EMMAS DESIGNBLOGG

The winner of the Animal candlestick from Höganäsgruppen is Maarja who is about to decorate her dad's new apartment in Tallinn, Estonia! Congratulations Maarja (and Maarja's dad)! I will forward your email address to Höganäsgruppen so they can contact you. I hope your dad likes the candlestick! It would be great to see it in the finished environment, I'm so curious to see how it will look! Perhaps you can post a picture on my blog's facebook page when you are done?

I'm starting this week with some spaces by American interior designer Barbara Hill, I hope you like them!

Ps. Don't miss the chance to win an awesome candlestick from Höganäsgruppen here! Last chance to enter is tomorrow.

Since you all seemed to love the poster giveaway I hosted a few days ago, I thought I'd have another one!

I got an email at the beginning of this week, telling me about a new company called Höganäsgruppen, just launching their first collection of exclusive hand-made ceramics. With some of Sweden’s most skillful and interesting artists and potters behind the brand, Höganäsgruppen produces and markets modern ceramic objects with special attention to design and quality. They believe in a local production (all of their products are made and designed in Sweden) where they can leverage on a ceramic tradition that dates back over one and a half centuries to aid them in creating new high-quality objects that honour the heritage.

As I clicked over to their site, I fell head over heels in love with these Animal and Claw candlesticks, hand sculpted by Sofia Nilsson and glazed in platinum, gold or black.



Now I'm very happy to be able to give away an Animal candlestick in matte gunpowder black (worth € 165) to one lucky reader! This powerful and mesmerizing design rests on three horse-heads, and has a truly original expression. A piece of art for your table!


To enter the giveaway, simply choose your favorite product from Höganäsgruppen, and then tell me something about how you would use it in your home. What would you use it for, in which room, what would you put beside it or use it together with? How would you style it up?
Comment below before Tuesday next week (May 31) when I will draw the winner.

The winner of the L'Affiche Moderne giveaway is Marita, who whished for the La Fille du café poster by Cyril Auvity! Congratulations! Marita said that the girl in the photo looks just like her, and that the poster will get a prominent place to hang above their dining table.

I just wanted to do a little shout out about the blog French By Design. Always beautiful, always inspiring. Go see for yourself!

Here is a taster:

This giveaway is now closed and a winner has been drawn!

My sponsor L'Affiche Moderne has generously offered to host a giveaway for you! The prize is a large size (50x70 or 50x50 cm, worth € 59) poster of your choice from their big range of prints and photographs! All you have to do to have a chance to win is tell me which poster you want and why. The winner will be drawn on Thursday, May 26.

Here are some of my favourites, but do click over to L'Affiche Moderne to pick your own favourite!

If I was to sell an apartment in Stockholm today, I would definitely hire Frank to do it. This is their latest super styled flat for sale! I wonder what their candy budget is...

By the way, look at the way they played with the Kivi tea light holders from Iittala in the kitchen window. I think it's hilarious, but if you aren't Swedish you probably don't see what's so funny? Well, the thing is that everyone, and I mean everyone, in Sweden has those tea light holders at home. They are considered to be "classic good taste" and "stylish", and are a very safe decorating choice. But usually people just have two or three, casually displayed on the sofa table next to the latest issue of Residence or Family Living, and not a whole mountain of "good taste"!

Because all people have photos in their homes I figured that I would do something fun and different with photo frames. I have seen frames hung on threads which are visible many times and I simply like the asymmetry with that. It is just not letting the frames hang as they normally do but to let them hang sideways which feels like the new black. ;)

I started off with picking out three frames in different sizes and then I sprayed them with 2-3 layers of black spray paint. It is important to be thorough when it comes to let the spray colour dry between the layers.
Then I tacked the rope on the backside of the frames with the help of the staple gun and hung the frames on the big nail. I tried out how the frames would hang before I made a knot with the three ropes around the big nail. Instead of a nail you can also have a screw or a hook.

