By
Søren Kirkegaard on
May 15, 2012
in
Architecture, Design, Interior with
Amsterdam is and will remain one of the cities that makes the most waves when it comes to design and innovation. So it’s probably no coincidence that this is where the large American coffee chain Starbucks decided to open a new Starbucks Concept Store, which provides an experimental example for the Starbucks concept stores of the future.
The store is inspired by the Slow Food movement and is to serve as a testing ground for more rare and exclusive coffees, new coffee brewing methods and new food concepts.
Starbuck Concept Store is located on the popular Rembrandtplein in an interesting building that previously housed one of the city’s historical banks. The inspiration comes from modern Dutch culture and the country’s longstanding coffee tradition.
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By
Anette Eckmann on
May 11, 2012
in
Food with
Ice cream like in the good old days – that is exactly what Hansen Is stands for. The story began in 1922 when Hans Hansen opened a dairy and began producing ice cream.
Hans Jørgen Eibye represents the third generation of the Hansen Is family. He grew up with ice cream and couldn’t dream of working with anything else. Therefore, Eibye himself still mixes the ice cream at the Hansen dairy.
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By
Anette Eckmann on
May 3, 2012
in
Design, Food, Interior, Travel with
Nando’s is a chain of successful restaurants that started in South Africa in 1987. The food concept is based on Afro-Portuguese chicken dishes known as Peri-Peri. Nando’s concept is so popular that the chain now has restaurants in 30 different countries on five continents.
In the English town of Ashford, the UK-based design company Blacksheep has designed a fantastic Nando’s restaurant. Afro style mixed with modern design and New Yorker atmosphere is the best way of describing the global decoration concept. In the large, high-ceilinged room, wooden cubes create a striking and impressive spatial effect. The colour turquoise is used beautifully and distinctively on lamps, furniture and selected locations in the room.
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By
Anette Eckmann on
April 30, 2012
in
Design, Interior, Trends with
Tiles are in vogue. I spot them everywhere in all sorts of contexts. And there are a lot of exciting tiles on the market. The possibilities are infinite – it’s just a question of style and taste.
At Design Academy Eindhoven in the Netherlands, the college’s bar – Zbar – has been tiled from top to bottom. Tiles in different colours and sizes have been laid to create stripes on the walls and counters. Wonderfully decorative and very effective. Perhaps it could inspire someone to start tiling at home.
The bar was designed by Ina Meijer and Matthijs van Cruijsen from Ina-matt: www.ina-matt.com.
Kig dig om efter forrygende fliser. Her er nogle af mine favoritter
www.firedearth.dk
www.madeamano.com
www.emeryetcie.com
About the Design Academy Eindhoven (DAE)
DAE is a school for industrial design in Eindhoven, Netherlands. The work of its faculty and alumni have brought it wide recognition, it has been called the “best design academy in the world.”
The Design Academy Eindhoven’s (DAE) emphasis on experimentation and practical industrial design has gaining an international reputation. Several alumni now work for the well-known design collective Droog Design and furniture manufacture Moooi.
In 1999, Li Edelkoort, was elected chairwoman of the Academy. In 2009 she left the Design Academy to pursue personal projects and was replaced by Anne Mieke Eggenkamp as chair.
www.designacademy.nl
By
Søren Kirkegaard on
April 25, 2012
in
Behind the scene, Design, Travel, Trends with
We have just returned from our annual inspirational trip to Milan. This is the place we always look forward to visiting, even though it guarantees long workdays and very sore feet.
We gather inspiration for new collections every day through contact with our suppliers and designers, but a furniture fair like Milan gives us a lot of added inspiration. During the year we have also visited other fairs in cities including Stockholm, Paris, Herning and Cologne.
Before attending the Milan Furniture Fair, we made some predictions about the trends and tendencies we would see there, so it was very exciting to see whether our predictions held true.
In addition to spotting the coming trends, we also look for new designers with excellent style that we can incorporate into our Bolia Design Team. We are always on the lookout for new designers to ensure constant innovation and movement in our range.
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By
Søren Kirkegaard on
April 11, 2012
in
Design, Food, Interior, Travel with
Lots of wood and white tiles in long rows, minimalist and raw with a relaxed feel and good-quality local ingredients. This is what sums up the restaurant Amelie and Friends in Chichester in the south of England.
The restaurant fully reflects the current bistro trend with simple dishes being served in unpretentious surroundings, preferably slightly rustic with a good dash of modern design.
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By
Søren Kirkegaard on
April 6, 2012
in
Design, Travel, We recommend with
The passionate collector Alketas Pazis has spent much of his life building up a fantastic collection of carefully selected pieces of furniture, lamps and items from the 1900-1950 period. In Athens, he has created a veritable treasure chest of collector’s items. His main interest has been equipment from factories, schools and hospitals, and it is almost a mission for him to save as many of these items as possible from the scrapheap.
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By
Søren Kirkegaard on
April 2, 2012
in
Behind the scene, Design, Interior with
We have just finished building the new Bolia store in Odense, with an overall goal to create one of the most inspiring furniture stores ever seen. We want to make a trip to the Bolia store into a cool experience, were all senses are activated.
The theme in the store is “City meets nature”, were we focuses on bringing the nature into city store. We like playing with the contrast that it creates, when we bring raw and natural materials into a brand new store.
