Getting older sucks sometimes.

I am usually not the type to freak out about getting older. But last year I was shocked to realise that there are some physical obstacles you can´t fight. I have always been super proud of my mega super great sight. But after having visited the doctor 3-4 times last year, convinced I had an eye-infection,  I had to give in,  and accept that what I needed was glasses :-/   

In Copenhagen I am a big fan of Poul Stig, Brilleskrædderiet and Alle´Optik 

Tom Ford

Mikli

Brilleskrædderiet

Mikli

Alexander McQueen

Bring light color into you home, it connects the rooms and gives character .

Are you a little nervous to use color in your home, then start with some lighter colors in a couple of rooms. Keep everything els simple, so you won't be taken by surprise of how it will change your surroundings and the mood in your home. But the right color usually makes everything more interesting. I would go for lighter and softer colors like the ones you see below. I am not a big fan of bright color for day living. Bright color I would use only on smaller objects to make something stand out or to give a special effect and to attract the eye in a shop, a show or other.  Farrow&Ball,  a long existing english paint company, has made it very simple to choose from their palette with a minimal risk of making the wrong choice :-)  

Enjoy and if you have problems choosing, you are very welcome to contact me, Christina

      

Farrow&Ball, klik her

Berlin.

I just had a great trip to Berlin with good friends. And in the few day´s we spend in the city I have visited  a couple of nice places. Berlin is a great mix of many different architectural styles from classic to fascist to modern. Newly "started" ca. 25 years ago and with it´s ca. 3.5 million habitants it has a little cozy-ness like Copenhagen, the large boulevards of Paris and some of the modern vibe of N.Y. But it feels like it has not found it´s own character just yet. We started with a lunch in the studio of Olafur Eliasson, where LittleSun has one of their offices. Here you are meet with a fantastic energi of a large staff of architects, designers and artist. Amazing !

In the evenings we had the best cocktails at SAGE, a great place with young and older, smart and families, trendy and classic. Super loung music, cigar room and the coolest bathrooms. We visited BIKINI, great hotel and club,  Kimchiprincess a fun korean place, Sale e Tabacchi a great typical milanese restaurant and the sky lounge bar at Hotel de Roma. Sadly I missed out on the famous Kaefer Restaurant on top of the Reichstag building in the very heart of Berlin, but fortunately on Saturday we were lucky to have a privat showing of a bunker which has been turned into a large gallery. The bunker was bought by an advertising mogul, Christian Boros,  to be able to build his own penthouse on top of the 5 story bunker. And off course we saw Memorial to the murdered Jews, a breathtaking place. Beautiful and so sad at the same time. The rest of the time we would walk and walk the streets of Berlin and take it all in. 

7 ideas of how to handle messy kid´s.

I know everything there is to know about mess in a child´s room. Oliver who turns 10 today, is still having difficulties cleaning up his room, and I have had to think through all kind of ways to make it practical and orderly in his room. I have used all my nicer shoe boxes, folders, containers, plastic boxes, draws, cupboards to get things out of the way.

Here I will show you a few extra good ideas to storage LEGO, Teddybears, toy cars, books and more. Buy some plain garden paper bags and draw or write what you will place in them, they cost nothing and they are very durable. Get some old wooden boxes, clean them well and paint them in all sort of colours which will go well with the room. The classic IKEA bookcase with storage paper boxes is always a great way to get things in order. Or take a trip to the local fleemarked and browse about to find cute older things, have fun restoring them and use them for book´s and toy´s.

  

Oliver has this amazing room with oblique or sloped wall´s which takes away some of the total area. To use as much space as possible in the lower area as "exhibition" and storage I have chosen a classic IKEA shelf, turned it around to use it horisontal. 

A great idea is to take plain paper bags, decorate or write what´s inside.

Find wooden boxes, and have a nice time cleaning, painting and decorating them. Panduro has funny things to decorate with. 

Most Flea Markets has great stuff you can use as storage, like here for books.

Great idea :-) Take out the bottom of at cupboard, create an office in there, when you want to clean up - just close the doors !

These boxes for bigger things like Teddybears and ball´s, can be made with a little concentration, of some wood and robe from the local Hardware store.

You need to be quit handy to build this folding table, but it´s a great idea, and when you close it you can place a picture on the back side of the table to make it look like a frame of a painting when closed against the wall. 

I hope you liked some of the ideas, Christina

How to create more space in a smaller place.

I remember my first apartment which was 32m2. and the way I was using every corner available  and still having space enough for a workstation, dining area, "walk-in closet", kitchen, bedroom, bathroom and living room and making parties for 35 people at the time, to great joy of my neighbors ;-/ 

I am often asked how to make more space in a house which has less square meters. You have to use the imagination and build up, build down, on the side and divide. Below I have illustrated ways to use you space in a good way which makes it possible to have room for everything. 