Even if the frames hang in an asymmetrical way you can achieve a feeling of harmony because the frames have the same colour. I think in a symmetric room one can get a stimulating effect on the spectator's eye by using objects in an asymmetrical way.

Next time when I see you it is in the midst of the summer and I am going to show you what you can do with crocheted tablecloths.

I've been thinking a lot about gardening and plants lately, which isn't like me at all. I grew up in the city, where the thing I appreciated most about Spring was when they sweeped the gravel from the streets so I could use my roller skates... Planting stuff just wasn't a part of my life.
This is my third spring in the house, but this is the first year I have actually planted something in the garden. I guess it took me some time to get used to the thought of having a garden. So far we have a small herb garden, some sweet peas to cover a low crumbling stone wall, and next on the list are some white poppies that I'm really looking forward to. I'm far from thinking of getting a greenhouse, but they sure look good in photos!

The pics below are from the April issue of Swedish Elle Interiör. Photography by Petra Bindel and styling by Tina Hellberg.

I'd like to present my updated Guide to Stockholm, with lots of new places to experience! I know many of you have been waiting for this, so here you go!

These are my personal favorites, and I'm skipping the more traditional guide book spots as I figure you can just get a book for that. I have moved to the countryside outside of Stockholm since I wrote my last guide, so in some ways I feel like I'm a tourist in my own hometown now… Every time I go into town I find something new that wasn't there the last time, and I don't know if that's a sign that I'm losing touch with the city, or just that Stockholm is a vibrant and ever-changing city. I hope for the latter. Enough babbling now, on to the guide!

Södermalm is my favorite area in Stockholm. This part of town used to be for the working class, not-so-hip people. That has all changed in the last decades, and Söder is now Stockholm's trendiest area, very bohemian chic and full of cute little hipster kids. It's a great place to go barhopping or shopping, or just do some people watching in one of the many parks. The two most happening areas are the SoFo area around Nytorget and the blocks around Mariatorget, you will find that most of my tips are located around these spots. There is also a nice area called Hornstull in the western parts of Södermalm.


Eat and drink

Morfar Ginko and Pappa Ray Ray, a very nice restaurant and cava bar with lots of cool dj's and clubs, and a ping pong table. Swedenborgsgatan 13.

Debaser Slussen, a restaurant/bar with clubs, concerts with popular artists and a big outdoor area in the sun. There's another Debaser at Medborgarplatsen, also on Södermalm.



Södra Teatern, beautiful old house with a great big terrace with Stockholm's best view and some great clubs and concerts. Mosebacke Torg 1-3.

Snotty, small and crowded indie rock/pop bar. Hip but relaxed. Skånegatan 90.

Trädgården, café and clubs under the Skanstull bridge, Hammarby Slussväg 2

Samba Sushi, the best sushi in town. Götgatan 28.

Hermans, for the spectacular view of Stockholm and for their delicious vegetarian lunch buffet. Fjällgatan 23b.

Urban Deli, probably the only combined grocery shop, seafood bar and restaurant in Stockholm. And a very nice one at that! Nytorget 4.

Nyfiken Gul, a charming place by the water where you can barbeque your own choice of meat for dinner, and order some nice side dishes to go with it. Hammarby Slussväg 15.

Coffice, a mix between a café and an office for freelance workers needing a space to use their laptop and have meetings, or for anyone craving some nice coffee. Tjärhovsgatan 5.

Copacabana, a nice and queer-friendly café by the water in Hornstull, serving great smoothies, pastries and sandwiches. Hornstulls Strand 3. Next door is Bio Rio, a little movie theatre in a beautiful 1940's building with all the nice details preserved.

Vurma started out as a café and bakery and is now a whole chain of nice cafés all over town and even a restaurant with a bar hosting dj's and live bands. Friendly staff and excellent sandwiches! Check their site for addresses.

Rival is a café, hotel, bakery, bistro, bar, conference centre and theatre located on Mariatorget. The outdoor tables are an excellent place for people watching in the afternoons.

