Rethink your table settings

Bringing nature to your table via wooden plates and cutlery may not be the most practical, perhaps? But it is very trendy. Very right now. At flee markets you may still find beautiful wooden items for almost nothing. Prefer new ones? Check out british designer Gary Allson's wooden plates, bowls and cutlery below. More at Gary Allson Design

Below: plates of wood and clay from Mollys Cafe Istanbul in Istanbul:

As if time stood still

I just love the relaxed atmosphere in these images from Hill End in Australia. Once a large settlement, Hill End has shrunk to a small village - but the pull it exerts on artists brings new life to its historic homes. Visiting artists find Hill End unique and paintable. These images are from Haefliger's Cottage built in the 1860s. Read more about this village here. 

Hill End has recently seen a second renaissance via a popular artists-in-residence program, where artist can stay for a month in two of the cottages. 

WABI SABI interior design art photography

Rustic and raw living Wabi Sabi Style

I love visiting my friend's old farm in Östersund, in the north of Sweden. There are all together eight houses on the land - three of them are homes, dating back to 1710. The big house (above left) was built 1816. As you can see from my photographs I can't get enough of all the naturally aged materials. Wabi Sabi living, if ever there was one! I will show you more images from this wonderful farm in coming days. Until then - enjoy the holiday season wherever you are.  

Above: love the way someone has practiced his signature on a piece of paper found in the house. Below: the view from the train of the passing Swedish countryside

WABI SABI interior design art photography

Ordinary life through the lens

Looking through Jamaican born photographer Simon Brown's online portfolio, 

I found these beauties in his personal file - much darker and simpler

than most of his commercial shoots. Love!

WABI SABI interior design art photography

Loft living in Stockholm

Don't you just love interiors filled with clever ideas 
ready to be copied and transplanted to your own home or workspace? 
You may not have a spacious loft like this one, 
but some of the details may be just right where you are. 

Remember Swedish architect & designer Carouschka Streijffert's awesome weekend cabin? This is her Stockholm apartment & studio - just as great, right? 

That space! Those windows! What is not to love? 

These pictures of her loft are from an article in Sköna Hem 

and her own website. 

Plan of Carouschka Streijffert's combined studio (right) and apartment (left), with kitchen area at the bottom, living room space at the top, left corner and the bedroom/bath area linked to the studio with a circular staircase, as seen in the picture below.

Love the stairways. I guess they are of her own design. 

Just look at the ones above and below, 

leading to her bedroom/bath, from different parts of the loft. 

Above - The old, circular stairway turned into a library! 

Below left is a pic of Carouschka Streijffert's bedroom, 

with lots of baskets in a row on the floor - the same kind of storage as in her cottage.    

Below are a few pics of another of her office spaces. 

It's not hard to find traces of Carouschka Streijffert's Russian ancestry in her work. 

Just look at these carpets!

 

Like her style? Check out her awesome weekend cottage here.