The calendar is printed!

Finally the calendar is printed and ready! Me and Rebecca are very happy with the result! It's for sale and for 6 euros+shipping ( 4.75 within the EU and 6.59 to the rest of the world). The calendar mesaures 29,7 x42 cm (11.8 x 16.5 in) and is printed on pale blue 160 gr paper.
Just send us an e-mail with your shipping adress to kollega@kollegaworks.com and we'll send it to you first thing after Christmas!
We use PayPal for the payments.
I'm off to spend the holidays with my family in Gotland now, but I'll be back after Christmas! Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all of you!



If you are interested in buying our 2009 calendar, send us an email kollega@kollegaworks.com

Something pretty

Today my hands, arms and back hurts after scraping and sanding my new chair. I almost gave up on the whole thing but I'm close to finished with it and it will turn out quite nice I think. Just want to share this amazing work of art by Ana Serrano today. A color injection I appreciate a day like this, since the sun hardly appeard in Copenhagen at all!





Art by Ana Serrano

Patchwork and talent!

I've been collecting images of patchwork-like furniture for a while and today, since it was my last day of my temporary position at Sisterbrandt and I was a bit sad about it, I bought an interior magazine to cheer myself up. They had a piece on furniture in patchwork style, and they showed this cute chair by danish designer Amy Hunting. We went to the same designschool but I never had the opportunity to talk to her, but what I can see from her website she is also a talented illustrator! Anyways, I like this chair alot, it's totally made out of scrap wood, and wouldn't mind having it in my livingroom.



from Amy Hunting

Mushrooms

Recently I developed a slight obsession with mushrooms, not as food, just visually. As I've written before, we have a a couple of mushroom posters by Ebbe Stub Wittrup that I like alot and today I found this really cute table by Thomas Wold! Nice isn't it?



From Thomas Wold



Poster by Ebbe Stub Wittrup

Our new 2009 calendar!

Me and my friend Rebecca made this calendar this weekend!
We hope that 2009 will be the best year ever, and maybe humanity will even discover a new planet this year and maybe, maybe, it will look something like this..



Kollega

The calendar is printed on pale blue 160 gr paper, and mesaures 29,7 x42 cm (11.8 x 16.5 in) and is for sale to anyone who also believes in a happy 2009! We will send it to you, no matter where you are! Just send us an e-mail at kollega@kollegaworks.com and we'll figure it out!
The calendar is 6 euro+shipping ( 4.75 within the EU and 6.59 to the rest of the world) and the color of it is slightly darker than the image above.

Wooden walls

When they do larger plumbing work in the streets of Copenhagen they use wooden boards, similar to the one used for the wall in the picture, to cover the holes in the streets. I like the colours and the contrast of this picture, wich is from the Los Angeles based architect Barbara Bestor's diningroom



via Remodelista

fruity

I was flipping through some old Elle interiör yesterday, I rarely buy interior magazines but these I've kept for some reason. I found a very cute idea that I would like to try somewhere in my kitchen! The french designer Barbara Zorn decorated her kitchen cupboards with fruit stickers. Nice isn't it? And what appeals to me too, is that it's an ongoing project that will grow a little every day!

Picture from Elle interiör 2/2006

T-centralen, Stockholm

Copenhagen's metro was opened in 2002 and before that, Copenhageners travelled by bus or the local trains (S-trains) The Metro is very futuristic, with automatic trains and a very minimalistic and modern type of architecture. I rarely travel by Metro, but when I do, I miss something pretty to look at, instead of all the ads. The Stockholm subway has alot of art (you can actually get guided tours to all the underground art!) some of it is great, and this is a favourite of mine. It's at the central station and was made by the artists Signe Persson-Melin and Anders Österlin in 1956-57. Totally inspiering, at least for a graphic designer ;)

photos borrowed from Flickr

Move in with me, please!

Wooden dolls by Alexander Girard Vitra

Among the clouds

Ok, so this is another picture from the book I wrote about yesterday... But there were so many nice photos, I just have to share one more! The second pic is not the same wallpaper, but similar, from Boråstapeter.

via Homepoint

Between kitsch and classic

I borrowed a really nice book from one of the shelves at work, a couple of weeks ago, called "Personlig stil- mellem kitsch og klassisk" by Line Jensen and Tine Schou. It's a few years old (from 2005) but I really enjoyed it and it had some pretty nice interiors. All the homes in the book are in Copenhagen and some of them were quite alot like ours, the same types of windows etc, so that, of course, made it even more interesting to me.
I wanted to share a few of the photos with interiors with very "raw" walls, I like it alot and in fact that's exactly what our walls looked like when we took down the wallpapers in the livingroom. At that point, I couldn't really see the potential of it, but I'll keep it in mind for the future.

