Go Green With IKEA!

Today I am very excited to announce a fantastic new collaboration between the Urban Jungle Bloggers and IKEA Germany! Judith and I have teamed up with the German IKEA team for their new outdoor campaign and we want to encourage you all to go green together with us and IKEA Germany. In order to inspire you, both Judith and I have styled a few pieces of the beautiful new outdoor collection in our homes.

What I love about the new outdoor collection of IKEA is its versatility - it is made for any kind of homes. Whether you live in a spacious house or a tiny apartment, whether you have a balcony, a rooftop terrace or just a windowsill - the new outdoor collection will give you plenty of ideas and opportunities to add green into your own home.

My personal favorite is the new self-watering planter SÖTCITRON from IKEA. I love the simple yet smart solution - in fact I shared this idea with you as part of an Urban Jungle Bloggers post quite a while ago, do you remember (see it HERE)? The planters are Scandi minimalistic, typical for IKEA and ideal for all kinds of interiors. They have a lower part to fill up with water and an upper planter with soil and the plant. Both parts are connected by a nylon string that slowly transports the water from the lower to the upper part. With this pot you can literally go on long holidays and your plants will stay happy and healthy!

But we do not want to only show you our ideas, we want to see your green ideas and therefore we have come up with a green Instagram styling challenge that is packed with amazing goodies from IKEA Germany that you can win. Feel inspired to go green?

GIVEAWAY DETAILS:
How do you use IKEA products at home, in your garden, on your balcony or windowsill? How do you create that green jungle feeling? Share a picture of any kind of IKEA product and a plant(s) on Instagram with the hashtag #IKEAgogreen (for international participants) and/or #IKEAmachgrün (for German participants) as well as #urbanjunglebloggers. The first 50 pictures will win a nice little IKEA prize. From all entries, Judith and I will choose 3 favorites that will win a very special IKEA surprise package. Next week we will reveal what's in the surprise package on the Urban Jungle Bloggers website. You have until April 5th, 2015, to post your picture(s) with the hashtags on Instagram. Go green!

Styling by Igor Josifovic, photography by Lina Skukauske 

This blog post has been brought to you in collaboration with IKEA Germany

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Exclusive News: Urban Jungle Bloggers In Paris

My blog post is pretty late today but this had a good excuse - I was waiting for the official publication of our fun video interview Judith and I did as Urban Jungle Bloggers for 'The Joy of Plants'. We had the honor to kick start a new interview series about plant loving people and the team of 'The Joy of Plants' followed us along on a weekend in Paris.

I have given a little glimpse in this blog post already, but today I want to share a few shots from the film crew and - yes of course - the video itself. Judith and I had a great time filming with the crew in Paris and showing them our favorite green spots in the City of Lights like the vertical green garden in the Rue des Petits Carreaux, the atelier 'Green Factory' in the Rue Lucien Sampaix or 'Le Comptoir Général' along the Canal St. Martin in the 10th arrondissement.

We've been very curious to see the final results as the filming took place beginning of November (yes can you believe that weather back then!!) and today we can conclude: it was a success and looks pretty cool, don't you agree?

For both of us this was a wonderful momentum to mark the one year anniversary of our mutual blogger project, the Urban Jungle Bloggers. Over that course of time we have seen so many of you join the green digital family and share your ideas about living, styling and decorating with plants. We also hope to see even more of you join in the fun - you can easily subscribe to our monthly topics HERE. After all we truly believe that plants can make people happy!

Images & video by The Joy of Plants

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Green Is The Hope!

Following up my last blog post I feel it is good to continue with a topic that will sketch my current emotional feeling that I want to transfer into my home, too - it is the invincible feeling of hope. In German there is a proverb saying 'Grün ist die Hoffnung' which literally means 'green is hope'. It stems from the dark medieval times when the sprouting green nature heralded spring time and hope germinated in people's hearts. Just like today my heart is filled with hope for a peaceful and great new year.

Green is a special colour when it comes to interiors - at least for me. I have hardly any green accessories apart from my growing urban jungle of course. However, I am always inspired when I see interiors with dashes of green - it is so fresh, vibrant and balancing to the eye. I wonder: Do I need to get myself something green for my home soon?

