A beautiful home
Creative ideas and trends for your home
Isn’t it always the same story: In the beginning – no matter if we’re talking about a new apartment or a house – there is plenty of empty space, plenty of ideas, everyone’s open to one or the other new interior design style, the place is just begging to be filled with existing or newly acquired furniture. The you shop around for the latest trends in interiors, get some creative ideas for interior design features, and you even come up with one of the other of your very own ideas. Your layout plans fall into place – and finally: your time has come to put everything in its place.
Walls are painted or clad with natural materials, next come the floors – and bit by bit, piece by piece, room by room everything fills with furniture and accumulated accessories: A wall shelf module here, a room divider there, a sofa and coffee table in the sitting room, a wardrobe in the bedroom, and a dining table and chairs in the dining room – plenty of furniture and decorations are distributed across your living space from the kids room, the bathroom to the kitchen and hall (and let’s not forget about the balcony, patio an garden). And suddenly: there’s no more space.
Furniture & Room
Frequent problems
More often than not, you run into difficulties: Some pieces of furniture are too big, the apartment too small, this interior design idea doesn’t quite go with that style, that idea is just not trendy enough and the whole thing imply doesn’t quite gel. And worst of all: all your planning work and ideas don’t suit the actual space. The most frequent flaw when it comes to gutsy interior design ideas: There just isn’t any storage space anywhere – a problem virtually every household has to deal with. Now what? Some completely new ideas are needed to finally make the place feel like home.
Trends & Ideas
The ultimate solution
You really are looking for: Creative interior design ideas, attractive, modern and practical, with furniture that is right on trend and enrich the overarching design style; ideas that live in harmony with your decorative accessories and create storage space – while at the same time creating an environment you can feel comfortable in. But where could you possibly find all that? At qubing, of course. qubing is a versatile all-rounder in terms of furniture and shelving systems – storage made stylish, the perfect solution for everything from wall shelves to room dividers. qubing will always fit perfectly – and it can be anything you want it to be.
Living room
Cosy but never plain!
If you look at the kitchen as the stomach of your home, then your living room is its heart – and that is how you should furnish it: Modern or traditional – whatever style you prefer – but it must be your place of comfort and well-being. But let’s start over: Most living rooms contain the same kind of furniture: a sofa, a coffee table, some sort of wall unit and – depending on the size of the room – maybe some sideboards, table and chairs, some shelving ... most likely all of it coordinated in style and colour. The space is rounded off with appropriate lighting and some free standing lamps, wall paper, curtains, knick-knacks, accessories and of course your decorations. Everything harmonises and reflects your personality – this is your home. Or that at least is the ideal scenario.
In reality, all the great ideas you had for imprinting your personal style on your living space soon reach their limits – unless (of course) you employ an interior designer, who will then, filled with inspiration, furnish and decorate your home according to all the latest trends. But you really don’t need a designer – there are plenty of fresh ideas out there to help you make your house, your apartment and your living room into something special, while at the same time keeping things cosy yet practical – you guessed it: qubing is one of these great ideas!
Shelving & Order
Efficient living room
The encroaching digitalisation doesn’t mean that people don’t still keep plenty of stuff in their living rooms: Books, CDs, vinyl records .... And that is why good ideas and storage ideas are so badly needed: shelving or cupboards where everything finds its rightful place. The one thing that makes qubing so completely different from all the other interior design ideas you will come across is its incredible versatility: it can be a wall shelf unit, a sideboard, a room divider and so much more: its modularity allows you to adapt your design to available wall space, floor space and architectural peculiarities – and all that while still giving you complete freedom in terms of colour choice and layout.
Space & Depth
Adding structure to your living room
More ideas for your interiors: Standing shelves or a room divider create structure in your living room – or create visual boundaries between functional spaces: between your dining table and sofa set, or between your living and sleeping area. qubing is a perfect solution here – it can be adapted in height and size (how about s stepped version?), in shape and form (straight, around a corner or cross-wise), in terms of lockability (with doors or flaps on one or on both sides), and in terms of all colour specifications of the shelving to match your décor and accessories.
