design

Apartment with personality

The most important thing for me while decorating an apartment is taking my time. This is our 4th apartment in 11 years and the second one we bought. (In Norway you buy, reside a while, improve/renovate and sell. Then you buy bigger, nicer, and so on, until you hopefully land the property of your dreams, at least within your financial range.) I studied for a long time and now it´s my husband turn to break through as a designer, meaning we´ve been living on a tight or semi-tight  budget for many years. At the same time, both of us have a strong need to surround ourselves with beautiful things, so we don´t want to compromise too much when it comes to quality. We bought too many crappy Ikea things that broke and ended up in the trash, so now it´s either design, vintage or inherited stuff. My recipe for an original interior is as such: you need a couple of beautiful and sturdy pieces of furniture, like a leather recliner, a dining table and chairs, a coffee table and a sideboard, a couple of artsy pictures and lots of fond memories (shells and sand or small candle holders and figurines). Throw in a beautiful kelim rug and a couple of gracious pets! Voilà!;-)

The rest you can get along the way, from flea markets, discount stores or second hand designer shops. 😉 We haven´t been able to keep the same couch since the cats have scratched it or it has turned soggy, but next year´s treat is a big, comfy designer couch from Andreas Engesvik!

What do you think?

 

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Christmas gifts suggestions

Christmas is around the corner and this year I´m in the mood for treating my loved ones with fancy things. I´m generally a bad gifter, since I tend to offer what I myself would be glad for receiving, but if you by any chance have a luxurious taste, you´re in luck!;-) I love anything that´s natural, the simpler, the better. I get high on silk, wool, leather and marble. This is what I´d love to get this year!

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Derek Swalwell

 

I´ve done some laundry, decluttered the bedroom, read the newspaper and aired the house, now it´s time for some much needed inspiration and a nap before we go out for dinner. This evening we´re seeing John Legend in concert and we can´t wait. Meanwhile, I discovered Derek Swalwell, an Australian photographer whose work is stunning! Not only are the images beautifully curated, but they convey such a serene atmosphere I feel like jumping right in, like Alice in Wonderland.;-) Enjoy!

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Cos

I simply love Cos. Simple Scandinavian lines, impeccable cuts and fair prices. This fall I´m mostly working in court, so I get to wear dresses almost every day. Yippi yey! Since I´m not disciplined enough to find an outfit the evening before, dresses are perfect, I have them all lined up, all I have to do is decide whether I need a jacket, and if so, if it´s going to be black, navy or grey. 😉 I present you with some inspiration for the grey Scandinavian fall, hope it´ll light up your day a bit! xxx, Alina

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Fall in our home

Yesterday I had a day off and it worked wonders for a tired soul.;-) I did some laundry, uncluttered my wardrobe (for the 5th time this year!) and bought some ingredients for today´s party. We had lunch in town and dinner out-of-town, all in all it was a pretty amazing day. I also had some time to sneak fall into our apartment, meaning I picked some chestnuts from the ground, bought a new blanket and some candles. This is what our living room looks like now.

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Living room styling

We went to a party on Saturday, in fact two of them! The first one was in the lovely apartment of Melissa Hegge from Ideastosteal, damn, does she have a cool place! We were stunned! So many artifacts and so beautifully gathered, it felt like a gallery. We literally  went from room to room and took pictures!

The other party was on a roof terrace just a couple of blocks´away with a view over Galgeberg. Our lovely host Mona was not pleased with us for needing to go and walk Sammy like a pair of  Cinderellas before midnight. 😉

Now it´s a fact that a party every now and then is therapy for body and soul and this time was no exception. In addition to new people and subjects of conversation, good laughs and a bit of cake to sin with, Melissa´s interior was such an inspiration! What do you think?

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Summer wear

These are my favorite pieces this summer! I can´t wait to wear them on chilly evenings at the Oslo marina, on hot afternoon strolls to the nearest taverna in Santorini and on pleasant Parisian nights from a French brasserie to a jazzy bar. Come along!

I just bought these beauties from mytheresa.com, they´re from Ancient Greek Sandals and I simply adore them!

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Belgrade II

Finally I get the chance to tell you more about our lovely stay in Belgrade. I couldn´t wait to do that, but the first two days after returning were chaotic, especially since our luggage hasn´t arrived yet and I keep remembering all the things we had in it that I don´t want to lose. In addition to that I spent 3,5 hours at the Romanian embassy (for the very last time!) waiting in line for a piece of paper and getting frustrated, it was as comic and tragic as a Kusturica movie.

But let´s leave it at that and let me take you back to the Balkans and demistify the area for you. As I mentioned last time, we were there for the wedding of our friends Dragana and Alex and since we´d already taken a couple of trips each in May, this was also our summer holiday. Meaning we splurged a little on our hotel and eating out budget to compensate for the fact that Belgrade isn´t a coastal town and that the weather was either too chilly, too hot or too rainy to make the best out of it. And boy was that a good idea! We felt so spoilt in the end we couldn´t wait to get back home and cook our own food and fill our own fridge!

Jevrem restaurant in the lovely Dorcol area

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New kitchen

It seems we might be able to do some changes around the house this summer, although we had not foreseen it, to put it like that. The kitchen is our first priority, since we spend so much time there and it has such a good vibe. The previous owner was a young lad interested in making as good a profit from selling the apartment as possible. So he chose a plain Ikea kitchen and the cheapest tiles he could come over.

We´d like to get rid of the top cupboards and build some pretty shelves instead. As tiles, we love the metro ones from Fired Earth, they have both a rustic and a decadent touch at the same time!

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Dream living room

I just found the perfect couch, too! I need to check with my better half, but I´ll manage to convince him if he doesn´t see things my way! This summer, things will change around here! No more half solutions accepted and a major clean-up is due! For the ones of you following me for a while you know the limited edition PH-lamp is on the top of my list, almost before the telephone invoice (haha) and now I can start saving for my dream couch, too! The Plank sofa is a cooperation between the Norwegian Knudsen/Berg/Hindenes&Myhr and the Danish dk3 and Dinesen. The latter are very famous for their incredible hard wood floors, take a look here. What do you think? I´m so excited I´m out of words!