If you haven’t had a chance to see it yet, make sure to drop by Stockholm art venue Liljevalchs, which is currently showcasing the exhibition Home Sweet Home. The show centres on interior decorating stories told in the shape of furniture, but with an unusual and “user-friendly” twist, evoking inspiration to DIY decorators. Home Sweet Home pays homage to Swedish and international interior design items and icons by displaying them in a slightly different manner, mixing them in a well thought-through but whimsical context – perhaps creating a more approachable style for the avid DIY interior designer.
Home Sweet Home has been curated by design and art profiles Annica Kvint, Cilla Ramnek and Karin Södergren. The show transforms Liljevalchs’ art gallery into a home where the twelve different spaces house passionately assemblies of furniture, textiles, lighting, artworks and crafts into a homely mix that displays a laissez-faire attitude towards interior design. The exhibition clearly states that, with a little bit of creativity and imagination, it is not really that difficult.
The exhibition’s different spaces showcase original pieces by classic and contemporary design icons. Regardless of their intrinsic value, the pieces have been playfully and effortlessly mixed together in spaces possessing their own purpose and drawing inspiration from defined individuals’ work. For instance, the dining room displays a style inspired by the arts and crafts movement of the late 1800s, where works by Karin Larsson and William Morris meet the viewer. The drawing room draws design cues from the American glam of the 1920s and 1930s, represented by Elsie de Wolfe and Syrie Maugham. Two different styles, lovingly intermixed.
Home Sweet Home contains two kitchen areas – one by Italian designer Piero Fornasetti and modernist Gio Ponti and the other by Swedish household name Carl Malmsten and its cool Nordic influence, in stark contrast to the opulent design of the former. The different rooms contain works from well-known names from all over the globe, such as Estrid Ericsson, Josef Frank, Lena Larsson, Alvar and Aino Aalto, Charles and Ray Eames and Achille Castiglioni.
3 x DIY (Do It Yourself)
Sandwichbike
One of the latest additions to the illustrious canon of Dutch designers is Basten Leijh, who, with an innate drive to give birth to exceptional products and funky designs, has come up with the Sandwichbike. This new velocipede has a frame consisting of two weather-resistant pieces of plywood, bonded together to make up an attractive and durable unit. All the parts of the Sandwichbike fit in a small, flat package and it is delivered by regular mail to the buyer. The package includes the necessary tools for DIY-assembly and the less than fifty parts are an easy build.
Things Come Apart
Canadian photographer Todd McLellan’s lifelong fascination with dismantling products has resulted in a beautiful collection of photographs in which everyday products have been disassembled. In the book Things Come Apart, published by Thames & Hudson, McLellan has taken apart 50 design classics ranging from “smart” new technology to older, but still working and usable objects that have meticulously been arranged into beautiful shapes, creating a fascinating documentation on how many components usually go into a finished product.
Videre DIY Camera
UK-based designer and illustrator Kelly Angood has created a DIY analogue camera. By using only two components, 35-millimetre film and cardboard, Angood provides a flat-pack do-it-yourself solution for thrifty camera builders all over the globe. The new camera mimics the iconic Hasselblad twin lens reflex camera design. By cutting, folding and assembling the cardboard parts, one creates one’s very own pinhole camera. Functionality is provided by manually pulling a tab, opening and closing the aperture while aiming at a given object.
