The historic details in the architecture of this turn-of-the-century Swedish apartment are stunning to begin with. I especially like those big arched windows that let in so much natural light. Almost the entire apartment has white painted walls, apart from the bedroom wall, which makes the interior even brighter. The living room has a beautiful dark grey sofa, which contrasts wonderfully with the white fluffy area rug, the green plants, and the white walls. The lounge chair and the Gubi Pedrera coffee table look like drawings on this white rug and I love the way the TV has been integrated into a gallery wall.
The custom-built white kitchen with a warm beige natural stone is concentrated on one side of the kitchen, leaving space for a small round dining table on the opposite wall. The exhaust has been built in, with open shelving on both sides, which makes it look integrated and not so intrusive.
The bedroom has a grey limewash wall, which goes so nicely with the grey curtains and I love the way the black Louis Poulsen AJ lamp and the black wall lamp contrast with the wall color. The low module of String shelves on the wall combined with the round mirror looks wonderful and I love that there is space for a lounge area in the bedroom as well. Such a lovely spot to have your morning coffee.
Did you get into the Monday all right? Mondays are usually the hardest to get up in the morning for me, especially when it’s still dark outside. I guess I’m not the only one with this problem though right? However, just recently getting up in the morning got a thousand times lighter. Why is this you’re wondering? Well, last week I got the WiZ connected lighting and it’s one of those items that I now don’t understand how I was living without it for all those years.
I was always a little reluctant to try out Smart lighting. I’m not the biggest tech fan, and setting up my printer was more than enough to get through this month. But, I have always been curious, and I have to tell you, the installation was super straightforward. The Wiz lamps* work with the WiZ app, where you create rooms, add lamps and connect them with your Wifi network (Bluetooth is also possible). So, just 15 minutes after I took the lamps out of the box, I was playing with all the different light modes, because the possibilities are endless.
I set up WiZ lights in both my bedroom and my office, the two rooms where I spend most of my time and where I can get the most benefits from them. In my bedroom, I placed a full color spectrum LED bulb* in my rice-paper-shade and the Wiz table lamp* on the bedside table. You can set a multitude of scenes and rhythms for your lamps, but in the bedroom, I mostly use the wake-up and bedtime routines.
Wiz wake up mode
The wake-up routine turns the light on slowly over a period of 30 minutes, just like the sun would and the experience of waking up compared to the alarm clock is infinitely better. At the beginning of the 30 minutes, the light is more magenta, while towards the end, it’s brighter and more yellow like at sunrise. I usually wake up about 20 minutes in and let my eyes get used to the light. By the time the 30 minutes end, I’m ready to wake up. So much better than waking up with a dreadful alarm.
Wiz bedtime routine
While the Wiz connected smart lights help me the most when waking up in the morning, I use them to go to bed at night as well. Once I’m in bed, I turn on the bedtime routine, which allows me to read my book, yet the light gets more dim after a while, which makes me ready to put away my book and fall asleep.
Circadian Rhythm
In my office, I’m using the same combination of the full color spectrum smart bulbs and the Squire table lamp and I have them set to the Circadian Rhythm, which is aimed at replicating the natural changes of the sunlight throughout the day.
The light will gradually brighten in the morning, using cool white light, then it becomes more neutral and brighter during the day and dim and warmer in the evening (you can define when your day starts and ends in the WiZ app). As I have been working at my desk from dusk till down many days in the last weeks, it really helps to keep a sense of time. I usually have a feeling that it’s evening at 16h when the sun goes down here in Munich, and really get a dip in productivity, but the lights prevent this. And when I’m sitting at my desk when it’s dark out in the morning it gives the feeling the sun is already out. Such a game-changer.
Connectivity
Shortly said, I’m super happy with the WiZ connected lighting in both my bedroom and home office and can’t wait to get more lights in the other rooms of my apartment as well. I always tend to leave the light on in the hallway when I leave the house, so next, I will install the Wiz Motion sensor* by the door, so that the light can be on only when motion is detected. It will save energy and I don’t have to worry about switching off the lights when I’m leaving. It’s also possible to control the lights with voice control and I plan to try out using Google assistant with it.
This post was written in paid collaboration with WiZ connected lighting, but all opinions are my own of course. If you would like to know more about the products or have a look at more ideas on how to integrate them, have a look on their website. And don’t worry, you don’t have to be tech-savvy to be able to set up some pretty amazing scenes with the WiZ lighting. If I could do it, anyone can.
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As I mentioned to you yesterday, it’s an exciting time on my Instagram this December, as I’m teaming up with a brand I love every day to give away an amazing price, advents calendar style. Today I have the honor of giving away a beautiful Aarke carbonator .
As you might know, over the summer I said goodbye to bottled water and introduced the Aarke carbonator to my kitchen. Not only does this mean sparkling water in the blink of an eye without carrying heavy bottles from the grocery store, but the design of the carbonator is a perfect addition to my kitchen as well. It’s available in a beautiful range of colors and materials and I’m so happy to announce one lucky winner will soon be carbonating their water with an Aarke carbonator in the color of their choice. Everything you need to know about entering the give-away is in this Instagram post.
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I can’t believe it’s the beginning of December today, time really flew by this year even more then the years before I think. In the days leading up to Christmas, I have an exciting giveaway planned on my Instagram, where I will be teaming up with a brand I love on a daily basis and give away amazing products.
The first giveaway is a really nice one, if I can say so myself. I’m so happy to be kicking off my Advents Calendar giveaway with Skagerak, a brand I have known and loved for so many years. They recently released their eye-catching Georg stool designed by Chris Liljenberg Halstrøm in a linen edition and it was love at first sight for me. The Georg Stool has a linen cushion and braided linen strap which gives a monochrome and natural expression. It fits perfectly in the color palette of my home and soon enough it can add a lovely mixture of Nordic sensuality and Japanese minimalism to the home of a lucky winner as well! You can participate in this Instagram post.
