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. 

WABI SABI interior design art photography

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. 

WABI SABI interior design art photography

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...

WABI SABI interior design art photography

19 Century Workers Apartment going City Chic

Years ago I planned to buy one quarter of a house, with a stunning view of the river which runs through my city. Then I got a job in Stockholm and had to abandon the idea. Now, one apartment is for sale, and my dream of living in the center of the city, still hidden away from all the buzz, is awakened. Wouldn't you love to live in a place like this, and take the ferry to work each morning? 

The 19 century wooden houses were built for families who moved to the city to work at the docks. Each house had eight apartments (one room and a kitchen). One hundred year later, the city planned to tear them down, since the standard was too poor. (We found pigeons had taken over the attic in the house we planned to buy!)

I left town, but others bought the houses and went ahead with the renovations. Check out these images and see how one of the apartments turned out. Love! All images via Stadshem

WABI SABI interior design art photography

Concrete and copper in Stockholm Sports Bar

It's been a hectic couple of weeks, and I'm sorry for the irregular updates here. To compensate for the silence, I'll give you a set of photos from a newly designed restaurant in Stockholm. 

It's the talented Swedish designer Richard Lindvall who has turned a parking garage into a  restaurant, re-using lots of old material and light fixtures.

Over at Richard Lindvall's website, he tells us how he, after a trip to old factories, found the design concept for this project. The natural raw atmosphere of the space was kept and used as a base for the concept. Floors were made of concrete and casted benches were mounted directly onto the walls. A large fire place in copper and a unique lighting arrangement was custom-made to give warmth to the industrial environment.

Frequently used materials include concrete, copper, steel and white tiles.

Above: Tables made of concrete with tops in copper. Photographs of the workers who built the restaurant, are by Mattias Lindbäck.  I can't wait to visit!  Update: I hear from Emma, over att Emmas blog, that the original restaurant is now closed. They've turned it into a sports bar instead. The interior design is still there, but more or less covered in sports paraphenilia...  

Below: picture from another design project in Stockholm, by Richard Lindvall 

WABI SABI interior design art photography

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
WABI SABI interior design art photography

Meet me at David's

This restaurant is not in my neck of the woods, but I wish it was! I'd feel right at home in this newly opened Melbourne restaurant. It's yet another of the highly acclaimed David's restaurants. This one is situated in the Prahran area, with a Hecker Guthrie designed interior and a Shanghai inspired menu. 

David’s first opened some 15 years ago as a small tea store. Behind it all is Shanghai-born David Zhou. With growing success, the tea store grew into a series of restaurants, where they serve a casual mix of traditional Shanghai cuisine and contemporary dishes. 

Right - now you know where to find me if I ever get my act together and visit Australia... 

More images where these came from. 

WABI SABI interior design art photography

Stylistens egna färgklanger hemma

Jag har redan i ett tidigare inlägg skrivit om stylisten Marie Olsson Nylanders olika arbetsrum i hemmet i Arild. Hemma hos reportaget publicerades utsprungligen i Residence, varifrån dessa bilder kommer. Den säkra färgsättningen gör att jag vill visa ytterligare några bilder, från husets olika umgängesytor: en djärv och lekfull blandning av gammalt och nytt. 

Some images from stylist Marie Olsson Nylanders home in the south of Sweden, Love her mix of old and new and her clever color combinations: 

  

More images here.
.................

Check out my other blog Wabi Sabi Style here.

TRANSLATION (well, sort of...)

DIY "TupperLight" - Lampor av gamla plastformar

Need a new lamp in your workspace? Short of money? Head straight to the kitchen and do what BootsNGus have done: make a lamp - or two - out of some old Tupperware molds:

-------------------------------

TRANSLATION (well, sort of...)

Snabblänkar till årets inredningsprogram på TV:

Bygglov | Room Service | Sommar med Ernst | Äntligen Hemma

DIY - belts for new and old chairs

Seatbelt+wood=great furniture! It is the american designer Peter Danko, who has come up with the clever idea of re-using these car parts, and turn them into new design. I love pleated things, and this idea may just come in handy for a few worn out chairs of mine. 

Dags att leta gamla bilbälten på skroten! Bra att ha nästa gång någon trampar igenom ett stolssäte. Urstarkt material, så vad kan vara bättre till en sittmöbel?


-------------------------------

TRANSLATION (well, sort of...)

Snabblänkar till årets inredningsprogram på TV:

Bygglov | Room Service | Sommar med Ernst | Äntligen Hemma