Inspirational homes: The home of Ingrid & Remi from BLAFRE DESIGN

It's no secret and it's no news that I am deeply in love with Scandinavian homes. So how could i not love the home of Ingrid & Remi from BLAFRE DESIGN.

All images are taken by Elisabeth Sperre Alnes. Please check out her work at her blog elisabethalnes.blogspot.com.

Check out all images at Ingrid's blog at blafre.blogspot.com. Once again that I wish I would speak Norwegian.



But not only their Norwegian home is to die for also the products they design and sell at BLAFRE DESIGN - their family business - are lovely.

Images from www.blafre.com

Inspirational homes: Sanne's livingroom

I'm in love with the livingroom of Nina's (ninainvorm.punt.nl) sister Sanne. Have a closer look at Nina's blog.

Bemz & Marimekko

Bemz is teaming up with Marimekko and I can't wait for the new Bemz /Marimekko covers that are avaiblabe from May 27th at www.bemz.com. It makes me think about covering up my Kramfors couch with a classic Maija Isola flower-patterned slipcover. Check out the Bemz blog for more images...

Die Träumerei - Designhotel & Café

There is nothing more that I wish I could do than escape my daily routine for a few days. Some time ago I discovered die träumerei in Michelstadt - a little boutique hotel (die träumerei is German for "the dreamery") - in a magazine but their website was't up and running until recently. So inbetween i completely forgot about it...but yesterday while I was going through some old bookmarks I found this gem again. Isn't it just divine?

© www.die-träumerei.de, Images from Roman Kuhn

The half-timbered and landmarked house from the year 1623 was completely restored and renovated considering historic and the latest ecological and constructional aspects. It opened its doors last August. The 4 rooms are - each of them is designed in a different theme - are called Malvensuite, Elfenbeinzimmer, Jademansarde and Goldspeicher (Mauve Suite, Ivory Room, Jade Mansarde and Gold Attic). Referring to the oak wood framework the furniture of the reception is made of whitened oak and the furniture in the rooms is made of smoked oak. Lovely details and personal touches can be found throughout the hotel - key pendants from Africa, old train tickets as bookmarks, lamps from Illums Bolighus, old movie chais, tiles from Belgium, wallpaper from Osborne & Little...

© www.die-träumerei.de, Images from Roman Kuhn

They also run little café with cakes from a local country bakery and offer breakfast till 3 (!!!) PM.

All this sounds almost to good to be true. This is the perfect hideout to spend a few days in heaven!

Astrid's favorite Interior Design blogs

Astrid interviewed her 21 favorite Interior Design bloggers for an awesome article on KLIKK.no. And I'm really happy that I am part of it. Unfortunately it is only available in Norwegian but you can check her answers at her blog. And here are my answers:

Where do you live?
I live in my hometown Nürnberg in Bavaria, Germany in a 3 bedroom/1 bathroom aparment from the late 1960/early 70ties. I share the aparment with my boyfriend and our cat Paxon. We both work from home so each of us has its own office/work room.

What is your blog about?
My blog is about all the things I like and I'm interested in. Everything I heart. Photography, Interior Design, Cooking and Baking, Traveling, Handbags and Shoes, my cat, my everyday life,...

Which interior decorating style do you like best?
This is a though question. I like lots of styles but that does not mean I could live with them. Too much mixed colors and patterns make me feel uncomfortable. I need something to rest my eyes on. For my own home I prefer lots of white with some colorful accents and kitschy accessories. I don't know if there is a name for it. I'd maybe call it "Scandinavia meets Kitsch". I like to mix IKEA furniture with desinger pieces or vintage items from ebay or thrift stores. While I've always liked simple and clean shapes best when it comes to furniture I also discovered a fondness for old Gründerzeit (founding period) tables or single items from the 50ties to 70ties during the last years. And I have a huge weakness for Scandinavian design in general, not only furniture. I've wanted some Arne Jacobsen Series 7 chairs for more than a decade now.

