As you know, fashion, which is an integral part of our life, is a capricious and fickle lady. She has long gone beyond the boundaries of glamorous magazines and catwalks, capturing new spaces. Now fashion trends can be traced in interiors as clearly as in clothes, and depend on the political situation, social sphere, art and other factors. A lot of time passes from an idea to implementation, and conceived projects quickly lose their relevance, so designers are obliged to guess ahead of others what will be popular.
Today we’ll talk about Diana Balashova, a well-known decorator who works with Russian and foreign clients, who focuses on individuality.
Forward to the dream
Balashova Diana, who experimented a lot, graduated from the theater and art school, worked as a decorator in cinema and theater, and then realized that she was dreaming of her own business, and opened a design bureau in Moscow that designed both private and public interiors. She is not afraid to do complex projects and is sure that customers will appreciate unusual ideas and interesting moves.
A regular participant in the popular program "Housing issue" Diana Balashova at the age of 17 came to work in the theater. She designed the performances, decorated the street processions, at the same time studied for the director and theatrical costume designer. The girl never sat still, but strove forward to her dream. She even managed to work as a fashion model, but was expelled for her low growth, but she was not at all upset, but became a buyer - an expert who is listened to. It was a fairly new profession for that time, since few people were well versed in what would be fashionable and calculated the payback of collections brought from abroad.
The beginning of a design career
Diana Balashova, included in the top 10 best decorators in Russia, whose biography is a good example of how a person’s life can change dramatically, bought up original New Year's toys in France and dressed up to 150 Moscow Christmas trees, setting the fashion for holiday decorations. It was at that time, in the distant 90s, she was engaged in interiors, and the third order of the designer was published in the famous magazine.
The decorator considers himself a real luck in life, since all her dreams come true, and she managed to avoid boring and uninteresting orders. Customers appreciate Diana precisely for her courage and allow her to do whatever she wants on the premises.
Breaking the rules
The talented Diana Balashova, whose photo often appears in glossy publications devoted to design, says that she is bored of looking at interiors made by the rules. She is sure that if some colors are used in the house, then it is not necessary to repeat them in a carpet or a picture. Charming brunette breaks the rules, preferring to dictate her own. In her opinion, ideas about good taste often change, and only time will tell who is right.
Once it was very fashionable zoning, in which one part of the room was separated from the other, arranging niches and covering them with glass, and in the early 90s they made high stairs to the ceiling in an ordinary apartment. Diana talks about clients who wanted to order not just room interiors, but a real luxury monument to get into the anthology of design. And she is glad that a coup took place in people's heads, which she really likes: now few people want to impress others, and no one requires exclusive materials.
In addition, the economic crisis has greatly affected, and people are ashamed to fit sofas with python or crocodile skin, because this is not the value, it is free from public opinion and prevailing stereotypes. Buying the necessary things for the home brings much more joy than the purchase of new shoes, Diana Balashova is sure.
However, there is one caveat, and it must be remembered by those who are going to change not just the appearance of the room, but its space. In this case, you can’t do it on your own, it’s best to turn to a professional designer with a famous name for help.
Sorry for not done
“I have a peculiarity - to bang your head into the wall until it collapses, ” laughs mischievous Diana Balashova. The designer, whose projects are of great interest, regrets when he voluntarily backs down from what he started. She recalls a large-scale work in a fitness club on Chistye Prudy. She was asked to do everything so that the sports facility was made in the Japanese style, and here the skill of the decorator was fully manifested. Diana wanted to lay out a huge bowl of the pool with mosaics, and, starting from Japanese prints, she dreamed of filling the bottom with beautiful fish and fantastic dragons.
However, the Russian Aluminum, which the project was intended to, abandoned her ideas, and Diana did not insist and was very sorry about her act, because the famous designer Marcel Vanders, who turned the surrounding space into poetry, used the idea and realized it, laying out a mosaic in the style of engravings Hokusai, Japanese illustrator and artist. It was all the more offensive to Diana to read the enthusiastic press responses in which the Dutchman's project was called one of the most ambitious events in the world.
Cheap professional services
For the services of a professional designer in Russia you will have to pay a tidy sum, and many customers clutch at their hearts when they see the final price tag that Diana Balashova puts up for them. The interiors from a real master, where the main focus is on individuality, is always manual work, which is evaluated accordingly and is often comparable to the cost of a good car. True, the designer’s fee is only 10 percent of the amount. The decorator talks about bad practice, which is not found anywhere in the world: only in Russia, the services of designers are paid based on the total area of the living space, and yet the footage is in no way connected with the complexity of the tasks.
Works in the transfer "Housing issue"
Diana is happy that she can embody all her ideas in a clock program, because a creative person needs recognition. She makes contact with each participant, creating a light atmosphere. A very sensitive and cheerful person cannot work with people without a sense of humor, which warns the creators of the show. A popular designer does not coordinate the project with the customer and sees this as a huge advantage of his work, because she does her favorite job, not being afraid of the consequences. The decorator arranges interiors for famous people of our show business and ordinary people who would not have access to her services.
Once upon a time, designer Diana Balashova designed an office for Alla Pugacheva and remembers this experience with a smile, and the renowned gymnast Lyaysan Utyasheva made a huge panel of her 124 sparkling sports medals. She recalls the teenager’s room, which looked like the home of an ancient old man, and then turned into a modern room for a cheerful and successful young man. The controversial project with a round bed and animation on a stretch ceiling caused a lot of feedback, which had a good effect on the rating of the program itself.
What to do with the space of a small room?
Balashova Diana knows that redevelopment of a small apartment will not help, because the most expensive thing in it is a space that should not be cluttered with things. She faced the owners of small-sized cars, dreaming of new ideas and not wanting to part from the necessary in favor of the necessary. When it comes to spaciousness in a small room, everyone hopes for a design talent who can do the impossible, leaving a lot of space.
Therefore, Diana warns that in this case it is necessary to start with herself, and this means getting rid of everything superfluous. She offers to fall in love with asceticism, to recognize hoarding as a terrible sin and to reject all unnecessary in the apartment. And only after that it is possible to rationally use the remaining room meters.
Part with the unnecessary
The decorator is sure that keeping at home volumes of Russian classics or old sledges of a grown child is an unforgivable luxury. A fashionable decorator calls for handing out all that is superfluous, and when buying new things it is necessary to part with the old ones, freeing up space for life, and not saving. And he declares that the main enemy of the small apartment is travel souvenirs, unnecessary and useless.
The unusual projects of Diana Balashova are of interest to those who want to take a look at their things and their location in a new way. For example, she is confident that large window sills can become comfortable sofas for reading books or working with a laptop, and a large TV screen is a great computer monitor.
