Or Nomad – Bringing Your Travels Home is the title of Sibella Court’s latest book. It’s a photographic collection of travel shots and styled spaces. She has globetrotted and treasure-hunted to Japan, Italy, India, Syria and Mexico. Each place make a flavour with colour palettes and misc. stories. Room settings are inspired by ideas, photos and mementos, showing that any decorative background can be restyled with travel touches.

I realized I haven’t written a review about Sibella Court’s book Etcetera, but in comparison, Nomad is (imho) much more interesting. While Etcetera represents what I regard as typical Sibella Court-style – the glass jars, treasures from the bottom of the ocean, and ethnic-eclectic on smokey white vintage backdrops – Nomad takes a global step forward and delivers insprition from all over the world, still Sibella Court-ish and very likeable. My personal favourite among the exotic interior travels in the book is, at least after a first glance, Mexico!

Decorating a home is – like many other things in life -  a journey. But one needs not go travelling all around the globe in order to embrace the globetrotter approach to interior style. No tickets needed, just open this book and indulge! Or any other book, or movie or people’s home or nature or whatever inspires you. It is actually, in Sibella Court’s words, a matter of seeing things in a new way. And bringing it home. Sibella’s decor philosophy is about adding and subtracting, rearranging and recycling, transforming and rethinking a space to reflect your personality, lifestyle and adventures. The ideas can be as simple as painting a wall or creating a new ‘art wall’ or layering different textiles on your bed or hanging a new piece of fabric over your window. What the book Nomad wants to do, and does, is help open your eyes and fuel your imagination. After all, decor is all about stories and things reflecting you and your life. After reading Nomad, I feel the need for a touch of Mexico in my home.

And I’ve updated my top 5 of places I’d like to travel to:

1. New Orleans, Nashville & Memphis (by a big American car, listening to Townes Van Zandt and June Carter)
2. Clearwater Beach, Florida (for a loooong sunny vacation)
3. Paris (been there once, 20 years ago; must go back and stroll along the bridges nighttime)
4. Sri Lanka (the land of my brother-in-law)
5. Buenos Aires (to exercise the Argentine tango)

Where would you love to travel? And would you bring it home? :)

In our kitchen, we’ve got a special wall of fame. Or rather, wall of love. Here you can find superstars such as my grandma the ceramic artist Tora, Mike’s grandpa City Gardener Birger, my great-grandfathers parents who were travellers and some other dignitaries. I’ve mixed them on purpose so that Mike’s grandma goes together with my grandpa and so on…It is perfect to have a chapter like this right in the kitchen, for intetested guests to ponder and discuss, while we cook. And for us to share what we know about their lives and personalities. Not rarely it also leads to exciting stories of other people’s ancestors. That’s a mingle in our house!

Etsy is one amazing place. I keep finding so many nice things! My latest catch is a gorgeous vintage monkey I’m so much looking forward to meet. Here’s a collection of some other nice things, available right now.

| a hand woven ikat pillow @ lai grai, a vintage task lamp & a vintage robert mitchum framed portrait @ confetti garden and a gift set for the craft lover @ funretro |

| a vintage 70s swag ceiling light (in sweden we call them ‘tiffany-lamps’) @ funretro, a sea foam herman miller eames chair @ comod and finally, there’s something special with this montana brewery fine art print @ awakes |

The latest issue of Elle Decoration (April ’11) has global theme – the globetrotter style of decorating is trendier than ever – so let us, this late March evening, groove on some globetrotterish/etnhic/eclectic bathrooms. Being a Swede I’m starved of nicely decorated bathrooms…! For some (inexplicable) reason, we have a tradition in this country of ignoring that part of home decor. But: bathrooms are rooms too :)

| pics via april 11 issue of Elle Decor |

This home, featured at mixr.se, is nothing less than pure country living! The house is situated outside the sunny town Karlstad in Sweden, and the couple living in it actually manage without water and sanitary sewer. However, they have broadband (!) The old log house has been passed down for generations. Current inhabitants are the eighth generation. Johan’s grandmother’s father’s cousin Hildur lived there last. Hildur’s old glasses are kept as an interior detail.

Kitchen-wise they do well with an old bench, a pantry, a wood stove and a shelf. And a refrigerator and freezer placed in a corner. The plan is however to install a proper kitchen with, of course, retro or vintage appliances. But the old wood stove will never be exchanged to an electric one. They’ve become so attached it, and it’s also one of the main heat sources in the house. Now how is this for geniune country style! And at the same time cozy, folksy and trendy.

…is what Ben Brougham calles his style. With the reservation ”I’m still not sure if that exactly defines it”. Whatever the definition – it surely is difficult to label personal style – this is an interesting style! As featured in the superb e-magazine Lonny. Seeing that Mr Brougham also contributed with some interesting comments and advice we pick up this track with some hightlights.

The wall in this room is painted in Benjamin Moore’s Surf Blue. This strong teal colour could have been overwhelming, but the collection of pictures and heirlooms break up the colour and prevents that. A very clever – and inspirational – move is that he left the opposite wall white and hanged some mid-century vintage mirrors (collected from car-boot sales) on it. This makes the mirrors pick up the teal and the collection from the wall opposite.

As for collections, Ben’s advice is to only collect things you love. Base a collection on a common theme – this can be anything from colour to material to subject matter. Play with scale; group objects of varying size and scale. His choice collections includes e.g. portraiture: old pictures of people, old family objects, and he also has a passion for vintage photographs of sailors.

Full story of An Eclectic Collection can be read here, at Lonny mag. To close this, let’s hear Ben Brougham’s advice on mixing patterns: be brave. People worry about things matching too much, but design never advances if it’s not pushed. This is entirely consistent with my decor philosophy. Don’t worry, push it if you are a push-it-person, and always surround yourself with things you love and feel at home and happy with. And of course this last inspirational advice: