EMMAS DESIGNBLOGG

Design and style from a Scandinavian perspective

Saturday Sweets

Today it's time for Valborg celebration here in Sweden, an ancient tradition where you light a big fire to celebrate spring by burning the old and giving room for the new. I will be spending the afternoon at the US ambassador's place mingling with the attenders of this years Design Leadership Summit, but later on I will take my kids to a bonfire, listen to some choir singers and eat a hot dog. Yes, that's the traditional Valborg food for us, since that is usually all they sell by the fire besides popcorn, and the fire is lit just around dinner time, so hot dogs it is!
Do you celebrate Valborg or something similar where you live?

So while I'm out and about, enjoy this little bag of mixed eye candy!

 

Working behind the scenes...

Don't worry, I haven't disappeared on you, it just might seem that way. :) I'm actually right here, working on a new Stockholm Guide for you all, with all my favorite spots in the city! While I'm working behind the scenes, feast your eyes on this beautiful photo by Swedish photographer Magnus Mårding until tomorrow when I will be back with a new Saturday Sweets post for you!

Dreaming of a vacation in Montreal

Hello all! I'm back from a nice Easter week with lovely warm and sunny weather! I hope you all had a wonderful Easter too!
Now the nice weather is gone, it's cold again, and I'm dreaming of hopping on a plane to a warmer place. Then I saw these beautifully styled apartments for rent from Creative Flats in Montreal, and now I have to start researching the weather there...

Finnish family home in black and white

Loved this Finnish home featured on Road Trip in Finland! The apartment is small, but the mother who is an architect has solved it by adding a small loft over the kitchen, where the parents sleep.

Interior Stylist Anna Lilja

I have written about Swedish interior stylist Anna Lilja several times before, I showed some homes she designed here and here, and posted a short review of her book Home Made here. But today I'd like to put the spotlight on her styling work instead. Enjoy!

Concrete floors in the Netherlands

I found this in the latest issue of Sköna Hem, a dutch home with concrete floors throughout. With a white base the owners can change the decor very easily by adding different colors, and right now it's decorated in my favorite style with a natural color range with lots of wood and grey/black pieces.



Easter is here!

Tomorrow is the start of the Easter holiday, and while I'm not much for Easter decorations, I like these photos below. I hope you like them too!
Just click the pic to go to the source.

 

Blog tips!

Looking for some new blogs to read! I found some new favorites lately, and I'd love to share them with you. So here they are, in no particular order:



Adventurous Design Quest is a blog that looks almost like a pin board, click around to find some great pics of fresh, inspirational photos.

Holmberg Everyday Living lets you follow the renovation and decoration of a house photographed by the very talented blog owner, mixed with other shots from great stylists and photographers.

 



Mo+Mo Living is one site you don't want to miss, curated and edited by designer Michelle Wentworth. The photos and styling are amazing, and the blog posts and articles gives you hands on tips on how to live a stylish, minimal and sustainable life. Highly inspiring! There is also a great section called resources where you can find links to the editor's favourite shops, books and products.

Try this at home! by Annaleena Project: Indoor Trellis


Hi you guys!

I have got a fun Try this at home project for you today! This is something that is very common in Scandinavia, a trellis for climbing plants! Usually it is used outside but my idea was to make one for indoor use. I think handmade details gives homes that more natural and homey feeling, don't you! Trellis has considerable merit in todays gardens. Why not make one for indoor climbing plants too!

Here is the recipe!
In order to get the trellis both nice looking and stylistically pure I used a wooden border with dimensions 25x25mm which I measured and cut into eight pieces. So that each piece was 140 cm. 50mm long nails suited perfectly to put the pieces into place.
Once that I hade done that, it was time to get the white paint and the brush.


All climbing plants will look cool on this trellis, even though the plant isn't big enough to cover it all up.
Who says a trellis must be used outside on the balcony or on the facade of the house? I believe one can do it the other way around.

See you next month, May 16th, when I present my next Try this at home idea!

Creative greetings,
Annaleena

Design Hotel Week: Aire de Bardenas, Spain

Sorry for going M I A on you all for the last two days, my internet connection has been playing with me, only giving me access to the web for 30 seconds every five minutes or so... Very annoying when your whole job depends on it. So now I'm throwing this post together very quickly before the router decides to shut me down again. The pictures are from Hotel Aire de Bardenas in Spain. I love the pallets and the plywood!

 

 

Via Lime & Meadow

Design Hotel Week: The Michelberger, Berlin

I can't have a design hotel week without mentioning The Michelberger Hotel in Berlin! It seems everyone I know have been there, it's THE place to stay in Berlin. And since Berlin is THE place to go right now, that must mean that the Michelberger is the hippest place on earth right now? Perhaps it is, I don't know, but it looks pretty cool to me.
One thing I especially love about the place is the communal tables in the restaurant. I think that is a very nice idea, as it creates spontaneous meetings between strangers, which is really what travelling is all about, right?

Photos via We Heart

Design Hotel Week: Hotel Chateau Bethlehem, Maastricht

The hotel school in Maastricht in the Netherlands has a fully operating hotel on the campus for their students to practise in, designed by some of the world's absolute top designers. Or what would you say about rooms created by Studio Job, Richard Hutten and Piet Hein Eek?

