Ready For Summer With West Elm

My favorite season of the year is right now, it's spring. One of the many reasons is also the pleasant anticipation of summer with its promise of warm summer nights, barbecues with friends, poolside fun and beach time. It also means making the home ready for summer - everything is airy and breezy, the colours are brighter and happier, there is a wonderful lightness in the air. West Elm is getting ready for summer too - with a bright and cheerful collection for the warm season of the year.

West Elm launches a great selection of outdoor furniture for your balcony, garden or veranda including some very beautiful mosaic bistro and coffee tables - I love the absolute summer vibe of the mosaic bistro tables, they remind me of summer fun on the Greek islands, don't you agree? But not only your outdoors will be beautifully equipped for summer, West Elm also offers a great range of furniture, home accessories and home textiles for your indoors. I love the Steven Alan striped collection of home textiles in particular - look at the gorgeous rug! And do I spot some Happy Interior Blog colours on the rug's diamond pattern?

Moreover West Elm features currently a great range of terrariums, planters (look at the fantastic mid-century turned leg planters) and small cacti and succulents. I need not mention how much I love that as an Urban Jungle Blogger, right?

I also had the great opportunity to attend a terrarium workshop at West Elm in London during our Bloggers Tour thanks to at{mine}, who invited us to create our own terrarium with West Elm. And yes, I was very proud of my little terrarium (as you can see) and I brought it back to Munich where it resides happily on my windowsill - awaiting summer just like me!

Photography by West Elm, last pic by Susanna Vento

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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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Welcome To Europe, West Elm!

Today is the day! Interior design aficionados like myself are happy and excited that a cool design store is touching base in Europe: Today the first European West Elm store is opening its doors in London's Tottenham Court Road. On more than 12.000 square foot the store will feature furniture, textiles, accessories and gifts, as well as a West Elm Market shop-in-shop and a coffee shop. Until now I was forced to travel to the USA to shop at West Elm (and I did so in October in San Francisco) but now my voyage is way shorter - a quick London weekend seems now more tempting than ever before!

Since I am currently in Berlin on a design blogger tour, I couldn't make it to London for the opening, but I've curated a few favorite lifestyle shots from West Elm to give you an idea what you can expect in downtown London as of today. And this is just a small selection!

So keep it in mind for your next London trip - a visit to Europe's first West Elm store should be on your itinerary! The store is located on 209 Tottenham Court Road, London W1T 7PN, and for on-the-go inspiration you can follow them on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

Now I only have to lobby for more West Elm stores on the European continent. Do you hear me, Brooklyn?!

Photography by West Elm

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Why This Room Caught My Eye

Yesterday evening I attended my French conversation course at the Institut Français. I was asked to prepare a little oral presentation for my fellow students, and I picked my blog and the topic of social media. So, I told my francophile friends about the happiness that dwells in a personal and beautifully designed home. And today's room conveys exactly that idea with just a little nook of the entire home. It is a peek into the laid-back yet impeccably stylish and personal home of the blogger and interior designer simply named Jake. I stumbled over these pics while reading the blog of one of my favorite West coasters, Dabito, and he is the artist who shot the pic. But why did this catch my eye?

• Long Arm Chandelier: This chandelier from West Elm is a little masterpiece. It looks like a mid-century design classic with a modern twist and its shiny surface and floating appearance add an airy lightness to it. 
• Personal Gallery Wall: The personal collection of illustrations, photographies and tearsheets creates a focal point, attains interest and makes for a nice chat while seated on the table. 
• Bright Wood: The use of bright wood as a tabletop as well as framings pulls the design together as does the black colour of the chandelier and the chairs. A visual treat!

Anything that caught your eye on this sunny (at least it is here) Tuesday?

Photography by Dabito

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