Book: Nomad by Sibella Court

This looks like an interesting book to pick up for the holidays.  Sibella Court is an Australian interior stylist and owner of shop, The Society Inc in NSW.  Nomad is a collection of photographs of travel shots and styled spaces to show how to bring your travels home with you and incorporate your finds into your decor.  I love Sibella’s work.  To me, her rooms look contemporary, care-free, and “well-lived” as she expertly combines pieces from around the globe and employs her skill and creativity in layering, clustering and styling spaces.  A very “Anthropologie-esque” aesthetic meets, antique market/flea market chic. The book, Nomad, will be available on Amazon November 23 and can be pre-ordered here.  To read more about Sibella and her experience, there is a really good interview on website The Design Files.

Examples of Sibella’s work:

via the design files

via house to home

via fabric of my life

via international visual

Åhléns: move over Ikea

Throughout the history of this blog, I have intimated several times that I am a fan of Scandinavian design.  If you share my predilection for the minimalist, simple, look imbued in all things Scandinavia.  This post, my friends, will be particularly exciting- it was for me!

This morning, while skimming the Freshly Pressed posts on WordPress, I decided to click on one post that caught my eye by Another House Blog. There was a segment on Another House related to the blogger’s travel in Trondheim, Norway and, wait for it, a post about Åhléns, the most magical, wonderful, exciting, interior design department store I have ever seen (Heal’s, in London, is a close second, followed by Muji!).  Hailing from Toronto, I have never heard of Åhléns before but now that I have discovered it, it is one more reason why I have to get myself to Sweden + Norway.

The Åhléns low-down is as follows for those of you who to know a bit about the history of this design shopping mecca:  This is a full department store, that got its start in Sweden in 1899 as a mail-order company which eventually evolved to a brick and mortar operation.  They carry everything from fashion and beauty to home furnishings and their stores in Norway are interiors only.  Åhléns states on its website that the company’s goal is “to be a woman’s favourite and first on her shopping list.”  Talk about a clear brand position and identity.  I love this company’s home line.  It has such cute, colourful, simple stuff that would look amazing in any home and what I have shown below is only scratching the surface.  Happy Wednesday.

via nancy and i

via ellmania

via miss-maries

saunas, wellness centres and loyly

I am researching wellness centres and spas today for an upcoming driving trip to Croatia and wanted to write a post about saunas, wellness centres and a fabulous looking space called, Loyly in Portland.

While I am not a neophyte when it comes to spas and spa treatments, I have discovered that spas in Europe are on a whole different level of “spa-ness” than my previous knowledge prior to moving to Prague.  To give you a breakdown, there are your typical city-retail spas and hotel spas and then there are wellness centres.  Wellness centres, from what I gather, are typcially situated on large (like football field-large) , well manicured properties, in picturesque settings, housed across numerous, beautiful, modern buildings offering multi-floor activities for the spa goer or spa entourage such as 5-10 different pools, scented saunas both dry and wet, restaurants, fitness centres, and treatment rooms. You can purchase day passes or a pass for a couple of hours.  It is really quite an experience, if you have never been.

My first experience at Therme Wien, an urban wellness centre in Vienna, Austria, was relaxing, rejuvenating and a bit shocking.  Let it be stated, (and I did not know this before going in), it is 100% normal, to go naked in a spa.  After reading-up on spa etiquette, nudity requirements vary from country to country, but co-ed naked change rooms and saunas are not unusual.  I was a bit startled and entirely unprepared for a situation when I was asked to leave (read: EXIT) a sauna room at Therme Wien, if I didn’t agree to check my bathing suit outside.

After I was through with Therme Wien, I frantically Googled in search for some sort of explanation or justification as to why I was not allowed to sit in a sauna in a bikini and towel.  All the signs in Therme Wien were in German and I could not decipher the instructions, rules and regulations of the spa.  Ooops!  Beginner’s mistake.  These four articles set me straight and gave me a good laugh here, here, here and here.  Etiquette and joking aside, wellness centres are beautifully designed spaces and I was impressed to read about Loyly in Portland, Oregon.  Loyly is a public sauna, that opened just outside Portland, by owner, Jessica Kelso who was inspired by Scandinavian bath houses.  Along with architect, Brendon Farrell, Jessica successfully created a tranquil space for visitors to relax and destress outside the city.  Brilliantly, attached to Loyly is Steam’s after sauna, bar, so you can sweat, unwind and then have a drink and unwind again.