Photos by Hans Ole Madsen

I was a very stylish kid...?

Last week when I went to Sweden over the day, I bought the latest issue of swedish Elle Interior. They had an article about how important it is for some parents that their kids play with the right type of toys (wooden!!), and that now a days, toys are often used as acessories, rather than toys, in stylish people's homes. The author gave an example on, how one of her friends, wanted a Brio dachshund for her birthday, to match her minimalist new apartment.
Luckily, I didn't have a clue about things like that when I dragged mine around at the age of three. Now I know I must have been a very stylish 3-year old.

Nice little project or just too much work?

Found these mid-century chairs for sale and I wonder if they can be salvaged. If the frame is solid wood you should be able to get the paint off, right?
I've been looking for a chair like this (but in better condition) but the ones I've found have been a bit over my budget. This one I can afford, but is it worth the effort?



I decided to go and have a look at the chair, it's very affordable, and if the paint won't come off, I can always paint it black!

Everyday you learn something new!

It's apartment not appartment ;)

Chloë Sevigny keeps hers in the hallway...

...and matches the walls with the bike.



via Maria @ Modette

About the italian beauty I share my boyfriend with...

My boyfriend is a cyclist, and when he bought the bike of his dreams this spring, I agreed on letting it sleep in our appartment. I'm a bit jelaous sometimes, of course, but we get along quite well, cicli berlinetta and I.
She is very elegant and quiet so I don't mind having her in our livingroom at all, but sometimes it gets a bit messy, especially with the danish winter weather.
I'm looking for the ultimate way to keep a bike in an appartment, but very few of the soloutions I've seen seems very appealing to me. I have to do some more research on that.
Anyways, here she is:



from Livet på poppelgade

This looks nice in a photo, but do you really want a bike hanging above your breakfast??



via Appartment Therapy

Bric a brac

I like to collect things, and when you have limited space it easily gets cluttered. A couple of weeks ago I found this type set case in our backyard and I use it to store tiny things like broches and my doll's house portrait of the swedish king and queen. I've been thinking about painting the set case white to make the objects pop out more, maybe it's a good idea since the color of the wood is kind of grayish. What do you think?

Similarity

In my work I often tend to be inspired by things that looks a bit like my own work. Even if my work is mostly 2D I often find inspiration in both architecture and interiors.
Chroma Lab is a Boston-based studio that focuses on renovating and repainting old furniture and I like their bold colours! I found this chest of drawers and it looks alot like a calender card I made last year together with Rebecca at Kollega, don't you think?
Maybe this piece of furniture would not go into my home, but I think it's fun and refreshing!





from Kollega

String shelf!

This is a real swedish classic that was designed in the 1950's by the architect Nils Strinning. They were out of style for quite some time, I remember that the shelfes were very common in summer houses when I was a kid because in Sweden, things that are out of style often goes to the summer house for some reason. Then, around the mid 90's they suddenly started to appear again, and I got my first one from one of my mom's collegues, who referred to it as "crap"(!) That one is teak with black sides, and it as followed me to every new home since then. I've used it in kitchens and in livingrooms and bedrooms and I still like it just as much as I did when I first got it.
Now a days they're hard to find in fleamarkets and often very expensive, and they also started to manufacture them again.
A couple of years ago I found one in a flea market that was pretty damaged and painted in a pinkish color. I tried to renovate it some time ago but somehow I only got halfway thorough the process. Maybe It's time to take up that project! I found this pic of a repainted one and it actually looks really nice!

from Modette

Mirrors!

Good idea! I wonder where I can find mirrors like these...



from Modette

Dream on, dream on!

I'm kind of picky about what goes on my walls. I wish I could be a bit more spontaneous about this and I'm working on it. Right now it's limited to two mushroom posters by Ebbe Stub Wittrup and two (death metal like!) prints by Ragnar Persson that Simon got when buying a magazine. Secretly I dream of one day being able to buy a collage from Jockum Nordström. He has inspired me alot and I never get tired of his work. It's so poetic, sad and funny. Too bad I will have to become a millionaire first. Well, at least I bought the book.

