Last autumn I went to Copenhagen together with
Annaleena to shoot some homes for a project we had planned. However, that project never happened, because both our careers took off in different directions and we could never find the time to realize our plans. So here we are now with hundreds of great pictures that deserve a better destiny than being hidden away on our hard drives! Perhaps someone would be interested in publishing them?
I'm showing a tiny sneak peek below, just to give you some idea of what we are sitting on. We also shot a whole bunch of stylish restaurants, cafés and shops, so if anyone would like to publish a Copenhagen city guide we could easily whip that up too!
One of my personal highlights during last weeks
DesignTrade blog tour was the visit we made to
Vipp's flagship store. They had prepared a styling competition for us, where we were divided into three teams. I ended up together with Desiree from
Vosgesparis and Anna from
La Maison d'Anna G. Perfect match, don't you think?
The rules were that we had two kitchens and one bathroom to style, 20 minutes per room, and a huge pile of props that all teams could pick from. We had a fantastic time and I am quite proud of what we accomplished in such a short time. It seems the Vipp people were also happy with the results as they decided to keep our team's last styling on display in the store, which is of course very flattering!
The styling with the most likes on
Instagram and
Facebook wins, and the voting ends on Wednesday 12/6 at 12.00 CET+1. If you like what you see here and want to help us win, please use your like-finger generously! All the pictures hashtagged #vippstyling are part of the competition.
My camera battery died in the middle of this shoot, so the pictures below are borrowed from
Desiree.
Time for a giveaway! This week you can compete for a set of 4 espresso cups and saucers from
Marimekko (who just opened an online store with international shipping), with a total value of €122.
The
espresso cup is the newest addition to Marimekko´s
Oiva tableware collection designed by Sami Ruotsalainen. The cup comes in two color ways: solid white and in a black and white
Räsymatto (rag rug)
pattern by Maija Louekari. They are matched with little plates in different colors that are perfect for serving small delicacies.
To enter the giveaway, just write a comment about who you would like to invite for coffee and why.
The competition is open for one week, until Monday June 10.
I just saw these photos on Facebook and loved them so much that I immediately wanted to share them with you! I am moving next week, and my head is full of plans for the new apartment. I am going to try to keep it quite minimalist, so I'm leaving most of my vintage finds and furniture behind and opting for lots of white, accented with gray, black and different metallics. It sounds very cold, I know, but I'm convinced that my love for candles, sheepskins and cushions will make it cosy anyway.
Anyway, I was very inspired by these pictures from what will become the new
Menu Concept store in Copenhagen. Designed by
Norm Architects, and of course showing their signature timeless simplicity, with lots of white, simple shapes and lines and some interest added by the copper and gray surfaces. Norm's cooperation with Menu is getting stronger all the time, and it has really helped the once pretty bland brand get a new status in the design world.
I have so many great pictures and places from my Berlin trip that I want to share with you, but let's start with my first day there. I booked a guide to take me around the city, through a site called
Plus One Berlin. The concept is this: You tell them about your interests and how much time you have, and you get to pick your guide from their list of "locals" ( = Berlin inhabitants who are all dying to show you the best spots around the city) to take you around for a day. I found a perfect match for me, a design student named Marianna who shared my interests in architecture, interiors, minimalist style and cool urban spaces.
We started with breakfast at a cozy café called A.Horn where we made plans of what to do during our day together. I highly recommend their banana bread, served with greek yoghurt, a sliced banana and sunflower seeds.
After a walk along the river and a short metro ride we arrived in Kreuzberg where we went to
Kunstraum at Mariannenplatz. It's an old hospital, later turned into an exhibition space. The halls are all decorated with colorful murals, and there are exciting things going on in every corner.
Then we took a walk along the remains of the Berlin wall, and headed for an art gallery which unfortunately was closed. But instead we found two wonderful shops! The first was
Supergrau, a very minimalist space showing amazing furniture and products. I really liked their distressed tile wall, and fell in love with
this table lamp with a massive marble base.
The second shop,
Parkhaus, was a bit homier, with a great selection of modern products mixed with antique wooden furniture. The entire space, including the ceilings, was painted in a very relaxing shade of gray, which really made the products stand out.
After walking around in this beautiful area we had a nice coffee at
Oslo Kaffebar (check out the website, as I didn't get any good pics in there), before it was time to say goodbye. I can highly recommend "
booking a local", as it felt more like meeting a friend who really understood what you would want to see in this new city, than going on some guided tour. I had a great time, and I really wish this service was available in every city!
Plus One Berlin also has an
apartment that you can rent for your stay in Berlin, to make you feel even more like a local. It is beautifully designed by two local architects, Paola Bagna of
Spamroom in collaboration with JP Coss of CossA. The 42 sqm studio houses everything you could need in a home away from home, like a "games drawer" with ping pong rackets, a fully equipped kitchenette, flat-screen tv, desk area, and a fridge stocked with surprise food.
Sorry for not posting last week, it certainly wasn't my intention to go MIA, but I had such an eventful week that I simply didn't find the time to blog. I started off with a visit to the
Vitra Campus in Weil am Rhein in southern Germany, where I held a workshop and worked together with their stylists, creating a theme for the next exhibition in the loft showroom in the
VitraHaus. I can't show you any pictures from the workshop (top secret!), but below are a few from VitraHaus and the Ando House at the campus. All shot with my iphone, because I forgot my camera at the hotel. I'm such a professional blogger, don't you think? ;)
After Vitra I flew up to Berlin, to attend the big blogger conference
The Hive. Two full days of listening to over 20 speakers and workshops, meeting 250 bloggers from all over Europe, and filling my head to the bursting point with new inspiration and ideas!
But before it all started I had two days off to explore Berlin, and as I'd never been there before I was very excited about this. The city did not disappoint, as you will see in my coming blogposts...
Have you noticed this trend of putting lamps in the "wrong" place? I'm not talking about the work or desk lamps above the kitchen worktop that we've been seeing for years, what I mean is people placing floor lamps on tables, ceiling lights on the wall, and desk lamps by the bed, or any other place you can think of. I think it's a great way of adding some surprise in your decor. What do you think? I'll give you some examples to show you what I mean.
I've been having a crush on handmade ceramics lately, the kind with irregular glazes that reminds me of 70's ceramics, but better. So I was very happy to discover
Tortus Copenhagen, a small pottery studio consisting of
two established danish ceramists, Eric Landon and Karin Blach Nielsen.I've always loved visiting pottery studios, there is something quite irresistable about the messy clay, little pots of glaze and pigments, the incredibly hot kilns and rows of pretty items waiting to be fired, and the thrill of never knowing exactly what the results will be like. I hope you will enjoy this small peek into the Tortus studio! At the end of the post is a short video, showing the process of throwing ceramics (don't watch if you are prone to seasickness).
Interior designer
Joanna Laajisto shares my passion for great lighting, and had been looking for a small and simplistic pendant for her projects (I've shown some of them before
here,
here and her
home here), but couldn't find the perfect one. So she decided to design her own.
“When the idea of designing a light fixture started to form in my mind, I knew what it had to be: expressionless but interesting and classic but modern at the same time. Just like my aesthetic for all design.”
Although Laajisto knew what she wanted, the design process wasn't easy. The fixture required countless hours of designing, revising and editing. Hence the name
Edit. Available in three different finishes and as a ceiling or wall light.
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