Diversity & Function
Living room furniture
qubing can take on many forms and creates attractive furniture, while still staying true to its original calling as a storage talent. The following interior design ideas for a contemporary and modular living room with oodles of storage space might give you some inspiration for your own unique ideas: qubing as a stool (with cushion), as a sideboard on rollers (with a base and rollers of course), as a dining table or desk (i.e. as the “legs” for a tabletop), or as a mobile coffee table (with rollers again) – we don’t really see qubing as a sofa option, but everything else – well, everything you can dream up goes!
Bedroom
Stark rooms – sweet dreams?!
Sure: Most of the time you spend in your bedroom you will not be that aware of your surroundings – you’ll be snuggled up in bed fast asleep (sleep, dreams and relaxation are really important as we all know, maybe even more important than creating nifty interiors). But does that mean you don’t have to think about the interior design of your bedroom? Is it really just all about the right bed and mattress, and the rest (i.e. furniture, accessories, wall décor, decorations, all those fab interiors ...) is unimportant? Has the “look” been taken over by the “feel”? Is creating a pleasing interior in the bedroom really overrated??
Sense & Purpose
Bedroom basics
Even if you might not be fully aware of your bedroom most of the time you spend there – it still can and should reflect a certain style and ambiance: Because first of all the quality of your sleep and of course relaxation depends on how well you feel in your surroundings before you go to bed and just before you drift off (and waking up is so much nicer too ...). And secondly there are plenty of other activities besides sleeping you can do in your bedroom or indeed in your bed, for which your choice of interior may be quite relevant.
And thirdly, the bedroom is so much more than just a place to put your bed in terms of your home: Most people don’t have enormously large apartments or houses, which means their bedroom doubles as dressing room – which is why that is where people usually put their wardrobes (as opposed to placing it in the living room, bathroom, dining room, kitchen or hall). The wardrobe is therefore the second most important component of the bedroom – it too is used for storage, albeit that the items stored in it will differ.
Storage & Room
Bedroom solutions
Keyword storage: It may come as no surprise that a certain modular shelving system comes to mind here, which allows for a whole range of interior design ideas and which can be configures as a wardrobe as well as a wall shelf unit – and that perfectly in line with the size of the bedroom and the colour requirements to match beds and other furniture, adding a trendy and contemporary flair. And that means: Useful furniture made easy!
You may not have guessed it yet – but we are talking about qubing, the modular system that can, for example, create a wonderful room divider to be used in a small apartment as a partition between the living and sleeping area – or – with the quick addition of rollers, can adjust the size of the respective area in use whenever you like. Where the bedroom is on the overly large side, our fully interconnectable shelf cube design offers a myriad of possibilities to create a walk-in closet or an entirely separate dressing room. Another stylish option for the bedroom would be to use one of our basic shelf cubes on rollers as a mobile bedside table – just another practical idea, but it can’t beat a walk-in closet, of course.
Kids room
The whole truth ...
You have seen it all in specialist publications about kids furniture, kids room interior design ideas, decorations and kids room accessories: Luxurious designs with style, magnificently colourful ideas (red, yellow, blue ...), creative accessories, playful wall décor, furniture with educational value (indoors and outdoors), and of course everything eco-friendly – parental dreams come true, and all that with a helping of bright and anyway wonderful little boys or girls. Sometimes you may even see the odd building blocks scattered on the carpet to give the picture some mock reality – oh those cute little messy darlings ...
But that is not the real world at all. The reality is quite different – this is not about furnishing rooms and scattering appropriate decorations. The reality of the kids room is based on an entirely different reference frame that has nothing much to do with furniture, interior design ideas, style, décor, architecture and suchlike. In order to grasp the phenomenon that is the “kids room” we have to forget about “interiors” – the only truly useful criteria in the context of the “kids room”, “interiors” and “furniture for kids” are: Ubiquitousness, chaos, growth and misappropriation. But don’t worry, you’ll get used to it.
