Monthly Archives: September 2014

BLACK AND WHITE HOME IN CONVERTED FACTORY

18 September 2014

As you know I’m a huge fan of black and white interiors and today’s home has the added advantage that it’s located in an old converted factory in Vasa, Finland. Bit of a dream set-up for me…

I love all the industrial elements that the couple have included in their interior design, especially the lighting like the oversized lamps, cluster of steel cage-lightbulbs and tripod studio light. Quirky finds like the oversized signage letter ‘Z’ and old leather boxing gloves add interest and are right on the typography and old school gym trend at the moment.

I also like how they’ve incorporated clever little DIYs like the rustic wooden plank with black iron pegs and coffee table on wheels reminiscent of the buildings manufacturing past. By keeping the colour palette very neutral with walls and ceilings in white and furniture mostly black it almost feels like an exhibition space setting their eclectic pieces perfectly in scene.

Last but not least I’ve got to confess that I’ve got a major crush on that huge black trunk serving as a bedside table – any ideas where I can get hold of one!?

VIA | Femina with thanks
PHOTOGRAPHY | Katja Lösönen/IDECOR images with thanks

Follow Stylejuicer with Bloglovin

Home & Interior / LEAVE A COMMENT /

COOL STUFF | TORI MURPHY MADE IN ENGLAND

16 September 2014

Tori Murphy has been on my radar for a while but in this fast moving (blogging) world she kinda slipped my mind so I was delighted when Dovetail Living informed me last week that they now stock her home textiles.

I adore her aesthetic of simple hand drawn designs combined with beautiful and tactile materials. She tries to keep her ingredients to a minimum and instead be creative with pattern and structure. Supporting British manufacturing is imperative to her with fabrics woven in Lancashire, washed and finished in the Yorkshire Dales and then made up into product in Nottingham where Tori lives and designs the products.

Her collection is created with style and quality in mind and in an interview with Occa Home she explains:

I’ve always tried to make things that are about simple design, good, honest materials and good craftsmanship. I like to keep the focus on the materials and the designs are quite simple and bold, we use the best materials possible and to an extent we let them speak for themselves. I would describe it as a simple, pared back aesthetic.

I’m always intrigued where textile designers get their inspiration for patterns from and was interested to read that Tori is inspired by regular patterns she sees in nature and drawn to anything that is repetitive but has an imperfection in it. All of her designs are hand drawn and nothing is really perfect which makes them different and sets them apart.

Though she does introduce a hot pink and some gold in her textiles I prefer the strong black accents and muted colours which for me work best with her bold patterns. In fact I’m having a serious crush on her Murphy and Chevy throw.

NOTE: Read the whole interview with Tori on Occa Home.

MORE INFORMATION & PHOTOGRAPHY | Tori Murphy

Follow Stylejuicer with Bloglovin

For The Home / 1 COMMENT /

INTERIORS CRUSH | OFF THE GRID IN EXTREMADURA

13 September 2014

Happy Saturday folks! I had an entirely different post planned for this weekend but when I came across the Off Grid Home in Extremadura via This Is Paper I was smitten and everything else went into drafts.

It’s a stunning house! I mean seriously st-un-nig and I hope you’ll enjoy this feature as it’s an amazing achievement by Ábaton Architecture who transformed this off the grid abandoned stable, high on a hill and far from city water or electricity into a family home respecting nature and the history of the building.

After careful consideration they decided to build from scratch as the stable was in a terrible state in the Spanish province of Cáceres which borders Portugal. I’m in awe at how expertly Abaton blended old and new materials like concrete and steel with recycled stone, limestone floors and oak. The interior connects everywhere with the surrounding countryside with large picture frame windows making the most of the view and bathrooms facing the interior courtyard and the stone water fountain. Idyllic, charming, modern, stylish, cool, clever… I’m seriously running out of superlatives.

To top it all off it is completely self-sufficient producing green energy through photovoltaic and hydro power for electricity and capturing the pure water from two streams for drinking and bathing with the swimming pool as a holding tank for irrigation.

