accessories, budget decorating, budget design, color, DIY, furniture, home office, inspiration, kitchen, living room

The Finds / Znaleziska

I can’t believe how many great products and designs I’ve seen on my last trip to Poland. The interior design market is changing there rapidly, and there aren’t that many new trends that you can’t find there now; even better – most of them are available at high street retailers, making great design available for many!

But before we go into the New, first let us talk about the Old. First, a find stil bought in the UK, but which I envisage to place in the yellow bedroom I was describing some time ago. For now to keep you in suspense – still in packaging, you will see the final effect when all is ready! This vintage glamour / shabby chic mirror frame cost peanuts and is absolutely amazing; I found it on iBootSale and picked up the next day. As it turned out, it was too big even for my mutant-huge suitcase, so had to ship with DHL. But it was worth it, the new owners are thrilled to have it!

Vintage glamour / shabby chic ornamental mirror frame
Vintage glamour / shabby chic ornamental mirror frame

As we’re with vintage, when we visited my in-laws, I was in heaven. Here are some more finds. First, the sideboards, etc that my husband’s grandfather hand made some years ago (he was even taking carpenter order for those for local people, and funnily enough I saw a very similar one in some other garage when cycling through the village):

I’m planning to sand it, paint in a delicate pastel colour, add a few embellishments and generally keep it shabby chic / country. Whether for me or someone else – I don’t know yet!

Handmade vintage sideboard by my husband's grandfather
Handmade vintage sideboard by my husband's grandfather

This is another beauty, with more bite to it and gorgeous handles… there is also a sideboard top in another shed but in much worse condition – still there is a chance 🙂

Handmade vintage sideboard by my husband's grandfather
Handmade vintage sideboard by my husband's grandfather

Loads of those around as well… I’ve seen some very nice decors of country kitchens with stove door as a decoration on the wall:

Vintage stove door
Vintage stove door

…and finally our finds from a nearby house that is being refurbished – a vintage double shelf and an old radio which I am thinking about converting into a night stand. They were just being thrown away so hopefully they will get a second chance 🙂

Vintage find - old double shelf
Vintage find - old double shelf
Vintage find - old radio frame
Vintage find - old radio frame

And now last truly vintage items. Not obviously planning to do that, and with ideas ranging from ghost chairs to mismatched vintage, we bought 8 chairs 🙂 When we first got into this antique shop, we just came in to browse, and then we came across the two beauties:

…the raspberry-peach louis-style chairs,  eight

Raspberry Louis style glamour chair
Raspberry Louis style glamour chair

…and the black and golden stylized chairs (19th c. Art Noveau style),  six

Black and golden 19th/20th century style chairs
Black and golden 19th century Art Noveau style chairs

I couldn’t decide which ones are better. The raspberry ones worked well with my idea, and I even considered such chairs (with different upholstery); they are also much easier to fit with many styles; glamour, eclectic, shabby chic, etc. The black ones, though, were absolutely original and different to what you normally find, but would not suit our space as they would really require it to be much more upscale than we planned for.

But we couldn’t decide, as both sets were gorgeous. We also had to think through whether they really will work well, how much they will influence other design elements in the house, even what are we going to do with this number of chairs 🙂 At some point we wanted to get both sets, as the black ones were dirt cheap. Having slept over the night dreaming about them, we took a decision – we go again and we buy one set that will work best.

Raspberry Louis style glamour chair
Raspberry Louis style glamour chair

At closer inspection, it turned out that the black chairs were very uncomfortable – what looked as well-formed foam was in fact a nicely shaped plank, or some other piece of wood, and the seats were darn hard. Also, the paint was peeling off at the teeniest touch, and someone actually painted (probably with  spray) over part of the fabric at the back. There were a few other elements we didn’t like either.

Generally unhappy about the quality, we turned to the raspberry set. Gosh, that was comfortable 🙂 Very soft, stable, and sturdy in construction; after being told the shop can pressure-clean them, and having got a super-discount, decision was taken and they are OURS! Of course they need re-upholstering and a new coat of finish (and maybe crystal buttons?), but after cleaning they can even serve as they are for the time-being (meaning: when they are in the shed waiting until we move back to Poland, but no one knows when!).

Raspberry Louis style glamour chair
Raspberry Louis style glamour chair

Their versatility will allow me also to use one for a work desk, and another two can work very well with some retro or modern couch.

