Illustrator Zoë More O'Ferrall

Creative people are one of the sources of inspiration I love (their work and their homes). I do not consider myself too creative as I am not executing a creative job per se - I am not a designer, an architect, a potter, a textile designer, an illustrator. Those creative minds inspire me to seek more creativity in my daily life and try to see things from a different perspective.

One of those creative minds I had the honor to meet shortly during our Bloggers Tour in London last March. Zoë More O'Ferrall is a London based commercial illustrator and has a very distinct, quirky style that makes me smile in an instant. When I heard that our friends from at{mine} teamed up with her for the Bloggers Tour London, I was excited to say at least. When I heard that she is going to illustrate our tour, I was very excited.

Zoë has worked for major names like the Vogue, The Times, Mr Porter, New York Times Magazine, Harrods and many more. Now imagine how humble I felt that she also set her pen onto paper to illustrate my face among others!? Ha, I love the outcome! I think we all look very cool as illustrations (I felt the urge to shave afterwards obviously LOL)  and the map perfectly captures our busy but super exciting London Design Bloggers Tour.

See more of Zoë's work HERE.

Image and illustration via Zoë More O'Ferrall

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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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Buster + Punch Launches New Buster Bulb

Live with conviction - that is the motto of London based interiors brand Buster + Punch. Recently they opened their brand new showroom in London's Southwark borough showcasing their refined assortment of lighting, furniture and other limited editions. The new showroom reflects the brand's DNA - a Rock'n'Roll glam attitude with a wild passion for craftsmanship and perfect details.

In a few days Buster + Punch will launch the brand new LED Buster bulb and Heavy Metal light pendants - a sophisticated and unique LED bulb that comes in three finishings (gold, smoked, crystal) accompanied by a super cool pendant. The new Buster bulb is a glamorous piece and typical for Buster + Punch - it's daring, it's refined, it's long-lasting and with perfect finishings. Plus it is the first LED bulb that combines both, a warm ambient glow and a focused spot light.

Buster + Punch offers more than just lighting and furniture. Their Rock'n'Roll vibe is tangible in a motorcycle with beautiful brass finishing that is part of their collection as well as probably the best looking switches, dimmers and sockets ever in brushed steel, brass and black finishings. During the London Fashion Week they have even launched a limited fashion edition. More personal favorites comprise urban candlesticks that look like raw hardware and cool bracelets made of leather with brass and steel clips as well as the fantastic Hero Light.

Buster + Punch is actually way more than just an interiors brand. It is a lifestyle and a commitment - to a life with conviction!

We visited Buster + Punch in their new showroom as part of our recent Design Bloggers Tour to London.

Photography by Susanna Vento and Linda Elmin

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Super Normal: Tiipoi

What is Tiipoi? First thing I learned during our DesignBloggers Tour in London last week: it’s a young and thriving British design brand with Indian roots. Second learning followed immediately while Spandana Gopal, the founder of Tiipoi, told us about the word’s meaning: it actually signifies a sort of small tripod stool that the British colonist interpreted as a tea table (well of course). Since Tiipoi seems to be an obvious link between India and Britain from a design perspective, this seemed an appropriate name for this up-and-coming lifestyle label.

The tripod stool is a typical Indian object for daily life that qualifies as the ‚super normal’. This concept has been picked up by Tiipoi in the sense that they refer to a very Indian design ethos – the celebration of the normal objects that are designed and made to last for a lifetime and beyond. Influenced by this Indian tradition as well as the contemporary vision of Jasper Morrison and his ‚super normal’ concept, Tiipoi has launched a small and fine selection of objects for the daily use.

Their current range of products encompasses kitchen accessories like bowls, containers, jars made of materials typical for India like wood, brass, copper, stainless steel. As a London based label these object also juxtapose the cluttered big city life and reduce their appearance to the very essential in design and aesthetics combined with a longevity that raises its voice against today’s throw-away mentality and consumerism. Our design blogger group was also asked to contribute a 'super normal' object from our daily lives which was then exposed on a gallery wall highlighting the simplicity and functionality of design. Can you guess my 'super normal' object on this wall? 

Photography by Susanna Vento

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Bang & Olufsen's New Love Affair Collection

The Danes know how to do it - be it wooden furniture, interior design or consumer electronics. I just want to reemphasize how much I love my B&O Play H6 headphones - a stylish and high quality Danish product for design lovers. Bang & Olufsen is one of those rocket brands from Denmark - whenever I think of them I see sleek design, high quality and a big desire to own their products in my home. And like many Danish brands, Bang & Olufsen has a lot of tradition and history - to be precise, they are celebrating their 90th anniversary today and therefore they have launched the brand new 'Love Affair Collection'.

