Minimal art by Nina Holst

For those who love to read interior design blogs, I am pretty sure you know Nina Holst, a fellow blogger, travel partner and friend for years. This year however Nina followed her passion and opened Gallery Nina Holst where she sells her own art. Today on the blog some of her art beautifully captured at her own home.

An exhibition at Tokyo gallery 'Objet d'art' by X and L Amsterdam

Although I love clean and Scandinavian minimal style images there is something about the dark and moody atmosphere in the picture above I really love. X and L kindly sent me some images made at their first exhibition at Objet d'art gallery in Tokyo which I love to show on the blog. 

DOMOTEX 2020 moodboard | Sustainable flooring

In 2020 I will be visiting DOMOTEX, the world's leading trade show for floor covering. Together with the team I was part off for the last two years we will work on some projects and have a panel discussion. See last years DOMOTEX content on the blog here in case you missed it! From 10-13 January the trade show will welcome thousands of exhibitioners and visitors in Hannover and our team will be visiting the fair on Saturday!

Next to the different exhibitioners from all over the world, who will present their collections, visitors can enjoy different talks and tours, exhibition topics and themes. Our team will work on different mood boards that will be seen at DOMOTEX showing our vision on the ATMYSPHERE keynote theme. With its new ATMYSPHERE keynote theme, DOMOTEX 2020 will present new products and a concentrated range of offerings to meet the growing demand for holistic health concepts. DOMOTEX perfectly explains as follows.

Floor coverings can be used to create enjoyable worlds of experience, providing contract floorers with the opportunity to fashion holistically conceived interiors. After all, floors form the basis of the rooms in which we live and work and create our own personal atmosphere. 

Good room acoustics, heat insulation, a pleasant tactile experience, good climatic and health-promoting properties, sustainability as well as natural and aesthetic furnishing details: good floor coverings are characterized by all of those properties.

Our mood boards will show the six different subjects within the theme, being Acoustics, Floor & More, Green Living, Outdoor, Wellbeing and Sustainable Flooring. I was asked to cover Sustainability, and as this is not a subject I write about on a daily basis, I decided to focus on different materials and select some corresponding brands that are a good example of sustainability in both product and manufacturing.

Sustainability
When thinking of Sustainability some things come to mind immediately and I think the words of my good friend Iris, who is a great Trend-watcher, speaker and teacher, next to running her own company C-More. cover it all: ‘There is no planet B!’

Sustainability is a hot topic and we could almost say Sustainability has become a trend. Thinking about our planet Iris explains in her Milan design week Trend report: “We all know something has to change. Designers are more and more taking sustainability as a matter of course. New materials, new ways to produce and reduce waste are becoming more natural, but we are not there yet.”

And although the urge to solve the problem is still not common, and all questions are not answered, new research is leading us in the right direction! Many brands are aware of the problem and try their best to produce in a sustainable way. By up- and recycling and looking for new materials made out of unusual or natural substances or waste, using natural color pigments and more. They are all concerned and willing to change things to solve our planet and change the climate crisis.


Also for us at home, separating waste is fortunately becoming more normal and easier, I apply sustainability in all kinds of ways in my own life and daily activities. But the amount of plastic that still creeps into our houses every day is enormous. Luckily we are all becoming more aware that something really has got to change before it’s too late.

Marmoleum
Marmoleum owns its popularity to the natural raw materials used for production like limestone, resin and jute. The natural raw materials are all processed in an environmentally friendly way into a marmoleum floor, making the floor also biodegradable. Marmoleum floors can be found in many homes, offices and in almost every school in the Netherlands.

Marmoleum is a CO2 neutral produced floor covering The raw materials used for making Marmoleum are coming directly from natural and sustainable cultivated crops. Forbo Flooring produces its Marmoleum using 100% green electricity as well as internal re-use and recycling programs. Forbo has an international network of 26 sites with production and distribution and different assembly centers and 46 sales organizations in a total of 36 countries worldwide.

For installation cut offs, a ‘back to the floor’ program is in place, which returns residual linoleum to an ingredient for new Marmoleum. The production location also features a large warehouse in which all of Forbo products are collected before shipment, avoiding unnecessary transport movements as multiple products are combined in one shipment. The warehouse is built to be self-supporting in its energy use, coming from solar energy, and has been awarded the LEED-gold standard for sustainable construction.

