DENVER UNION STATION.

If you need a great reason to go to Denver, here is one. DENVER UNION STATION. If you’ve ever stood inside an Avroko-designed space, then you are fully aware of the visual feast of trinkets, vintage one-offs and authentic storytelling that ensues. The firm's principal designers, Greg Bradshaw, Adam Farmerie, Kristina O'Neal, and William Harris have an enticing way of transporting you into their world in a meals time.

It only makes sense that the New York based design firm would be selected to restore Denver Union Station, one of the city’s oldest establishments. The relic originally opened it’s doors back in the summer of 1881 and underwent a series of renovations over the following century. Fast forward 134 years, the 22-gate underground bus facility and light rail station is now a multi-functional space, that includes a hotel, several restaurants and shops — many of which, designed by Avroko.

Inspired by the idea of luxury train travel and the American industrial era, the designers created an eclectic social hub and two bars in this one of a kind historical preservation project. Beige and brown architectural elements and original textures were enhanced by painting everything white and focus was placed on custom lighting and furniture to bring life and a richness to each space. 

The wooden benches, free standing lamp posts and shuffleboard tables create a fun-loving spirit in the Great Hall, the drinks menu in the Terminal Bar harken back to nostalgic days of train travel in the style of an old departure board, and the lush fabrics found through The Cooper Lounge are reminiscent of Pullman car drinking booths. Here's to the next 100 years.

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Create your own fantasy.

Without changing too much you can create you own, wish and fantasy, in your home. Whatever type you are, you will be able to find just the theme you love and need, and make you home or just a corner of it into your own little paradise, with these kind of amazing wall papers which you can find among others in stores like TAPET CAFE,  THE PAPER WALL, SANDERSON  etc.

Wall-paper for ´The nature lover´

Wall-paper for ´The reader´

Wall-paper for ´The luxury lover´

Wall-paper for ´The Queen and The King´

Turn up the volume in your bathroom.

Bathrooms are often overlooked in homes. But still each person uses 1-2 hours a day in there, wouldn't it be nice to be surrounded by something lovely. Have some fun re-doing you bathroom by filing it with colours, wall-paper, candlelights, lacquer, chandeliers, paintings, gold, fat cotton, lights and much more. 

Enjoy, Christina

The effect of light is amazing.

Spice up a smaller and dull room with wall-paper and give it character.

Have fun with colours and create something completely different. 

Make a "Wall of Fame" to spice things up.

Make a fantastic floor with lacquer and keep it clean and graphic at the same time.

Refine your bathroom with a chandelier and get that hotel mood.

Do it ALL wall-paper, gold, chandelier, stripes, paintings, lights .....go crazy. 

Use candles to get the cozy and romantic feeling even in a very minimalistic styled bathroom.

Let´s go to bed.

Linens has always be a great deal in Denmark. We properly have the biggest export of feather duvets in the world,..... or at least used to. Where you usually sleep with blankets in other countrys, here we only use duvets, which are warm, light and comfortable. I love entering in a clean and crispy bed with soft coloured bedding. Since forever, I bought nice linens, which has always been put on my bed cleaned and ironed, .........usually by me ;-) . I believe you mentally relax and sleep better in white or soft coloured and crisp sheets. But obviously its a matter of taste.

Sleep well, Christina

Bring back wood inside.

A perfect way to give warmth to a home, is to decorate wall´s and other surface´s with wood panels. Use wood as the organic contrast to soften up a modern concrete house.  The choises are many now, fortunately not only pine and birch like in the ´70. I remember some horrific examples from back then. Stickwood has a great variety of planks made from natural wood which can easily be attached to your wall´s.

MS-Navigator a luxury ship at the doorstep of The queen.

I was invited to a meeting with Kim Sørensen, the owner of the great MS-Navigator. An amazing ship in front of The Queens Castle in Copenhagen. Kim Sørensen rebuild the ship into a luxury hotel on the water some 5 years ago and she is now available for dinner, meetings, cruises or as a hotel. Kim Sørensen has keep 95% of the original ship and spared no cost to create his beautiful hotel on water. I was loving going around seeing the very stylish interior, the super shiny brass every where and specially the engine room down below, full of engines, instruments and cables from the 1940´s still intact. One person I would have loved to show this, is my late father, who would have appreciated such an experience a 100%. Most of my memories of him has to do with the sea. We would sail, waterski, swim, dive for mussels, go out early in the morning to watch the sun come up from the boat and enjoy lunch or dinner in harbours all over Denmark. Anything to do with the sea was our thing, basically. You should go and see for yourself and be impressed.

Lamps I would love to use in interior decoration one day.

