It’s time for Springtime

When buying new home decor pieces for spring, I wanted to challenge myself to buy versatile pieces that I could use throughout my home in various ways.

When I laid eyes upon this white accent table from Target, I knew I had to have it in my home. Right away my mind was brimming with ideas on how to style it!

My first inclination was to style it as a bar cart. I simply love the idea of a bar cart in a modern home, complete with cocktail glasses and assorted liqueurs. To my arrangement, I’d add striped straws, a bowl of nuts and some fun napkins.

I also saw this accent piece in a bedroom, as a vanity of sorts. It would make such a chic display for perfume bottles, hair spray and whatever other girlish accessories you might want to show off.

I decided to use it to showcase my jewelry.  I love having my necklaces and bracelets displayed where I can see them. It’s so easy to forget what I have when it’s tucked away in a jewelry box.

The second piece of decor I bought for my home this spring was a set of three moroccan mirrors, pictured on the left. I love their unique design and their versatility. Since they come in a set of three, they can be arranged a number of different ways. I love mirrors because they reflect light and add another dimension to any room.

Both items are from Target’s new Threshold line, which is gorgeously modern and classic at the same time. I truly do love all the items featured in the collection! To see more of their new line, you can watch (and shop!) the video below:

Disclosure: Compensation was provided by Target via Glam Media. The opinions expressed herein are those of the author and are not indicative of the opinions or positions of Target.

Tune in to The Talk

Lifestyle expert Sara Leibowitz will be showcasing the hottest new kitchen gadgets from Emmy-nominated talk show The Talk this Tuesday, July 24 on CBS.

Skimbaco Lifestyle would like to give YOU a chance to WIN a package of the featured kitchen items worth more than $720.00.

Tune in to THE TALK this Tuesday July 24 2:00–3:00 PM ET, 1:00–2:00 PM PT to see the cool kitchen gadgets you have the chance to win RIGHT HERE.

The Emmy-nominated talk show THE TALK (airs Weekdays 2:00–3:00 PM ET /1:00–2:00 PM PT on CBS) features a panel of well-known news and entertainment personalities discussing current events, pop culture, contemporary issues, family, celebrity and the trending topics of the day. The daily one-hour series is co-hosted by Julie Chen, Sara Gilbert, Sharon Osbourne, Sheryl Underwood and Aisha Tyler. The hosts swap stories, challenge each other on issues and engage the studio audience and viewers at home about events in the headlines and their own homes. Show segments include guest interviews with entertainers and newsmakers, musical performances, appearances from extraordinary people with stories that engage and inform as well as how-to demos and real-world advice and tips from the leading experts in fitness, diet, health, home, relationships, finance and fashion. The show was developed by Gilbert, who also serves as executive producer. For More Information on THE TALK go to: thetalk.com.

I personally love how engaging the show and its hostesses are online, especially on Twitter. They often also include real tweets in the show, and I was thrilled once to have my tweet appear on the show, and Sharon Osbourne to read it aloud (and agree with me!). I absolutely love this engagement!

GIVEAWAY FOR KITCHEN GOODIES AS SEEN ON THE TALK
Follow the instructions on the Rafflecopter widget and answer the question about The Talk to enter to win the kitchen goodies package in the comments section below (keep scrolling). Tune in to watch The Talk on Tuesday and come back on Thursday when we reveal the winner!

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When we first started planning our move to Sweden, this is kind of how I dreamed of living… In a small open apartment in an old building in the city, decorated in all white, with a few pops of color. What I can’t believe now is that we live in a house 2,5 times larger than this gorgeous apartment, and we are slowly making it our own, and I am able to try to create our home this type of sleek all-white Scandinavian heaven. I’m hoping our home will be ready for some more photos sometime soon, can’t wait to share and hear what you think.

This home is from a Swedish realtor site and is for sale. See all pictures at Alvhem Mäkleri. I love the architecture and the old mixed with modern.

The kitchen is probably my favorite. Maybe because in our house we can not replicate it, and I wish we had a simple white kitchen like this – even though it is a small one. I’m sure if I had this small kitchen I’d be dreaming of a large kitchen what I have right now.. Either way, thankful what we have, and can’t wait to get our home somewhat decorated soon.

Slow progress, I know! But here are a few latest pictures of our living room, it’s starting to look more like “us” and not just all plain white. I Instagrammed a few photos (taken with my iPhone) this morning, and a friend of mine asked if the photos are on Pinterest – you can Pin them from here ;)

I love the white furniture, it’s easy to mix it with colors. The Marimekko fabric (called “Kaiku” by Maija Louekari) is one of my favorites, and it’s just attached to the wall by some big clips making it super easy to change the fabric and the entire feel of the room. The vintage European map is an antique store find that we’ve had for years, but we haven’t had it up in the past couple homes. We love seeing it from the dinner table and having discussions where in Europe we want to travel the next! (We have matching North-America map in the hallway).