Ceramic
For the first time at DOMOTEX, Tile manufacturers are now invited to present their products in a dedicated showcase, an all new Tiles hall (hall 13). “Earthenware, stone or porcelain tiles are not just being used on floors, but also on walls – both indoors and out – thus opening up design options to suit any particular individual taste or setting.”

Earlier this year our agency w/ Style had the pleasure to work on a social media campaign for Dutch tile manufacturers Mosa at ‘Masterly The Dutch in Milan’ Talking about sustainability MOSA is a great example! Mosa has designed, developed, and produced ceramic tiles in Maastricht since 1883. They enable architects and designers around the world to create signature surfaces. Sustainability is their foremost priority. To achieve this, Mosa adheres to the Cradle to Cradle philosophy, making a positive contribution to our society, economy, and our planet.

Switching to a sustainable working method both the factory and the raw material flow had to undergo many changes. Mosa is the first ceramic tile company in the world to have gained Cradle to Cradle (C2C) Silver certification for nearly its entire tile collection. Just as in nature, with Cradle to Cradle there is no waste, no shortages and no limitations. It is a design concept predicated on the unlimited reuse of raw materials.

Bamboo
Bamboo is the fastest growing plant on earth and a good alternative to hardwood. Bamboo offers a useful alternative for this: no tree, but a type of grass that grows quickly, during the growing season 30 cm to 50 cm per day and can eventually reach 15 to 30 meters high, with a trunk circumference of 35 cm or more!

The world's most important bamboo reservoir is located in China, it is here the giant bamboo, known as MOSO grows. Because of its fine structure, this bamboo species is extremely suitable for decorative applications, such as floors and furniture and beautiful carpets!

I am a huge fan of Bamboo carpets as I love the shiny surfaces! Massimo Copenhagen is a brand I follow for some time and all their bamboo rugs are made of 100% bamboo fibres which gives a luxurious feeling due to the unique softness and shiny surface. Bamboo fibres are made of bamboo pulp and have strong durability, stability and tenacity. The production of Bamboo is sustainable as it thrives without any pesticides and also it is biodegradable and thus a very eco-friendly material.

PET
A plastic bottle takes 450 years to completely decompose and every year as much plastic is produced as all humanity together. Although I still buy water in a plastic bottle now and then I do separate my waste as I think it is really important to take responsibility at home and I hope you do as well!

While looking through the exhibitioners list on the DOMOTEX site I noticed Natur Pur one of the brands I wrote about in my blogpost last year: DOMOTEX 2019 | Trends and inspiration from the fair launched "Pro Natura" a new brand to show their will to contribute to the improvement of worldwide plastic madness. Pro Natura stands for high quality carpets made from recycled PET bottles, hand-knotted in India.

Cork
As a teenager I remember to have a room under the attic that was rather different from those of my friends. I really love how my parents gave me freedom to express myself and how my dad helped me to realise a wall filled with a sisal tiles carpet from Morocco. Not sure how I came up with these ideas but I guess my early travel adventures and the many books and people coming to our house made me see things the way I did… or maybe it was just my interest in interior design I developed at an early age.

Cork also was a much seen material those days and it looks as though it has made a comeback! Cork is 100% natural, fully biodegradable, environmentally friendly, and recyclable without producing toxic waste. As an innovative and sustainable source, cork has no waste. The bark can be used completely: not only for walls and floors, but also for non-everyday applications such as in space travel, fashion and musical instruments.

The management of cork forests contributes to the sustainable development of rural Mediterranean areas and is indispensable for our planet. Most cork used comes from Portugal, with Amorin being the largest world producer, but also in Sardinia lots of Cork is harvest and used in authentic ways to decorate with at home as well as the more commercial artisan way....I will show you some day the cork I brought from Sardinia.

I hope to see you at DOMOTEX next January! Also check out the blogs of the other bloggers to see their impressions and mood boards for the fair within the chosen topics

Acoustics by Stefan | Trendstefan

Wellbeing by Holly of Decor8

Floor & More by Agatha | Passionshake

Green Living by Mette of Monstercircus

Outdoor by Camilla Bellini of CamillaBellini.com

This post is written in collaboration with DOMOTEX

Pictures 1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 /6 / 7 / 8 / 9 / 10

In Dialogue | Ark Journal x Fredericia exhibition

Being introduced to Ark Journal first in Milan earlier this year, the magazine has quickly become one of my favourites of the moment. I have to admit that their beautiful covers are certainly helping as well, the latest issue had several covers to choose from. I love how the magazine collaborates with different brands, for the release of their second issue they collaborated with Studio Jung and Frama. Find the beautiful images of the NY launch at the blog here: Launch of Ark Journal volume II & A selected by for Frama.