If you have enough hight in the room, a great idea is to build up, and in that way make a 2nd. floor.

Divide your space into 2 in an easy and economic way by using a cute curtain to make one room into bedroom and living room at the same time.

A more permanent way to divide a room into two is to build a wall which you can use as a library and a divider at the same time.

If you don´t have a lot of space it´s obvious that you will have to buy more compact elements to get all you need into the space you have to work with.

A great way to get more space specially in the bedroom is to build up, because here you will usually not need at lot of hight in the bed area. In this way you will create a lot of extra storage. 

Use folding bed or tables to save space.

I hope you can use some of these ideas, Christina

10 Great ideas for children ´s rooms.

There are so many funny way´s to decorate children´s rooms. You can make it playfull, creative, smart, intelligent and funny. Decorate with things that can help to keep their rooms in order, like penholders, small containers, shelfs and draws. Or decorate wall´s with wallpaper or metal boards to help their learning ability.  

This is a picture of Oliver´s room from when he was 5 years old. I found him this beautiful map of the world at Tapet Cafeen. And we used it, as a way to play with names and places of all the cities and countries where we have been, or where we have relatives who lives. By the age of 6 he knew most of the world from this map.

Since we were living in Italy until recently, I made Oliver a "Wall of Fame ( Family )" with pictures of all our friends and family who he could not be surrounded with daily. We used to speak about everybody often and I know it ment a lot to him to "see" them everyday.

Make a decorative wall which at the same time is a creative corner, like this black board where they can draw new things all day long. The black boards ou can buy ready made or do it yourself by buying the special paint in stores. Create also a cozy corner for reading like this little Tipi, all children loves caves and small hiding places.

Are they 2 who have to share a space, divide it and give them some privacy, which will give them a possibility the concentrate even more, to do their studies. This is also a great way to creat something nice and pratical at the same time, by making space for their stuff to be put in containers and on shelf´s.

Fun, fun and pratical. Make a whole designer/leaning black board wall with pen holders, paper, containers for smaller things and shelfs. Attach black elastic with nails or glue to hold pens and use hooks for containers. 

Learning should be fun. With this light metal board attach on the wall and a bucket of letter magnet´s you will accelerate your child´s reading and writing abilities.

Children create great things and a lot of it! You properly havn´t got space for all of it. Make these re-useable frames and put up new "art" from time to time.

In houses of all sizes, storage is a problem, use all corners available like behind this door where you can set up narrow shelf´s for books and paintings. 

If hopscotch is the thing which is a favourite game, then use black tape to design on the floor, when it´s no fun anymore, you just remove the tape and no harm is done.

Create this wooden frame as a house for your kid. They will love it and it looks fantastic. Decorate with christmas lights. Most fathers can put together 15 lengths of wood.

                                                                  Enjoy, Christina

Mirror mirror on the wall....

I love paintings, but must admit to be very ignorant when it comes to art, which means most of the time I go for mirrors, because I have such difficulties choosing which kind of art to invest in. I love mirrors. Not only to admire myself ;-) .....but to reflect other great things in the surroundings, in or out. Mirrors give you the illusion of larger space and more light. Enjoy yourself by searching through flee markets for funny or simple or elegant mirrors to decorate your wall. If you have a little extra to spend check out the beautiful danish designed mirror´s  Reflection by Hugau/Larsson . Happy hunting. 

Use a large mirror to reflect the light from other parts of the house into darker areas. 

Customized mirrors set in wall.

Antique mirrors found on flee markets set as decoration.

Big elegant mirror, can be found in antique shops or even found as replica in ILVA or IKEA. Makes the effect of a much larger/longer hallway.

Customized mirror in iron.

Christina

Easter is just around the corner.

It will be Easter very soon which to me means, great lunches, massive amount of chocolate, good weather, lots of children around and vacation. The traditional yellow is not really my colour, personally I go for something in soft blue or green colours. Create your own eggs by colouring or use glitter. Blow out the egg, let them dry and then decorate with glitter-dust, colour, cut-up paper in mixed colours or other things you like. Find branches in the woods or at your neighbour´s place, put them in big vases and hang your beautiful decorated egg´s. No Easter without an egg hunt in the forest, the garden or your apartment, kids loves it.

 

.

Cute and elegant.

Rustic and simple.

Use pretty soft colours.

Happy easter

Christina

Blakes London.

Blakes is still my favorite place to stay when in London. Room # 106 has been booked already for next month when going to visit and celebrate with family.

So many great details and ideas you can use in your own home. The dark colors and big vases with green plants.

Layers and layers of decorative pillows and covers in silk and velour, we stayed here last time.

Amazing mix of colours and materials.

Beautiful white and clean and fresh, love it..love it..love. We are staying in #106 again this time. Jubilee !

