AN ARTIST’S COTTAGE

A painter uses her cottage to create and display her fine art pieces and shows how to masterfully combine artwork and interiors.

A painter uses her cottage to create and display her fine art pieces, masterfully combining artwork and interiors.

Artworks are sometimes seen as the finishing touches in a home,

but for professional artist Lauren Bolshakov, it’s just the opposite. As she says, “It’s a lot easier to design a room around a painting than to paint a painting around a room.” Her artwork is an inspiring touchpoint for her residence, which is in Charlotte, North Carolina. She is currently renovating her quintessential cottage, but for the first couple of years after purchasing it, she used it as a studio and gallery space to paint, display and photograph her creations. During that time, the rooms were like frames to her beautiful pieces, showcasing each one, while also demonstrating Lauren’s natural knack for interior design. The home areas were staged to photograph her art for her website and Instagram, while other rooms were used as her studio. The cottage lived and breathed Lauren’s art and showed how powerful it is when artwork and interior design are integrated together.

AN INTUITIVE ARTIST

Lauren has been painting professionally since 2008. Originally, she began as a watercolorist, which she says is still evident in her work, though she’s expanded to include all media. Often she mixes them in composition. She describes her style as nonrepresentational and intuitive. Her art features exquisite shapes and colors, which traipse across her canvases in compositional harmony. “I currently focus mainly on abstracts, landscapes and figures in water media on a variety of surfaces,” she says, “I’m very inspired by the human form, nature and dance.”

Customers seek her pieces to bring light, emotion and style to their walls. At the same time, Lauren is also a huge fan of home design and has taken on several building and remodeling projects. “My experiences really allowed me to home in on my personal style and execute it,” she says. Her creativity has also found another means of expression. She created TheLookeBook.com with a friend. It is an immersive website designed to foster creativity in everyday life and is chock full of helpful articles on topics from how to style a bookcase to reviews of getaway hotspots. She and her partner hope to expand further into the world of design in the future.

BALANCING ACT. Lauren Bolshakov’s living room illustrates her understanding of balance in design. “My general rule is to keep balance,” she says. A Pottery Barn couch faces two carefully placed side chairs from Lulu and Georgia and draws the eye to the crowning art piece atop the fireplace.

SIT AND SIP. Arches ringing the exterior of the home add a distinctive note. “I love this sitting area!” Lauren says. “We’re actually closing it in with beautiful glass windows and adding a bluestone floor to bring the outside in. This is my favorite place to sit and have a cup of coffee.”

|TOP| CHARM ABOUNDS. “Our home is a quintessential cottage,” Lauren says. “We love everything about it! It’s cozy and welcoming and has really good energy.” It was light gray with black shutters when they bought it. Lauren decided to paint the brick white and the shutters and front door a pale blue. She also added window boxes. |BOTTOM| EXTERIOR AMBIENCE. The cottage’s exterior is just as inspiring as its interior and feeds Lauren’s creative spirit. A covered porch is a wonderful place to both entertain and relax and take in the greenery surrounding the home.

|BOTTOM LEFT| DYNAMIC DUO. Two different artworks can play off each other beautifully when presented together. Here, Lauren uses different frames and artwork sizes to create a display that’s both exciting and stylish. |OPPOSITE| BROWN AS A NEUTRAL. Lauren styled the dining room with a Wayfair table, vintage chairs and a bar cabinet from McGee and Co. Textural browns act as a neutral in the space, adding an interesting contrast to the black table.

|LEFT| TALL BEAUTY. This piece is called Kukui’ula Flowers and is 60 inches tall. It commands the space in a sophisticated and unexpected way, turning an otherwise boring white wall into a statement.