Lamps has always been a big favourite of mine. Since I was guite young I would often wish lamps as gifts even the more expensive designer ones. Like I have said before, I think light has a major effect on any interior. Being brought up in Copenhagen with the many months of short day´s of natural light, I have the habit of using the electrical light all day long, even if there is light outside. I need that warm light and will often let lamps turned on in rooms I am not even sitting in because I love the feeling of passing by a room and see the beauty of it and have the cozy warm  feeling the light gives. Apart of the actual feeling the light gives, they are like sculptures and are great objects to use for decorations in a room. 

Atomic by Delightful

Tigermoth Lighting 

Arne Jacobsen, a true pride for Denmark.

Arguably Denmark’s most famous 20thcentury furniture designer, Arne Jacobsen was also a highly accomplished architect. Shortly after graduating in 1927 he opened his own design office, which he ran with driven determination until his death in 1971. Through his long and productive career, Jacobsen worked in architecture, furniture, product and textile design, and was a professor of architecture at the Royal Academy of Arts in Copenhagen for many years.

AJ himself

Being a Dane in Italy obviously I had to have as many danish icons in my house as possible, when I designed and build it 10 years ago. It´s a great mix of Arne Jacobsen, Verner Panton, George Jensen, PH and Luis Poulsen, when it comes to chairs and light. Børsen Pleasure made a very nice article about me when the house was ready back then. Now it´s time for a change, after more than 300-400 lunches with a minimum of 18 people at the time, I am going to reupholster all my beautiful, but much worn chairs, and I am thinking to go for leather this time.

Brighten up you bathroom.

For me, light in a room is the most important thing. You can have any house or any furniture,.... if the lighting is wrong, everything is wrong. Light have to be practical and give character at the same time. It´s important with lots of lightpoint through a house to create the cozy feeling, and as a practical use you must put general light with a regulater to get more light when needed. In bathrooms a lot of general light is needed to shave or put on make-up, because you need light from all sides of the face. If you think about how make-up mirrors in theatres are made with 8-10 lightbulbs all around a mirror, it give you an idea of what kind of light works best in you bathroom. 

In my own bathroom I have put in very bright general light from the ceiling and a long row of light over my mirror. Ideally I should have devided my long mirror in 2 and placed light vertical on each side to get the full light from all sides. In design you always have to compromise but I would say it works 95%.

The darker a room, the more light you will need. Here you see an example of very bright light coming from above and from below to give enough light for what you need.

If lamps are not your thing, just make sure to place a few extreme bright light where it´s needed.

Lighter rooms makes it easier with fewer lights places in the right places. This would be perfect.

The light in this room I would say is perfect, it comes from all sides and because of this, it will be really useful.

I hope these advices can be useful for you. Otherwise contact me and I will assist.

Christina

Its all about gold and marble at Saint Laurent´s, Paris.

Something great to see next time you are in Paris. Saint Laurent reopens in Paris. In years past, everybody fell in love with the sharp and sleek design of Saint Laurent’s pace on rue du Faubourg Saint-Honore in Paris. Outfitted in marble, complemented with mirror walls and glossy black interior accents, the space was a visual feast. Today, the fashion label has re-opened the 390-square-meter retail charm with the addition of tribal sculptures, gold coffee tables and creamy velvet loungers.

Designed by Hedi Slimane, French photographer, fashion designer and current creative director for Saint Laurent, the boutique features pieces by Jacques Adnet, Jean Besnard, Edith Borger, Théo Ruth, Jacques-Emile Ruhlmann by Alfred Porteneuve and André Sornay.

This time around, the space is so much more than a visual feast. It’s a museum of sculpture and fashion, a true reflection of the brand’s timeless presence in the ever-changing fashion realm.

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

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.

 

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Cute and elegant.

Rustic and simple.

Use pretty soft colours.

Happy easter

Christina

Spring is here, expand your home with cozy corners in you garden , balconies or windowsill´s.

When the sun is coming out like now, I can´t wait to buy flowers. There is nothing better that getting a little colour in the garden or balcony. I find everything I don´t use in the house anymore like old baskets, vases, pillows, blanket´s and Christmas decorations, and just change the colour of candles and bow´s to fit the Spring mood.

Here we go.......

Pillows which I don´t use inside anymore, are now great for outside.

My Christmas decorations can last a couple of week more. I just change bow colour, take away the candles and plant a few colorful flowers in the middel.

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Our Christmas candle gets a new life with change of colours of bow and candle.

More "old" pillows are being used outside and my old laundry basket is being put back to life as a  flower vase.

Happy Spring,

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.