As the winds blow colder outside and the winter darkness makes us want to curl up, these rugs look more desirable than ever! Patricia Urquiola has designed the rug series Mangas for Gan Rugs. The rugs come in quite unexpected forms -  almost reminiscent of a pair of large, knitted socks or leg warmers. They are designed to be assembled into longer creations. I would love to dress my floors in this!

The Swedish fashion company Boomerang has, since the start in 1976, said to define “Scandinavian Preppy”. Their concept is a preppy style with a Swedish heritage – less sporty than the American style, yet more casual and less formal than the British style. Tonight, the Boomerang Home Collection will be previewed.. and from tomorrow Friday, it will be sold at Boomerang stores. Exiting!

| photo from Design Delight |

Those stools look very appealing! The Home collection is developed in collaboration with designer Jens Fager. And there’s a Boomerang Effect – lamps, carpets, stool-seats, etc, are made from recycled clothing and fabrics – waste material from the production of Boomerang clothing. The Boomerang Effect also means that you can return your old Boomerang garments to the store and receive a 10% discount on your next purchase – some of the returned garments will be given a second chance. Super – thank you Design Delight for sharing this news – I feel an urgent need to go there tomorrow and check it out!

While Henen is still looking for a house in London and gearing up for her blog-comeback, I continue to deliver design news and fancy tidbits from Sweden. Annika Bäckström, born in 1988 in the country’s northern parts, in cozy Burträsk more specifically, has a fascination for ink, love, and paper airplanes. She makes lovely illustrations. (they can be purchased through her blog.)

This illustration massa folk really hit the spot in our overriding, overwhelming, threat of swine flu. This is how we feel – and will remember to have felt – when we read the newspapers as of late November 2009.

| Fröken Bäckström Blogfolio |

The Gudrun Sjödén Winter 2009 catalogue arrived to me today. It reminded me to check back on the lovely AW 2009 home collection. One of the themes (my favourite) is Burträsk, a tiny town in the far north of Sweden. Gudrun Sjödén was inspired by pictures in the book “Måla som förr” (“Paint like in the Old Days”) taken in a cottage in Burträsk. And so she went there, to a cottage with a colourful decor – a yellow ochre background and shades of Paris blue. Inspiring, I think!

Now to the Winter 2009 clothes collection “Bhutan/Stockholm”. Some may think Burträsk is far away, but this time Gudrun Sjödén has travelled to the Kingdom of Bhutan high up in the Himalayas. Here she found a fine tune: a blend of simple Scandinavia with the colourful Buddhist Bhutan. Message is: there is a link between folklore all over the world. Gudrun Sjödén created her first unique collection in 1974. Having grown up with Gudrun Sjödén-style as a concept as familiar as the stackable orange chairs in the school canteen, I think I haven’t seen the forest for all the trees. The clothes are mainly very colourful and bold, chunky and shapeless. It is, and has always been, homespun, coarse and comfortable. The concept is strong, almost overwhelming. However, looking behind the more than 30 years old stereotype, I can easily recognize there are some treasures! Here’s a few favourites from the Winter 2009 collection:

A spooted top in lyocell, £43, and a tiered cotton skirt, £53. I would match them a bit different though… The “Mountain avens” long knee-socks look soo cozy! It’s jacquard-knit socks that feature a pretty folklore pattern with a twisted braid and tassels. This is where Gudrun Sjödén meets Odd Molly and we find Swedish blended folklore style at its best.

My dear, until yesterday I have lived in bleak unawareness of the existence of a webshop called anyhow! Anyhow offers a hand-picked selection of goods from wellknown suppliers and less-known independent designers. When found, I could easily identify some favourites.

I regret that the industry-shabby metal stool is sold out, if not I would probably have bought one without a blink. It’s the perfect piece to imperfect a room arrangement that’s become too polished and set. I also favour the simple luminaire with fabric-cord, and I would not protest if someone put this Madonna in my house. She is stone-coloured and made of a heavy stone-like material.

Oh, and today’s bargain: the kitschy and glamorous table clock. It has a vast amount of (non-precious!) diamonds, rubies and topaz, and measures 14×14 cm. Due to some minor blemishes on the top of the item the price is reduced to approx £17 (195SEK). Anyhow, this gold-mine discovery goes beyond the Swedish borders – anyhow gladely delivers to Norway, Denmark, Finland, Germany and Great Britain (with an extra delivery cost of 100 SEK and with an maximum weight of 3 kg).

In its report about this Autumn’s hottest trends, the Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter picks up 5 strong trends: Recycling, Eco, Colourful, Clean Wood and Neoclassical. Pics of all 5 trends display a chair. Here’s my top 3, (I left out the colourful and the eco).

The Recycling trend is pretty obvious. And pretty cool. I haven’t yet started my own DIY Odd China Lamp project, but in time I will! As for chairs – it’s all about paint. Old chairs, not least pin chairs, are easily enlivened with some strokes of paint. Seat cushions can be created from old clothes, yarns, cloths, curtains, scarves, anything. All one needs to immortalize old goods is a creative mind and a skillfull hand. =)

The Clean Wood trend, in Sweden, speaks of Nordic blonde wood like birch, ash and oak. Birch bark is a personal favourite in this compartment. Like this lamp, that recently was for sale on an auction site (auction closed due to lack of interest). Birch bark handicrafts are common in Northern Sweden, and can be found at flea markets, like in this example from the blog Kurbits. A fav light-wood chair is the previously metioned mushroom-ish IKEA CARLJOHAN stool.

The Neoclassical trend asks us to dust off old family portraits and bring down those leather-bound hardcovers from the attic. Soft upholstered furniture is the key for seating, as watchwords in this trend are elegant, timeless, cozy and recognition of roots. For my new home, I’ve decided on at least one Louis Ghost Chair by Philippe Starck for Kartell. (And of course, my heart still beats for the velvet DAY sofa and what if one had place for a Chesterfield as well =))

One overriding, long-lived, chair trend that I am definitely bringing in to my new home is the odd chair mix. Examples of this pick-and-mix feature are numerous in interior design magazines and blogs. This photo is from Sköna hem:

Now speaking of chairs, make sure to visit London Design Museum’s online exhibition A Century of Chairs. The exhibition shows chairs from the late 1800s ’til today:
“Few objects tell the history of modern design as eloquently as the chair. Aesthetics trends, the emergence of new technologies, ergonomics, social and cultural developments are all reflected in the evolution of chair design.”