Snapshots From Home

June has commenced and I am wishing you all a happy new month! This month will be a very busy one and packed with travels. I will be off to Paris on Wednesday to attend the presentation of the new Habitat collection and discover a few new spots in the French capital. Next weekend I will be off to London with my Urban Jungle Bloggers partner-in-crime Judith to speak at Blogtacular about our green and thriving community. Then I am off to Amsterdam, Austria and back to Paris. In such busy times I love to save some rare but precious moments at home and unwind. Oh well, and enjoy some new little additions bien sûr!

I will not bore you with my future trips now, I will do that after the trip, ha! But for now I just want to  share some little snapshots of my home with you (yes, still the same small shoebox apartment). I have added a few new 'tchotchkes' to my home which I really like! Recently I've been e-thrifting and managed to score a few goodies like two vintage ceramic vases (mid-century German pottery) and a cute brass crane figurine - all found on eBay. I have also potted my new mini plants from Bordeaux (you remember from HERE) and the Sedum plant is now in my 'evil eye' planter, handmade by the potter Leandro Marcelino of 'Hey Camel Bazaar' in Vietnam.

For the scent of a comfy home I have opened the brand new KOTO scent diffuser which is perfect for summer as I tend to reduce my candle burning during the hot season. The diffuser is perfect as it scents the apartment gently and it looks pretty stylish. For candle lovers there is now a small KOTO candle too, all available through Skandinavisk.

Maybe you remember the motto I preach for small home dwelling: One in - one out. With all the recent additions it's time to restore the good balance which I will do by donating a huge pile of home goodies for free to a local flea market that will be organized on June 13th in Munich and all earnings will then be donated for earthquake relief in Nepal. That makes me double happy!

Photography by Igor Josifovic

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The Poster Club x Silke Bonde

Sometimes there is this feeling when you see something and you say: match made in heaven! Well here we go with one of those examples, maybe in this case it's a match made in poster heaven. Denmark based The Poster Club has launched two new posters created by the fantastic Copenhagen based artist Silke Bonde.

The two watercolour art prints called 'Cove' and 'Leaf me' are exclusively made for The Poster Club and come in a limited edition of 300 signed prints. So, if you want one of these two beauties you better hurry up and go to The Poster Club and secure yourself one signed art print.

Silke Bonde's work is wonderfully light and airy - her art seems as elusive as a fresh breeze and as invigorating as cold waters. And on top of it all, it just looks amazing. Having said this, my heart goes out to the art print 'Cove'. What about you?

Photos by Enok Holsegård, styling by Sofie Brünner

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Blogger Styling For Nest.co.uk

I wonder if some of you ask yourself what it's all about our regular bloggers tours we do all across Europe. Some of you might have noticed that we were in London recently and visited various brands and designers in the British metropolis. Usually the entire tour is organized by each local blogger from that country and the exact itinerary remains a secret until we literally take off to our design destination. That was the case with London too and I did not know - until the very last minute - that we will have a styling session for one of my favorite UK online design retailers: Nest.co.uk. I was pretty smitten to see them on our schedule and enjoyed the fun styling session with my fellow bloggers.

In London we were staying in a spacious three floor house in Notting Hill just off the popular Portobello Road. The house was furnished, but not fully packed. Nest.co.uk sent us a large selection of great design pieces from their webstore directly to our London flat. The day we arrived we were welcome by many boxes in various sizes. The suspense was big!

Unwrapping was like kid's birthday for us. It was ooooh here and aaaah there while we unwrapped chairs, accessories, rugs, cushions, stools and more. With eight creative minds in one house the styling went like a whirlwind session - shuffling here, redecorating there, hanging on the balcony and layering on the floor. In between I could hear the click-click of various cameras and the result is here - our blogger stylings for Nest.co.uk in London. 

I am amazed what you can achieve with nice furniture and props and eight creative design bloggers in a very short time. I hope you like the results as much as we do. And remember: Everything you see on our pictures is available in the newly designed webstore of Nest.co.uk! 

Photography by Susanna Vento and Linda Elmin

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Urban Jungle Bloggers: Hanging Planters

Green love is in the air! I can feel it, I can see it! It is end of February and spring is approaching - slowly but surely. This month's Urban Jungle Bloggers theme encouraged me to create a tiny hanging garden in my minuscule apartment. Luckily I live in a rooftop apartment with pitched roof areas serving as the perfect basis for some hanging planters and floating plants. As I opted for a hanging garden above my bed, I had to make sure I also create a good energy vibe. But let's start from the beginning.

Maybe some of you remember my Urban Jungle Bloggers post a few months ago when we shared our green and cosy bedrooms. I had hung my little hanging planter with an airplant for the first time then and this served as a starting point for this hanging garden. I am no DIY-er so I had to come up with another idea and I wanted to only use things I have at home. Luckily, I had three hanging planters and adequate plants to go with. Even though one of the hanging planters is a handmade piece from my beloved London based Atelier Stella (the cute face), I felt this is not enough. This isn't it.

