Monthly Archives: September 2012

A soft cushion in wood please!

Today, I introduce you with “How are you”, a Sweeden design company who has interesting challenges like making hard things soft !

Our philosophy is simple, we do this for fun and we only do things we like and hopefully you like it too.

Here are a few pictures of my favorite products, but I let you have a look on their website : howareyou.se
Wooden cushion

Stone cushion natural

Cushion in wood

Concrete cushion

Do you like this style of cushions ? I’d enjoy having an “old wood cushion” since I like the traditional chalet style !

Please, click “like” or share this article if you liked it ! Merci : )

Inspiration Bloomingville

Bloomingville – ever changing homes

Bloomingville is a wholesale company from Denmark who supply home accessoires to retail- and e-shops.
www.bloomingville.com

Initially, Bloomingville’s product line consisted of items sourced from European producers as well as a small variety of pieces designed by the com­pany’s founder, Betina Stampe. Over time that focus shifted, and today the vast majority of the products are designed in-house, supplemented by special vintage items sourced directly from se­lected suppliers in Southeast Asia and Africa. The unique Bloomingville style is a mixture of raw products with a nostalgic Scandinavian twist and reproductions of fantastic pieces from times past inspired by French brocante.

Why do we like design ?

Last week, we discovered the work of Marie-Laure Helmkampf, interior designer living in the south of France.

Today, we take a closer look at this kitchen design to understand: Why do we like it ?

1. A balance of verticals and horizontals

[one_half]

 Horizontal lines :

  • calming,
  • pacifying,
  • enlarge the space,
  • create an indoor horizon.

[/one_half]

[one_half_last]

Vertical lines : 

  • extend the height of a volume
  • create more dynamic
  • can be related to high trees, high vertical mountains, cliff
  • too much of them can create a feeling of suffocation[/one_half_last]

In this kitchen, the verticals and horizontals are used wisely. The verticals are on one side of the room or used for the highest elements, creating thus more volume up high. Horizontal lines are wide giving a calming feeling to the space.

Tips : Make sure you balance the lines in any rooms of your house to create the right feeling. Depending if you want the room to look calm or dynamic, use more or less of verticals and horizontals.

The shape of the lines are also important. 

  • Curve line : charming, warm, traditional
  • Straight line : Simple, modern, unpersonal

In this kitchen, they chose straight lines to keep the look modern and simple. The warmth and charm is added by other elements like materials and colors.

2. Colors

The colors chosen for this kitchen remain in the same tones of brown. The black and the green are added as touches to break the uniformity and give more dynamic to the room.

3. Materials

All the materials used in this kitchen are inspired from the nature : wood, and stone work together to bring a warm feeling. The look is authentic, surfaces look rough. A few vintage item like the blanck lamp and the high chairs, add the final touch to look cosy and warm.

Inspired by Nature !
Here are a few other landscapes from which the materials used in this kitchen are inspired.

I hope while reading this post you found yourself looking at your own kitchen or room wondering how are the lines or colors or materials organised !

If you liked this article, express it by clicking “like”, sharing it or commenting it, and I’ll write some more of that kind !

If you’d like me to have a look at your interior, send me your pictures at amandiks(at)gmail.com, and I’ll include them into a further article.

You’d make me soo happy if you vote for this blog !

Thank you ! A bientôt !

Tips to create an industrial style at home

The industrial style, inspired by american lofts, is one of the often seen style in decoration.

What I like in this style :

  • the authentic materials : metal, wood, brick…
  • the uncluttered ligns
  • the modern side
What I don’t like :
  • the cold atmosphere of some interiors
  • the lack of personal/human touch

To get the industrial look, it is all about balancing between the positive and the negative aspects.

Tips to create this style at your place :
  1. An orange brick wall (no painting, no fake look ! the orange color will warm up your atmosphere!)
  2. Some raw wook : without varnish or sanding is the cheapest in home improvement stores!
  3. Metal also at the crudest state possible,
  4. Some corrugated iron: inexpensive and guaranteed effect!
  5. Some “vintage” pieces you can find on this site that I love: produitinterieurbrut.com

Here are some inspirational pictures (houzz.com) : Enjoy !

Want to get the look?
If you need any advices, feel free to ask me through Facebook or through the contact from.
If you liked this article, click “Like” !
Thanks you : )

Inspiration : natural interior

Today, I introduce you with Marie-Laure Helmkampf, interior designer living currently in the south of France.