'In Dialogue' is a group exhibition curated by Henriette Noermark, in collaboration with Fredericia Furniture and Ark Journal. The exhibition explores the heritage and legacy of Fredericia Furniture’s classic Danish designs. See some pictures from my visit to Fredericia earlier this year here. 

At Fredericia's showroom a selection of Danish and international artists and designers engage in conversation across rooms and surfaces, disciplines and generations, materials and perspective. Sculptural, organic shapes and an emphasis on materiality and structure are pervasive elements in the exhibited works, furthering the scope and scale of this dialogue. The works share the notion of quality, craftsmanship and the aim to create and nourish a sensuous bond between object and viewer, a sentiment which is also distinct in the Fredericia Furniture brand. 

Visit the exhibition till December 19 at the  Fredericia Showroom in Copenhagen

Photography Wichmann Bendsten via Fredericia 

The Slow Beirut by Frama Studio

After opening the Frama studio store in Mexico, Frama brings their interior design ánd collection to Beirut, Lebanon where they designed The Slow, is a new café and concept store. In close collaboration with its commissioner, the location has been transformed from an old traditional café to a new contemporary concept store.

The Slow hosts visitors who desire to spend time in a space by eating, shopping or working by oneself or with company. The store realizes the life-long dream of commissioner Sari Kassouf, an architect with a repertoire dominated by residential projects, now turned concepteur. Being the first of its kind to take place in its area, the slow living concept store exceeds the expectations of the city’s café culture by offering more than a typical café; but a space for leisure, work and shopping.

The project has been executed with the aims of creating a calm atmosphere zoned for various activities from socializing for a quick coffee to a longer stay hang out. The architecture of the space is characterized by open spAces pronounced by grids of interesting textures in a muted color palette. Exclusively furnished with tables, seats, lightning and kitchen units from Frama; the space fashioned to be minimal and soft with a muted color palette. It features a shop, café, working space, meeting room and terrace.

The Slow is located at Khalil Badawi Street, Asfahan, Beirut, Libanon.

All pictures via Frama

Minimal bathroom design in bronze | Elance by Paulina Neiser

“Elance” is a design of bathroom fittings designed by Paulina Neiser, who graduated from Design Academy Eindhoven. And I think it is one of the most beautiful tap and shelf in one I have maybe ever seen! Also a shower head and taps are part of the collection, all to be found at Paulina Neiser

During her studies, she discovered her passion for metals and their color reactions within the oxidation process. The bathroom fittings are designed to be touched by the user and the water, in order to create color changes on the material. Water flows through the angled slit in the shelf and the same angle and curves appear in the taps and shower head, uniting the collection, emphasizing the flow of water and inviting users to touch them.

Nowadays consumers want to change or replace broken items quite often. This creates a huge amounts of waste, which then mostly cannot be fully recycled. In order to prevent waste of both the consumer and the industry, Paulina Neiser designed a bathroom fitting made from sustainable and recyclable material, such as copper, brass and bronze making each object unique and personal due their changing colours over time. The personal touch of individual changes of color makes every piece unique and makes it become more beautiful and vivid over time and through touch.
Text: Paulina Neiser

Picture Femke Reijerman | Design Academy Eindhoven

pictures via Paulina Neiser with thanks 

My Interior moments | imm Cologne 2020

Weekend is here and before I am off to buy some groceries and lots of candles to conquer these cold and early dark days. I love to tell you a bit more about a new campaign I am working on with imm Cologne. Next to Milan Design week, imm Cologne is the yearly Design fair I am most looking forward to, and I am really happy to be invited to work with the fair again in 2020.

Towards the actual fair I will share some #interiormoments with the imm Instagram account, and of course I will be at the fair ground for some days sharing my finds on Social media. imm will share different moments from a selection of creative minds from the Design world, see them here under Interior moments

In the first picture I shared,  a small setup with my friend AnoukB at her Amsterdam boutique showroom. Did you see the behind the scenes? I had a sneak peek at her collection and as always it was a pleasure to meet up. We always have lots to talk about, especially now concerning the small remake of my home we are doing.

Wishing you a happy weekend!