 

Design Hotel Week: Anemi, Folegandros, Greece

Ready for another vacation? This time in Greece, on the island of Folegandros. The hotel is called Anemi, and I don't know what that means in Greek, but in Swedish it means shortage of blood; anemia. And even though the interiors here are very pale and a bit cold, I'm not sure that was what the owners thought of when they named it?
Other than that, I like that they used the traditional greek colours blue and white, but in a modern way.


Design Hotel Week: Hilton Pattaya, Thailand

Design Hotel Week: Hotel Basico, Mexico

Enough of the super polished high gloss interiors for a while, let's go to Hotel Basico in Playa del Carmen, Mexico! I love rough and raw materials like concrete and plywood, and the industrial style of the architecture here, just a few steps from the Caribbean sea.

 

 

 

Design Hotel Week: Maison Moschino, Milan

Speaking of Alice in Wonderland, I have to make a post on Maison Moschino in Milan, Italy. Famous fashion house Moschino have created this very luxurious and quirky hotel, a must for any fashionista visiting Italy. The rooms all have different themes, like Little red riding hood, Alice's room, Zzzzzzzz, Clouds or Sleeping in a ballgown.

 

Design Hotel Week: The Club, Singapore

Next stop: Singapore! The Club Hotel is an odd mix of futurism with the neon lighting, Alice in Wonderland-feeling with the big chess patterns and absurd art, and rococo beauty with marble floors and curvy table legs. But it kind of works, doesn't it?





Design Hotel Week: Distrito Capital, Mexico City

We are going to Mexico! Well, at least we can imagine being there, and staying in this fabulous hotel in Santa Fé, an area in Mexico City, called Distrito Capital. Modern and clean lined with great contrasts in the interiors, and a fantastic view, it looks like a nice place to cool down after a day in this hot and bustling city. I wouldn't mind staying there for real!



Design hotel week!

Welcome to a new week here on the blog, I hope you had a nice weekend! I have seen so many stylish hotels lately, so I figured why not collect them all and devote the entire week to design hotels? So that's what I'm going to do, starting with this beauty in Brussels, Belgium:

Once a private residence built in the 1920's, Odette en Ville is located in the Châtelain quarter, lively by day and quiet by night. Intended to be a place where guests can relax at the end of a day's touring or work, this is a hotel with a difference, intimate and exclusive like a boutique hotel, yet with the impeccable service of a traditional establishment. The decorating is kept in hues of grey, black and brown and the mix between traditional and modern is just striking.

 

Saturday Sweets

My ultimate home office would have a Cherner or Jacobsen chair, a classic desk light and lots of inspiring prints and cut-outs randomly attached to the wall. Just like the in the pictures below!

What would your ultimate work space look like?

 

A little more from Søren Rose

I just had to post these shots too from Søren Rose Studios, from another project called Merchant House, built in 1770. And with that I wish you all a happy weekend!

Photo by Martin Dyrløv



Nicely styled studio flat for sale

It seems the homes market is overflowing with great apartments right now, with wonderful styling. I'm so happy to see that the standard real estate home staging style with the same Ikea furniture and white orchids is finally getting some competition! This studio flat in Stockholm is for sale right here.

By the look of it, this home belongs to a couple where at least one of them is a photographer, and I'm guessing that person shot these pics. I just wish I knew who it is!

Update! Thanks to Karolina, I now know that the apartment belongs to photographer Andreas Öhlund and his girlfriend Therese who is a model and soon-to-be photographer. I have the best readers in the world, they can help with anything!



Found via Hemmahemma

Søren Rose Studio

This awesome family home, full of contrasts, cool designer furniture and lighting, and some excellent art, was created by Søren Rose Studio, a design studio based in both Copenhagen and New York. They specialize in product design, limited edition creations, and interior design projects.

The pictures were shot by John Bendtsen, whom I wrote about here back in 2008.

 

 

Found via A Merry Mishap

More from Johanna Ekmark's home

I wrote a post about photographer Johanna Ekmark two weeks ago, and now I got a comment from the editor-in-chief at Residence, telling me they have featured her entire home in their latest issue. Lucky for us, it's available online too, so I clicked over and found these beauties that I know you will want to see! Along with the pictures was the amazing story of how Johanna became a professional photographer over night. Use Google translate to read it, it's very inspiring.

 


Photographer Nicolas Mathéus

French photographer Nicolas Mathéus work a lot for Marie Claire Maison, so perhaps some of you have seen his photos before. I picked my favorites from his portfolio, the ones I think are worth a second watch. I hope you like them!

And I'm sad to say this, but I simply do not have time to answer all your emails. I try, but you are so many, and I am only one person... Sometimes I wish I could clone myself, but until that is possible, please understand that I try my best, and I read all of your emails, but all of you might not get a reply.

To make things easier for all of us, here are some answers to the most frequently asked questions:
* For all of you requesting info on Stockholm I can gladden you with the fact that I'm working on a new, updated Stockholm Guide with my favorite places in time for the tourist season, but outside of that I'm not giving any tips on the city.
* For those of you asking for info on a piece of furniture or art in a picture I posted, I'm sorry, but I have no clue.
* And for those who are asking for link exchanges, I just don't do that. The blogs in my blogroll are the ones I love and don't want to live without, and asking isn't going to include your blog on that list.

That was about it, let's watch some nice photos instead!

Found via automatism

Saturday Sweets

A huge trend right now is to personalize your home by having a lot of your things on display instead of hiding them away in cupboards and boxes. So get all your stuff out and make some nice vignettes!