I love my new coffee table – it has hidden storage and it hides my laptop and electronics when not in use.

We are crafty… My son made the wooden Titanic model at school and I painted the tree branches that go almost to the ceiling.

I still have my tray of Iittala glassware and candles, and love the blues, will probably change up a bit for fall.

This moving counter top looks amazing! The Slide N Hide kitchen counter top was designed by Bradco Kitchens and Baths, and they launched it at this year’s Dwell On Design exhibition. This sleek, remote controlled, motorized sliding island counter top slides to reveal a Miele cooktop and downdraft, and it is one of the best modern solutions for kitchens that I’ve seen for a while. You can truly get the minimalistic look by hiding the stove top – or alternatively you gain counter space by sliding the table top off the stove creating a bar area.

Photos: Bradco Kitchen

Excuse our mess while we are moving in..

I’m literally still in process of moving in to our home in Linköping, Sweden, and at the same time SkimbacoLifestyle.com is going through some changes. All Skimbaco blogs (Home, Travel and Food) will be merged under Skimbaco Lifestyle, and one new blog will also be added under the same site: Skimbaco Lifestyle Finnish Edition, and I will also introduce some new writers (interested writing for Skimbaco? Contact me!).

But before the blog transformation happens… Here are a few photos from my actual home, which is also going through many changes – we’ve lived here about a week.

Remember that we had to sell almost everything when we moved from New York…? So we are starting from almost scratch and here are a few pictures where we are right now.. I want a few selected special designer items in our home – and I will combine them with inexpensive IKEA and flea market finds and hacks. It’ll be a slow process, but hoping you will join along to see how we decorate our Swedish home – and it of course started with a trip to IKEA.

IKEA Overload

When in Sweden, do like the Swedes do, right? Well, we have been IKEA fans way before we moved to Sweden, with our lifestyle (moving every 1-3 years to other state or country), it’s just the smartest way to go. Nothing has given us more headaches in the moves than expensive large solid wood designer furniture (and thus they will no longer enter to our home until we settle down, if we ever do).

Entry way

Welcome in. With three children we needed shoe storage right next to the door, and the IKEA Tjusik shoe rack ($59.99) fits the space perfectly.

The old antique market wooden box and the old lanterns from Kmart fit the space breaking the too modern IKEA look. The rug was left in the house when we moved in, and I might replace it when I get to it. The mirror jacket cabinet was already also in, and it’s perfect for kids’ jackets.

Office

The clear IKEA TOBIAS dining chairs ($79.99 each) were also in our New York apartment, and the BESTÅ BURS office desk ($269) seemed perfect for the open living room/dining room. It will turn easily from my desk to a buffet when we have parties.

The curtains were already in the house, and I hid about 9 screw holes from a TV stand with the Paris picture (it’s a framed page from an old Cavallini calendar). The snow globes, globes and glass Mickey Mouse statues are all souvenirs from places we’ve lived and visited. I was planning to sit by the window to work.. but so far I’ve preferred sitting on my gorgeous new (rented) Barcelona chairs instead. The real Barcelona chairs go for about $5,000, but get the copy chair Exposition Lounge Chair, Italian Leather for $539.99 and enjoy the same look.

Yes, I made a table for my coffee mug from a box and a tray, and I’m still working a lot from coffee shops, so I’m hauling this office around. Well, minus the Barcelona chairs.

Dining Room Nook

We got this side table from a rental company, and while it fits perfectly for this corner in the dining room, it probably won’t stay there long. When you travel around the world it’s funny how some weird things become important to you, and I displayed a few of those random items with memories in this side table immediately.

Sea shells we’ve collected from different travels. Picture of my husband and our first dog on a beach in Alabama a week after we got engaged. Boat pull from an antique market from Sackets Harbor, NY. The boat painting I bough from a street vendor in Spain. Sailor’s brass pen holder I got from my dad, filled with wooden sticks collected from a beach in Italy. Blue vase from an antique shop in Naantali, Finland and my beloved Villeroy & Boch bowl and Alvar Aalto glass bowls. Random collection of memories. This display won’t stay long, but after traveling for a few months it’s nice to see some old things.