CHILDRENS' SHELVING SYSTEMSAlways & Everywhere
Kids room – limitations
A mistake often made is to think kids understand the term “kids room” as some sort of finite space furnished and decorated for them, to which they limit themselves. But kids don’t do that – to them, there is no difference between “kids room” and “home”: They are ubiquitous by nature – and with them comes all their stuff. And you – well, you won’t be able to change that. You may be able to curtail it – a little – with ultra quick intervention furniture, for example ambassadors of order like shelf cubes on rollers with flaps, which can be utilised singly or in hordes.
Growing & Becoming
Kids room – versatility
“Furniture” that sounds like permanence – the spirit of a child is the polar opposite: it grows and changes. That means: The transition between nursery, kids room and teen bedroom is fluid – and it happens faster than you can say “crafts ideas” or “wall tattoo”. Even though the changes may be more apparent in terms of clothes than furniture, qubing can – based on its versatility and expandability – still do its part to relieve some pressure and even the favourite colour issue is no longer an issue.
Playtime & Chaos
Kids room – order
Order is imposed by culture and faces a constant battle with the chaotic force of nature. Sure: Culture here is synonymous for “parents” and nature means “kids” – the most wonderful interior design ideas for furniture disintegrate under the life force of everyday chaos – better known as “playtime”. Let us reiterate: You will never have the upper hand – but you can make things easier for yourself: With plenty of storage space (just dump everything in there) and with doors and flaps (what you can’t see won’t bother you). You can have all that with qubing, versatile and colourful – and even with partitions if you wan to be particular (and you think it will help).
Things & Purposes
Kids room – everyday life
There is absolutely nothing that girls and boys – well kids in general won’t misappropriate, and that of course also applies for furniture. Even tiny infants find ways to do that, by for example sucking on things that were definitely not meant for consumption. Toddlers love to “decorate” furniture and create caves and climbing opportunities (where your heart skips a beat). And we don’t even want to go into details about what teens get up to in their rooms. That is why the furniture for your infant, child and teen should be just right – harmless and safe, robust and strong – and as versatile as your kid’s imagination. Just like qubing – based on versatility.
Bathroom
Dreams & Water
Back in the olden days, personal hygiene was the central focus of a bathroom, reducing expectations to the bare essentials in terms of bathroom furniture: A washbasin – that’s all we needed. With the arrival of modern times, the hygiene topic was revisited with a little more emphasis on whole-body ablutions, which led to the functional space with washbasin, fittings, mirror, shower (with cabin or curtain), bathtub and tiles – primarily in a “sanitary” style: white and sterile. Nobody had an inkling of interior design ideas for that space in terms of “wellness” or “dream bathroom”.
Today, people daydream about spending some quality time in their bathrooms! They imagine warm timber, light, strategically placed plants and accessories, they want sunken tubs or free-standing ones, they want mood lighting and furniture with revitalising colours – a generously proportioned, contemporary spa-like bathroom, filled with ingenious inspiration and bathroom furniture solutions and stylish solutions. They don’t want to just clean their bodies – they want to enjoy body care and that with at least all of their senses. There is, of course, absolutely nothing wrong with that – as long as the two basic premisses of any bathroom are catered for: Space and water.
Wet & Warm
Bathroom – constants
Bathrooms will have to continue the eternal battle with humidity until ultrasound showers take over and become the norm. And in terms of your physical comfort, we hope that the same applies for heat (from contemporary heaters). In terms of interior planning, outfitting and design ideas for light fixtures, furniture or walls, we can therefore assume that everything has to be compatible with these constants – and ideally as much as qubing, which comes in a material and quality that guarantees imperviousness to moisture in any shape or form – as a bathroom shelf, shower stool or step in front of the washbasin or tub.
Little & Large
Bathroom – variables
The best interior design ideas, the most beautiful furniture, the hippest look: None of that matters a jot if the room – in this case the bathroom – doesn’t offer the necessary space. A common problem in most older buildings. Of course there are plenty of tricks you can use – both visually and functional – but in the light of realistic inspection, only a tiny minority of bathrooms fulfil all the basic criteria of modern bathroom expectations: A degree of adaptivity in terms of space and colour, robustness, storage space and contemporary design. Sorry that we keep repeating ourselves a bit – but qubing really is the answer for all that and more. It simply is a fact – and it also applies if the bathroom for once is on the large side instead.
