Kitchen redo

I've splurged a little bit... I've been drooling over these two for quite some time, and after a week of improvising a kitchen in the hallway and carpenters walking in and out of my home with their dirty boots, I felt a bit sorry for myself...
Both are designed by Barbro Tryberg Boberg and Maria Holmer Dahlgren for BoM UNITED and Formverket. I love the 60s vibes, especially on the whimsical tray.

This is how my kitchen looks like just now... Everything in boxes, and I can't find anything! I'm going mad, and it's still 3 weeks to go. Worst part is the constantly dirty floors. Luckily having two floors makes it easier to keep half of the house clean. Eyes on the prize, I keep telling myself, I'm SOOO looking forward to the end results!

Electrical outlets and switches need to be moved, so we're taking down the wood panels on two walls to hide all cables. Everything will get some fresh coats of white paint, and we'll have some new wooden flooring.The picture in the middle shows the existing walls. My house is quite nostalgic, and my strategy is to keep renewing it with modern contrasts on the inside, while letting the walls and floors reflect the style of the house. I'd love to design a house for us one day, but I tell you it's A LOT easier to draw other people's houses! A colleague who lives in a house of his own design once told me "I'm confronted with my own choices all the time, it's quite exhausting!"

When I started planning our new kitchen, I searched everywhere for some great wood surfaces, but they were hard to find. White is big here now, alongside the lighter nordic woods. I just threw out a white kitchen and wanted something else this time. Some time ago, I found this cabinet maker called Tingbø, whose small family business is in the southwestern city of Egersund, home of the great pottery. They started their business just a few years ago, and have already gotten some well deserved acclaim in glossy magazines. I had more or less decided on walnut cabinets, but when Tingbø told me he could make me something in teak, I was sold! They have a small, but very nice selection of designs, but they can pretty much make whatever you want. As mentioned in a previous post, they made the display cabinets and interior for the Egersund pottery museum.

Our kitchen is going to be the first they make in teak, so there's no photos to show you yet, but the following images showes the type of drawers I've ordered. The cabinet doors have the same type of minimal slots. The kitchen below is in walnut and has a bit more pattern than teak, but it gives you an idea. The counter will be white stone, hood, induction top, oven, light switches and electrical outlets black. I've found some very simple matte black cylindrical lamps to put over the counter and I'll order a String shelf (wall hung) in walnut (the closest to teak they have) with black sides to store some of my Figgjo and Stavangerflint pieces. I've also planned to let my Wiinblad plaques add to the black and white theme:-) I have january, february and march, I hope to find some more! Wishing you all the most fantastic weekend!

 

New shelves!!

The String shelves have arrived! I'm so thrilled. Designed by swedish architect Nils Strinning in 1949, they're a great piece of mid century scandinavian furniture. They made a great change to a former quite dull area of our living room. They still have some free space, I'm still arranging and rearranging, trying to find out which setup looks best.

We chose a combo of black sides and walnut shelves. They remind me a lot of the Tomado shelves, and provide some contrast to the pale walls. Walnut very easily changes color when exposed to daylight and sun, the color becomes warmer and very similar to teak. This has been the case with our other walnut plywood furniture, they are now very similar in color to our teak pieces. Which, of course, is no disadvantage.

I'll leave you with some images of the String shelves as well as a few other living room snaps. I'm noticing how big my living room looks, it's really not!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hunting for new storage

Lately, I've been on the lookout for some new storage for my living room. I absolutely love the 60s shelving systems like Cadouvius and Tomado that you could combine according to your needs. Not only do they look extremely cool, they're also practical. But I find it hard to find the combination I need here, and if it turns up, and in good condition, it's sooo expensive. It would also be great to be able to extend it later.

I started searching on the internet for a shelving system from that golden era that is still in production today. I got two hits, and they are both really great.

The first one is the String System, designed by swedish architect Nils Strinning in 1949. It's quite similar to the Tomado shelving and comes in several colors as well as wood veneers. Kitka Toronto displays a great combo in white, have a look here. I'm after something in wood veneer, teak or walnut. They look very good with the choice of black sides.

 

The other great shelving system I found is the 606 Universal shelving system produced by Vitsoe, and designed in 1960 by the grand old man of design, Dieter Rahms, the guy behind many iconic designs, like these for Braun:

 

 

The shelving is slightly more industrial looking than the String, but I think it's amazing in all its glorious simplicity.

 

 

 

 

Decicions, decicions.... What made the choice a bit easier was the pricing. The Vitsoe costs a fortune. So, some weeks ago, I ordered the String in walnut with black sides. It will arrive this coming week or the next, I will show you when it's all mounted and presentable!                              

Great reads

Just wanna show you a handful of great books. You're gonna LOVE these. I'll get right to it:

 

Minimalism by James Meyer is a book about the group of american artists who developed a new kind of geometric abstraction in the 60s. So many of my great favorites are in this book, artists like Donald Judd, Sol Lewitt, Dan Flavin and Richard Serra, to name just a few.

 

 

 

 

Modernism Rediscovered by Julius Schulman and Pierluigi Serraino features amazing images by architecture photographer par exellence Julius Schulman of american modernist buildings from the early "International style" until the 70s. Most of the images date from the heyday of these buildings and depict both the exteriors and the great interiors.

 

 

I know you guys are mad about scandinavian mid- century design, this is just the book for you!Scandinavian Design by Charlotte and Peter Fiell is a whopping 704 pages and covers just about every aspect of norwegian, danish, swedish and finnish design, with a range from textile art, pottery, glass, tableware and furniture to industrial design, telephones, radios and cars. I'll promise you, you'll find all your favorites here! 

 

 

 

 

Donald Judd by Hatje Cantz focuses on the architectural aspects of Judds work and his comprehension of the spatial concepts in his precise metal objects. The book also shows his furniture , which is closer to works of art than design.

 

 

 

Neutra by Barbara Lamprecht is a book that covers the most important work of architect Richard Neutra and his wonderful California modernism.

 

 

Mies van der Rohe at work by Peter Carter.  I love Mies van der Rohes wonderful steel and glass buildings, as well as his use of wood and polished stone. The book shows a variety of his buildings with pictures, text ans drawings. I've visited a few of them and I'm always amazed of the honesty of his use of structural elements as the only decor.

 

Okay, these were just a few of my favorite books, I might be back with more later!

Oh my goodness!

How gorgeous is this interior?? It's located in Borrego Springs, San Diego County, and was designed by Maurice McKenzie. Notice the beautiful tiles in the kitchen, they are from a line by Heath Ceramics for Dwell magazine, you can check them out at heathceramics.com. They look stunning alongside the teakwood and the colored glass and ceramics.

All the images are courtesy of Dwell magazine, I'll let them speak for themselves. Enjoy!