Alternative Christmas Shopping

Weather you like it or not - Christmas is fast approaching. So if you are planning to give away some cool DIY, time to get started! No time? Buy someone else's craft at affordable prices. Like these geometric containers above, made of recycled material by MegaMyers at Etsy. Or below the beautiful Danish craft found at the website Husflid. Please let us know of other great crafters you'd like to support, by commenting and linking below. 

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Mix and match in Kungsladugård, Göteborg - my part of town

When I left town for my current country living some years ago, I lived in this neighborhood - Kungsladugård. No other part of Gothenburg can match this one: lots of genuine atmosphere, lots of turn of the century apartment building, great coffee shops, restaurants and green spaces. I use to walk through the big park Slottskogen to get to Linnégatan and all the down town buzz. 

When I eventually return to the city, this is where I'll go. Until then I enjoy checking out what's for sale. What do you think of this typical 1900 workers apartment turned 21 century cool? 

All images via Stadshem. 

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Mix and Match in Copenhagen home

Welcome home to danish fashion designer Yvonne Koné. Her turn of the century apartment in Copenhagen is a creative mix of old and new - and recycled material. More photos where I found these. 

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Design at its Best

I am amazed at all the poor design that is out there. Some may be trendy and look good, but is utterly useless. Other items may be practical, but the design........ So let me highlight a few pieces where form & function blend beautifully - that I'd love to have myself, if I was a rich woman.... 

Above, a the Ninna armchair in wood and leather, by Italian designer Carlo Contin for Adentro. 

Below a clever seat by Japanese designer Yukari Hotta

Above: Swedish designer Mattias Stenberg's Carry on seat from Studio Vision for Offect. 

Below the clever Fibonacci cabinet in bamboo by Chinese designer Wang Peng,  Utad Studio .

In their own words: The design idea comes from the traditional Chinese medicine storage units, where all the drawers are the same size. In order to satisfy the multi- functional requirement, we apply the principles of the Fibonacci sequence to rearrange every size of these units in series, which could be used separately, combines the freedom to incorporate the modular series into different interior spaces or scenarios.  

If you are new to the Fibonacci sequence, I've blogged about it before, here. 

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Kitchen Scandinavian Style

I really like a home with lots of original interior details. 

Just look at these kitchens in Göteborg. 

All images from Stadshem

Below some new kitchens with just a few original features, but still with lots of atmosphere. 

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Mixing old and new in 19 century Swedish apartments

A set of images from apartments in my home town, Göteborg. 

Love the way they mixed old and new furniture and styles. 

A few designer items, some Ikea and lots of flea market finds. 

All images via Stadshem

A simple Scandinavian mix...

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Scandinavian Glass

Have I mentioned that I love glass? Glass sculptures, vases or the odd drinking glass placed on a windowsill. Love the way crystal glass reflects rays of light far into a room. Or a colored piece of glass making patterns on a wall. I guess I'm lucky then to live in a glassmaking country, with glass factories that dates way back. Unfortunately people are not ready to pay what it cost to make glass the way they did in the old days, (as seen in the pictures below from Orrefors Kosta Boda), and most glassworks are now closed. Who can compete with pressed or cast glass from the Far East? If you, like me, are passionate about handcrafted glass, you are still able to see how it's made, if you visit the Orrefors Kosta Boda glassworks in the south of Sweden. I've borrowed the images below, from inside the glassworks, from the Orrefors or Kosta Boda facebook pages, and the images of the amazing glass products are from the the Orrefors Kosta Boda website, which also has a webshop. My own favorite? Quite possibly the green globe with the golden house on top. Pure love. And the champagne glasses below, aren't half bad either! What kind of glass products do you like? (Nope, this post wasn't sponsored.)

For more than two and a half century, glass has been produced in Sweden. Up until recently the budding glass workers were trained by the masters in the midst of regular production. They were allowed to practise, fail and practise again, finally to succeed.

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Spot The Hidden Potential

Spring cleaning, and preparing for a lecture on Sunday. And found this: an old interview with me (sorry it's in Swedish), where I try to explain the difference between styling and homestaging. (A sisyphus task, it seems...)

Styling (products) and staging (homes) are almost always mixed up here in Sweden, as seen on the sales site Hemnet. Despite this, research show that most home buyers don't like styled homes that look almost identical, no matter what or where! 

So why do stylist keep doing it? Beats me! Especially, if they keep it up, people will learn how to mimic the current hemnet-style, and do the styling themselves. Counter productive in other words, if you are a professional homestager. 

Many Swedish home seller think - why pay for something you can do yourself?  Rightly so - but then sellers don't understand the extent of their own "home blindness"... That is the main reason you need to hire a professional homestager to help you prepare your home before you sell it. A professional and creative homestager who doesn't just style your home, but understanding its unique qualities. A professional stager who knows how to present those qualities, so they are quickly spotted on the online presentations, and obvious during that short hour when they visit your home, before they buy it. 

As always, form follows function! And form with great style, creativity and professionalism! All in a nice mix, to make the home stand out among all the lookalikes online. 

Obs: domänen home-staging.se är inte längre min - tyckte blogg funkade bättre! 

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Danish design in Cedar Wood and Zink

While preparing for this weekend's lectures in homestaging & interior design, I came across these images of Danish architect Kim Utzon's own home and summer cottage. Both houses are his own design. Of course. First Kim & Charlotte Utzon's home near Helsingør, Denmark, where the vertical structure consists of wooden telephone poles, as seen in the space below. 

Below are a set of images from the Utzon's three room, 100 square meters, summer house in in Tibirke, Denmark. Build with lots of reused material, it didn't cost more than 50.000 €. All designed for easy living some two to four weeks a year.

The building material is cedar wood. Inside out. The cedar will age beautifully and eventually turn gray, like the zink roof. The idea is that the cottage - eventually - will blend in and become one with the surrounding landscape.

Above: The the wicker chair is designed by Arne Jacobsen. The sofa is from Minotti , and the chair and table is from David Design There's no art through out the house - the framed "images" are all views of the landscape outside.

Love the steel kitchen from Bulthaup - it makes a raw industrial contrast to all the warm, soft wood. The diningtable is from Frydendahl, and the pendant is designed by Noguchi Akari.

Kim Utzon, is best known as the son of Sydney Opera House architect Jørn Utzon. More images here
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