2010-08-31 @ 16:21:24

Introducing Ferm Living!

Yes, my latest sponsors are the fabulous Ferm Living! I'm sure you have all heard about them before, this Danish company that started as a graphic design firm, then in 2006 they released a collection of graphic wallpaper, and success was a fact. Since then they have evolved to making more than just wallpaper and wallstickers, now you can accessorize your whole house with Ferm Living products. They make blankets, candle holders, napkins, bedlinen, cushions and even toys!

Ferm Living just came out with their new Autumn 2010 collection, and I love it! The colours are just right, and they have triangles on just about everything! I love triangles, it's one of very few patterns in my home. Triangles and stripes, that's my style. Here are a few of my favorites from the collection. Don't you just love the styling and photography too?

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2010-08-31 @ 03:29:11

Trends from Milan

Sköna Hem picked out some trends from the big trade fair in Milan this year, and these are my favorites; Paper whites and Wood time. Click over to the article to read and see more. Styling by Karolina Karlsson, photos by Johan Carlson.

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2010-08-27 @ 21:36:11

Trine Thorsen is blogging!

I don't know why I haven't found Norwegian photographer Trine Thorsen's blog So Mee blog before, because it's been around since February, and she is one of my favorite photographers. But I finally found it yesterday, through the blog on Elle Interiør. Trine blogs about both her own work and other photographers, designers and products and also shares some recipes and shows the process of decorating her house. Trine was the one who shot the top picture in my post from yesterday, for an upcoming article in Elle Interiør. Here is some more from that feature, and a few more pictures.

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2010-08-26 @ 23:22:43

Behind the scenes of Norwegian Elle Interiør

If you have been following this blog for a while you probably know that I'm a huge fan of the Norwegian edition of Elle Interiør. I've been subscribing for a year or so, and have never been disappointed with an issue so far. It's always the first magazine I read in the big pile of deco mags I get every month.

Most of their features are styled by the dynamic duo Kråkvik & D'Orazio, but sometimes the journalists and editors of the magazine does a bit of styling themselves, and the outcome is most often great! Unfortunately they don't share any of the mag's contents on their website, but they have a blog where I found these photos, both from homes of the magazine staff.
The bottom photo is from editors Line Dammen's home office, and I really wish she would share more pictures of her home... Line, if you are reading this, please send me more photos!

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2010-08-24 @ 13:46:37

Fantastic Frank, a new kind of real estate agent

Stockholm got a new real estate agent today called Fantastic Frank. They have a new way of selling homes, aiming for a smaller audience who loves your home, and not a big audience who thinks it's just "nice".
They also have different six different themes for the sellers to choose from, affecting everything from the styling of your apartment to the brochures and the look of the ad. For example you can choose The Loft if you have a loft space or a studio, or Boheme if your home is more in the creative and excentric style. Another one of Fantastic Frank's features are that they don't use the regular real estate photographers, instead they choose to hire fashion and architecture photographers, which makes the pictures stand out a bit from the rest of the market.

As today is their first day of business, they only have one apartment for sale yet, but it's a pretty great one. Have a look at this one bedroom flat in the Old Town of Stockholm:

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2010-08-19 @ 12:07:06

Freunde von Freunden

I found this German site last week called Freunde von Freunden, it's full of interviews and photos of homes and studios, just like The Selby, but in German, so I'm just enjoying the pictures. Some homes are very relaxed, and some more "designed", but all are equally interesting. Here are some examples, but you really should go and check it out yourself!

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2010-08-17 @ 21:08:10

Candy Black Studio

Katie from graphic and interior design studio Candy Black sent me an email today to tell me about their blog and website. She told me there would be photos of their new studio on the blog, and I got curious of course. So I looked, and was pleasantly surprised! I love the whitepainted floors, tiled walls and all of the other industrial features, and the restrained use of colour. I added a "before" picture at the end of this post. The difference is quite striking, don't you agree? And they really haven't done much more than paint and refurnish!

Ps. I saw a little note on their website saying that Candy Black will soon be opening a small shop with limited edition prints, products and furniture. I suspect I'm going to like that too...

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2010-08-16 @ 22:29:43

Thank you!

I was so happy to read all the congratulations you sent me last week, thank you all! It's sweet to see how much you all really enjoy the posts!

Here are two shots from Norwegian stylists Kråkvik & D'Orazio, the couple who are house stylists over at Norwegian Elle Interiør. They style most of their articles, and always do a great job! I'm loving the super simple components in the top pics, and the perfect shade of pink on the wall in the lower photos, paired with natural wood and black.