Green is not only the colour of hope but also the colour mostly associated with nature, youth, spring and envy in Western cultures. And it is the most important colour in Islam, found in the flags of many Islamic countries and representing the lush greens of paradise. Isn't this just wonderful? Green as a color of hope and paradise, in both, Western countries and the Islamic world? Maybe this could herald a better future for all of us. I hope so!

Photography: Top to bottom, clockwise left to right - Daniella Witte, De Peppels Fotos, Adolfo Dominguez, Melissa Mercier, Justina Blakeney, The Beautiful Soup, Smallbig Idea, Löytö, Domino, Elle Decoration

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Place To Roam: Roamers In Berlin

Currently I am on yet another work mission in Berlin for an entire week. Even though I am working all day long here (for my regular day job), I am trying to visit some Berlin hot spots that I've researched in advance. One of those must-see places is a small café in Berlin-Neukölln called 'Roamers'.

It was actually my Urban Jungle Bloggers fellow Judith who told me about this place as it seems to be a real little urban jungle itself. Then I realized it is located in the neighborhood where I used to live many years ago while doing a PR internship in Berlin. And they seem to have delicious coffee, cakes and sandwiches - enough reasons for me to go and check it out in situ.

Yesterday I used the opportunity and went to Roamers. It was a sunny afternoon and I sat down on a table in front of the café and ordered an incredibly creamy and delicious avocado smoothie and a juicy apple tarte. I really enjoyed it there - a great place to watch a very hip crowd of young Berlin folks and admire a real jungle of houseplants inside and outside the café. 

If you ever plan a visit to Berlin, mark this place on your list of cafés to visit. Now that I tested it myself I can truly recommend it. And if you love avocado, just try the avocado smoothie. Heaven!

See you soon!

Photography via Roamers Tumblr

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From Place To Space: 25 Hours Hotel Bikini In Berlin

Last week I was off on a work mission in Berlin. Not for the blog but for my regular day job. However, I wouldn't be a blogger if I didn't try to squeeze in something that would yield a new story for my Happy Interior Blog. Given the fact that I was working from morning till evening in a studio producing some corporate videos, the only option I had was the hotel. So I did what a good interior design blogger has to do: I picked a hotel I would really love to visit and feature on my blog. Thus, I opted for the recently opened 25 Hours Hotel Bikini in Berlin.

I've already experience the 25 Hours Hotel in Hamburg, Germany, but every hotel of this cool design hotel chain has a different concept and tells a different design story. The new Berlin based hotel is in a historical building complex that is referred to by the Berliners as Bikini. It is located in the city's west between the landmarks Memorial Church and the famous Berlin zoo. Its peculiar location resulted in the hotel's design concept called 'Urban Jungle'. Now you can imagine that I as an Urban Jungle Blogger was all ears when the hotel's manager told me all about the story.

The concept was created by the famous German designer Werner Aissliger with an extended team including guest designers like the Japanese artist Yoshi Sislay who hand drew illustrations in every room and other public areas of the hotel. The juxtaposition of an urban life and the jungle vibe from the adjacent zoo led to a combination of urban materials, vibrant colours and lots of plants. While the rooms on the 'urban side' (facing the Memorial Church) use raw materials like concrete floor screed, copper and cooler colours, the 'jungle side' (facing the zoo) uses natural materials like wood and nature inspired colours with floor-to-ceiling windows and a hammock to relax and watch the monkey jump around in the zoo. 

It is the monkeys that also triggered the naming of the top floor hotel bar, the Monkey Bar. A big rooftop terrace and a relaxed atmosphere with warm hues, colorful furniture and lots of kilim cushions invites every guest to enjoy a drink while enjoying a bird's eye view over Berlin. For the hungry ones there is the wonderful Neni restaurant placed in a greenhouse on the top floor with an abundance of houseplants and delicious Middle Eastern influenced cuisine. 

The public area on the third floor includes a cool reception area made of old Berlin metro tiles, a bakery for a grab & go breakfast, working spaces, a music area, conference facilities, funky green public restrooms and a little design shop of the Berlin based Gestalten publishing house. On the ninth floor guests will find a little gym, a relax zone and a sauna overlooking the Berlin zoo - fancy!

All the above mentioned facts, the attached pictures and the very reasonable prices for a design hotel make the 25 Hours Hotel Bikini a perfect home base for your next Berlin trip. Thumbs up from my side!

Happy new week!

Photography by Igor Josifovic, design products shot by Gestalten

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