of images that inspired it all: Ian’s photographs of Texas!