The Dutch Limburgs Museum in Venlo currently hosts an exhibition about furniture in Roman times. Set up as an Ikea store, the exhibition allows visitors to try the items on display. And everything is for sale, yet not for the wallet friendly Ikea prices. A small side table, that took 4 days to make, costs about $5.000. All the furniture are replicas of items found in archeological sites as Pompeii and Herculaneum. The exhibition runs through to January 2012.
IXEA
Ikea-furniture pimp company Bemz have incorporated designs by Designers Guild in their ever-growing collection of prints and fabrics to give your Ikea sofa a second chance in life.
In an earlier post I wrote about companies offering slip covers for Ikea sofa’s and chairs. Bemz was one of them. The Stockholm based compa ny, spawned from the mind of the owner whilst on maternity leave, offers a large variety of fabrics they turn into slip covers to pimp your Ecktorp, Karlstad or Klippan sofa’s and chairs. Most recently they added designs from Designers Guild to their collection.
Designers Guild @ Bemz.com
“Founder and design guru Tricia Guild is famous the world over for her bold and graphic designs and unique pattern combinations. She has also authored several books, in which she encourages us to introduce colour and pattern into our homes. Tricia finds a lot of inspiration among plantlife which she injects with asian, antique and bohemian elements.”
Inspired? Or need to be? Try one of Tricia Guild’s books available through the Homevoyeurs.com webshop.
For instance Tricia Guild Flower Sense; The Art of Decorating with Flowers. Now available for $30.40 & eligible for FREE Shipping in some countries.
Spotted in magazines, on the web, in stores and on TV; the tree is hip, happening and very much in vogue.
We had the deer antlers, the faux stuffed reindeer, the vilt greens et all, but it looks like we need to take the hunting gounds proper indoors too to keep up too!
Dutch design duo Snodevormgevers(sly designers), consisting of Josef Blersch and Ander Liefting, designed a tree trunk inspired metal locker type TV or liquor cabinet, a stool and even an entire fireplace.
Snode Vormgevers
Visit their website for the entire line of products.
A classic, but unavoidable one in this line-up is the Odda coat rack.
Odda @ Ikea
Tree Wall Sticker
Pine Tree Wall Stickers @ Ferm Living
Fast Forest Armchairs
Shawn Lovell metalworks Tree Bed
Chest of drawers decorated with twigs as pulls
Rustic Pine Barstools
Posted in Design, designers and online finds
Tagged design, Ikea, Pine, Rustic Wood, Shawn Lovell, Snodevormgeving, Trees, Wooden furniture
As loyal blog visitor Jocelyn commented on the Scandinavian designarticle, there are actually companies that help you save your Ikea sofa. They create new slip-on covers to replace the old ones when the choices Ikea offer are too limited. I think that is just such a smart and clever business idea! Mind you, the new covers are a bit pricey, a few more D’s (or E’s if you’re European) and you can buy a new sofa all together, but still, I think they have gold there.
Two companies I found online are savemysofa.com and bemz.com
The first one to check is Holland based savemysofa.com. They have 28 different fabrics to choose from. They come in various colours and patterns to fit pretty much all flavours. With prices ranging between €220 and €380 one is left with one question… A new sofa with the most basic fabric in the Netherlands comes at €349, so one could wonder why spend all that money on a new cover when the sofa alone can potentially cost less? Good question, but come on, it’s fun! Plus, the choices at Ikea really are quite limited.
Fabric choices at Savemysofa.com
Let’s have my very own red three seater Ektorp sofa be the lab rat. It’s comfy, has the right shape to fit our house, and we like it. It looks a lot more worn down in real than in this picture though, and dog hairs really ruin your upholstery I can tell you. A new cover might not be such a bad idea.
It's extremely comfy so no need to get rid of it soon. Sorry bout the awkward picture angle by the way..
My sofa with Antibes Charcoal Grey
I do like the middle one... yet extremely sensitive with the light colour
Next stop: Bemz. They are based in Stockholm, and seem to be larger than Savemysofa. They also offer more alternatives and styles. However, they are on the whole a bit more expensive. Prices range between €189 to €475. Their site offers a search tool that allows you to search by price or lifestyle. But unless you were there for the brainstorm, you might not know if you are more Swedish Grace, Nordic Home or your average Archipelago. Or maybe you fit in to the Playground, Downtown, Bohemian Chic or Country Romance categories? Better to just browse all the price ranges and all the fabrics.
Panama Cotton Range
Bemz offers the possibility of having five swatches sent to your home free of charge. That is no luxury as colours tend to differ a LOT from what you see online. Also, the texture is hard to tell from a stamp sized online swatch.
It’s fun trying out various covers for your sofa though. Here’s mine with Urban Tapestry Real Red Panama Cotton.
Urban Tapestry Real Red
I do like the big floral patterns, but it might be a bit too much with our clutter. However, also at Bemz there are plenty of fabrics to choose from.
Just a few of the many options at Bemz
Posted in Design, designers and online finds
Tagged Bemz, Ektorp, Ikea, New, Save my sofa, Sofa Covers
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