Hall
The space in between
The hall – aka vestibule or corridor – is the most ambivalent space in an apartment (a house comes with the functional analogy of a stairwell or hallway, with its very own requirements in terms of furniture, lighting, and interior design options). Hallways are the interconnection between individual rooms, and also act as a kind of airlock at the entrance – the transition between your personal space and “outside”. It offers a first impression of your personality for visitors, and serves as a storage area for the utensils you need to brave the “outside” (your coat rack and shoe closet, etc.). Being such an integral pat of your space, the hall is frequented a lot – albeit almost always without conscious thought.
Therein lies the problem, as there are specific expectations your hall must fulfil in terms of décor, furniture, colour scheme, decoration, etc.: The first impression must be cosy, with great storage potential, unhindered passage without clutter, with a décor and furniture that is unobtrusive. Add to that the hall size paradox and its resulting expectations in terms of furniture: Extra wide halls (in older buildings) increase the subjective impression of the overall quality of the living space, while objectively – in contrast with the mostly narrow corridors in modern buildings – are expensive floor space without any real purpose. So what do we do with this awkward hall space? Where can we get inspiration and some design ideas?
Width & Space
Large hall
Since our interior design ideas and tips are meant to make your hall and entrance area both useful and attractive, and don’t include economical aspects here at all, we will interpret the hall paradox in favour of quality of life rather than wasted floor space. For wide hallways that means: Don’t add a shelf next to the hall stand and the shoe closet and whatever else pieces of furniture you have left over in an effort to create maximum storage, even if the temptation is overwhelming. We recommend instead: Be sparing – elegant sideboards and discrete shelving with some nice colour accents. (qubing. Hello?!? What else!)
Narrowness & Confinement
Small hall
The hall paradox – when applied to the décor of a very narrow and cramped space – results in the following design tips: Clear out whatever you can (important for first impressions and quality of life). And: Keep only what you need (i.e. hall stand and storage). And this is how it’s done: Get your hands on an adaptive, ultra versatile and completely modular shelving system (we don’t really have to spell it out for you, do we?), and focus on utilising all the “wasted” space – i.e. recesses, alcoves, corners, underneath slanted ceilings, under stairs, etc. for elegant, yet understated shelving units or closets (a really good shelving system can do all that, we’ve tried).
Kitchen
Light & Well-balanced
If your living room is its heart, your kitchen is the stomach of your home, at least figuratively speaking. In reality, a kitchen is so much more than that: It is the soul of your home, and as such it is one of the most complex spaces in your apartment or house in terms of furniture, style, storage solutions, materials, finishes, accessories and wall décor – and that is why kitchens are and always will be the focus of countless trends, ideas and tips. Beautiful or practical? Free-standing or built in? Dining table or separate dining room? Rustic or urban chic? Wood, glass or tiles? And what kind of furniture? The recipes given are legion and nothing if not confusing.
Let’s stick to the certainties: Aside from all the interior design options, a kitchen is meant for cooking. It therefore needs: A hob, oven, worktop, cooling, sink, various white goods – and of course the unavoidable, always nagging storage space (“Everything is full up, I need more space” – honestly, we’ve heard quite enough of that). These basic requirements alone create some pretty high expectations in terms of kitchen planning, which means style and interior design ideas all depend primarily on the basic functional orientation an are therefore – what else is new – a question of space. Right then: Kitchen sans furniture – purely functional? Combined kitchen and living room? Open kitchen?
Ways & Means
Kitchen – variations
What nobody wants: a cramped narrow kitchen where you couldn’t swing a cat – but there are plenty of people who have to make do, and use a versatile shelving system to create more space. Where opinions differ: a kitchen open towards the living space – but whatever you prefer, a fully modular and variably interconnectable shelving system will do absolute wonders. What everybody wants: a live-in kitchen – even if it gets a bit cramped (a clever modular shelving system could create extra space here), and most definitely if there is plenty of room. That is where a multi-functional, multi-purpose shelving system will really come to the fore!
