Trick or treat

Happy Halloween everybody!

Here are your treats: orange themed interiors!


Through Flickr


II by IV


Through Flickr


Through Flickr

Oh lord, won't you buy me a kitchenaid mixer?

As you could tell by the yummy cupcake post, I like baking. A lot.

Why? I'll let you in on a little secret: baking is as easy as... well, pie. You just have to mix the right ingredients in the right order, put it in the oven for a designated time and tadaa! It really is a simple as that!

And by using kitchen supplies, it's even less labour intensive. And when it comes to kitchen utensils, there is one that rightfully deserves to be crowned king: the Kitchenaid mixer.


Through Flickr

Quality? Check. Great design? Check. Best colours ever? Check.


Apartment Therapy

Price in Europe? 500 €. Ouch, royalty doesn't come cheap...


Design*Sponge

Time to start a piggy bank!

Ohlala!

Sometimes a girl just wants to feel glamourous. And what better way to create your own little boudoir then with these lovely captioned wall tiles by Gup.



It's like being magically transported to Paris!

Thrift store finds

So, as I mentioned in the previous post, I went to my local thrift store this weekend to get 'supplies' to make my cake stand. And a bit more... no willpower here.

Here are my other finds:

A serving plate by one of my favourite ceramic companies, Villeroy & Boch.



I love the delicacy of the print. Unfortunately it is beginning to fade a bit.

Some lovely matching glass bowls with cute flower print.



And my personal favourite: a leaf shaped plate.



I love the colours of this one!
I wish I knew which company made this, but there are only numbers on the bottom, no name. The numbers do remind me a bit of those you have on West German ceramics. At first glance however, this plate doesn't look German to me. More Swedish...

Let them eat cake

Last weekend I had the urge to make some cupcakes, a feeling I often succumb to. I was however a bit disappointed that, after the baking was done, I didn't had a nice way to present them. The sight of 12 cupcakes cramped on one plate, was just a little bit unsatisfying... And the boyfriend wasn't at home so he couldn't solve the problem by sneakily eating half a dozen behind my back.

But then I thought of the cake stands I saw on various places on the web, made out of vintage ceramics. So I decided to make my own cake stand and headed over to my local thrift store.

And this is what I came up with.



It's a very basic stand but since I love using patterned cup cake papers, I thought simple might be best. I might make a more elaborated stand in the future, but for now I'm quite happy with this basic one...



And in case the above picture made you drool all over your keyboard, you can find the recipe for the Banana Nutella cupcakes over here.

Tiny apartment

Maybe you know the feeling: you're walking around your local IKEA, admiring the styling of the display ‘apartments’. At the same time a thought crosses your mind : nobody actually lives in tiny 20m square apartments ! (Well apart from maybe students and leprechauns.)



And then I came across the apartment of NJ in New York. It might be a bit bigger than your average IKEA store display, but it’s still quite tiny to harbour a family of 3.



Thanks to some clever tricks (the stair that doubles as book shelves, the fold out desk…) the space feels much bigger than it is.



So forget about spacious lofts, tiny apartments really are the thing for the future!
Now for a cunning plan to fit all my junk on 20 square meter...


All images from Apartment Theraphy

Design that makes me smile: Trophy hangers

If you like your coat hangers to be a bit of fun (like the Eames Hang-It-All), then get ready for these Throphy Hangers by Phil Cuttance.

Ideal for when you have, like myself, a secret fascination with stuffed animal heads but you don’t want any animals to die for your viewing pleasure. Although there might been some toys harmed during the making of this design product.



Buy them on Charles and Marie

Cutting edge

May I introduce you to THE carpet for every graphic designer out there. Why? Because we creatives are all typography lovers. This might be hard to understand for all you non-designers but there is nothing so thrilling as the elegancy of a font, the subtle yet beautiful details of a letter and the legibility, often taken for granted, of a word. Yes, deep down we’re all nerds, designers just dress a bit better…



Swedish designer John Agilli creates these handsome carpets also to order, so you can have your own custom greeting waiting for you when you come home after a hard day of work.

Séraphine

Yesterday I went to the Filmfestival here in Gent to watch "Séraphine".
The movie is based on the true story of Séraphine Louis. She lived in the beginning of the 20th century in Sélis, France. She worked as a servant and laundry maid, but her true passion was painting. Séraphine had no training what so ever but started painting after her guardian angel instructs her to. Her work got discovered when art collector Wilhelm Uhde employs her as a housecleaner. Unfortunately, without telling too much about the movie, things don’t end well for her.



I had never heard of Séraphine Louis before and I was quite impressed with the work shown in the movie. The topic of her paintings is always nature but there is so much emotion and energy in it, it’s almost as if the leaves and flowers are going to jump of the paintings.



Her colours are also incredible. She actually made her own paint out of mud, blood, wax and everything else she could get her hands on.



If you have a chance to see the movie, definitely do. And if you happen to be in Paris soon, there’s an exhibition of her work in the Muséee Maillol until the beginning of january 2009. Might nip over myself…



All images from the official film site

Design classics: Eames Hang-it-all

I love the playful designs from Charles and Ray Eames. This coat rack is ideal for cheering up any hallway. It’s almost to nice to actually put coates on.


Picasa


Isabel Truniger


Vitra

Lovely Malta

I'm back from holiday! Me and the boyfriend had a lovely time at Malta, even tough the weather was a bit fickle at times.

Here are some photo impressions.


I loved the old townhouses. The combination of Western architecture and Morish embellishments was very inspiring. And the use of colours! Why are houses here always so bland?


And the entrance halls had some lovely floors!


You can see more of the bright powerful colours on the boats.


The public transport on Malta is quite special, most of the buses are from the seventies or sixties. Lovely to look at, not always so lovely to sit on if you have a sore back. And unfortunately they're very polluting, you can see the black smoke coming out of them!


A lovely view on the capital Valletta.


And it's not only the public transport that's a bit outdated...

Collections: tin boxes

I first fell in love with vintage tin boxes when I saw some over at a friend's home. I started my collection the next day ! Most of my boxes are actually from family, friends or friends from friends.

If I do buy one, I never wanna pay more than 3 euros for them. Some sellers ask over 10 euros which I think is a bit ludicrious !

Here are some of my most treasured boxes of my collection.







And here are some lovely pictures I found on the worldwide web.


Decor8


ATLITW


Hownowdesign

A trip to the museum: Hans Wegner

The design museum in Gent is great for discovering new design and designers. They always have small hommages on, accompanying their main exhibition. This is how I discovered Danish designer Hans Wegner.





The display focused on his design for chairs. You can very clearly see the likeness between his work and that from fellow Danish designer Arne Jacobsen (Wegner actually worked for him in the beginning of his career). The minimalistic design, the use of curves and bright fabrics. I especially loved the ‘Wing chair’, another one to go on my list of design objects…

Etsy art

A while back I was looking at posters to hang in our new dream home, which we hopefully will find soon. Read all about it here.

But after seeing the next pictures, I wondered if it wouldn’t be nicer to have a lot of different prints together, instead of just one big poster.


Desire to inspire


James Merrell


ngoc minh ngo

So I headed down to Etsy and already made a start on my ‘art’ collection.


Left: Mr and Mrs Cardinal from Berkly Illustration
Right: Happy Rabbits from Sepia Lepus


Tangled Up and Whale Tale print from Lab Partners