Something I do not like are too perfectly and too much styled homes. As much as I adore and love to real all those glossy interior and architecture magazines with its perfect kitchens and living rooms inside as much it also repels me if I see such perfectly styled and prestigiously decorated but lifeless, impersonal homes for real. I feel sorry for kitchens that have never seen a pan and some fat splashes from cooking. And I'd always rather leave my walls blank than hanging up some worthless yet expensive piece of art whose only purpose is to match my couch. I'm downright scared of ready-furnished homes that come with plastic flowers, cutlery and a new bathrobe .
And what makes my eyes really hurt is the typical German interior. Mail-ordered huge wall units either made of oak (no, not that modern oak stuff but some old style rustic oak furniture) or with a flesh-colored fake beech decor and a gruesome beige-brown couch. Oh, and maybe a coffee table made of an old cart wheel? How about that? Germany is truly in desperate need of interior designers and stylists. ;-)

What is your dream house?
I'd love to live in an old Victorian house in upstate New York or San Francisco. Or in one of these typical red wooden houses in Sweden. Or in an old, historic apartment Copenhagen. It depends on where I live. But it always come back to an old building that with can renovate according to our own ideas and wishes. And to huge windows for lots of light, old wooden floors, old doors, preferably stucco ceilings and lots of space (I have too much stuff). And I'd love to live by the sea one day.

Why do you blog?
To share my inspirational finds with like-minded people. To communicate with others. To inspire and to get inspired.

Don't forget to check out all the other lovely blogs from the article.

New doormat?

I'm seriously thinking about getting a new doormat from www.ikarus.de. Or maybe two? I love the one with the Swiss cross and the one with the baroque pattern and for 14,90 € ($ 20,00) I think they are a steal. Check them out at the ikarus online store.

H&M - Fashion for your home

The new H&M - Fashion for your home is finally available online at shop.hm.com. But unfortunately it is only available online and not in their stores. When it comes to beddings and towles and things I really like to check the quality first. With my hands. I want to feel the fabrics. Nothing worse than some itchy linens. (The last itchy bedding I bought from IKEA were converted into our new bedroom curtains...) There are some items I really like but there's also some stuff that makes me feel like I've already seen it at IKEA several years ago...And I truly with they would sell all the props and the furniture, too.

Inspirational Homes: Kitchen Love

Images from viivilla.se

I heart the kitchen of Li Aronsson who runs the boutique by liebling and the blog lieblingallsorts.blogspot.com. You can find more information about the kitchen at viviella.se (in Swedish though).

Inspirational Homes: Rie Elise Larsen

Journalist: Rie Elise Larsen og Stine F. Mathiasen Fotograf: Lisbett Wedendahl

I know these images from BoBedre have been posted on several blogs before but I can't get over how much I love it. Especially the awesome white table in the 10 m² kitchen of Rie Elise Larsen. I've been looking to find an old Gründerzeit table about the same size for our kitchen on ebay for months now but unfortunately without success. We recently replaced our kitchen table with a smaller one but this is only temporary solution becasue I do not like the table itself. But it was amazing to find out what a difference it makes. Since we moved in back in 2002 we've had this rather large IKEA table (ablout 1,60 m x 0,80 m) in our kitchen. It was way to large for our kitchen and sitting there always meant at least one of us had to face the wall - something we both really dislike. So basically we always ended up eating in the living room and using this table only as a storing area or additional counter top. The strangest thing about this is that I always thought we do not like to eat in the kitchen because our kitchen is uncozy or something while the true reason was the huge table...which we did not notice until we threw it out and replaced it with a smaller one.
Anyway, I will keep looking for a similar table and meanwhile please enjoy the lovely home of Rie Elise Larsen...I will most definitely steal some of her ideas to make our kitchen cozier nevertheless...because we now LOVE to eat in our kitchen but some coziness and decoration will never do harm, right? ;-)

Journalist: Rie Elise Larsen og Stine F. Mathiasen Fotograf: Lisbett Wedendahl

Inspirational Homes: Pink Bedroom

I just couldn't let the opportunity pass to snap some images of this pink bedroom. And although I'm slowly getting sick of all the pink on my blog (I feel the urge to redesign my blog and go all white) I love it. I think I couldn't live with it but it makes me want to paint something pink right away...