The 'Love Affair Collection' is an homage to the vibrant 1920s when Peter Bang and Svend Olufsen founded the company amidst a thriving Art Déco atmosphere full of luxury, joy and partying. You know, the swinging 1920s and so on. For the new collection Bang & Olufsen have collaborated with designer Stine Goya who introduced a warm and lush rose-golden hue in combination with walnut wood to take on the time's atmosphere and style. Furtermore, the rose-golden hue symbolizes love hence the naming: 'Love Affair Collection'.

The new 'Love Affair Collection' comprises six products including an entertainment center with a TV and remote control, an audio system, headphones (crush alarm!) and a cool speaker. More design beauties of this great Danish brand will be revealed on the blog and social media later next week as part of our Design Bloggers Tour in London. Now go find the budget for those beauties! Happy Monday!

Photography via Bang & Olufsen

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From Place To Space: WExAtMine Styling Event In London

Last week Judith and I were pretty happy and a tad proud of ourselves - as the founders of Urban Jungle Bloggers we had the honor to host a styling event in London. To be precise: We organized and hosted the styling event for the new interiors community {at mine}, a London based platform that is still in its beta phase but growing quickly. We both have been members for quite a while and we love sharing our interiors on {at mine} - if you like to join in too, just click on the {at mine} banner on the right side of my blog. We also were very happy to team up with the London team of West Elm and host the event in their great store. Here are a few 'behind the scenes' shots (excuse the poor quality as it was challenging with the artificial light).

12 local design blogger celebrities and friends were invited to join in and style up six areas in the West Elm store - teams of two or three bloggers had the fun job to style two living room areas, two bedroom corners, a home office and a dining area. And they felt like the little kid in a candy store - they were free to roam around and take props, furniture and accessories from wherever they wanted. In three hours they worked hard, styled and restyled, took photos of their final results and everything went up on Instagram for a final contest. Last weekend the votes were counted and the winner was chosen - the bedroom styling of Kate and Geraldine took the most votes and the girls can now shop till they drop at West Elm thanks to a great shopping voucher courtesy of West Elm London.

As Urban Jungle Bloggers (and most of the participating bloggers are Urban Jungle Bloggers, too) we were very happy to see lots of plants going into the stylings adding that lively, green touch to an interior. Judith was also such a fantastic host, she prepared 80 little succulent babies and brought them all the way from Paris as a little giveaway to everyone. 

The entire event was a hell lot of fun, laughing, styling and learning from each other. I was stunned to see how professional each team approached the task and the final results were amazing - they were kept in store as displays for an entire week. Moreover, it was a very nice way to mark the first anniversary of Urban Jungle Bloggers too. Here's to more amazing Urban Jungle Bloggers projects!

If you like to join our Urban Jungle Bloggers community, please sign up HERE. We'd love to have you along - check out the amazing results of the current October edition HERE.

Thanks to all participating bloggers: Carole, Karine, Caroline, Toni, Tiffany, Lucy, Annie, Mary-Ellen, Sarah-Louise, Geraldine, Kate, Yvonne and all the guests and organizers who made this day a fantastic success!

Happy new week, friends!

Photography by Igor Josifovic

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Home Tour: Relaxed Scandi Feeling In London

Here's a little thought: If I had money and owned such a small apartment as the one I currently live in, I would hire a good architect to help me redesign the interior in a smarter and better way. I am often amazed by the work of experienced architects and interior designers when they create a small apartment. But I digress. Today I am not taking you to a small apartment but to a spacious and beautiful home in London.

This home is located in London's Furlong Road and was recently recreated by London based architects at Matteo Bianchi Studio. The home owner briefed the architects to create a stunning and flexible space - fun for kids and adults alike - with a scheme to set the scene for evening entertaining. 

The team at Matteo Bianchi Studio opted for shades of cool blues, warm dusky purples, greys and mixed textures. They opened up the internal rooms and the external back wall to ensure natural light flowing into the entire apartment. The soft yet bold colours are a great setting for some iconic furniture pieces to enhance the entire look and feel of this home. 

For the open kitchen area they created a sort of bistro feeling with a breakfast bar and opening up to a lush garden. This creates a very social kitchen for entertaining. Beautiful tiles were used for flooring and the splashback and great lighting solutions round up the entire design. 

I like the contemporary yet relaxed and airy feel of this apartment. It looks sophisticated yet unpretentious, it has a cool Scandi feel and warm and inviting colours. It definitely looks like a good home for a family with kids who likes to entertain and socialize. In a nutshell: I think the briefing was well understood and executed.

How do you like this example of interior design?

Photography via Matteo Bianchi Studio

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