Portland Mercury

via remodelista

wall decorating

This weekend was dedicated to organization.  We’ve been in our new apartment in Prague for just under one month and we have a list of small tasks that needed to be taken care of to make our house a home.  The biggest and most tedious task is of course, hanging pictures.  Believe it or not, finding a new home for a print is harder than you think.  I think we spent at least an hour walking around carrying pictures from one room to another, lifting things up against a wall while one of us stands back and contemplates the position, the height, the angle etc.

In my apartment in particular, there are also several walls which I prefer to keep blank, due to architectural interest leaving me with fewer options for picture and shelf hanging than I had in Toronto.   Last night, we hung five pieces and still have a long way to go but at least for now, our place looks a bit more homey.

I was reminded of a brand I stumbled upon while in Berlin that I wished I had with me last night to add some colour and interest to our office.  German design firm, Pulpo, makes fantastic and colourful hooks, hangers in addition to furniture and other accessories.  I am particularly fond of their Mosaic line, some of which you can see below.  While I love my Ikea magazine rack and baskets, sometimes you prefer to a piece that is a bit smaller and less bulky on the wall.  We will continue our wall decorating project next month after we get a couple of items re-framed and get our last room set up.

via connox

via taschide

via shine.yahoo.com

A portion of….

I have just returned from five days in Vienna where I cafe-ed (my new verb for sitting in cafes for prolonged periods of time a la Viennese style) like the best of them.  If there was an award for cafe-ying, Vienna would take the top spot.  Before my trip, I researched the city by reading various blogs and websites and plotted out my culinary trip- a shout out to Unlike.net Vienna that served as an excellent resource.

Before I get to the cafe part, I will say, I didn’t have one bad meal in the city.  I was so impressed by the restaurants I visited (Appiano das Gasthaus, Motto am Fluss, Sichuan, Palmenhaus, and Die Burgermacher) that I would return to Vienna just to dine.  The food, quality and dining experience was so great that there was even a time where I had no idea what I was ordering (due to lack of an English menu) and walked away saying the meal was still top notch.

I visited cafes of all sorts where it was completely acceptible to order a coffee (food or no food) and spend a languid afternoon relishing the sights, sounds and smells before you, peruse a magazine or two or four, order another coffee and repeat.  One blog I read, The New Diplomat’s Wife, talked about how it is possible to spend almost an entire day at a cafe and how to pace yourself based on what activities to do when!

I think my favourites were Orlando di Castello and the Prince Coffee Club.  Both of these spots have uber-modern interiors (one is done in all white, the other in blacks and greys)- a stark contrast to the traditional, ornate, high ceiling, tiled, glitzy Viennese cafes that have a stuffier feel to them (although excellent).  Orlando and Prince have excellent food and drink, play great music in the background and are very comfortable to “cafe” for hours.  I wouldn’t recommend cafe-ing on a daily basis, but if you are missing a reason to sit, unwind, socialize, relax and indulge, Vienna cafes should be top on your list.  Oh, and my reference to the title of this email “a portion of…”  I found it fascinating and somewhat comical that on all cafe menus that I saw in Vienna, you have the optoin to order a portion of something.  On offer I saw portions of cream, rum, milk, chocolate and you can order this so-called portion and add it to whatever you’re having- typically a coffee, tea or alcoholic bev.  Quite indulgent but who wouldn’t want to sit and sip tea in places like the one’s below??

via dollemann.at

via buildungs lounge

via Stadt Bekkant

via dezeen

via a212.com

via Unlike.net

A home in Denmark

Can this be my home?!?  I love the contrast between the black kitchen and fireplace against the natural wood beams and floor.

Photo Credit:

(1) Tim Bjorn via From Scandinavia with Love for Bo Bedre (an awesome interior design magazine)