That's how I started to think about good vibes, good energy and the plant's ability to purify the air. If my hanging plants purify the air in my bedroom, then I need something more to purify the energy and disperse good vibes. I had not to look far: I brought two handful of quartz crystals from my last US trip and I had a Greek 'Evil Eye' that serves as a talisman and protects from any kind of evil. I got it from a hotel manager in Athens a few years ago. I knew instantly: I have everything to create a very good atmosphere in my home!

The rest is as pragmatic as hammering nails into the wall. One, two, three - after six nails I was ready to hang everything, arrange and rearrange and voilà, here it is: my little hanging boho garden with good plants and good energy. Spring can come - I am ready. Just a few more breaths of fresh, purified air and a few rays of good energy from my crystals. Let's rock'n'roll!

Urban Jungle Bloggers is a monthly series initiated by 2 bloggers: Igor (Happy Interior Blog) and Judith (JOELIX.com). Every month we share ideas to create an urban jungle through styling ideas, DIYs and green tips & tricks. You can find additional inspiration on our Urban Jungle Bloggers Pinterest board and keep up-to-date on our website and Facebook page. Want to join? Use #urbanjunglebloggers on Twitter and Instagram. Or let us know and we'll share the badge and upcoming topics with you. Let's bring some green into your homes and blogs!

Photography by Igor Josifovic

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Lived In Spaces For Real Folks

via Apartment Therapy

via Design*Sponge

There is one important fact that I love about interior blogs, Pinterest and Instagram: The abundance of real, lived in interiors shared with the world. Those interiors with character and imperfections remind us that living beautifully does not mean living in a staged surrounding.

via Design*Sponge

via Karolina Bak Photography

For me, the most beautiful home is one that reflects its owner or dweller. Be it eclectic collections of vintage ceramics, plants, embroidery, art books, portraits, music instruments or anything else - these homes tell stories and can be read like a good book.

via J. Ingerstedt Photography

I love homes of well-traveled folks. People bring back details from their journeys and decorate their homes - and I do not refer to tacky souvenir pieces bought in a cheap (or worse over-priced) tourist shop. I refer to those unexpected pieces found along the way: in a local boutique, on a flea market, gifts from hosts and friends abroad, pieces found in the nature. Bring those pieces back home and tell your visitors about them!

via Lobster and Swan

via Dust Jacket

Photography Igor Josifovic

I love homes that exude an easy-going, imperfect atmosphere. I love places where there's a random blanket left unmade, cushions squeezed into a corner, a forgotten bunch of wilted flowers, a few crooked frames - sometimes this oh so real imperfection seems to be hard to achieve for people referred to as perfectionist. I myself tend to be that way. But then I remind myself that life is not perfect either. So why bother with the home? Don't you agree?

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Happy New Year & Peace In 2015!

Happy New Year, my friends! May 2015 bring happiness, health and peace to all of us - I wish nothing more than that! I hope you all kicked off 2015 with your beloved ones and let us all work on a fantastic and good year to be proud of!

This January starts with a lovely home story for Happy Interior Blog. I am very honored to be the cover story of the January issue of Heart Home Magazine. A little home tour and story about my rooftop apartment in Munich is now available to all interested readers HERE.

I truly believe that happiness needs to be the strong fundaments of our homes. If we are happy and content, we will spread this happiness and share it with the world. Even the slightest dash of happiness will brighten our world that is so often darkened by crazy, incomprehensible attacks against a human and peaceful world. I am still under the oppression of the recent attacks in Paris, France, the city I call my second home. One sentence needs to unify all of us today: Je suis Charlie!

Let us remember that happiness and peace are the bond between all of us, that it is the essence for a better world and a better life. Let us all work on that in 2015!

Have a great one, my friends!

Photos by Igor Josifovic via Heart Home Magazine

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Swinging Into Weekend With House Doctor

Friday is my second favorite day - it is the gate to the close-by weekend and usually I am in a super good mood on Fridays (then again I am pretty always in a super good mood). And there is little that gets me as excited as a swiftly approaching weekend. Ok, maybe a few other things, like nice interior styling and home decor products. 

The popular and successful Danish homewares brand House Doctor has launched their new collection and whenever House Doctor announces new products and shares new pictures, you can be reassured that your interior loving Pinterest account will be flooded and you will be drooling over wonderful new home accessories for your interiors (just as I did). 

There is little left to be said when looking at those amazing stylings. House Doctor has proofed again that it belongs to the big players on the interiors market. And now you have the entire weekend in front of you - it is up to you to decide if you will only drool over those images or grant yourself a little Christmas present. Oh and if you feel the urge to buy ME a present, please pick that amazing table lamp with brass base and glass lampshade. Have I mentioned I am drooling? Anyway, happy weekend friends!

Photography via House Doctor

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