The infamous bar at Blakes, great ambiance and cocktails.

Lovely to sit out here and enjoy a drink and good food for lunch or dinner.

Copenhagen Radio City Hall.

Radio City Hall ´Radiohuset´ in Copenhagen was created by the Danish functionalist architect,  Vilhelm Lauritzen, in the years from 1937-45. With help from his dear colleague, architect Finn Juhl who designed most of the furniture in the building. Being build during the war, with very few resources, Vilhelm Lauritzen found that instead of using rubber, he would use cheap soft Finnish birch mixed with teak, to create the right conditions for sound throughout the building. All wall´s are covered with maple, which over the years has turned reddish because of the exposure of the light. The building was conserved in 1994 for being a masterpiece of danish modernism.

 

During ´Danish Fashion Week´14 ´ I was asked, by Goldmind,  to be responsible for the interior for their ´Jewellery Room ´ event in the beautiful ceramic room which is located on the second floor of Radiohuset. Carl Hansen & Son was very kind to lend us their incredible classic designer furniture for the purpose. 

 


Does it get any better......seriously!

A true love affair for me right now would be this newly launched The Love Affair Collection from Bang & Olufsen.

This exclusive collection consist of their 6 most iconic designs, which is a living proof of a love affair, which started in the 1920´s and which is still going strong. The romantic rose gold aluminium, combined with walnut is like a bridge between the past, present and the future, and represent the passion and proud continous strive for better design which has been the force behind Bang & Olufsen the past 90 years.         

BeoRemote One 

BeoPlay H6 

 85" version af BeoVision Avant 

BeoPlay A9 

BeoVision 11-46" 

BeoLab 18 

Valentines Day is over but Valentine is not.

I love gadgets for my iphone and Mac. I swear to Apple, but I don´t really like the feel of the metal and to protect the object I always find covers for both my Mac and phone. Lately I am going crazy for Valentine Goods a NY based company, who in cooperation with 3M has developed these cover and back sticks, to protect and decorate you most needed carry around device.  

The Tower.

I went for lunch with Luca the other day in the newly opened restaurant, The Tower, which is the tower of the Danish Parliament. The view from the tower of Christiansborg Palace is unique and magnificent – Copenhagen’s highest tower, which is now open to the public, for the very first time. The tower is the property of the Danish Parliament, whose Members took the initiative to open it – for the pleasure of all those who live in or are visiting Copenhagen. Bojesen is your host at the restaurant, and you will be served classic danish open sandwiches and great desserts with a twist. If you are lucky you could be sitting  across the present Danish Prime Minister, ´Selfie Helle´ and other   MP´s. Great interior, good service and nice light food. Definitely worth trying.

 

View of The Tower at Christiansborg Palace.

Great simple interior at The Tower.

Amazing presentation of traditional Danish open sandwiches.

Like wife....like husband.

Isabel Marant is cool, but what´s cool too, is that her husband , Jerome Dreyfuss, is as cool. Nice creative team by the way ! His hip bags are in great materials, colours and shapes. The fact that not everybody has one around is nice. He has thought about how much stuff we carry around and can´t ever find, and to resolve this problem he has installed a small light inside the bag. Super idea, I love it  :-)

Other Jerome Dreyfuss bags.

The Corner on the corner, Il Angolo.

Just before flying to Mexico on vacation, we made a small stop over in Sicily. And obviously had to visit our favourite restaurant for lunch. Located just around the corner from our home in Sicily, you find this fantastic little exclusive restaurant called, AIl´ Angolo. My favourite place away from home. We have been coming there since Sig. Perni opened it 13 years ago. They have followed our lives since forever, and takes us in, like family. Oliver, our son, who started coming there 9 month before even being born, is perhaps one of the only children, who is really welcome at the restaurant. A little strange for an italian, BUT sig. Peri is a perfectionist.  It´s usually only open for dinner, but anytime we call and ask if we can please please please come for lunch, sig. Perni, will turn his boat around in the Mediterranean sea, where he is usually spending whatever little sparetime he has,  and het up the Volcano Etna, and start cooking his amazing food for us. The restaurant which is approximately 50m2 all included is full of great small cozy classic Sicilian ornaments and he does everything himself ! From bread, pasta, sotto olio to ice creme. Wine, ham, delicacies, vegetable and Grappa he will spend all of his holidays finding. My absolute favourite is "Tagliatelle con Tatufo" , his fantastic homemade pasta with truffle . It´s a MUST to visit if you should ever find your self on the escarpment of Mount Etna.

In love with the latest AJ 2015.

The 7 is now available as a special edition to celebrate it´s 60 year anniversary in a cool black with black or rose with brass. I love both, and would definitely get them again even efter promising myself never having to look at another 7 in my life. Being danish you are basically born sitting on a 7 and it can get a bit old. Great idea to give it renaissance in this way.