trendey

Henen just sent me this picture, from Marie Claire Maison. You know she’s fully occupied right now preparing for moving into the new house. What is this, she said. My dear, no idea I said :p We came up with lots of suggestions…! Is it this, that, a bit of each. We agreed we think we like it. Somehow. But as for the ddefinition, we decided to ask the audience. Let’s hear your opinions on this interior style!

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Itty-bitty boho slash folklore inspiration for you this Friday. A sweet mix I think! To the left, a photo by Ditte Isager and to the right, the beautiful Mamma Maria lamp from Lekfull Design and some lovely vintage signs from Three Potato Four.

A week or so ago, Henen wrote a post about how to go urban cool and decorate with a piece of London. This urban coolness is really hot at the moment! And has indeed been for quite a while. I love splashes of this kind of decor. I got a New York graffiti building – cushion for our sofa when we had just bought it (can be viewed in this post, the leftmost one on the sofa, fromTeo Jasmin).  And I wouldn’t say no to the garvey chair pictured above, from the news shelf at Anthropologie. A cool piece of furniture! Cloaked in upholstery printed with the names of New York City subway stations. It’s scuffed with an antique finish, and it’s low. Yummie :)

Urban coolness and city charm need not be only New York or London. Anthropologie news are also these nice cushions below with the streets of Paris and streets of Brussels:

…and I wish I could tell you about all the cool and charming Stockholm items, but sad to say: I haven’t seen any. (and as a side note: I swear they would be white anyway..=)) hope I’m wrong)

….from the book True Scandinavian – Contemporary Living with photos by Pia Ulin. Also mentioned a while back; a particularly well-caught illustration of Swedish style. The pic above is one of my favourites, it has such a homely atmosphere and a smooth grannyesque vibe in a Scandinavian setting. Equally Scandinavian is the pic below, from Sköna Hem. A cooler, fresher, an all in all – whiter -  version…

Gorgeous and trendy, black walls provide a dramatic backdrop for light coloured furniture, art work or accessories. I particularly like the sharp contrast between black, or really dark grey, and white and/or gold. It really makes the objects pop out!

The above photos come from Apartment Therapy, Living Etc and Marie Claire Maison, The last bedroom pic, which is a favourite of mine featured before in Go French in the bedroom, also comes from Living etc.

Print by Swedish art director and graphic designer Therese Sennerholt

…is what Ben Brougham calles his style. With the reservation ”I’m still not sure if that exactly defines it”. Whatever the definition – it surely is difficult to label personal style – this is an interesting style! As featured in the superb e-magazine Lonny. Seeing that Mr Brougham also contributed with some interesting comments and advice we pick up this track with some hightlights.

The wall in this room is painted in Benjamin Moore’s Surf Blue. This strong teal colour could have been overwhelming, but the collection of pictures and heirlooms break up the colour and prevents that. A very clever – and inspirational – move is that he left the opposite wall white and hanged some mid-century vintage mirrors (collected from car-boot sales) on it. This makes the mirrors pick up the teal and the collection from the wall opposite.

As for collections, Ben’s advice is to only collect things you love. Base a collection on a common theme – this can be anything from colour to material to subject matter. Play with scale; group objects of varying size and scale. His choice collections includes e.g. portraiture: old pictures of people, old family objects, and he also has a passion for vintage photographs of sailors.

Full story of An Eclectic Collection can be read here, at Lonny mag. To close this, let’s hear Ben Brougham’s advice on mixing patterns: be brave. People worry about things matching too much, but design never advances if it’s not pushed. This is entirely consistent with my decor philosophy. Don’t worry, push it if you are a push-it-person, and always surround yourself with things you love and feel at home and happy with. And of course this last inspirational advice:

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it right over again again again:.. the decor heros of our times are Granny and Grandpa! They knew how to do it :) Some of the most beloved items in our home were given or inherited from our grandparents. Here’s another tour at Mia’s! First up, the dining area rug – from Mike’s Grandpa. Grandpa Birger in his turn got it from his sister Elin, who was actually born and raised in the neighborhood we live in right now. In other words, this rug has been on a voyage and now, in its old days, come back home.

Next, below, my beloved pendulum clock I got from late Grandpa Sven. He got this clock when he quit his job as a private chauffeur in the 50s. I think it’s the most beautiful vintage clock there is. To the right, ceramic art signed Grandma Tora. She was a ceramic artist, who amongst other things had owls in her repertoire. This artistry is now contined through the trendey-mum (more about her works later)).

