WABI SABI Scandinavia - Design, Art and DIY.: Wood

Showing posts with label Wood. Show all posts

Old railway sleepers in new design

Already June 2014! It's been an amazing year, with major changes in my life, including re-decorating my home and studio, and more travels than before. And this blog has suffered. But now I back, and plan to give you weekly updates on art, architecture, design and photography, from a wabisabi angle. Let me start with this stunning copper colored house in Portugal, designed by Atelier Data, where they've recycled old railway sleepers everywhere in the structure.

The house is oriented and designed to protect the home from strong winds from the north, while allowing great views of the valley and the city towards the east and the south. More info on Atelier Data's facebook page.

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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

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Swedish Design in the Front line

One of many favorite design firms, are the (many times over) award winning Swedish design team Front. I have blogged about their work before, and they keep coming up with new unique designs. With a twist....

Remember the Blow Away vase? Here are a few examples of what they'd done since.

First, the Axor shower system for Hansgrohe. In their own words: We were inspired by water pathways in their most original form. We wanted to draw attention to the hidden aesthetics of technology in a particularly elegant way, turning pipes, joints, valves and funnels into a new shower set.

The chair Collage (above and below) is part of a series of furniture, that has its origins in the archives of this 150 year old Swedish firm Gemla. Throughout the design process, tools and shapes from the past have been re-used, enhanced and complemented.

The Elle Deco Winner chair (above) is in the shape of two joined arches and made of wood and upholstered leather.

The Mikado Cupboard (below) for Porro, is an a transparent structure made of olive ash. The result is a piece of furniture somewhere between a vitrine and a cupboard...

This year the London Design Museum nominated the Surface Tension Lamp (above) for the Designs of the Year 2013.

The striped mattress (below) is made for the Italian firm Morfeus

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A small retreat in the middle of nowhere

This small, one room cabin, called Ermitage,

is designed by the Paris based architect collective Septembre.

The cabin is situated in the very south of Sweden

on the island Trossö, in the Baltic sea.

Two large windows and a large sliding door invite the outdoor in,

and makes the small space seem larger than it is.

What a great way to wind down and relax

after a week of big city stress!

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Successful DIY home renovation

It takes a bit of planning - and some serious thinking, to make a small apartment look this spacious! With a strict color scheme and using mostly natural materials, the owners Frag and Naomi Woodall turned this tired two bedroom apartment into a very beautiful, Scandinavian looking, home in Sydney. A very successful DIY, I dare say!

All photos by Terence Chin

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Some lovely bathroom inspiration

I have two bathrooms, both in dire need of a make over.

Looking for inspiration online, I found these examples.

Of course, if I had unlimited resources...

but I girl can dream, right?

One thing I know - if I want to be trendy, I should have copper water pipes making geometric shapes on the wall. A nice way to "stamp" the date 2013 on the bathroom design, don't you think? I found the left pic here, and the one on the right, here. (For the source of the bigger photos, please click on each image.)

Above: The right photograph is by Willy Ronis (1936). I've had it as a postcard for ages. There is something about the daylight and the unassuming interior, that I just love.

The bathroom to the left I found here. Please note: the the very top, left image are from here. The sweet picture of the feet are from an unknown source.

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