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2010-08-13 @ 16:04:38

Best of Formex

So I went to the Formex fair yesterday, and was totally overwhelmed by all the sensory impressions, as always. Four hours was all I could manage, but I saw a lot of nice things in that time, and here are some of them:

Fabrics Karl and Coco, with obvious inspiriation from the big fashion houses, designed by Pia Wallén for Frösö Handtryck.

Candlesticks Skogen och Träden, in wood and ceramics, designed by Gustav Kristensson for Vardagsbruk.

I never really understood the hype on Danish House Doctor, until now. When I saw their stall yesterday I felt this sudden rush of inspiration go through my body. They have always excelled in their styling in all the fairs I have visited, but this was better than ever. I actually found myself wanting a big bunch of their products, mostly furniture. That has never happened before, even though I have always appreciated their talent in designing fair stalls. I don't know if it's me or them who has changed, I just know that we clicked right there and then.

Now I wouldn't pair the furniture with this much colourful things, but keep it simple, light and a bit rough as I always do. Can you see these pieces in a less romantic bohemian setting?

These bears from Superstudio were really nice!

And last, a few press photos from the "trend exhibitions" around the fair. In my opinion there was way too much flowers and bright colors everywhere, and the craft trend seems to have gone just a little too far... Also, I'm getting pretty sick of seeing huge letter everywhere.

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2010-08-13 @ 00:45:54

5 year blogoversary! Part 5, 2009

The last part of this retrospective will give you glimpses from last year, 2009. Many of these posts are probably fresh in many of your memories, but I've picked a few of my personal favourites that I think deserves to be shown again.

Tomorrow I'll be back here, sharing my favourites from the Formex fair (a big trade fair, mostly for shop owners and others in the retail business, but with some interesting stuff for the rest of us too) that I visited today!

Photos by the always brilliant Norwegian photographer Siren Lauvdal, for Elle Interiør Norway, which in my humble opinion is one of the best deco mags in the world.

These shots from Sköna Hem's trend preview for 2009 are great, and I feel that they worked very well for 2010 too.

A huge necklace for hanging clothes felt like a fresh and innovative idea, and I still believe it would add a nice glamorous touch to my bedroom. Designed by Hommin.

Ever since I saw this photo printed curtain I've wanted one for myself too, and I have even gone as far as too investigate how to get it done here in Sweden, and what the costs would be. Now I just have to decide on the motif. Oh, and find a place for it! I think this is a great way to give the illusion of a bigger room while you are actually making it smaller by dividing it with the fabric. The curtain in the picture is designed by Bauke Knottnerus.

I remember when I listened to a lecture on the upcoming trends, I believe it was by Lotta Lewenhaupt from Elle Interiör, at a fair early that year, and she said that trompe l'oeil would become popular. I didn't believe her. But oh how wrong I was! This is an artform that has been seen everywhere in the last year! On wallpaper, fabric, wallstickers, furniture, you name it... Most of the time I don't like it, but then again sometimes, very rarely, something like this comes along and I just have to surrender. Lotta, I'm sorry I didn't trust you, you were so right!

Lotta has a blog here, it's in Swedish, but you should all read it (use google translate!) because this is a woman with a lot of knowledge about design and style, and you always learn something new, either about design or about life, from reading her posts.

The post on this home for sale made some people a little upset. I claimed that this is not at all how the average Swedish home looks, but some disagreed. I am still convinced I am right though. :) I've visited enough homes that looks nothing like this to be able to say that the above pictures are NOT average in any way. But they sure are nice!

I actually like it when the commenters get a bit upset, I think there should be more room for discussion and criticism in the design blog community. It gets a little blaaah sometimes with all the cuteness. Do you agree?

Last but not least, I updated my Stockholm Guide. I know many people find my blog looking for a more personal guide to the city, and I hear they like this post I wrote. I am going to update this again next spring (I just didn't have the time this year) with some new favourites of mine.

See you here tomorrow for a short report from Formex! Take care, and thanks for reading!

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2010-08-11 @ 13:57:58

5 year blogoversary! Part 4, 2008

We are now going to step back to 2008, when I started to concentrate more on full room settings and homes rather than products. Since then my focus has been on styling and photography, since I find this a nice way to encourage a more sustainable lifestyle with less shopping and more of re-using, recycling and taking care of what you already have.
In the beginning this was also a way to put more focus on stylists, as all lights seemed to be on the photographers at that time. That has changed a bit now, and I'm really happy for that progress! Sure, a photographer can make or break a shot, but in my opinion the stylist is still more important for the outcome of the picture. Without the stylist, there would only be a blank white wall for the photographer to shoot...

This first pic is from Hotel Berge, and the photos from there have been seen all over blogosphere since then, and they still show up in posts sometimes. I take that as a proof of timeless style and a job well done by the designers.

These photos by Lars Ranek still holds up very well too!

The same goes for these shots by Kristin Perers.