Inspirational Homes: Tobias & Hanne

Today while doing some research on photographer Tia Borgsmidt I stumbled over the images she has taken of one of the most awesome apartments I've seen in a long time. The home of Copenhagen based graphic designer Tobias Mikkelsen and architecture student Hanne Scheel Andersen. Together they run the blog What We Do where they write about personal projects and share inspirational links. Recently they posted some images - taken by Tia Borgsmidt and styled by Sidsel Zachariassen - of their apartment for an upcoming editorial in Boligmagasinet.

In the kitchen they mixed low-budget IKEA drawers and cupboards with custom-(family)-built shelves and great sea-green glass tiles...The apartment is lovely by itself already: bright, wooden floors, nice trims, old doors (Is there such an thing as not-pretty apartments in Denmark at all?) but they turned it into a perfect home. I'd move in right away...

Images from Tia Borgsmidt, Image on the lower left from Tobias & Hanne

I truly love their mix of new and old, of colorful accents and classic black-and white throughout the partment. In the livingroom the white TV on the wall almost completely disappears and the cupboards mounted on the walls give the whole room and light an airy feeling. I've seen this idea last year - of course in a Danish Interior magazine - and wanted to do the same in our living room. But, well, without those beautiful white trims and such a lovely wooden floor it looks nothing like that...

Images from Tia Borgsmidt

In the bedroom of their 85m² apartment they share with their little daughter Silke they installed a modern, custom-built work space in a black glossy look for the both of them. You should most definitely check out the original blog entry from What We Do for all the links to the manufacturers they provide and some details about those great black cupboards they used as base for their desk...

Images from Tia Borgsmidt, Image of flowers from Tobias & hanne

I think what attracts me so much about their home it that they seem to have a very similar approach to Interior design than I do. And we seem fall for the same things. There is not one single piece in these shots that I do not like. But there are even several things we both own or love and that I have already written about here. Chalkbarod - check, dishwasher - check, Kramfors sofa - check, Trollsta series - check...

Flowery wallpapers? Y/N?

Images from www.meinewand.de, Wallpaper Maggie

I'm not someone who likes gaudy interiors, wallpapered all over with colorful flowers and bold patterns. I've always had white walls with paitings (mostly my own) or other accents such as wallpapered panels. And I've always prefered light and bright interiors. A simple and clean style and very scandinavian. But this wallpaper from Meine Wand caught my eye for two reasons. First, I really like the pixelated effect and how it shifts when out of focus. I can totally see it used for photoshootings and stuff. Or used for one accent wall or a panel to break up lots of white...
The second reason why I have a huge thing for it is because it reminds me of the bathroom in my Grandparents vacation home in Florida...Well, as long as I can remember I thought the wallpaper in this bathroom was terrible hideous and causes eye cancer - the whole room except for the shower was papered with it from the floor to the ceiling and there was some heating bulb in there, too, which flooded the room with red (!) light. Entering this room was like entering a different world. A world where it is always warm and colorful and fancy and loud, where everything else started to feel irrelevant because the pink and lilac walls together with the red, warm light obliterated everything. I don't know if this makes any sense but there are interiors - no matter if you like them or not - that just suck you in and there is simply no way to ignore or oversee them. Oh, and did I mention that this bathroom did not have a window and you could only enter it thorugh an ante-sink-area which made it impossible that this room may ever get a single beam of daylight?

Said bathroom, taken by me back in 2001

Anyway - now, several years after my grandparents have sold the house and after years of missing Florida dearly I also start to miss this bathroom...of course I still think it was gruesome. But as much as it was overdone and shrill and tacky it was also very unique and kitschy. In the end you could only love it (as long as this is not your only bathroom that you have to use every day!).


But I don't want to end this post without sharing some more wallpapers from Meine Wand:

Images from www.meinewand.de

Zara Home

Images from www.zarahome.com

Impressions from the Zara Home Autumn Winter 2008/09 catalog...I couldn't resist but share these images but what I actually wanted to show you are those lovely water tumblers from Zara Home. Wouldn't they look pretty on one of those wooden dining tables from the last post?

