New from Finland: Kauniste

I’m so excited to share design news from Scandinavia that are not from Sweden, but from Finland. Kauniste is a new multi-designer brand from Finland, and their shop in Helsinki was one of the hottest new gift shopping spots in the city for the Holidays I hear.

Kauniste was created by uniting young Scandinavian graphic designers and craftsmen to combine fresh design and traditional screen printing skills and with emphasis on using eco friendly materials, for example use water based, solvent free inks, and linen mix fabric as the linen makes the fabric durable, and it absorbs well moisture and dries fast. Linen leaves practically no surplus waste in production, and it’s qualities only improve with time. The ecological approach is seen in everything Kauniste does – if there is access fabric from production, they will just create a new product with the access fabrics. This idea has been used by Finnish Marimekko for centuries, one of their stable products, the small coin purses were born from scrap material and the idea of using it all.

You can shop at the Kauniste products in their webshop. My favorites are the pillow cases and the trays.

Here are the top 10 modern design products for home that I like and recommend.
Did you read What is great design and why it matters, where I also took a few pictures of some of my favorite design products and objects in my home? Here is a better look into products mentioned and a few more to present you top 10 great design products I recommend. These products stand the test of time, they are timeless and modern at the same time, and something you can proudly leave for your kids too. The Barcelona chair is really the only product here that is outrageously expensive, and you can find the Barcelena chair, the Eames chair and the Le Klint pendant as reproduction copies for much less. Of course the quality isn’t the same then.

Top 10 Modern Design Products for Home

1. Eames Molded Plastic Dining Chair with Wood Dowel Base by Charles and Ray Eames ($399) was originally designed in metal, and entered as a prototype in MoMA’s 1948 International Competition for Low-Cost Furniture Design. The chair evolved with the times and today the Eames chairs are made of recyclable polypropylene. The chair is beautiful but you truly understand why it’s great design once you sit on it. This chair is my personal choice also as a desk chair for every day work.

2. Le Klint Pendant 172 ($519.75) was designed by Danish Poul Christiansen in 1969 and it stands the test of time as a timeless design that works in any space.

3. Alvar Aalto vase is probably one of the most iconic Finnish design objects designed by the most famous Finnish architect Alvar Aalto, and it comes in several colors and sizes, but what reminds the same is the iconic rounded shape. A design classic that can be used in almost any room of your home, great gift item and timeless beautiful design.

4. Juicy Salif Citrus squeezer by Philippe Starck for Alessi ($100) is one of the most iconic products by Italian Alessi, and it was deisgned by Philppe Starck who originally drew it on a napkin on his vacation in Italy in the 1980′s. Like freshly squeezed orange juice on the mornings? Just put your glass under this one and squeeze your oranges directly into your glass. When not in use this makes an impressive design object in your kitchen or dining room.

5. Barcelona Chair by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe ($5,068) was originally designed to serve as seating for the king and queen of Spain already in 1929 and it has become of the design classics. Ludwig Mies van der Rohe designed the Barcelona Chair and Stool to furnish his German Pavilion at the International Exhibition in Barcelona. The Barcelona chair is a great example of modern design that is easy to decorate around with, whether your taste is minimalistic and modern or traditional.

6. Block Lamp by Harri Koskinen designed for Design House Stockholm ($129) is one of the newest products in this line up. Harri Koskinen designed the Block Lamp in 1996 and it’s been a design classic ever since winning several design awards. The lamp that looks like a light bulb inside a chunk of ice is a design object and a functional lamp that doesn’t just light up your room, but also your smile.

7. Unikko print designed by Maija Isola for Marimekko in 1964 is one of the most copied prints of our times. The cheerful poppy print comes in several colors, but the original red and white still reminds the most popular. The print is utilized in hundreds of different products over the years. One of my favorites is the coin purses, which are made from the left over fabric when other products are produced. Another true icon of sustainable design.

8. Lempi glasses by Matti Klenell for Iittala (starting $32 for set of two) is a new product for 2012, and bound to be a design classic used for years to come. It took years of designing to create a beautiful glass that is multifunctional in a way that it can be used in everyday use for milk and water, but also for wine in special occasions, and on the top of that you can stack for easy storage even in smaller kitchens. This is my use-everyday-for-everything glass.

9. Stelton Vacuum Jug by Erik Magnussen ($69.95) is a coffee thermos, yes, but it still stands out in its sleek form, and functional design as one of the modern design must haves. You don’t have to open the top to get coffee out, no dripping on your table cloth when you pour the coffee, just like a coffee thermos should work.

10. Tripp Trapp Highchair by Stokke ($214.17) is the only chair you will have to buy your kid. On the top – it’s one of the most inexpensive things you’ll ever buy your baby considering how many times it will be used. My 12-year old daughter still uses hers daily – now it has just moved from dining room to accompany her school desk. The Tripp Trapp highchair was designed to last from a baby to grandparent and grow as the baby grows, and it’s a family heirloom for sure.

What did I miss? What is your modern design favorite?

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.

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

I have a feeling it’ll be a while before we have this new house decorated. Like with any house, it is better to live in first and then see what you really want to do with your space. Already now some of the things that I thought I like are not working too well, and we have already moved some furniture.

We are also semi-addicted to going to flea markets on the weekends, and have made some great furniture finds for kids’ rooms. I also try to keep myself away from IKEA for a while, because this place started looking like from an IKEA catalog. The good about IKEA is the instant gratification – you haul it home, assemble and done. And the bad about second hand finds and more expensive design furniture is that it takes longer to find something or special order, so we are still waiting to find and have delivered – or found. In addition it’s the unfortunate limitation of the budget that keeps me from getting everything right on this moment.

