A Raw Nordic Rolemodel...

This amused me as a follow up to my 'Raw Nordic Simplicity' post...I was right, the Nordic countries are becoming very strong again and not just in design apparently ;)

I envy my colleague who left yesterday for the Stockholm Furniture & Light Fair - I would have loved to have been able to go and see the new products straight from their origin and perhaps get to know some of the more local brands as well first hand...but alas, maybe next year.

Raw Nordic Simplicity

Two weeks ago I went to the well known furniture fair in Cologne for work. It's terrible going to these things when you just happen to also be assembling a shopping list for your future home...I think my list just increased by some 20.000 euros! whoopsie! 

I went with my colleague Manon. We had a really good day out and saw a lot of nice things but we were surprised that there weren't actually very many new products that caught our attention. It was also a shame to see how many pieces of furniture were beginning to look more and more like the products by 'Zeitraum' which by the way are beautifully made. In addition to this, more and more companies are using those popular pastel colours that you see everywhere at the moment and as much as I actually really like these, it's a shame that Zeitraum are no longer unique and perhaps the other brands are trying too hard. Could the crisis be to blame for this as a desperate measure to make money as people know what sells?? Who knows...

However, there was one product in particular that caught my eye. I was recently in the COS store in Amsterdam (a Swedish fashion brand)  of which the interior is so beautifully simple and neutral giving a very calm shopping atmosphere. It features minimal design in a light colour scheme that is typically Scandinavian (pictured right). Here though, I was drawn to a wall mounted shelving system that I actually wanted for at home, so I asked one of the sales assistants if he happened to know what brand the shelves were and where I could get them. Ha! Silly me I should have thought that one through before I asked a teenage shop assistant...he looked very strangely at me and of course didn't know so I walked away not thinking about it anymore. 

BUT....THEN...guess what I saw at the fair..!? The 'String'! And there it was....that exact shelving system! Happy days! And guess what...it's scandinavian - should've guessed! I am clearly Scandinavian at heart ;)

So simple and functional and what I like about it is that it looks like a bookcase but it is in fact screwed to the wall. Also you can be creative and assemble them in whatever way you want in all sizes to your personal taste and with various components such as sliding cupboards, desks and magazine holders.