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.
Ad – Now that autumn really is is in full swing, I started to add some warm and cozy touches to my interior. I usually enjoy the time before winter a lot more then winter itself, so at least I will then have a cozy home to enjoy while the winter blues kicks in. I got some beautiful textiles from Arket, which you can see in my bedroom. I have been seeing these Linnea Andersson blankets all over Instagram (with good reason, they are so pretty) and finally ordered myself a beige one (beige is currently sold out, but they other lovely colors* available. I combined the beige blanket with two wool pillows in beige and white* for a super cozy setting.
In my office, I placed the shaggy wool rug*underneath my small work desk and I love the way the white contrasts with the black of the table and the warm colors in the rest of the interior. I alreay showed you the beautiful long black candle holder from House Doctor* here before, well, it got a new partner in crime: the oversized paper maché pot, which has such a playful design and contrasts perfectly with the candle holder.
AD – Autumn has clearly started here in Munich, and even though we still got a few nice and sunny days this week, you can notice that the light is changing a lot. I’m embracing the change in seasons (even though deep inside I wish summer would last just a little longer) with lots of candle light, which makes the apartment so cozy. I got these new black candle holders from Arket* recently, which look handmade and I love how they look as a pair.
More candles in my office window, which set the right mood when working from home. I love to have candle light next to me and I’m so happy with these deep window sills that are so lovely to style. The lamp is needed in the mornings and evenings as well, as the days are getting shorter and shorter.
More coziness in the bedroom of course, which I always turn into a lounge area on Sunday morning to enjoy my coffee. While it’s just airing the bedsheets during the week, in the weekend I love to spend time to make the bed nice. The lovely beige blanket from Linnea Andersson* fits wonderfully with the warm wood of the floor and the rest of the natural details in the room I think.
LAFUMA MOBILIER has recenlty released two of their iconic products in an exclusive, limited collection with Jean Paul Gaultier by Lelievre Paris. Their Lounge chair and director chair are pieces that are on the market since the 1950s an have become icons for outdoor furniture. The limited edition collection is inspired, designed and manufactured in France and the black and white graphic motive inspired by the geometry of a labyrinth designed by Jean Paul Gaultier is brightened up with a bronze stripe.
The chairs are adorned with a matte “bronze gold” effect transparent lacquer, a nod to the vintage LAFUMA MOBILIER versions produced in the 1950s. The chairs are light and ultra-compact when folded and have found their place on a balcony or patio, but also in the livingroom or bedroom. Ever since Lafuma Mobilier started the manufacturing of their first chairs in 1954, production found place in France and this has never changed which is very special nowadays.
I placed the Labyrinthe director chair in my dining area in the kitchen and combined it with the Labyrinthe cushion, which is water repellent and resistant to UV rays. I love the way the graphic print adds a characterful element to my dining area and I like that the print is inpired by the Pop years and African art. I think the cushion goes well with the chair, but it looks so amazing as an eye-catcher combined with neutral fabrics as I did in my bedroom.
I think the director chair is a really nice piece to add a little extra graphic touch in an interior or on your balcony, and because it’s so easy to fold and store away, it lends itself perfectly to be used as an extra chair when you have guests over as well.
This post was made in paid collaboration withLAFUMA MOBILIER but all opinions are my own of course. If you would like to know more about the brand and their products, have a look on their website.
AD – Thanks to Danish design studio Moebe, I finally have a spot to get some work done in our home in Belgium. I have selected one of the shelving system packages in white, which looks so lovely in combination with the white walls and ceilings and contrasts perfectly with the green door and dark color of the windows.
Their shelving system is a modular system that you can individualise according to your needs. You can built it as high or as wide as you like and you can include closed storage, a desk, or shelves to create exactly what you need. I went for a set that includes a closed cabinet and a desk which is perfect for creating a little office area and to store away my camera gear as well. If you are interested in the shelving system, Moebe has a really nice configurator where you can design and visualise your own shelf. If you need some inspiration, they have a really nice gallery as well to browse all the possibilities with this system, which can be used in the office, kitchen, hallway and living room, just to name a few.
As you might have seen on my Instagram, I’m back in Belgium to work on a project (more about that soon) and I’m enjoying the time in the garden to the fullest. The weather has been so lovely this week, and we were able to enjoy the new Area dining table and Ocean soft rope chairs from Cane-lineto the fullest. I showed you this setup a little while ago in this blogpost, but it’s amazing how much more green it looks right now.
Last weekend we enjoyed a lunch outside and this spot between the trees is just so nice to sit and enjoy the nice weather. I hung up a chain of lights in between the trees and also brought the Cane-line lighthouse lantern to add a little bit of coziness at night.
I think the outdoor area of a home should be just as nice as the interior so that it can really be an extension of your home. I had set the table with my new green glasses from Iittala* and used the white linen napkins from Arket* which I also used in this table setting I did at home in Munich before leaving to Belgium. I think the green and white color combination looks so great on the black matt metal of the Area table as well, don’t you think?
My home office is really coming together now that the pin board is up and this area is one of the spots that stayed almost the same in comparison to the setup I had in my previous apartment (if it works, it works right?). I also introduced some brass office accessories from Fundamental Berlin, who are known for their fascination for the mathematics of nature. I love the way the subtile brass finishes stand out of all the white and natural colors here and I feel like these objects just made this space complete.