Images from www.zarahome.com

Dining tables & chairs

images from boligmagasinet.dk via angelattable.blogspot.com, livingetc.com and dominomag.com

Holly vom decor8 recently asked her readers what their current obsessions are. One of mine is definitely dining tables and chairs these days. Preferably antique wooden tables combined with (white) desinger chairs such as the Arne Jacobsen Series 7 chairs from Fritz Hansen or the Panton chairs from Vitra. Or a collection of different chairs - antique and new, old bistro or restaurant chairs and designer chairs - all white.

Cushions by Marcel Wanders for B&B Italia

Images from www.bebitalia.it

I really like how Dutch Designer Marcel Wanders mixes patterns that don't go well with each other prima facie but end up being surprising and fun juxtapositions for his new cusion line for B&B Italia. The cusions are available in several designs and come in three different sizes (40x40 cm, 60x60 cm and 90x90 cm). I'd love to add some of these in our new bedroom but none of the designs goes with our color scheme so it might be time to get out my newly acquired sewing machine...

Ideas for our new bedroom - Decor8/Amy Butler Mood Board Contest

Based on ideas for our new bedroom I made a mood board for the Decor8/Amy Butler Mood Board Contest. I already bought some of the things and the renewal is in full swing...so this is not just a collection of ideas for this contest but for an actual project of ours. I can't wait to see how it turns out.

1 - IKEA, Pax Wardrobe with sliding doors, $390.00
2 - Amy Butler, mustard / garden maze ab-23
3 - Habitat, Shiro Small dome pendant shade and Cone pendant shade, £ 12,00/9,00
4 - Schöner Wohen Wall Colors in Fern, Cotto and Honey
5 - IKEA, PÅBO Pendant lamp in green, $14.99
6 - IKEA, FLORÖ Bed frame, $379.00/$399.00
7 - IKEA, OVATION Vases, $12.99/each
8 - Habitat, PEROUSE Bedside unit, £ 199,00
9 - Painting by me
10 - IKEA, LINGO Box with lid, $4.99 / 2 pack
11 - Habitat, KILO Occasional table in Fresh olive green, £ 25,00
12 - Amy Butler, linen / optic blossom ab-27
13 - IKEA, Alkov chest, $39.99
14 - West Elm, Morocco embroidered duvet cover + shams, $89.00 - $129.00

Sideboard Love

Images from www.ikea.com and www.ikea.de

Oh, it has happened again. I fell in love with a piece of funiture. With the Trollsta Sideboard from IKEA.
As long as I can remember I hated the color yellow. But after getting a yellow/green-ish couch the color - with all its different shades - has grown on me more and more. I only wish I had some space for the sideboard...

EDIT: Wait, in the US it is only available in black? But in return they also offer this sweet cabinet? What's going on? I hope they make both colors available even though I do not see myself getting black furniture anytime soon. I'm already really sick of my black Peter Maly bed and my black IKEA wardrobe. I've really been into black funiture back in the 90s but today not so much anymore...

My Kitchen-Kitsch cabinet made it to Apartment Therapy

YAY! Check it out at Apartment Therapy or click on the image and go to my flickr page.

Happy first advent

Hope you all have a wonderful first advent. I'm busy working these days because there are a few important deadlines within the next weeks that I have to meet but I hope to find some time to write soon. I still have another lovely shopping recommendation for Hamburg that has to be posted.

New sofa...but what color?

I really think the IKEA Kramfors sofa is almost THE perfect sofa considering the price, too. It has nice lines and proportions. It's comfortable to sit (and hopefully sleep) on. The covers come in nice colors, are changeable, washable and non-itchy (I hate itchy fabrics!). If I only could decide on a color. The yellow/green cover would work very well with our auburn laminate flooring I think. But I never really liked the color yellow and it's strangely enough for me that I now like this cover color. I'm a little bit scared that this might only be temporary and it makes me sick after a few weeks. So the dark grey would be a safe choice. It matches almost everything and is very impassible. (We have a black cat.) But boring. I also thought of getting both covers and change them every now and then...Have I told you I hate making decisions?

And the new IKEA lamp Kulla might be a less-pricy alternative to the Habitat Spindle lamp even if I completely fell for it...especially the green one. But I wish it came also in black.