trendey

Finally, after nearly ten years in a smallish two-bedroomed flat and one looong year of very active house-hunting in London, my husband and I have had an offer accepted on a new place, yay!! We’re so excited!! =) =) =) We’ll be getting some more space and a small garden at last!  As the deal is not 100 per cent final until the contracts are signed and the fat lady sings, I’m not sharing any pictures yet for fear of jinxing it, but in CELEBRATION please join me in drooling over three truly inspirational London homes which feature the best of London style – oodles of creativity, fearless individualism and plenty of eccentricity!

No 1: Victorian townhouse in North London (Hampstead Heath) owned by Sam Roddick – daughter of Body Shop creator Anita Roddick and owner of erotica shop brand Coco de Mer. The boldly blue living room is a very original and personalised space with family pictures, drawings, paintings and vintage furniture. Underneath a glimpse of the trendy industrial style kitchen (love those lights!) and of an inviting seating area with more well-loved vintage furniture. Striking, unique and rather cosy!

No 2: Equally original, but in a completely different way, is this quirky and colourful home of furniture designer Lisa Whatmough (of London label Squint) in Hackney, London. Here, uniform and minimalistic backgrounds allow the happy, multi-coloured granny-esque lamps and vintage-style furniture to take centre stage and really sparkle joy and friendliness. A brightly bohemian and homely fantasyland!

No 3: Third up, is this 1930s arts and crafts house in Brondesbury, London, owned by Joy and Daniel Isaacs.  While a little more “sober and grown-up” than the other two houses, this home is still full of charm and eccentric touches. I love the dark blueish grey on the walls together with the deep red accessories and the vintage stag head - which contrasts beautifully with the modern coffee table. I also really like the minimal yet full impact hallway. It’s bright, uncluttered and spacious and the zebra hide looks great in there.  All in all – a stylishly decorated home with a robust and timeless feel!

[all_images _via Marie Claire Maison and Living Etc]

I love the red chinese cabinet to the right (from John Lewis, 299 GBP). It would be so great in a black and white kitchen or dining room to add a global eclectic touch and a splash of vibrant colour!

[right: morton holtum, left: John Lewis]

| images via MarieClaire.it |

{red} inspiration – a modern, pretty kitchen.

This kitchen, which was used as the set for Sophie Dahl’s cooking show “The Delicious Miss Dahl”, is tranquil, bright and bang on trend with a rustic cooker, smart Belfast sink and public toilet style tiles. Although I’m not normally a huge fan of the all-white colour scheme or the shabby chic look, I really like this kitchen design. To me, it’s a blank canvas and perfect backdrop for adding splashes of colour and fun decorative objects according to mood and season. I just know this kitchen will look great even when it’s totally messy!

In the TV show, the kitchen looked much more lively than on the above estate agent pics (the north London house to which the kitchen belongs was for sale a few months back for £1.45 million (!)) With only a couple of additions - like a cheerful and pretty wallpaper and assorted vintage items, the kitchen became a much more colourful and homely space.

We have tropical temperatures in the cold North right now! The mercury is stable at 90° F, the sun roasts and you yearn for the blue, blue sea and lapping waves. This contrast is useful in home decor – the hot and the cold. Sunny yellow and cool blue-turquoise for dining..

| pics: channel4 – 4homes |

There is so much beauty in the world, when it comes to interiors. Like this turquoise kitchen.

…with this view.

| images: 1st option |

If I were to choose a brand new kitchen today, I’d probably go for something like this:

| pic: marie claire maison |

Stainless steel backdrop + colours. It’s absolutely trendy, but with its variation possibilities it has a potential of resistance to the changing times.

| pics: living etc |

Another, possibly more daring, choice is to let  colour have the prominent place. Blueish, redish, yellowish…All excellent kitchen-colours.

| pics: living etc |

| pic: Sköna hem |

So… those were my picks for inspiration. What’s YOUR dream kitchen like? Would you go for something 2010-hot like this or keep it more traditional?

Aren’t chairs and stools the funniest decor pieces of them all?! I think so. In our kitchen we have a table by the window for fast breakfasting chews whilst watching the traffic on the bridge outside. To sit on, we got 2 IKEA Bosse stools. Bosse is small and handy, seat has a hole makes it easy to move. Here’s what I chose for personalizing our Bosse’s: the cool pale-blue hue havsbris (“sea-breeze”) and the warm light sand-yellowish hue strå (“straw”) from the Alcro Design Collection. Painted with a twist.

I’m not influenced by the Olympics and the roar popular hat, I promise..!! But I recognize the colours are hot these days (at least in my home country :)) There’s plenty of inspiration around, I got mine from images of browsing past. Think I fell for the light yellow colour on the cover of the book Cheap Chic (an excellent book btw) and various funny stool and chair ideas blogged, such as paint company Beckers’ inspirational photo via the blog Husligheter and Chair Personality Socks from Charles & Marie via High Fashion Home Blog. And not to mention the lovely Wood & Wool Stools. Imagination is the only limit when it comes to chairs and stools!

I visited a flea market in Northern Sweden last weekend. These are my lovely findings! Twelve flawless and super-charming plates (six dinner plates, six smaller plates) for the modest price of 60 SEK (£5) in total. My first thought was to make something out of them, maybe a funny lamp, maybe break them all and rearrange into a porcelain uh, something! but we have been eating on them ever since and enjoyed it dearly. Arn’t they sweet!

As you probably already know, no one is drinking coffee in mugs anymore. It’s all about petite and beautiful vintage coffee cups. This phenomena goes along with the 1950′s/60´s housewife trend. For today, a non-negligible amount of young urban people has brought sweet new life to chores and duties our parents thought were overdue. The trend is aimed at the American housewives from the 50s. A bit harsh, a bit glamourous, but mostly back-to-the-bone. The new born interest in home-made soup and bread, 7 kinds of cookies, spectacular cupcakes and in exchangig tips on how best to manage antler salt has not necessarily anything to do with a backlash; i.e. a desire to never work and just wear a floury apron and be devoted to housework. Inside of the trend there is indeed an element of admiration of each other’s vintage china and puffy vintage skirts, but there’s also a high awareness and a play with stereotypes. It’s way aside from the heroine chic fashion, quite the opposite: with the hair come wavy on rollers and with the tilting pleated skirt, you can eat as much frosting as you wish. It is permissive, and that’s probably one key as to why the trend is so easily absorbed today. The appealing part of the housewife in modern times seems altogether to go back to the genuine: to make real food, cooked from scratch. To practice the tricks and that grandma taught us. To stand firmly on our roots when the wind wines. As long as you know how to grow and harvest potatoes you’ll survive difficult times.

So, even though not all of us will be making 7 sweet pastries for the coffee rope on Sunday, we cant’t escape reality. For this, we need flowered tablecloths and china from the first half of the 1900s. Here’s a lovely vintage coffee cup example: