In the meantime, while Trendey sisters focus on their regular careers & professions, we have the greatest blog tips for you: Dos family. As always, you might already know all about it, but if not: this is a blog by decorator (slash designer, columnist, TV-presenter, etc)  Isabelle Halling McAllister and photographer Jenny Brandt (who also has the sammy rose blog + shop) The lovely pics above are shot by Jenny at Isabelle’s. I think the black wall display is fabulous! And there’s loads of more inspiration on playful and charming kids’ rooms (like the one right) on their site. It’s undoable (and unnecessary) to define their interior style tastes, but I’d summarize it Happy Scandinavian :) Clearly creative, retro, personal, arty, homey, free-spirited and fun. Below is a really nice example of a ‘Dos Visit’, photographer Jenny Brandt visits Lisa Grue’s home. More of this lovely retro charm can be found here.

I think these two rooms below are very interesting! The decor is simple, yet the Josef Frank wallpaper looks nicer than ever together with the retro/vintage caramel sofa. The bathroom could have been downright boring but the pink pastel door (and a photo display or something hidden behind it) and the orange rug on the grey patterned floor is ‘all it takes’ to give the place some interesting character.

| all photos: Jenny Brandt @ DosFamily |

Now, lastly, I will join DosFamily’s upcoming blog battle – no idea what it will be about, but I will take the challenge :)

Speaking of art and patterns, I actually really like this old textile pattern by Josef Frank called Marble 4420. Svenskt Tenn reintroduced it today, in velvet, for the Stockholm Furniture Fair. Designers Förster & Kusoffsky also made some new products interpreting this pattern. It’s not a typical Frank pattern – they say, I think it’s Franky! – story goes it was sketched when Josef Frank had encountered the art of Jackson Pollock, during this stay in New York in the 1940s. By any means it has a fresh arty vibe. Almost graffiti-ish yet very tidy.

A modern minimalist white kitchen (stylish, yet rather discrete and unremarkable) turns much more interesting with the help of colourful and fun textiles from Swedish designer Josef Frank.

The splashback in the kitchen was created with the textile ‘Brazil’, protected and kept secure by a glass sheet. Such an excellent idea for creating an original feature in the kitchen! Same textile pattern for the blind and cushions. Very light and pretty…and those Wegner Wishbone chairs look right at home.

The home above was featured on Skona Hem.

In a different home (also from Skona Hem), Josef Frank makes another appearance. This time in the form of a the wallpaper pattern ‘Springbells‘. Much more retro, much darker… Not sure whether I’d be able to live with this design style, it’s a bit full-on… But hey, I’d love to visit in a kitchen like this and I do love the colour bravery!

Since Svenskt Tenn recently opened its brand new – international – online store, and as Josef Frank undeniably is a major trend guru, here’s a Top 3 of decor items signed The Father of the Scandinavian Style. Number one on the list is a tea-cozy, in beautiful fabrics designed by Josef Frank. I really like tea cozy covers – summer, autumn and winter, they make the cozy tea drinking even softer. 510 SEK is the price. Number two on the list must be a book, because if there is someone who has developed ideas and theory about Swedish home decor, it is Josef Frank. The book Accidentism by Mikael Bergquist and Olaf Michelsen includes fantasy houses that Frank drew on the basis of his philosophy that the house should adjust in shape and form after those who lived in it and not vice versa. I am afraid the book is still only available in Swedish :(

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.

Today, Josef Frank (1885-1967) got his own memorial in the district of Gärdet in Stockholm. His design is now part of the Swedish public sphere! ‘All places where we can feel at home are caused by the coincidences’, he said. That also goes for this site, located opposite the street door of what was architect and designer Josef Frank’s home during most of his life. He was the son of a jewish textile merchant from Vienna who fell in love with a Swedish girl and became – with the words of Ann Wall, former CEO of Svenskt Tenn – World War II’s gift to Sweden.

The symbol of his artistry is a typical Frank-design; anno 1925, two chairs of model 2025 (see bottom left below). The chairs are now stationed on the sidewalk, firmly anchored in the ground. Set in an angle as if they were involved in a conversation, offering bypassers to sit down. However, they are not made of wood and rattan (as the original), but in sand-cast bronze.

Josef Frank’s Place – A public tribute to the father of the Scandinavian (Swedish Modern) interior design style. Installed May 17 th 2010.

Today’s chew in the Swedish decor-blogosphere regards the release of two new (old!) Josef Frank textile patterns. The two topical patterns, Aramal and Ceylon, were created by Josef Frank in the 1940s and has never been in production – until now. Svenskt Tenn is in the process of pressing textile rolls that will be sold per meter for a price of approx. $185.

Press photos from Svenskt Tenn via Hemmariket.

Upper pic Aramal, bottom Ceylon. Now, what say you?

Personally I say the significance of the work of Josef Frank (and Estrid Ericson) in developing the Scandinavian style must be fully acknowledged, appreciated and admired. Josef Frank’s interior design philosophy is immortal. Second, I get allergic itches from the notion that having Josef Frank design in your home ensures and signals “good taste”. It is ok to feel aversion towards, or get dizzy or puke-ready by, the highbrowish patterns and upper-classy concept. There is no such thing as free-thinking! I think Aramal is too much, it wouldn’t even queue at the dentist’s!, but I can very well imagine Ceylon as clothing on a single chair or stool cushion…