Walk-in Closet

No… the house didn’t come with a huge walk-in closet and in fact we didn’t have enough storage space downstairs for our clothes, but we did have an extra bedroom that initially I was planning to make an office. But since I designed to work from the living room where I can see the gorgeous view, we turned the extra room into a walk-in-closet. We had done the same in our apartment in New York, and shipped some of our shelving units here, and now added a few pieces to it.

Good news that IKEA still sells the same system, but bad news was that the color was changed and so had the quality for worse (or might be a difference between Sweden and the US IKEAs too). Nevertheless, after much work my amazing husband set up a home-made walk-in-closet for us!

It’s still in process… maybe I’ll share more photos once it’s finished.

Basement

More from IKEA… the couch is divine for lounging and family movie nights. It will also sleep our entire family if needed. (lamp also from IKEA, but pillow isn’t)

Guess what else we have in the basement? A sauna!

I swear, our home will not be like from an IKEA catalog, but we needed some things ASAP to get settled in, and IKEA was the best way to get many things fast. Hoping to share more pictures soon.

I’ve been searching for a modern white dining table that can seat at least 10, and it hasn’t been as easy as I thought of. Maybe because Scandinavian homes are small, and most Swedish tables I’ve found are small. I’ve noticed that Swedish like their dining tables small even in the larger homes – and often the dining table seems to float in the middle of the large room. While I like the feeling of space – I like more big family dinners and gathering around the table with friends and hosting big parties and having family over. So more than anything – I want a large dining table!

Here are my inspiration photos for my dining room.

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The large white dining table and the contrasting wood chairs are gorgeous.
I don’t care for the hanging lamp, but otherwise this room is perfect.

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Another great space, just a smaller scale. I love the Eames chairs matched with the table.

And same on the photo below.

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Here the Eames chairs are in all colors, and I also love the hanging lamp.
Now doesn’t this room look elegant but just screams for a good dinner party?
That’s what I want.

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This is another great look with the clear chairs.
I love the contrast the cold chrome legs and lacquered white table and plastic chairs create with the natural wood floors, old crown moldings and a few more feminine and natural accents.

White Dining Tables

But it all starts with a table.
I want a rectangular table, but I’m not set on what kind of legs it should have. Ideally steel legs, but I’m ok with wooden as well – either birch colored or white. Since we will be entertaining a lot, the size of the table is almost more important than the exact look – it should sit comfortably at least 10, so we will go for one of the expandable tables.

Shadow dining table designed by Vincent Van Duysen for De Padova
Cooper table from Mio
Calligaris
Counter from Bolia

I know… most of these tables are only available in Europe or Sweden, but no worries… Here are some similar type of tables in the US. Keep reading.

Parsons table from Crate & Barrel
Anders table from Burke Decor
Gamma table designed Jasper Morrison for Cappellini
Silverado rectangular dining table from CB2 isn’t white, but goes for the style.

If you are obsessed with a certain chair style, you can of course start building your dining room with chairs. But my search began with the dining tables, especially after I realized how difficult it was to find a large white table that I liked.

Modern White Living Room Inspiration

When in Rome, do as the Romans do, right? So here starts my Swedish home decorating project, the Swedish style. While our home decorating style has always had Scandinavian influence, I am from Finland after all, we decided to create our new home in Sweden even with more Scandinavian style. I love very modern and minimalistic Swedish homes, but I don’t think I could maintain the pure white or even black and white minimalistic design, and I don’t know if I would really even feel at home in a house like that.

I love the modern sleek furniture but I would like to create a more homey feeling with combining the white modern furniture with colorful accents, souvenirs from our travels as decorations, children’s drawings as framed art, my photos printed..

Here are a few of my inspiration rooms. They of course don’t look like “us” because the personal belongings are collected over the years by the home owners, but you get the picture. I don’t want my home to look like from a home store catalog, where you can recognize every object – I want my home to have our personal signature.

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In a very Swedish way, our living room and dining room are the same space. The house was built in late 50′s and has the look of the era with birch wood flooring, and since we are renting, we can’t white wash it like in the picture below. The wood flooring will give the modern furniture a little warmer look, and I like it. (More about the dining space in later posts).

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When the furniture is all white, it will be very easy to change the look to dramatic or more serene, depending the season of the year. Both of the rooms below have simple white furniture and a sparkly ball lamp hanging from the ceiling, but with the wall art, pillows and other accents, the looks of these two rooms are completely different. And that’s what I’m craving for – a white canvas that I can change up.