Closets & Shelves
Kitchen – storage space
What then are the expectations in terms of storage concepts with regards to modular shelving systems? On the one hand: Storage furniture, open or closed – and plenty of it (must hold crockery, cutlery, cooking utensils, foodstuffs and beverages with a variety of storage needs – more rarely these days: firewood or coal). On the other hand: Harmony with items of furniture, overall interior theme and personal style preferences. Why do we thing qubing is the solution for all that? Well... It ticks every box – it is simple and versatile and colourful. It can be a wall cupboard or upright shelf, it can have doors, flaps and internal partitions.
Office and workspace
Up-style and upgrade!
The office is a space where people create value. And in order to create as much value as possible, the office must facilitate all the processes needed for that creative process – it must be efficient. But what does that mean? Everyone agrees that office interiors must be functional – in addition to desks and office chair to facilitate working with computers and Co., an office needs storage shelves and filing systems – in other words: Office shelving – shelves with or without doors for file folders and office materials (and coffee).
Efficiency & Effect
Office – theories
There are different schools of thought on the topic of office interiors: Some of the people in charge of organising the process of value creation used to believe that efficiency meant cramming as many cheap shelves and desks into the smallest space possible. More recently, the trend has been towards quite the opposite: an investment in high quality office interiors would basically pay for itself (more space, more peace and quiet, more aesthetics), because those creating value would be less stressed and therefore more efficient – makes sense, really.
Latest development go even further: There trials underway, in which the time spent at the office (in terms of aesthetics and more) is made so pleasing and attractive that people don’t want to go home at all, forget about their puny lives beyond the office and therefore keep on creating value in perpetuity – but that, to its full extent, really only applies to a tiny elite of value magicians. And yet: The creation of super comfortable “office environments” (the very telling pendant for “living environment”) is a pretty smart idea – even if it is a little treacherous.
Comfort & Change
Office – design
How ever far you want to take the idea, one thing is certain: qubing would contribute greatly towards any office interior. It is functional, aesthetic, and adaptive, it offers huge amounts of storage space and – when used as a room divider or overarching room concept – creates a stress-free working environment. Another plus is its legendary versatility – and particularly in dynamic contexts (market, economy, growth ...), a shelving system that grows with increasing demands offers unrivalled efficiency. Once again the perfect all-rounder solution for any requirement – from the hip home office in the loft to the edgy backyard office.
Shop and trade fair
That’s the way to stand out.
Trade fairs, doctor’s offices, notary offices and sales rooms all create value – with the one difference that the public plays an important role here or is asked to play that role: as a client, patient, consumer, potential business partner or buyer. All of them are meant to utilise or consume the created value or the value they help to create – and of course pay for that value. A correspondingly representative environment must be created in order to ensure that they actually do what they are meant to do, and entices them to do it.
Beauty & Quality
Retail and surgery interiors
Where an interior (no matter whether we are talking retail shelving, presentation systems, reception counter, filing shelves, etc. – all furniture, by the way, that can be easily and variably created with the qubing system to suit any space) must be eye-catching and interesting, that will mean on the one hand high quality and aesthetics and on the other customised and individual, just like the product or service which it is to represent (which is – based on its simple elegance, variability and colour diversity – exactly what qubing is all about). And that is basically all we have to say about that.
Shelving Systems for store interiorsUp & Down
Trade fair construction
That which was once considered essential in terms of representative features for interior decoration systems also applies for the structural and furniture-related self-representation at trade fairs – with the added variable of being a time-limited arrangement: As time is of the essence, the trade fair stand must be easy to construct and take down (and in that context extremely durable and resilient) – and should ideally not take up too much space for transport and storage.
Well... The fact that qubing does all that and more has been mentioned once or twice already – and since it is super easy to put together and take apart modular qubing wardrobes, closets, shelves and room dividers at home, it will be just as easy to do that at a trade fair. Besides: the square panels are simply perfect for transport and storage. The only difference here is that the modules can be delivered in the colours of your corporate identity on request (when purchasing a set minimum of modules), and that we will be happy to assist you in the planning of your trade fair stand if you like. But this was now really everything we want to say about qubing.
qubing.de
Johann Ehmann
Herzogstandstrasse 1
81541 Munich.
info@qubing.de