Scandinavian flavour in New York

Just in case you missed it, two weeks ago Marimekko announced the opening of their New York flagship store. This is an excellent change for New Yorkers and Americans alike to get a taste of the high end Finnish interior design. Among other Scandinavian design companies Marimekko is considered to be the highlight of Finnish design.

To make your shopping a bit easier here are a few pieces to keep your eyes open for:

The Marimekko Olkalaukku (Finnish for shoulder bag) is an excellent bag for daily commuting with a very timeless design. Finished with high quality this bag is highly recommended!

Unikko (Finnish for poppy) fabric has long been regarded as the symbol of Marimekko. Add this fabric as a curtain to your room and watch the room liven up.

For excellent tips and examples of using Marimekko head on over to the Marimekko Blog.

E.H

Personal touch with Sid Dickens Memory Blocks

Sid Dickens Memory Blocks are a cool way to create unique and personal touch for your home. Memory Blocks are 15 x 20 cm and 3 cm thick tiles, hand crafted and hand painted plaster, with a porcelain-like finish and cracked for an aged look and feel.

Sid Dickens was born in British Columbia 1963 and studied arts in Vancouver. On a study related trip to Europe in 1987, he became interested in trying unusual materials and themes. Once back in Vancouver in 1991 he founded a studio where the first tiles were made. Today, Sid Dickens Inc has a team of artists who produce by hand the Sid Dickens designs.

Each tile design is only produced for a limited period, and once the tile is retired, that particular design is never used again. The collection is revised annually, some tiles are retired and some new designs are released.  Retired tiles become unique collector's items, and they are known to go up as high as 5000€ on auction. 

Beware of cheap knockoffs that are out there. Those have a distinct industrial feel to them, because that's what they are, industrially made. Original Sid Dickens Memory Blocks have a Sid Dickens stamp on the side.

Price for one is around 100€, so these tiles are maybe not the cheapest choice for filling your walls, although for a comparison, having a framing made to an old painting can easily be more. But you can start from just one and go from there. 

My advice would be to celebrate something important with a new Memory Block, such as graduating, getting married, new born child, trip to a faraway place and such. That way each tile on your wall means something to you personally. Or you could just buy a whole lot at once and be done with it, it's really up to you. How you use them is only limited by your imagination. If you Google "Sid Dickens" you'll get plenty of ideas on how to place these tiles in your home.

Picture from: http://blog.styleestate.com

More about Sid Dickens: http://www.siddickens.com/

In Finland Sid Dickens Memory Blocks are sold by Vaihmalan putiikki at Vaihmalan Hovi. Web: http://vaihmalanhovi.fi/?pg=putiikki

T.A.

Standing workstation for IT worker’s home office

New York Times recently published an article that stated that sitting for a long period of time is hazardous to your health. Being an IT worker I can confirm this finding from my own perspective also. When you add a keyboard to the sitting in front of a table part you suddenly notice that also your sitting posture starts to slide down. (I also bet you that most IT workers are not that interested in physical exercise, at least not when they are “young” and “healthy” ;-)) The standing way would keep your body in a natural position and the stress would be eaqually divided to your body.

First time I saw a standing workstation it was in an IT magazine that was introducing a new way of working in a new and revolutionary company. Now that the topic has rising up again it got me thinking what kind of options are there for me to implement the standing way of working to my home office. It should of course be electronic, lazy as I am. Oh and yes as you have figured out, I'm one of those "young" and "healthy".

The table for design oriented persons - JENSENplus K2

Image from Architonic

The JENSENplus K2 has quite the unique looks with its lifting system. I think this truly is an engineering masterpiece from Denmark without sacrificing functionality.

The table for budget minded persons - Ergo electric table

Image from Toimistoon.fi

The Ergo has quite generic office looks but it is priced one third of the Jensen's price. It also includes a cable holder to keep all your cords organized and neatly hidden. This table is also available as a frame only model so you can choose the table surface yourself!

For the DIY minded persons I suggest that you take a look at Dawn Foster's post about a 19.99$ standing workstation. It has some tips you can take into consideration if you want a cheap option or are just interested in giving the standing way of nerding a try.

E.H

Hatria G-Full bathroom design

Italian bathroom furniture maker Hatria has introduced a collection of compact bathroom designs named ‘G-Full’, which are designed to be both aesthetically and functionally speaking.

The new luxury bathroom solutions by Hatria are designed specifically for compact spaces. Each element in the collection is designed to harmoniously work with others.

The collection features two modular benches that can be placed to fit in the space, either in a linear fashion, or in an L-shape in the corner. The new ‘G-Full’ contains one wall-mounted ‘floating’ bench featuring a washbasin or two and countertop.

Other elements are a ceramic toilet and bidet, topped by a lid. This lid can be used as an additional seating space, when not in use. A built-in storage shelf for towels, toiletries and tissues is another functional element of the design.

Hatria specialises in washbasins of all types and shapes, floor- or wall-mounted WCs and bidets and shower trays, shelves, accessories and towel holders.

-T-