I just got back from a trip to Northern Sweden now where I’ve visited several cozy flea markets and made the best of bargains..! More about that later. Next on the agenda is – tada! – a trip to a picturesque little Italian fishing village. I have a feeling a good deal of interior design inspiration is awaiting there. In addition to the warm sun and sea, for our Swedish heat wave is now replaced by cold winds and pouring rain…In the meantime, keep enjoying fabolous Henen, the other half of the Trendey duo, serving you the uniquest and trendiest decor inspiration!

I think the wallpaper above is well worth mentioning although it is not brand new. The Listen and Record wallpaper by Australian designer Ilias Fotopoulos has this year been selected for the permanent collection at the Cooper Hewitt National Design Museum in NYC. I think it’s beautiful, ultra cool actually, and the design idea is very interesting. We’ve seen braille-looking design before, like in these braille wall flats from Inhabit…

…but while the wall flats in braille lack any (known) meaning, Fotopoulos’ braille project aims to question notions of decoration and accessibility of design. This is done through a clever role reversal: While sighted observers can appreciate the dots’ decorative effect and feel their flocked three dimensionality, the wallpaper only makes sense to someone who is able to read the tactile language. Fotopoulos asks “As designers, do we really address important issues or are we decorators, players of pattern and colour? What can we do to give at least some out of work purpose?” His quest is to bring meaning, thought and awareness back into design.

One of my favourite jewelry is this one, below. I got it for Christmas a couple of years ago. It’s designed by the Swedish silversmith Efva Attling. The braille tags say ‘make love, not war’.

I just have to re-post this interesting wall paper piece I stumbled across over at Apartment Theraphy. It’s for doorways – unused doors I presume, a handle would certainly interfere with the picture – and it features ‘old parisian metropolitan’s stairs’ (above), Montmartre’s stairs and stairs from the Catacombs, an empty dressing, escalators, a vintage iron store front, a castel corridor, a mesy book stack…view full range here. The idea is funny I think, although not all too often useful if not you remove some skirting and put up door moldings on the wall -  install a faux door. That would make this an exemple of framed wall art…! Anyway, for the one who has shut a door whose crossing serves no purpose – this should be excellent inspiration.

Wallcovering above is Make Up by Paper Moon. It shows women with big sunglasses and even bigger hair. Price tag £46 per roll, from wallpaperdirect.

A successful photo wall. Pic from House to Home.

“Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”

Third on the Top 3 is a wallpaper designed by Josef Frank, named Paradise. Josef Frank was certainly a strong advocate for white walls. White walls were in his view the only way to preserve freedom and enable the introduction of a variety of decorative items and patterns without disrupting the colour scheme. I like this pattern design with a white background. The price tag is 380 SEK for a 10 m roll by 53 cm in width.

To close this, two nice interior products signed Estrid Ericson (1894-1981). Where would Josef Frank have been without the hand of Estric Ericson? He may not have had the amazing impact he had without Estrid recruiting him. And Estrid Ericson should be praised especially, for starting and running a successful company as a 30-year-old woman! in the 1920s! To the left a very cool matchbox cover, in pewter and with the phrase The world is a book and he who stays at home reads only one page. Estrid apparently found the quote from her old notes, but never managed to find out who wrote it. Price tag 1625 SEK. To the right, a brass trivet with the words Bless this house oh Lord we pray, make it safe by night and day. The trivet was designed by Estrid as a door decoration designed to protect the home from all evil. The text is the first line of a song written in 1927 by poet Helen Taylor and composer May Brahe. Price: 395 SEK.

Personalized interior design is a hot topic and creating your own custom wallpapers is getting real easy and rather cheap as well. Mia wrote about Mr Perswall a few days ago and another local company here in Sweden for this is Photowall. Just to get you inspired here’s a few examples from their site. A custom wallpaper measuring the size of 300 centimeters by 240 centimers is roughly $300, about the same price as traditional wallpapers.

via [Aftonbladet]

Above this list is, of course, customized wallcoverings; sprung from own photo or pattern choices. Individual creativity has always highest rank here @ trendey. To inspire You and Ourselves is our calling.

| Via Sköna hem |

Personally, I like the pinkish colour above. Especially in combination with black fabrics. Next, feeling is captured of a modern dressed-up gentleman.

And, of course, there are wallpapers in this collection very appropriate for walk-in-closets. Here’s a girly (or feminine, you choose) version:

WallKotyr collection contains 40 wallpapers (priced £ 389 SEK/ca $53 per roll) and 5 panoramic wallpapers. Images shown are press photos. You like it?

The wallpaper London by Timorous Beasties.

The old French Toile or Toile de Jouy patterns may feel a bit outdated. Though outdated is the last thing one would say about the Toile collection from Timorous Beasties! It’s very updated, very urban, very much a sign of the times. The London Toile was designed from a love of London and a love of the old toile’s. Timorous Beasties have not actually changed much in the Toile concept – some imagery in the original Toiles were sinister – but they have updated the references from the contemporary urban. Built-in, almost hidden at a first glance, are urban social-realistic scenes of London. Crime, loneliness, homelessness and robbery.

The London toile is the second Toile that Timorous Beasties have produced, the first was the Glasgow Toile (2004). It has reference to images of Glasgow; drug abuse, homeless people and prostitution has been framed in the context of some of Glasgow’s most famous architectural landmarks and public spaces. Provocative yes, but who said design shouldn’t explore social and political issues? Indeed, Timorous Beasties have made the most interesting fabric and wallpaper pattern in our times.