trendey

Although I still love Chesterfield sofas, I must confess I’m having an affair with the Knoll sofa at the moment. It’s just so simple, elegant and classy that I can’t help myself! Designed by Florence Knoll in 1954, it has never really gone out of fashion – and it still looks amazingly sleek and modern today.

This sofa has experienced a huge surge in popularity recently as part of the general trend favouring mid-century modern classics (a trend still going strong!), so if you don’t want to fork out on an original (at least 8-9,000 USD), there are masses of reproductions and cheaper interpretations of this sofa out there. For example, IKEA’s very good value version, the Karlstad range. Below left in white leather for 599 GBP. Also check out Sater to the right at only 239 GBP – now that’s cheap for so much style!

…pouffes, tuffets and footstools. These are categories of furniture items I really like! All these usable seats. Easy to move around, nice for socializing and defining for different styles.

| left pic from RUM, right pic from Sköna Hem |

Supply is large and varied in this compartment. And there’s so much beauty! I picked a few darlings from Haute-house, Neiman Marcus, Restoration Hardware and Urban Outfitters respectively (if only UO would ship furniture overseas I’d click home the Estelle Ottoman immediately!!)

Is there really a more important characteristic of a sofa than that it is comfortable? Not really, but is it also deadly cool we have more than we can ask for. These seatings below are the fiercest pieces of today. First, some seats from Italian Edra: The intriging soft Cipria, and the very organic star-fish shaped Aster Papposus.

From the Swedish comfy yet cool-louge seating market I’d like to highlight this one, Down. It’s designed by Per Holknekt, the founder of Odd Molly, in collaboration with EM Möbler. An armchair that is a hybrid between a sofa and a bed! It has a universal expression – without any explicit reference to style or trend it takes its base in function and The Human Instinct to rest.

Oh, I feel so nicely relaxed and sleepy now. Softness is key :)

It seems the British Patrioric/Union Jack trend that Henen wrote about on September 2nd ’09 is remarkably durable (it was not even new by then). By mere coincidence the other week, I was just strolling through Debenhams heading for another shop, I spot this sweet cushion, that got to accompany me to the pay desk – and now it’s happily fused with the others in the sofa cushion collection. I enjoy seeing Union Jack around, it’s nice flag and a nice decor item! It has some special edge to it.

Even more, I like the Olde’ English Chesterfield sofa. Always trendy or trend-free, a classic. Below combined with, amongst other things, a nice Union Jack cushion.

..oh, and I have to include this one, the limited edition Union Jack version the Falcon 1092 Deluxe range cooker. A statement item for the kitchen, to put it mildly.

Ruuuuule, Britannia!

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Here it is! Our looovely 2nd-hand sofa and chair! It’s from an old Swedish brand called Lani (AB Larsson & Nilsson), that used to manufacture style imitations. In this case: rococo. I can’t wait to set into place in the new living room!

Some time ago, I confessed my love of the Day Home-sofa. I still have a passion for it (we do have a distance-relationship still) but it turned out it’s an impossible love affair. I went to a retailer, I test-sat the couch, I touched the velvet, I thought, felt and decided: Yupp, we take it! This is the one! Though, everything aint easy when it comes to picking the right one. It was a wolf in sheep’s clothing! I had fallen for a prototype! To my surprise and, of course, great disappointment the lovely warm purple-aubergine-plum hue that I adored was only the prototype-colour. Production colour is a colder, more blueish purple hue. See? Not the same.

On the bright side? I saved four thousand bucks! Our superb vintage-findings cost only a tenth.

One of my favourite brands, for both clothes and interiors, is the Danish DAY Birger et Mikkelsen. The DAY HOME winter collection of 2009 is, as always, well-thought-through and absolutely stunning in its perfect colour mixes.

The atmosphere is cozy, intellectual – a little messy, inviting and warm. You want to stay at home with the fireplace on, read books, drink toddy´s, maybe start knitting a sweater to a loved one. The colors of the season are WARM with red, pink and purple, COLD with blue and army and an ethnic GOLD to tie them all together.

This latest collection includes a piece of furniture I’ve fallen helplessly in love with – the Conversation Sofa. A velvet sofa with a warm purple-aubergine hue that is totally consistent with DAY’s inspirational thoughts: I want to stay home in that sofa, with the fireplace on, read a book, drink toddy´s, and maybe start knitting a sweater to a loved one. All winter long…

The DAY sofa measures 200 X 80 X 100 cm and has a pricetag of approx £2500 (29 900 SEK).

My favourite sofa right now has got to be the Chesterfield sofa! And judging by the many Chesterfields featured in interior design magazines recently and the fact that most fashionable furniture stores seem to have at least one version in their catalogues and window displays , it is clear that I’m not alone and that this type of sofa is experiencing a surge of popularity at the moment. And no wonder! The Chesterfield is sophisticated and timeless and evokes images of ‘Olde England’, of gentlemen’s clubs, cosy libraries and elegant sitting rooms.

These are some of my favourite Chesterfields: a bold purple velvet number from Sofa Workshop; a version from John Lewis in brown leather; and a delicious dark liquorice edition from Heal’s. (See also the gorgeous mustard-coloured Chesterfield in Mia’s post Yellow Spots)