trendey

The popular Swedish slipcover company Bemz has today released a dream collaboration: Two fabrics from the talented designer Lisa Bengtsson are set to enliven almost any bland IKEA couch or armchair. It’s the rosy fabric Baronessa (top pic, on an IKEA Karlanda sofa) – a pattern reminiscent of blooming gardens and romantic castles. It’s also the modern nostalgia fabric Sir Harald (bottom pic, on IKEA’s Klippan sofa) – a pattern inspired by Lisa Bengtsson’s ancestors.

Baronessa is – together with the pattern Ros-Mari - on my top list of this season’s absolutely nicest fabrics. Baronessa is developed in collaboration with the textile company Mairo. The pattern comes in two colour options as runners, pillows, panels, lampshades, etc..

“My time has no inhibitions
my mind has no limits
I provide the scent of the loving life.”

Here’s our other Lisa Bengtsson stories.

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)