This loft from Marie Claire Maison is now a bit too rustic for my tastes, but I like the different shades of white and wood.

And I found another dream kitchen! This is by a Danish company called Det Mondæne Skur.

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2010-08-11 @ 00:42:02

More tomorrow...

It's past midnight here, and I have a feeling I could be looking through the archives for at least a couple of more hours before I can decide what to post. So I'll be back tomorrow with recaps from 2008 and 2009!

I'd like to take this opportunity to thank all of my readers, both new and old! You are the ones who made this blog so successful! And your encouraging comments and emails always cheer me up. Thanks for taking the time to write them!

I started this blog as a place to store all the information I was overwhelmed with working as a decorating assistant at a magazine. Slowly the number of readers increased, and I still remember the day I had reached a total amount of 10 000 visitors since the start. Now I have that same number of readers in a single day sometimes!
I no longer have another job, as somewhere along the way I turned into a "Professional Blogger". Haha, I still laugh when I see those words, it looks so silly! And I sure have trouble explaining to older or less tech savvy people what it is that I do for a living... I find pictures on the internet and post them on my own site. Isn't that the weirdest job description? I don't care! It's fun, and you seem to like it, and as long as it stays that way I'll just continue doing it!

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2010-08-10 @ 23:22:14

5 year blogoversary! Part 3, 2007

In 2007 I did some short interviews (find them all here) with people I admired, like Holly from Decor8, Lena Corwin, Louise Campbell and Lotta Jansdotter. That was a lot of fun, and in hindsight I can't understand that some of them actually participated! Mind you, this blog was still tiny by then, with just a couple of thousand readers every month. And I don't think I had actually understood quite how big it is to get an interview with a huge name...

2007 was also the year I went to a graduation show and first saw my dream kitchen which later came into production at Marbodal. It's called Gallery and was designed by the girls from WIS Design, a design studio which is among the biggest in Sweden by now. I have written about this kitchen so many times now I actually think I deserve to get it as a thank you gift from the manufacturer...

Other things I liked that year:

Wallpaper from Ferm Living (I think?)

Textiles from Mrs. Me

I was still into retro wallpaper, these pics are from Danish stylist Andrea Larsson

Mary-Ann Williams felt items for her own company Illu Stration

I found Elisabeth Dunker! I am still so impressed with her, she does so much so beautifully!

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2010-08-10 @ 22:34:44

5 year blogoversary! Part 2, 2006

Let's move on to 2006 and see what I thought was hot then. Now don't laugh please!

Screenprints from Weego Home

Tea set from Rosanna Inc

Bulb light by Joakim Fihn

Silhouette patterns from Atelier R Bernier

Rocker from Das Möbel

Furniture from Twentieth

Some things I still really like, like these candlesticks by Anna Kraitz and the rug and table from Ikea:

And the Spline chair by Norway Says is of course still just as good looking as when it was released. I could very well imagine having this in my home.

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2010-08-10 @ 22:11:01

5 year blogoversary!

I just realized after writing yesterday's post that today is my 5th blogoversary! That insight gave me a massive writer's block. I mean, how do you top off five years of posting with 1367 posts? Five years is a looong time in blogland! I've been thinking all day, and finally came up with the idea to look through the archives and give you a little summary from each year that has passed. My tastes have changed drastically, so it was a hard job to find something from the first years that I felt was worth reposting now. Also, at one point I had to delete a bunch of pictures because my account was full. I believe there was a limit of 100 mb or something like that. Space on the internet was rather limited at that time...
However, I think it's kind of fun to see how much my style has developed, so I'm going to make one post on every year, to let you too see what has happened since it all began...

Let's start with 2005, shall we?

Lighting from West Elm was on my wishlist

And I liked this strange seating device from Futura Emporium

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2010-08-09 @ 20:29:37

Photographer Per Ranung

Per Ranung is one of Sweden's most hired interior photographers, his work is often seen in Elle Interiör and I really like his style. Here is my pick from his portfolio, enjoy!

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2010-08-08 @ 14:51:49

Saturday Sweets

I'm back at home after a nice vacation trip with my family, and although I'm a day late I figured you'd still want your Saturday sweets this weekend, right? Today's sweets are a little bit different, because this is a bag filled with photos from my own inspiration folder, the folder where I save stuff I would like in my own home. It can be products, styling ideas, colour combinations or a whole style that I just feel like stealing. These particular pics are from the "Decoration and storage" folder. I hope you like them too!

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2010-08-03 @ 19:42:12

On the road again...

Hi all, I'm just dropping in to say that I'm on a little trip to the northern parts of Sweden. I won't have any internet access until Saturday, so I'll see you back here then. Meanwhile, enjoy these summerhouses from Hus & Hem!