We have packed the Odense store with cool elements, like a plant wall, with real growing plants and we invited the talented Phucisme, to come by and create amazing art directly on the walls – we love the end result! We also implemented our multi touch screen, which allows two people at the time, to shuffle through our range of furniture, designers and videos. A New York inspired apartment has been build, with a much different light, sound universe and mood, than the rest of the store. Last we added colored light to the chair rack and put on the Bolia lounge mixes, to complete the good vibes.
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By
Søren Kirkegaard on
April 1, 2012
in
Design, Previews, Trends, We recommend with
Here at Bolia, our ambition has long been to create the world’s best recliner. Our recent launch, Daddy, is a supremely comfortable and stylish armchair. But we felt it lacked a little something to justify calling it the ultimate armchair, hence the introduction of our new “Daddy kit”.
The Daddy kit consists of a reading light, a projector, a joystick, a pair of speakers, a propeller, a set of in-built wheels and a mechanical back-scratcher with controls. Although the set can be mounted on other models in our armchair range, we think it goes particularly well with our Daddy chair – together creating, in our view, the ultimate armchair.
We did consider adding a removable cup holder to the set but, ultimately, agreed that the overall effect would be too much. After thorough testing and approval of the prototype, we expect the Daddy kit (without the armchair) to retail at EUR 579 and be available in our stores at the beginning of August 2012.
Here at Bolia, we’re convinced that we’ve found a niche where the right furniture combined with the right number of gadgets will be hugely successful. We can’t wait to see how big demand will be for this option!
What are your views on the Daddy kit?
By
Anette Eckmann on
March 29, 2012
in
Art, Design, Trends with
I am quite simply ecstatic about the new colours from the British paint and wallpaper company, Farrow and Ball.
They are experts at composing sublime colour palettes to make walls and rooms a total experience. Just take a look here to see how beautifully it can be done! Greys with subdued pastels, retro green and warm orange tones – it’s pure colour-blocking for the home. It makes me want to clear a wall and get started right away…
Farrow and Ball writes the following about the colours:
Unexpected colour combinations and colour blocking are the key looks for 2012. Strong greys are accented with warm yellows and clean blues for a really modern, graphic look, while subdued blue-greys and delicate purples remain fresh when paired with brighter colours in dynamic combinations.
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By
Anette Eckmann on
March 22, 2012
in
Architecture, Art, Design, Fashion, Travel, We recommend with
I really love Amsterdam. I guess I have written about this many times. The city surprises all the time with totally wonderful and crazy concepts. And then there are all the wonderfully laid-back and friendly Dutch. Check out this hot spot hotel that I must experience in person soon.
Hotel The Exchange in Amsterdam has begun a fascinating collaboration with selected candidates from Amsterdam Fashion Institute (AMFI) and the design duo Ina Matt relating to the interior decoration of the untraditional hotel.
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By
Søren Kirkegaard on
March 16, 2012
in
Contest, Design, We recommend with
Yesterday was official Bolia Design Award day! We are glad that so many showed up, to see which designers was awarded with either the honorary prizes, customers award prize, 3 Prize, 2 Prize or 1 Prize.
We had received more than 100 designs and our jury selected narrowed it down to the best nine.
The show started at 2 pm and there were plenty champagne, cupcakes from Agnes, a trend presentation by Anette Eckmann, music by DJ Kalle B from Stella Polaris, lots of goodie bags and many happy winners.
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By
Anette Eckmann on
March 12, 2012
in
Architecture, Fashion, Interior, Travel with
There is always plenty of decorating inspiration to be found in new stores, hotels and restaurants. The latest trends are often seen here before they appear in homes. One of the companies that is always interesting to follow in the field of interior decor is Maison Martin Margiela of France. I have previously written about Martin Margiela here, but now yet another characteristic white signature has popped up – this time in China.
The world’s largest Martin Margiela store yet recently opened in Beijing’s trendy Sanlitun district. The 4,300 square metre store houses all of Maison Martin Margiela’s lines, from men’s and women’s clothing to accessories and home decoration. The prices are expensive, but you can always draw inspiration. I especially love the wood and the white tiles on the walls, floors and ceilings. It’s an idea that you could consider for your home. I have an entire tiled wall in my Copenhagen apartment, with white standard tiles from floor to ceiling, which I can highly recommend – it reflects daylight beautifully. And it signals “factory” or, as some friends have commented, “slaughterhouse”!
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By
Søren Kirkegaard on
March 5, 2012
in
Design, Trends, We recommend with
Furniture made with solid wood is becoming ever more popular in modern homes, where its organic characteristics provides a warm and earthy ambience, which is both cosy and distinctive. Many families are looking for something unique – furniture with character and history.
Madison is inspired by the sixties design icons. It sits on a heavy wooden frame, with curved profiles and conic legs. The soft part is inspired by the women of the sixties. Back then the soft curves was highly appreciated and the women made no effort to hide them.
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By
Anette Eckmann on
February 28, 2012
in
Architecture, Design, Food, Interior, Travel with
It started in Rotterdam with the first Fabbrica restaurant and now Fabbrica restaurant number two has cropped up in the Dutch town of Bergen.
Truly amazing decor with a combination of long tables and small booths for more intimate dining. The booths are inspired by the way people used to sit in a train carriage and guests must climb up a small ladder to reach their seats.
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