If you would like to buy your own groceries and cook them yourself, Cajsa Warg is a good choice for organic groceries. They also sell readymade picnicbags that you can take with you to the park Vitabergsparken next to the store. Renstiernas gata 20.

When it comes to fashion, I like the Swedish brands Filippa K, Monki, Weekday, Nudie Jeans, Acne and Fifth Avenue Shoe Repair. All these brands are available in the SoFo area or on Götgatsbacken, a part of Götgatan full of great shops!

Papercut, a great shop for magazines, dvd's and books. If you are lusting after Nesting by Cilla Ramnek and Pia Ulin, also called "The Swedish version of The Selby", this is the place to get it. Don't miss the neighbouring stores Nitty Gritty and Our Legacy. Krukmakargatan 24-26

Granit, for all sorts of storage, from glass jars to clothes racks. They also sell basic houseware products like drinking glasses, candles, towels etc. Everything is kept in a simple style within a natural color range.

Grandpa, a mix of fashion and interiors. Last year they added a basement full of carefully selected vintage items like old lab bottles, school chairs and biology posters, a real treasure trove! Södermannagatan 21.

Manos is ceramicist Karin Eriksson's shop where she sells, besides her own goods, a nice mix of design and crafts. Renstiernas gata 22.

Fotografiska, Stockholm's photography museum that opened last year always has great exhibitions, and a nice little museum shop as well where you can buy posters and postcards. Stadsgårdshamnen 22.

Norrmalm and Östermalm are two more uptown areas (but with busy commercial areas too) usually divided into several smaller districts, but I don't hang out there too much, meaning I don't have so many places to write about from those areas, so I just combined them into one category here.

Restaurang B.A.R. run by the same prized cooks and gastronomic visionaries who started Lux, one of Stockholm's very best restaurants. Restaurang Bar's fish and seafood focused menu is in a much lower pricerange though, and the interiors are minimalist industrial chic with a touch of Parisian bistro. Blasieholmsgatan 4A.

Ramen Ki-Mama, for the best ramen dishes in town. The interiors don't look like much, except for the funny huge whale on the wall, but you can concentrate on the food instead, or go for take away. Budget friendly! Birger Jarlsgatan 93

Rolfs Kök, a Stockholm classic where the food, cocktails and service are always excellent. Small place with a relaxed atmosphere and an open kitchen where you see the chefs cooking your meals. Designed by Jonas Bohlin och Thomas Sandell in the 1990's, but the interiors are still holding up quite well in my opinion. Tegnérgatan 41.



Hjerta, rustic Swedish country food with French influences served in a former shipyard on the small island of Skeppsholmen. Slupskjulsvägen 28 B.

Svartengrens, a brand new restaurant opening in May 2011, with a focus on good quality, locally produced meat. I haven't been there myself yet, but from what I've heard, both the food and the interiors are great. Tulegatan 24.

Design House Stockholm is full of products in the essentially Scandinavian style with clean lines and pale colours, focused on function and sustainability. Smålandsgatan 11.

Pärlans konfektyr makes and sells delicious handmade oldfashioned toffee with flavours like seasalt or candied ginger. The shop/workshop is decorated completely in 1930's style, and the cute shop assistants/toffee makers are all kitted out in matching 30's outfits. Artillerigatan 56.



Nunc is a tiny store/showroom on Vikingagatan 15, only open on Fridays and Saturdays, with a great mix of industrial, vintage and modern pieces, and also a great webshop.

And lastly my favourite museums, Moderna museet (modern art museum) and Arkitekturmuseet. They are both in the same building on Skeppsholmen. The exhibitions are always well curated and are usually quite interesting, but what I like the most is the shop and the café and restaurant with a view. They serve brunch here on weekends. Don't miss it.

Nobis Hotel, designed by CKR, one of the most well known Swedish architect and design firms. This hotel oozes understated luxury and is located in a beautiful old bank building from the late 1800's in the most central parts of town. Read more in my post about Nobis here.