My mother-in-law even suggested some fabrics for upholstery from her own collection:

Golden and cream upholstery for the chairs
Golden and cream upholstery for the chairs

OK! Enough of vintage, I will show you what I found in shops next time 🙂

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Az mi trudno uwierzyc ile przepieknych i oryginalnych produktow i projektow znalazlam w czasie mojego ostatniego pobytu w polsce. Rynek wnetrzarski i projektowania wnetrz naprawde jest teraz ciekawy, i niewiele zostalo jeszcze designow ktorych w Polsce nie mozna teraz znalezc. Co lepsze  – dostepne sa w zwyklych sklepach,  nie u drogich importerow, dzieki czemu dostep do nich ma w koncu wiele osob.

Ale zanim o nowosciach, troche o starociach.  Najpierw przepiekna stara rama, na skrzyzowaniu glamour i shabby chic, ktora planuje powiesic w zoltej sypialni o ktorej kiedys pisalam. Znalazlam ja za grosze na iBootSale i odebralam nastepnego dnia. Niestety okazala sie za duza nawet na moja gigantycznie zmutowana walize, wiec poleciala do Polski DHLem. Ale bylo warto – rama bardzo spodobala sie nowym wlascicielom!

Juz w Polsce najpierw odwiedzilismy tesciow. Moja radocha nie miala konca gdy zajrzalam do stodoly, obory, i innych skrytek. Znalazlam na przyklad dwa przepiekne kredensy / komody zrobione wlasnorecznie przez dziadka mojego meza (robil je tak dobrze ze nawet przyjmowal zamowienia od okolicznych mieszkancow, i faktycznie – rowerujac sobie przez wioske znalazlam w innym garazu bardzo podobny kredens!).

Z kremowa lub pastelowa farba i krysztalowymi galkami beda przepiekne 🙂 (choc ta mniejsza komoda sama z siebie ma piekne raczki wiec moze zostana). Jeszcze nie wiem czy znajda miejsce u mnie (w koncu 59m2 ma swoj limit!) czy jednak u kogos innego…

Mnostwo jest takze drzwiczek od starych piecow kaflowych, ktore pieknie moznaby wkomponowac w kuchnie wiejska.

…a na spacerze kilka domow dalej trwal remont, gdzie wsrod wyrzuconych smieci znalazlam piekna podwojna polke i rame starego radia (ktora byc moze stanie sie stolikiem nocnym). Cuda nad cudami 🙂

No i w koncu – ‘niechcacy’ kupilismy krzesla 🙂 no nie moglismy sie oprzec. Zastanawialismy sie nad dwoma zestawami – malinowo- brzoskwiniowymi Ludwikami, oraz czarno-zlotymi z przelomu XIX/XX wieku, w stylu secesyjnym. Przyznaje ze bardziej za serce w pierwszym momencie chwycily secesyjne, choc od razu wywietrzylam problem. Te krzesla mocno narzucaja swoj styl, ktory jest duzo bardziej elegancki niz planowalismy. Z kolei ludwiki jak to ludwiki – pasuja do wielu wnetrz (eklektyczne, glamour, shabby chic, i inne), wygladaja dobrze nawet z nowoczesnymi (szklo, plastik itd)…

…przespalismy sie z problemem, w pewnym momencie nawet uznajac ze moze kupimy oba zestawy. No ale przy drugim obejrzeniu okazalo sie ze jakosciowo te czarne nie sa najlepsze… i mocno niewygodne. Oczywiscie byloby to do zmiany ale juz nas tak nie zachwycaly jak dzien wczesniej. Malinowe (choc siedzenia bardziej w brzoskwinke wpadaja) ludwiczki za to jak najbardziej wygodne, i nawet sprzedawca dorzucil profesjonalne pranie zeby troche ich jeszcze pouzywac tak jak sa. No i je wzielismy 🙂

I tak przyda im sie nowa tapicerka z pelniejszym wypelnieniem, krysztalowe guziczki (moze) i nowy lakier, ale poniewaz na razie i tak stoja w schowku czekajac na lepsze czasy czyli nasz powrot do PL (kiedy? kiedy??…) to moga byc 🙂 Planuje jednego uzyc do biurka, i sa odpowiednio ozdobne by pasowac tez przy retro czy nowoczesnej kanapie. Kochana tesciowka odlozyla juz nawet material ktorego moglabym uzyc na obicie i inne dodatki, ale to juz zalezne bedzie od ostatecznej koncepcji. Juz sie nie moge doczekac!