But a quick update where our living room stands now..

We are really trying to go on the Scandinavian minimalism. The first pictures from our home looked like above – like the moving boxes threw up all of our memories on the top of the furniture and on the living room floor.

I’m happy to inform my junk has found their way inside the minimal amount of furniture we have. But even with as much stuff we threw away, donated and sold when we left New York, I still feel we have too much for the minimalistic lifestyle we are going after. And that’s why I already have a box in the basement with things that I will try to go and sell in a flea market later this summer.

But here is an update how we are doing.

The IKEA couch we ordered came, and while I LOVE the Barcelona chairs, I actually like it better now when we separated the two Barcelona chairs and added the couch in the living room. It’s not as dominant. It still needs new legs though, the wooden ones are not working for me.

So here it is for now. Maybe even too minimalistic, and the rug isn’t working that well, and we still need light fixture and a lamp. And the ottoman that works now as a coffee table/desk is going to be replaced with a coffee table soon.

Remember I cut the pear tree in the yard and got hurt? I saved all of the cut branches and painted some of them and they are now in our living room.

We also moved the office table, and the side table we had. The side table was great for the space (on the before picture above) but we are really trying to go towards more minimalistic look, so we moved the other Barcelona chair to that spot, and I love it there. While this space is getting almost bare, I am living it more and more each day. Now I really want to focus on NOT bringing anything else in here, unless I truly love it.

And yes, even these branches are from the tree in the yard. Just painted and tied with yarn.

I have so many ideas, but I’ve already noticed that super minimalistic decorating is actually more difficult than when you have more. For example we have already tried too different floor lamps for the living room but neither worked. Hoping we can make more chances to this space soon, and I can share more pictures. What do you think? Is this too bare, almost boring? Or do you like the minimalistic look?

It’s so simple to make a fancy looking DIY center piece.
Get a tray, fill it with tea candle holders and candles. Done.

I created my modern turquoise and white candle tray already waiting for terrace season, and I can’t wait to have my deck ready for summer. It’s still been too rainy, and cold, but we are hoping to have our back deck ready this weekend and kick off the BBQ season. We’ll see.

Candle tray is an excellent way to bring indoors out for outdoor entertaining. They are great also for balconies and for smaller yards because they don’t require much space. Candle trays with tea candles are great for spots where you can’t add a fire pit, but still would like to add some natural flame. The tea candles are also better for fire safety than tall candles.

You can use any type of large tray and then collect various votive holders to fill it. Pick one or two colors or a theme, and it’s OK if they are mix match, that’s the whole point. You can even use washed empty jelly jars, small cups, drinking glasses, you name it. Pretty much any glassware works, and the more you mix the better it will look. Start arranging your tray in the middle and add the highest candle holders in the middle, add tea candles and you are done.

I was hoping to find an old tray from a flea market but saw this modern tray in a design store and once I got home I realized I had enough things at home to create a candle tray, and I didn’t have to buy anything else. I didn’t have that many actual candle holders so I used small vases, coffee cups and glasses. I used some of my Finnish Iittala turquoise glassware and added a few old coffee cups my grandmother gave me and filled them all with tea lights.

Now all I need is my deck ready and a table outside to enjoy a glass of wine in the candle light with my hubby at nights. The days are getting longer and longer in Sweden though – and I might have to wait until fall to use my tray outside.

Aqua & White Candle Tray shopping list

If you like some of the items on my tray, here are some of the products I used. Note that I have been collecting these over the years, and I have several different Iittala glasses in turquoise making it easy to mix. You can’t go wrong also when you mix with white or clear glass. Target, Walmart, IKEA and Kmart – every inexpensive store also sells small colorful tea light holders. Mix the inexpensive things with more expensive designer items and flea market finds and you will get the best mix. One of the best online store selections for candle holders of all colors and shapes is the Luna Bazaar.

Iittala Aalto mini bowl in turquoise ($120) – I love these for candles and candies and just as decorative items.

The iittala Kivi Candle Holder ($20) are less expensive and they look great grouped together.

I also added one iittala Kartio tumbler, and two Iittala Verna glasses on the tray to give height. The Verna glasses are older Iittala collection and no longer available but I didn’t want to risk my new Iittala Lempi glasses which would also have worked.

Ralph Lauren Pink Pony candle ($45) shows its support for the Pink Pony Fund in a pink hue, and it’s one of my favorite candles for the charity, the look and the scent. Maybe not the perfect match for the rest of the products, but it works.

I also added some old semi tasse coffee cups with plates and the Röstrand Mon Amie cups have a little bit the same look as my Grandmother’s old cups have. But the point is – it doesn’t all have to be a perfect color match and it actually looks better when you add unexpected surprises in the mix as well.

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

Designer/artist Elisabeth Dunker from blog and shop Fine Little Day collaborated with fellow Swedish designer Anna Backlund and created this delightful porcelain line for Rym, and it will be available at Fine Little Day shop in March. I don’t know about the price point yet.

I absolutely love the coffee pot and sugar dish, but what I like the most about this collection are the coffee cups and how you can mix and match them. I wonder if they got their inspiration from Arabia’s Teema mugs (like the Moomin mugs) that can be found is numerous designs and colors and easily matched due the simple unified shape.

And then when you mix and match the plates with the cups… aaaaah.

The pink is pretty too… but my favorites are still the coffee mugs, you can combine them with white serving dishes and make the entire table setting pop. They are like jewelry to a little black dress.

Photos: Elisabeth Dunker

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.