©vosgesparis | Written in collaboration with imm Cologne | #interiormoments #immCologne2020

A minimal collection by ignore Amsterdam | AMS NXT

After discontinuing my Amsterdam city quide app, I do kind of miss also working on my Amsterdam City blog. A blog I started long time ago to collect Amsterdam based interior hotspots, but with my focus on Vosgesparis and w/ Style and a serious lack of time I had to set priorities for myself.  I do love to stroll through my city though and as on Vosgesparis the focus is on design I though of a new blog category and show you a few times a month an Amsterdam based designer brand or fab location. Amsterdam Next, my Amsterdam city guide is also still online and might be handy to understand the different area's. Hopefully one day I will have the time to pick this fully up again and add all addresses to the blog.

Today I love to introduce you to ign_re Amsterdam Founded by Julien van Hassel, ignore is an Amsterdam based design studio who design and develop furniture and interior accessories with a minimalist character. All products are developed with full focus on the designs itself. This enables us to encourage people to make conscious interior choices. Would we make the same decisions if we ignore all the incentives around us and focus only what we really like?

For product information please visit Ign_re Amsterdam All products are designed in the Netherlands, 90% is produced in the Netherlands as well.
Thanks for visiting Julien! 

Michael Del Piero | Hamptons Design studio & shop

It's about two years ago I first mentioned Lukas Machink on the blog in this post: A minimalistic idea for your wardrobe corner and since then I have been following him on Instagram. For me Instagram is a great source finding new designers and great places. That if you are curious enough to click through once you come across something that looks interesting. Blogging is like journalism, you have to take an effort in looking around and connecting with people to understand the images that caught your eye.

This is also how I found Michael Del Piero and her shop and design studio in the Hamptons which I would love to give you a sneak peek of today on the blog. Michael Del Piero founded Michael Del Piero Good Design in 2007 Del Piero is known for her accomplished eye and uncommon knack for a serene and simple mix that bridges generations of style. 

Her distinct aesthetic fuses rough with luxurious and ancient with modern and fuelled by her global finds and an appetite for all things beautiful, Michael opened her eponymous shop in Chicago in 2008. Ten years later Michael expanded her east coast presence with a shop and design studio location in the Hamptons. Showcasing sculptural furniture, unusual objects and abstract art, the venue bows to her "never precious" style. 

Hamptons Studio & Shop, 372 Montauk Highway, Wainscott New York

Pictures courtesy Lukas Machink - Michael del Piero Good Design

un:divided - exploring the relationship between form and material

un:divided: New York exhibition by Fino Prydz
In case you are in the New York area I have something really nice to share with you today! 
I want to tell you about the first exhibition in the US by one of my online friends who lives in New York. If you visit my blog because you share the same taste and love for things like me, you have to have a look at his work, and if you ar lucky the exhibition of Fino Priydz. You might have spotted his artwork at my home: Choosing art and a bedroom update 

Showcasing his work for the first time in the US, Prydz will present seven new paintings made specifically for this exhibition. Inscribed with his minimalist vocabulary and abstracted forms, Prydz's paintings display a sensibility towards color and a subdued palette is used to focus on the natural materials such as lime, plaster and graphite. Together they lay the foundation for an exploration of the relationship between form and material.

un:divided

Prydz arrived at the title of the show, un:divided, because its syntax echoes his process of splitting up forms and reconnecting them through mark making and compositional tension. He uses these formalist tools to investigate the themes of nostalgia and transience. 

The forms are derived from memory and visual observations of dimensional space, outlines and shadows. He is recreating textures of his youth; school yards, local architecture and sites visited while living in Scandinavia, contrasting the urban textures of his adopted New York: asphalt, concrete and metal.

Victori + Mo Contemporary Gallery 242 West 22nd Street New York, NY 10011

Aesop opened their first location at Amsterdam

I plannend to show you some images made at the brand new Aesop Skincare store in Amsterdam for some days! It is actually the first Aesop store in the Netherlands and I am so happy Aesop choose the historical former Jamin candy store at Utrechtsestraat to be their location. Jamin used to be a really wel know candy store with different locations and the in 1911 renovated location at Utrechtsestraat is known as the best preserved Jamin store. Both the exterior and interior in neo Lodewijk XVI style are original including the mosaic floor.

I discovered Aesop some years ago and have been a fervent user ever since. No need to tell you I am really happy we finally have our very own Amsterdam store! Have a look here to see the different Aesop stores I covered on the blog before.

pictures ©vosgesparis