No! To tyle tego vintage. W nastepnym poscie przechodzimy do nowosci jakie znalazlam 🙂

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articles, inspiration, presentations

Design for Life with Philippe Starck

I know, I know, it’s been ages since I last was here! But fear not, I have not forgotten 🙂 The work – actually the homework for the design school – has been taking every minute of my free time over the last few weeks… but more about it later.

First, let me share with you the amazing news – a new series has just started on the BBC and it is about product design! This has been my first passion – applied art and product designs have been my passions even before I started thinking about full-blown interior design. I find it amazing how everything that surrounds us has been designed by someone even if we don’t think about it, and that – as opposed to fine arts – an object of beauty can be also an object of function.

But – back to the topic: the amazing, the great, the best, the ingenious, the inspiring, the genious Philippe Starck is hosting ‘Design for Life‘, a program about 12 young Brits spending a few weeks in Starck’s design agencyin Paris in hope that one of them can be the future of design in the UK. The main prize is a 6-month placement at Starck’s, but even those ten weeks are more than any designer could ever dream of, so all the best to the participants and let’s hope we’ll see some great designs! You can see the first episode here.

And if you don’t know what Starck designed, here are some of the iconic objects:

Philippe_Starck_Privé_Collection
Philippe_Starck_Privé_Collection
Miss Lacy by Philippe Starck
Miss Lacy by Philippe Starck
Philippe Starck Gun Collection
Philippe Starck Gun Collection
Philippe Starck - Juicy Salif
Philippe Starck - Juicy Salif
Philippe Starck Louis Ghost Chair
Philippe Starck Louis Ghost Chair
Voxan Café Racer Super Naked by Philippe Starck
Voxan Café Racer Super Naked by Philippe Starck
Philippe Starck Holly All Vase
Philippe Starck Holly All Vase
DRIADE BY PHILIPPE STARCK
DRIADE BY PHILIPPE STARCK

What I really liked is his design philosophy, or rather life philosophy, some of it we could observe already in the first episode. As he said, ‘we are not artists‘. What designers do, or should do,  is to create functional and sustainable products for the masses. Also interesting was how important to him the history behind a product is. What is it made of is an obvious question, but is it functional enough? Who made it? How? Does it make sense? Does it show the way forward? The designer need to think really outside of the final product. He controversially criticised a lovely bicycle brought as an example of an ecologically sound product by one of the contestants. It cost only €90, which is why Starck dismissed it as a product most probably done by people who earn almost nothing. How else can you create this complicated piece of technology for so little? Stay tuned for next episodes!

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Uwaga uwaga, na BBC wlasnie zaczal sie swietny program. Design for Life, prowadzony przez genialnego i wyjatkowego projektanta ktorym jest Philippe Starck (jezeli nie bardzo wiesz o kim mowie, zerknij na zdjecia kilku z jego niezapomnianych projektow powyzej). W tym programie, 12 mlodych Brytyjczykow spedzi kilka tygodni w Paryzu w firmie projektowej Starck’a, a my wszyscy mamy nadzieje ze dzieki temu narodzi sie nowy talent w UK. Nagroda glowna jest 6-miesieczna pozycja w agencji, choc juz te kilka tygodni sa wyjatkowa nagroda…

Sztuka uzytkowa byla moim marzeniem jeszcze zanim zaczelam myslec o projektowaniu wnetrz. Uwielbiam to ze wszystko co nas otacza jest dzielem jakiegos projektanta (czy zdajemy sobie z tego sprawe czy nie), oraz ze w przeciwienstwie do np. malarstwa, piekne przedmioty spelniaja rowniez funkcje.

No ale wracajac do tematu, spodobalo mi sie ze Starck od samego poczatku przekazuje swoja filozofie. Ucina niefunkcjonalne projekty mowiac ‘nie jestesmy artystami!’, za misje uznajac tworzenie funkcjonalnych i ekologicznych produktow dla mas. Wazna dla niego tez jest historia produktu. Z czego jest zrobiony? Jak? Przez kogo? Czy jest odpowiednio funkcjonalny? Projektant powinien myslec duzo szerzej niz o samym koncowym efekcie. Ciekawie wyrazone zostalo to w momencie gdy jeden z uczestnikow przyprowadzil rower jako przyklad dobrego ekologicznego produktu. No tak, ale skoro ten skomplikowany technologicznie i wysoki jakosciowo rower kosztowal jedynie €90, czy ci robotnicy co go zbudowali mogli zarobic wiecej niz grosze? A wiec: polecam pierwszy odcinek (do obejrzenia tu) – i czekajcie cierpliwie na ciag dalszy!


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