Home Fluffing A La Solenn And Nico Bolzico

The New Year tends to come with a lot of promises and intentions—one of which is reorganizing or revitalizing your home to start the year fresh and full of inspiration.

This was one of the things that prompted Solenn and Nico Bolzico to consider revamping their living room. This is the first time they’re celebrating Christmas and welcoming the New Year as a new family, with their baby Thylane Katana. To make it a bit more special, Solenn has collaborated with Moss Manila to turn their living room into a baby-proof modern minimalist neutral space.

To recreate this minimalist and neutral vibe in your own home, here are some tips from Moss Home, who was able to transform Solenn and Nico’s living room in just 3 days.

To make a neutral palette interesting instead of boring, learn to layer different shades

When you’re going for an all-neutral color scheme, the tendency is for the space to go flat because of the lack in contrasting colors. Moss Home suggests to learn how to layer different shades differently and smartly, so you can still pull of a good contrast despite the narrow spectrum.

Texture is the new color

Another way to avoid a flat-looking space is by using textures to your advantage. Textures can help add more visual interest and visual play. This can be achieved through the wallpaper, carpets, and even in the pillows you use in the sofa!

In neutral-toned rooms, you also would benefit a lot from adding wood because that will give warmth and depth to your room.

Let the furniture speak for itself

Moss Home highly recommends investing in your furniture so you don’t have to try very hard to make your room stand out. Especially when you’re going for a minimalist vibe, less is more. You won’t feel the need to add too many design elements when your highlight pieces are already making an impact on the space.

In Solenn and Nico’s living room, this solihiya and oak chair from Philux has really worked well in elevating the look of the whole area. This accent sofa is handmade and designed with Scandinavian and Filipiniana elements, upholstered to match the color story of the space.

Bring the outside in

Even though you’re dead set on achieving a minimalist and neutral-toned room, adding greens from plants will not pull you away from your goal. Adding greens grounds a place, and helps make a room cleaner, more polished, and livable.

In Solenn and Nico’s case, Moss Home added a beautiful Christmas tree that’s elegantly designed. Following the modern and minimalist theme, the tree is incorporated with fresh eucalyptus twigs and neutral-colored Christmas balls for a festive but muted vibe.  

Think of a centerpiece

You should always have a center point in any room—and adding a good statement lighting fixture helps with that.

In Solenn and Nico’s case, their house had a relatively low ceiling so they can’t go with the traditional drop lighting. To remedy this, Moss Home decided to bring in a lighting fixture that’s more horizontal in profile.

Mind the rug

Using an area rug helps delineate spaces, especially when you have an open plan like Solenn’s and Nico’s. The whole space is shared by the dining area and the living room, so using an area rug helps to define the space.  In this case, it's the living room that is anchored by the rug.

When choosing a rug, be mindful of what you’re choosing for your space. The rug used here by Moss Manila is a Belgium-made rug from Eurobel, which comes in varying pile height and density to give that premium feel. It’s also made with Heat-Set Polypropylene yarn so it’s soft, non-shedding, moth-proof, and easily washed when it gets dirty. You also have to be mindful of the size when you’re choosing a rug because it needs to be proportioned to the space and furniture that you’re putting in. Here’s a quick cheat sheet from Moss Home when you’re decided your carpet size:

Nico and Solenn’s modern minimalist neutral living room makeover was actually pulled off by Moss Manila in just 3 days! Solenn talks about the “Moss Magic” makeover and says: “It’s easy to make you believe in magic, but it’s not easy to actually have magic. So for me, Moss Manila showed me that. They showed me everything and followed what we like, our personality.”

If you missed it, watch the full living room transformation by Moss Manila below.