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Look at this beautiful turn-of-the-century home in Sweden. The layout might be a little awkward, with all the rooms in a rather weird shape, but what it lacks in logical floor planning, it makes up for in character and style. Like many of those turn-of-the-century homes, the moldings on the ceiling, doors, and windows are just exquisite. The cool grey wall color in the living room enhances the white moldings and old fireplace and gives them a fresh look and feel. The rest of the living room has been kept in very neutral colors as well making it a bright space, freshened up even more by some green plants.
Even though the kitchen has a weird layout, the owners of this home made it work with the kitchen cabinets on one side. Notice the old doorway has been transformed into an open shelving unit as well, which is a nice touch. The worktop of the kitchen is cut to size to fill up the area in the doorway, so it looks like it’s part of the kitchen.
The bedroom has been painted in a warmer grey and has a beautiful built-in wardrobe which can hold so much stuff. I love the vintage furniture on the bedsides and the vintage drawer chest which has been painted grey, these elements add so much character to the bedroom.
When I was designing my kitchen here in my apartment, I had long been thinking about getting one with warm wood cabinet fronts. I decided against it since the old hardwood flooring in my apartment has a warm color already and it would have been too much. In this beautiful Swedish apartment, however, the floors are whitewashed, meaning they lend themselves to be easily combined with warmer tints of wood without becoming too much.
I love the combination of the white-washed flooring with the warm dark wood of the kitchen fronts, the dining chairs at the table, and the warm natural stone countertop. The cupboards on the other side of the two-tone kitchen and also the upper cabinets have been made out of grey painted wood, which balances out all the wooden elements. I also like the small open shelving next to the kitchen window, which complements the look perfectly.
From the kitchen, you can walk directly into the living room, which has another dining table in front of the windows and a cozy sofa area with a large rug and wooden dining chairs in a similar tint of the kitchen cabinet doors.
It seems like every little detail and piece of furniture has been so carefully thought through in this beautiful turn-of-the-century apartment in Sweden. From the warm grey tone and beige on the wall in the living room going over in nuanced and more neutral tint of grey in the bedroom, to the combination of light fabric furniture and wooden accents, it all has been designed to perfection in my opinion.
The combined living and dining room has a linen fabric sofa, combined with two different fabric armchairs in light beige, and a beautiful oak coffee table. I think the chequered pillow on the sofa really stands out here and the white Panthella table lamp works perfectly on the side table. In the dining area, a similar palette comes back with the beige linen tablecloth* combined with the oak wood in the dining chairs. I think the big rice-paper shade works nicely in the middle of the room as well.
The bedroom has a rather neutral color palette, but I like the way the beige art prints, the wooden accessories on the nightstand, and the cognac leather armchair add warm touches to the grey environment. There is a guest bedroom as well, which has been painted in a lovely shade of blue. Also here I love the warm wood, the warm colors in the art print, and the beautiful office stand out of the cool tone of the wall.
Some homes are just much more special than others, aren’t they. Take this beautiful Swedish attic home for example, which is partly located in what seems like a large tower of the building. The beautiful dining area (of course with a round dining table) has curved walls, which has been enhanced even more by the custom made bookshelf that follows the curves of the walls. A curved staircase leads up to a small platform where a home office is located. I think this really is an ideal spot to get some work done, in what must be the highest point of the building.
The decoration of the apartment is on point as well, with a mixture of beautiful neutrals combined with a mixture of patterns in beige, black and wood. I like the bedroom as well, which has been painted in a soft grey wall color, which is matched by the combination of bedsheets, the curtains, and the area rug. The vintage desk stands out really nicely here and the warm wood gives a lovely accent to the otherwise grey environment.
This beautiful turn-of-the-century apartment in Sweden stands out to me not only because of its original features in the moldings at the windows, doors, and ceiling. It mainly stands out because of the combination of the beautiful white-washed wooden flooring, which is combined with a mixture of different vintage furniture pieces, which adds a warm touch to the otherwise light and neutral environment of the floors and white walls.
In the living room, I think the combination of the mint green sofa, combined with the black and white gallery wall and the vintage cupboard next to it works wonderfully. The bedroom (or more like bed) fits exactly in the small room which has been opened up to the living room and I think it works so nicely with the cool grey wall color, the art print, and the small black wall lights.
The custom-built kitchen with a grey stone countertop and grey doors works so perfectly in combination with the white tiles and back grout on the wall and I like the classic open shelving that is applied to the wall around the exhaust. Also here the combination of the cool grey and white-washed floor works nicely with the vintage dining table and chairs.
Lastly in the hallway, I think the custom-built wardrobe in blue looks absolutely amazing. Considering there is no storage space in the bedroom, this is much needed and I love that the color reflects in the round mirror on the opposite side.
Sustainable kitchen designer Ask og Eng just teamed up with Maison Jackie, where you can experience their kitchen in a ‘home away from’ home. And it’s in my hometown Antwerp nonetheless! After both founders met eachother in Marrakesh, a purposeful collaboration arose. They instantly connected over working in similar industries, having kids of the same age and sharing a valuable eye for aesthetics.
Maison Jackie is housed in the former monastery of the last sisters of Niel. The strongly female, spiritual energy the sisters left behind has been deliberately translated into a soulful event space. In Maison Jackie, craftsmanship, interior design, fashion, food, and yoga engage in an enriching dialogue.
I particularly like the way the kitchen goes over into a massive window seat with a day bed from which the abundance of daylight coming through the window can be enjoyed.