As she says, her goal is to create harmony between spaces with timeless style. For that, she uses a balance between lights and proportions through the volume.

I let you have a look at one of her realization for her house in the South of France.

The kitchen

Interior design kitchen

cuisine bois pierre naturelle industrielle

Marbre blanc evier

The Living area

Salon style nature

The entry room

Entry

 

Salon nature blanc

The bedrooms

bedroom wood

chambre lampe vintage jaune

The bathroom

Salle de bain nature

 I hope you enjoyed this visit. The next article will be about “why do we like this natural style” ?

If you liked this article, feel free to share it or to simply click “like”.

I encourage you to visite Marie-Laure Helmkampf ‘s website !

Thanks you : )

 

3D images in 2013 IKEA catalogue

I recently read an interesting article about IKEA generating 3D images for the new catalogue 2013 in order to be more cost effective: a wise idea !

Here are some extracts of The Wall Street Journal, by JENS HANSEGARD.
You can read the full article by clicking here.

Much of the furniture and settings in the 324-page catalog are simply a collection of pixels and polygons arranged on a computer.
This year 12% of IKEA’s content for the Web, catalog and brochures were rendered virtually; that number will increase to 25% next year.
In all, IKEA plans to publish 208 million catalogs this year, more than double the amount of Bibles expected to be produced. And it will create 62 different versions in 43 countries.

Can you find which image is 3D and which one is real ?

image

This is a real photo.

image

This is a 3-D model.

image

This is a 3-D model.

image

This is a real photo

“It’s a clever way to save money,” Anneli Sjogren, head of photography at IKEA, said during a recent interview at the company’s sprawling photo studio in this sleepy southern town. “We don’t have to throw away kitchens in the Dumpster after the photo shoot.”

Instead, sets for entire rooms—spanning kitchens to bathrooms to porches—can be mocked up and created on a computer screen without the help of a single camera.
The practice is allowing IKEA to easily manipulate imagery to use a set created for one country—where dark wood might be popular—to another where lighter hues are all the rage.

IKEA doesn’t break out just how much money this will save, but the company has an aggressive strategy to keep its prices down. The company cut prices an average of 2% to 3% every year during the last decade while expanding aggressively, and still manages to squeeze more profits from the operation on a yearly basis.

Putting together a catalog is a massive task, taking about 10 months from concept to finished product. Until late in the last decade IKEA relied entirely on its sprawling photo studio here. The studio is one of the largest in Europe, covering 94,000 square feet—about a third the size of an IKEA store—and employs 285 photographers, carpenters, interior designers and other people working full time on photo shoots.

IKEA’s 3-D team is housed in the same building. Faced with a shortage of people capable of doing this work, the company is collaborating with photo schools to teach computer design skills. “With real photography you’re constrained by the four walls,” Ms. Sjogren said, noting the company is running out of room in its studio.

“A kitchen has to be built in a week or two and then torn down the following week to make room for a bedroom shoot…everything has to run like clockwork.”

A kitchen shot for potential U.S. buyers might have darker colors. “Now let’s say we want to sell that kitchen in Japan,” she added. “Japanese people, like Scandinavians, like lighter hues of wood than Americans.”

Instead of rebuilding the kitchen, IKEA can easily change the color and the background. “And we can still use the same basil plant on the counter. In 3-D, the basil plant never wilts,” she said.
Iems tend to look too perfect when done on computers, so the traditional studio’s crew, such as carpenters, sit with the artist to add wear to a piece of furniture or fingerprints to a surface.

“Let’s say we have a door that is supposed to look like an old door that has been repainted, Ms. Sjogren said. Carpenters “know where surfaces fade and wear and have a fine eye for detail and they can help the 3-D artist get the right look.”

IKEA started dabbling in 3-D design in 2005, when three interns specializing in computer graphics spent a year working on a graduate-school thesis. Before their arrival, IKEA had used computers only to retouch photographs. These interns were charged with creating an image of an IKEA product without using a camera. They went to work on a small wooden chair and, after a year, solved it.
“There was a lot of excitement here at IKEA about that little chair,” Ms. Sjogren said. The company placed the image in the 2006 to see if any customers noticed a difference between real and fake.
Nobody did, she said.

 

Source : The Wall Street Journal
By JENS HANSEGARD