Stump!

Where can I get one? Anyone who knows a lugger I can ask?

Kitchen first aid!

When we moved in we decided not to do anything about the kitchen, not even repaint it or remove the wallpaper the previous owners put up, since we were planning to do the whole thing later. The kitchen is in a sad, sad state and I don't feel like cooking at all.
A couple of weeks ago I decided to just try to make it a bit more cosy, and I took down most of the open shelves to make the tiny kitchen a little more airy.
The cupboards under the sink were really old, ugly and unfresh so I used some of the selfadhesive vinyl I sometimes use in my illustrations, to cover them with. Then I spraypainted the handles with a bright yellow paint and painted the tabletop black.
I had a really good time doing this and in some weird way I think this kitchen now looks a bit like my illustrations.
It's not perfect in anyway, but it makes the months before we start the big renovation project, a little happier.

This is what it looked like before:

And this is now:

This makes my fingers tickle!

This beautiful wallpaper from Allan the Gallant really inspires me to draw on the walls with ball point pens!

via Design Milk

Tiles!

I'm a big fan of patterned tiles, especially floors, and I found a swedish site, Stiltje, selling beautiful french cement floor tiles. Our appartment is probably too small for a floor like that (too much pattern in a small place!) so maybe we can go for just a few ceramic ones behind the stove in the kitchen.
I went to Barcelona in august and we stayed at a really nice guesthouse with absolutely amazing floors. But of course, that place was huge. And in Spain. I have never seen that type of floors in Scandinavia, do they get too cold in the winter??

from Stiltje

from LivingETC

Found!

Sometimes I can't believe what people throw out. Today I found this beauty in the backyard, thrown away by one of the neighbours. We've been looking for a globe in different antique shops but never got as far as buying one so this was a great find! From the way the countries are divided on this one I can tell that i'ts quite old.
In our backyard we have a little shed were people can put stuff they can't make use of anymore, but still is fully functional. I've found so many nice things there and I think "Found stuff" has to have it's own category in my blog!



After studying the names of the countries me and Simon used some of our history knowledge and figured out that the globe is from around the 1940's!

Bar stools... I changed my mind!

I never liked the idea of having bar stools in the kitchen, or anywhere else except for in a (real) bar for that matter. They are uncomfortable (especially for shorties like me) and in most cases rather ugly aswell. But then I found this on tinyk and I must admit that in this little kitchen, it works quite well. I'm always in a hurry in the morning and i would love to sit here for five minutes with my morning coffee.


via tinyk

This picture reminds me a bit about one of my favourite cafées in Copenhagen Verdens mindste Kaffebar (the world's smallest coffee bar) wich I think actually has to be the world's smallest coffee bar. The first time I went there it was kind of a surrealistic experience because the place looked like a dolls's house and the only guests were two ten year old girls sitting by the bar drinking huge mugs of hot chocolate, chatting with the girl behind the bar about cute boys !



Verdens mindste kaffebar

How I long for a real kitchen!

We have alot of plans for this place and one involves taking down the wall between the kitchen and what is now the bedroom. The bedroom goes to the other side of the appartment and there is room for an open kitchen/livingroom.
I've been giving this alot of thought and have been looking for a good kitchen soloution for quite some time. Either they are too expensive or just plain ugly. What I was looking for was a type of unglamourous, rustic and plain kitchen without unneccesary details that could fit in a small place.
I stumbeled over the great blog Door Sixteen and saw Anna's really cute, simple and inexpensive kitchen and was really inspiered. As a Swede you can imagine I have spent my fair share of hours at IKEA but I never really noticed the kitchen "Udden". It will be perfect for us! Thanks Anna!





from: Door Sixteen

And below you can see the sad little space where we cook now...

The view from our bedroom

This is what we see every morning when we wake up. I love the amount of sky we see from the 5th floor! Behind the yellow building in the middle you can see the roof of "Riget" wich is the main hospital i Copenhagen. If anyone has seen the Lars von Trier TV series this is the actual hospital (i think they made an American version of it called "the kingdom") and it sometimes spooks me. Just a little bit. Brrrr....
We can see helicopters landing on the roof every night.