In Elle Interiør this month...

Back in May this year we had a visit from photographer and journalist Elisabeth Hudson who wanted to make an article on our home. She did a great job. The result is now published in the November issue of Norwegian Elle Decoration (Elle Interiør). All in all I think it looks good, although I don't quite recognize myself in some of the text (something mysterious happened in the editing room after the initial go-ahead...)

The caption reads 'The flower child'. It's supposed to be me.

If you go looking for the magazine in the newsagents’ shelves, this is the cover to look for:
(I'm not sure if it’s available outside of Scandinavia).

No more blank wall

The wall above our sofa has been blank for the 8 years that we have lived in this house. I bought 'Lack' shelves at Ikea years ago, thinking they should go on that particular wall. The intention was to have a space where I could move pictures and objects around when I feel like it, rather than to hang pictures there permanently. The shelves were put up yesterday, and I found that I had a lot of stuff I wanted to display on them... After a lot of shuffling around of paintings and vases etc. and hearing Luther Vandross humming in my inner ear 'Never too much, never too much...', I ended up with this solution. For now. (If you feel a bit seasick from looking at this image, it could be because the ceiling is actually slanting. Nothing to do with my decoration, I'm sure ;-)


The black lady figurine (formerly decapitated and glued back together, before I found her in a skip) has been residing in our bedroom. I wonder if she should go back there..? I'll let her sit on the shelf for a bit while I consider it. Francesca of Mrs Eliot Books might recognize one of her prints on the shelf.


The dog pencil drawing was done by a lady called Helene Klem and signed 1931. I picked this up at some junk yard so unfortunately know nothing about her. The oil painting is dated 1965 and is by Ansgar Leiten, a Norwegian artist. This was also a fleemarket find.

Designer home: Eero Aarnio

I keep a scrap book with articles of houses and interiors that I like. One of the houses I have in there is Finnish designer Eero Aarnio's. If you're not already familiar with the name, he is the designer behind such classics as the Ball Chair (1963), Tomato (1971), Pastillo (1968), Puppy (2005) and Double Bubble lamp (2001). Aarnio is regarded as one of the great innovators of modern furniture design, experimenting with plastics and bright colors in his furniture pieces. He's represented in some of the world's most prestigious museums (naturally :-).

I particularly like the bright, light feel of this house, all the built-in bookshelves and the touches of bright colors.

These photographs are all borrowed from photographer Rachel Smith.