The Perfect White Leather Sofa

In my dream room I’d have the white leather couch designed by Florence Knoll in 1954. This gorgeous white leather with chrome legs is a design classic.
The Philippe Starck’s Monseigneur Sofa is newer, from 2008, and most certainly would work as a second choice. Thanks to IKEA, the heaven of modern copycat products, the KARLSTAD sofa in white leather with aluminum legs will do the trick for under 1,000 bucks.
If you don’t like the buttons, the BoConcept sofa looks great too.

Armchair

The inspiration pieces here are the Ludwig Mies van der Rohe’s Barcelona Chair and the matching stool. To stay in the budget, you can find a knock off of the Barcelona set for much lower price.
IKEA has a matching KARLSTAD arm chair with the couch, but I don’t care for it as much – it’s little too heavy looking, I’d prefer something more elegant.. like Barcelona chair.

I like large coffee tables, and the Knoll couch and the Barcelona chair could perfectly be matched with the Zion coffee table from Living Furniture or even the large one is from Bagge Design.

I think a designer armchair is a must to complete the modern look we are going for, and luckily there are a few options in addition to the Barcelona chair.

Alvar Aalto’s Paimio chair.
Arne Jacobsen Egg chair.
The Eames rocker…

And see more of my modern chair loves.

Lighting

Since the winters are so dark in Sweden, the homes are filled with light coming from light fixtures. Swedish homes have lamps even on windows, so houses look pretty even when you drive by. I absolutely want to get more lamps than what we typically have had in our homes in the US. For the living room I’d like to have a large floor lamp, ideally the famous Arco lamp, but here are a few other options, even one from IKEA.

Arco Floor Lamp designed by Achille and Pier Giacomo Castiglioni for Flos.
Block lamp by Design House Stockholm.
Regolit lamp at IKEA.
Mama lamp by Thibault Désombre for Ligne Roset
More modern large floor lamps here.

So what do you think? Too much white on white? Can I pull it off and can I make it my own with colorful accents?

If you want to see all of my inspirations and more products I like, follow my Pinterest boards

When it comes to dishes, it really was clear to me what to keep and what not to keep in our latest move when we had to get rid of even more things than normally (when we move). It was the nice high quality white dishes and the colorful printed designer dishes that filled the moving boxes and every single piece from IKEA or Target was gracefully donated. Going to IKEA is tempting here in Sweden too, but donating everything again in three years is not tempting at all. I want to pay even more attention to dishes I’ll buy, and want to add on to my collection with pieces that are worth taking along when we move the next time.

Black & White Dishes to Adore

Here are some of my favorite black & white patterned dishes to adore.

1. notNeutral black links coffee set includes a coffee pot, creamer and a sugar bowl. The set is $64 and perfect for afternoon coffee with friends.
2. Marimekko’s Siirtolapuutarha plate ($35) is one of my favorite black and white plate designs. Simple, modern, fun.
3. http://www.huset-shop.com/mlle-oiseau-mug-by-lovisa-burfitt-for-rorstrand-p-1988.html">Mlle Oiseau Mug by Lovisa Burfitt for Rorstrand ($31) is the perfect designer mug for many purposes. Perhaps for the bathroom for the makeup brushes or toothbrushes? Perfectly brings you the Parisian feeling.
4. Moomin Pitcher by Arabia ($34.82) is the perfect water pitcher for family dinnertime.
5. Sagaform Keep Storage Jar with Oak Lid ($29.24) is perfect storage container & helps to make kitchen counters or inside of the cabinets look pretty.
6. iittala Taika black & white pasta bowl ($24) with its whimsical forest print makes breakfast granola taste so much better.
7. Filippa K Burkina bowl by Rörstrand ($18.71) is another perfect modern breakfast cereal or soup bowl.
8. Marimekko Räsymatto bowl in black and white ($25) is another perfect black and white designer bowl, deisgned by Sami Ruotsalainen and Maija Louekari. Serves perfectly also as a serving dish.

Last month I admired the Matti Klenell’s Lempi glasses for Iittala designed by Matti Klenell, and last week when visiting an Iittala store in Finland my husband spotted the same glasses on the shelf.

“Hey, look what I found, kind of cool glasses. Do you like them? You wanna get some..?”

Um, yes!

I love blue glass, and my husband knows it, and I probably would have saved money and picked the cheaper clear ones which are factory manufactured, but he insisted buying us the blue ones that we liked more. The colored Lempi glasses are mouth blown and truly amazing quality. The price of the 2 pack of clear Lempi glasses is $32 and two pack price for the blue Lempi glasses is $62.50. Luckily they were a little cheaper at the Iittala store in Finland (around 53 dollars).

They look great even in our hotel suite kitchenette…