The building’s southern orientation makes the most of the views and my only problem with living there would be the remote location – though I think I’d be able to overcome that. Ah… gorge yourself on the photos and make sure to give Stylejuicer a thumbs up on Facebook.

Happy weekend!

ARCHITECTS | Ábaton Architecture
PHOTOGRAPHY | Ábaton Architecture and Belen Imaz

Follow Stylejuicer with Bloglovin

DESIGN INSPIRATION | VOYAGEUR DU TEMPS BRANDING

11 September 2014

I’ve been on the look out for some Design Inspiration to share with you for a while and was thrilled when I came across the branding for Voyageur Du Temps. I think if I owned a café the branding would probably look something like VDT, an artisan bakery and café serving world-class bread, pastries and coffee that opened in March this year.

Voyageur Du Temps is located in Los Altos San Francisco and is the vision of owner and local resident, Rie Rubin who tasked design and branding studio Character to bring his vision to life. As the name means time traveller in French the brief was to transport people back in time, a place that moved between tradition and modernity drawing on the classic values of cooking and baking, but with a contemporary twist.

This tension between the classic and the contemporary, the rustic and the refined led Character to the selected ‘V’ logo which was inspired by a Roman numeral five, found on an old clock in a French train station. A perfect symbol for the café’s theme of time travel and also its location – an old Los Altos train station.

I love the clean typography with the sumptuous ‘V’ and the beautiful production values of the stationery range with thick colorplan grey card and silver and black lettering for the business cards. The black fabric carrier bags with the large white V are super stylish and something I’d love to get my hands on! What a great idea to spread the word about this refined local haunt.

The photography by Todd Tankersley is natural and real referring to the care and craftsmanship that goes into the baking process and I adore the art direction which is simple and contemporary with lots of overhead shots featuring top-notch ingredients and essential baking utensils.

A wonderful cohesive branding project by Character from brand identity to stationery, packaging, signage, livery and website. Make sure you pop in for a coffee and a delicious pastry and make sure to get one of those gorgeous black bags. *swoon*

DESIGN STUDIO | Character
MORE INFORMATION | Voyageur Du Temps
PHOTOGRAPHY | Todd Tankersley

Follow Stylejuicer with Bloglovin

Design & Illustration / 5 COMMENTS /

AIAYU | AN INNOVATIVE, ETHICAL AND GREEN BRAND

8 September 2014

AIAYU is one of those brands I’ve been admiring from afar for a while now. Their philosophy of ‘Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication’ resonates deeply with me and their eco-friendly and ethical credentials are
exemplary for the fashion industry.

Back in 2004 Maria and Marie, the two Danish founders, came up with the idea to introduce sustainable knitwear of a superior quality in classic designs rather than fast moving trends. They found a previously unknown llama wool quality in Bolivia which is unique in its softness and less prone to pill due to the long fibres of the llama and became the first brand to introduce this kind of processed llama wool to the fashion industry in 2006. Maria says:

‘Concentrating on exploring one material with one producer has given us a very unique understanding and knowledge of the beautiful potential of the llama wool. It gives us the best of the best, and keeps our concept strong and transparent. Instead of being distracted by the billions of possibilities within fashion, all inspiration and energy is put into making each product unique, beautiful and long lasting.’

To keep the value chain transparent and nimble they have decided to use just one supplier from the manual sorting of the raw fibres to spinning, dying, knitting, packing and shipping – it’s all in-house. Therefore cultural heritage and the tradition of knitting is preserved and job opportunities created with fair contracts and working conditions in the remote highlands of Bolivia.

Their eco-friendly approach is holistic taking every aspect of the production into account including a water treatment plant to clean the waste water as well as biodegradable packaging and recycled paper for all their printed marketing materials.

At the upmarket end of the fashion spectrum it’s little touches that make all the difference and for me it’s in form of two initials beautifully stitched into the garment – a greeting from the knitter to you and a sign how every piece is hand-finished with great love and care. No wonder they’re calling their hand knitted items a ‘piece of art’.

In case you wondered, AIAYU means soul in the native tongue of the indigenous people in Bolivia, and was a name carefully picked by the workers.

A wonderful concept and I’m proud to share some of their AW home and knitwear range with you today.