In his new book Let’s Decorate, the intrepid British interior designer Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen sets out his recommendations for how to best go about being your own interior designer. The place to start when designing a room, he advises, is with a cold glass of Chardonnay. This – my favourite tip in the book! – is intended to illustrate that it’s important that you are as relaxed and unconstrained as possible as you start to build up a mental picture of what your dream room might look like (if you’re a teetotaler, I’m sure it works equally well with a cup of tea and a sit-down!). Said and done, halfway through a glass of wine (in my case Merlot), the decision was made! As the first project of our new house - the main bedroom – already looks rather Swedish (pine floor, pine windows, pine most things), we decided to go for a modern Scandinavian look (think pale wood floors, grey, white, bright and uncluttered).

So, on to the second step as advised by Laurence – seek inspiration pictures and visualise colours and type of furniture. I was surprised to discover that the photos that best seemed to contain my image of a modern Scandinavian look did not come from Sweden, or even Scandinavia, but from Australia! More precisely from an alpine retreat called “Fjall” in Falls Creek, an Australian ski resort.

I would like to inject a few more bold colours somewhere, go easy on the wood on the walls and add some more quirky touches, but overall here’s some excellent inspiration pics on Scandinavian style courtesy of Australian Fjall! Go figure!

Well, not really… But close enough on the L’eau dining chair from Italian contemporary design company Calligaris (new in for 125 GBP at Heal’s)

I love the turquoise colour and the ripple effect on the seat!  I can see these chairs looking great around a white kitchen table. Only thing I’m not a 100 percent certain of, is the overall shape and design of the chair – doesn’t it look a lot like the chairs one used to sit on at school? Hmm.. I would need to see and test-sit this one in reality to make sure I don’t get any back-to-school vibes before considering a purchase!

You cry – I answer..! Here’s a round of things from my place. I’ll start off with some happy details. First – from the living room – a Banter Banner and some lovely faux peonies from Ahern’s Atelier.

And second, below, my very sweet owl who got to travel all the way from Montgomery, PA…together with some vintage lamp foots I haven’t yet decided what to do with (I’m thinking of a collection).

Now here’s some other facts to keep you updated on the trendey-sisters:

• Mia’s favourite interior style categories are Faded Glamour and the two similar ones: Eclectic styles and Parisian Chic style (the latter with a French spin).
• Mia is the little sister. Her brother-in-law calles her “Little Miss Bossy”
• Her favourite tags are granny-esque, headboard, boho charm and blue :)
• Back in the day, Henen used to use Mia as a robot. If she said “A-B-C-1-2-3″ before the tasks Mia was happy to perform them.

Every now and then, I slip into the subject ‘Prevailing trends in styling and decor in Stockholm’. I find it interesting and therefore we certainly have *quite a few* mentions of “Stockholm-White” and entries on this city’s homogen real estate ads here at Trendey. Then again, we are 50 % Stockholm-based.

A very welcome feature in the Stockholm home style department is Fantastic Frank – a new real estate agent. Fantastic Frank deals with homes with character, in a new way. Fantastic Frank looks at the character of the home or house in question, and takes that as a starting point. Only then you can see who will stay there next. Therefore, their aim in managing property sales is to reach the few who loves the place, rather than to reach the very many who likes it.

Fantastic Frank works with renowned fashion photographer Anders Lindén and stylists in their concept and offers the seller six different themed packages to choose from (i.e. including styling, brochures, ads, etc). Emma’s design blog featured one of these themes the other day, Fantastic Frank’s first object on the market which was Wallstreet – themed: quiet, elitist and designed. Another theme or interior design profile is Scandinavia; below is a few photos from the very first apartment for sale within this theme.

I love the carrots and the dala horse! Other themes are the Newyorkish and sleek The Loft, the traditional and academic Boston, the classic noble Gustaf - think period features and herringbone parquet – and lastly the creative and warm Boheme. Oh, and did I mention Fantastic Frank also has a blog.

Now why is Frank Fantastic? I think these (freely translated) words from Founder and Creative Director Tomas Backman says it all:

I have always admired my grandparents for their careful concerns of their homes. A curtain change to cooling white for the summer, or bright red for Christmas changed the mood of the whole apartment and made the home change character several times a year. A home is more than the size and space between the apartment walls. Our minds are more affected by the light and colours, the sounds and structures, than of a design chair.

We feel good when we are inspired, when we know that there is a purpose with what we surround ourselves with. Once a home has character we can have a relationship to it.