Berns Hotel, I wrote a whole post on this hotel last year, and to this date, it's the best hotel I've stayed in. It's stylish, has a great location and very serviceminded staff. And the breakfast is to die for! You can read the post I did on Berns Hotel here.

Story Hotel, with interiors inspired by worn down New York restaurants and chic bohemian hotels in Paris, mixed with the spirit of the progressive musicians and artists that used to live in the building. Add a wonderful restaurant to that, and you have greatness. To see more pics and read more about Story, visit my old post here.

Hotell Skeppsholmen is another one of CKR's projects. This hotel is environmentally friendly, the staff's clothes are designed by the Swedish brand Acne, the bathroom products are from Byredo who also designed a special signature scent for the hotel and it's located in a historical building from 1699 right by the water. I haven't tried it myself, but it sure sounds nice, doesn't it?

There are more locations mentioned in my previous guide from 2009, so take a look here for other nice places! Just be aware that I haven't updated it, so the places I mention there may have moved or closed, so please check that up before you decide to visit them.

I hope you enjoyed this guide and that it will be useful for those of you visiting Stockholm in the nearest future!

I wrote about Fantastic Frank, Stockholm's most creative real estators, here when they opened in August last year. Since then, they have had a lot of homes for sale, so I wanted to collect some of my favourite shots from their ads. Enjoy!

Ps. Frank also has a blog, with forehand tips on homes they are going to sell, and lots of inspirational pics.

What was originally a dairy shop from 1930 is now a modern house inside a greenhouse. The owners didn't like the fact that anyone walking by the house could see in through the large windows, so they covered the facade facing the street with corrugated milky white plastic. This way the space between the facade and the plastic sheets became a perfect greenhouse! It's also a great way to insulate the house, together with the metal clad sheets of "Huurre" panel used to cover the house' crumbling facade.
The owner is designer and interior architect Andrejs Legzdins, and the biggest source of inspiration for this house makeover was the legendary Buckminster Fuller, who was very involved in envionmental issues already in the 1930's.
Read the full article and see more pictures at Vårt Nya Hem's site.

Ps. All of the posts on the front page of the blog has mysteriously disappeared, but hopefully everything will be back to normal soon. In the meantime you can browse the archives! And just as I posted this, they are back! Yay!

Spring is back! Today is warm and sunny, so I'm going to spend the day outside catching some rays and working in the garden. Perhaps we'll visit the neighbour's cows too! What are you doing today? Not working I hope? But if you have a work space as nice as these below, perhaps working on a Saturday wouldn't be so bad...
(Click the images to go to the source)

This is the home of Dutch interior stylist Carline van Oel. She photographed it herself. I highly admire multi-talented people, I think it's so amazing that some people seem to be super talented at whatever they decide to do!

I just scrolled down the front page of the blog and realized there's been a whole lot of monochromes lately. And sure, I love black, white and grey, but sometimes you need a tiny pop of colour to cheer it all up a bit. So I found a Norwegian flat in Bo Bedre which does just that. Enjoy!

Today I'm loving this set design by Danish interior stylist Denis Bjerregaard for Euroman, shot by Franne Voigt. The grey hues suits my mood and the weather perfectly.

Via Anna gillar via Cherry Blossom World

It's very grey here today, and it has even been snowing! I know some of you probably think that Sweden is cold all year around and that we have polar bears in the streets, but the truth is that this time of year is usually very nice here. May is usually a month for picnics, gardening and getting the first tan of the year. Not so this year. We've had snow, hail and a temperature close to the freezing point for two days now. So today I'm posting some pics styled by Tara Ballantyne and photographed by Trine Thorsen for the latest issue of Norwegian Elle Decoration, to lure spring back!

This Stockholm apartment with a very nice little roof terrace belongs to interior designer Moa Lundberg and was styled by Lotta Agaton and shot by Pia Ulin for Swedish Elle Interiör.