On my desk, you can spot the ‘Penrose tray’ which is etched out of Soft-brushed Brass from a hand-drawn pattern, next to the ‘Cloud desk organiser’ which you can fold yourself from a flat-packed sheet of brass to fit anything from pens to business cards. I think the combination of those two objects next to the black office lamp just works perfectly.
I’m so happy I was able to get the pinboard up in time to have a place for these cute flatmate animals, which were designed during the pandemic and made in Berlin in a social workshop for the disabled. I love these playful pieces and they make my workplace so much more fun! I’m a lover of beautiful design elements that are playful as well, so these are just the perfect addition to my pinboard.
It has been a long time since I changed the dining table setup and its’ decoration (you can see the last decoration change I did here). I like to do this every once in a while and find that just a few subtile changes in the decor can give a room an entire new look. This time, I worked with plants and green elements, inspired by these beautiful dark green Raami glasses from Iittala*. I usually have my plants all on the window sill in the living room, but now I took some pancake plants out and added them on display on my sideaboards (the sideboards are Ikea Eket in case you are wondering, there is always people asking). I love the way the fresh greenery works in combination with all the white here and the beige and black tints in my Folded no.1 art print.
On the table itself I worked with a simple table setting with linen napkins with a subtile light grey trim* and simple cutlery from Sabre Paris*. I love my table settings simple and I think when you have an element of color, like the green glasses, it doesn’t need much more to make it look special. I tied up the napkins in a little knot, which is way more playful and informal.
Ad – Last week I showed you the process of designing my kitchen, which is still very much a work in progress as we speak. A small part of the kitchen is finished already and I couldn’t resist decorating and accessorizing this area already (I find this so much more exciting than actually building and renovating, which always comes with unexpected challenges in an old building). I teamed up with the lovely people at Connox to accessorize this area and they are giving all my readers and followers 12% discount on all the items in their website until tonight with code COCO12 (a few brands are excluded from this).
What I really like about the Frame design from Reform are the clean lines and the brass and oak details in the material finishes. I decided to make these materials come back into the decor as well. The Frama shelves in oak match the oak finish on the worktop of the kitchen and the Frama mirror reflects the daylight coming from the window. As an added bonus, a mirror always reflects the space as well, making the room (and in this case the height of the room) more impressive.
I decided to turn this area of the kitchen into a place where I can keep my prettiest accessories, coffee cups, and the Kitchen Aid machine, which I find very aesthetically pleasing. The drawers provide so much storage for all the things I don’t want to have on display, which is as important as displaying the pretty things in my opinion.
Apart from the Frama shelves and mirror, the small accessories are also from Connox. I like their webshop because they have such a wide variety of brands and products, both for furniture and accessories. Whenever I visit their website, there is always something new to discover.
AD – As you might know, I moved into my current apartment in Munich at the end of last year and have since been busy decorating the place. I like to take my time for this and rather wait a little to make better decisions. In Germany, rental apartments often don’t come with a built-in kitchen, but luckily, the previous renter had built in an Ikea kitchen which is working and has been used for the past months (see below). While functional, I didn’t really like the look of it. It has these white glossy cabinet fronts and a fake walnut countertop that is damaged. The tiles on the wall are Carrara marble, but since there are so many different lines and textures in the materials, they don’t get the chance to shine.
Since the structure of the kitchen is still in good condition, I thought it was the perfect opportunity to work together with Danish design firm Reform to give this Ikea kitchen an update, while still using most of the existing kitchen cabinets. Reform recently opened a showroom in Munich, which I visited multiple times to plan the kitchen with the wonderful design team there. My first visit was all about picking the design. I had seen many examples of the Reform kitchens on their inspiration page, but seeing the kitchens in real life really helped me to decide on what would look good in my apartment.
Many of the Reform designs are on display in the Munich showroom and they have samples for all the different color and material variants you can use for planning. Even though I wanted to use as much of the old kitchen as possible, I wanted to remove the upper cabinets above the sink to make the room look lighter and bigger (and to not bump my head while washing dishes). The exhaust that is currently there just makes noise and nothing else, so it will be removed and changed into one that can be built in for a cleaner look.
As for the design, I decided to go with ‘Frame’ designed by Note design studio. I think the design is simple, yet intriguing and I love the subtle lines on each side of the cabinet fronts. I wanted a light look in the kitchen that would contrast with the old hardwood flooring so I picked the white Frame version, which shows the wood grains in a very subtle way. Since the upper cabinets will be removed for a lighter look, I decided to add a separate lower module on the other wall to add storage space and more counter space. This module is finished already, you can see it in the first picture and I just absolutely love the look. I went for brass handles and a Fenix worktop with an oak wood border in the front that matches the color of the hardwood flooring.
I will show you the entire kitchen soon, we only started with the removal of the main part of the kitchen and in an old building, where everything is crooked, it all takes a little while to get everything done. I’m so happy with the first area of the kitchen though and it gives a nice sneak peek into how everything will look like once it’s finished. Stay tuned!
Above you can see pictures of my kitchen in its current state, below the pictures I took in the Reform showroom in Munich.
