finishing up phase one

This week I'm finishing a lot of 'phases one' of most of my assignments (that's why there's not as many posts as usual). I measured up some rooms with the carpenter Douglas van Vugt, for new cabinets that I designed for a beautiful old house. Tomorrow I (hopefully) will be finalising the drawings of the house with a new kitchen, first floor and attick, so the contractor Cor from Tools can make his calculations. And today I made the (semi-)final selections of a colour scheme of another beautiful house that was designed in 1921 by architect F.A. Warners.

I made the mood boards last week, and also the first selection of the colours that we will use. Today we went to the house to check the selected colours in the house itself. Because you always have to check if the colours that you select actually fit with the light and athmosphere of the house.

I selected a lot of colours from The Little Greene Paint Company and Farrow & Ball, because they have such beautiful, intense colours and because of their good quality. The price is worth it, and you cover much more square metres with one can than with one of a cheaper brand. I usually buy these paints at De Ru, a paint and wallpaper company that is specialised in the better paint brands. I always have to brace myself a bit before I enter the store, because sometimes they can be a bit patronising, with that typical Amsterdam attitude, but they really know a lot about paint.

Christian Borstlap

Dutch art director Christian Borstlap used to work for advertising agency KesselsKramer, where he made a lot of (award winning) campaigns that most of Dutch people know.

He invented Artis de Partis, a sock puppet that has a lot of adventures in Artis, the Amsterdam Zoo. So the zoo became even more famous, and every child (great and small) wants to own the puppet.

He also made a beautiful campaign 'For the Birds', again for KesselsKramer, who would like us to know as many birdnames as we know sneaker names. The illustrations are made by Stuart White.

He also made a film for Clutchy Hopkins, the mysterious funk artist.

And the good news is: he's started his own business, so he's no longer working solely for KesselsKramer. Welcome to the freelancers' league! Now you have all the time for your beautiful random paintings. (just kidding, he's probably covered in assignments)

T

While waiting for my prints to be printed at the copy shop, I'm taking a break at T, a sweet little teaplace in the Roeterstraat. Big shame I didn't bring my camera, there's a lot of nice things to see here. But my phone will do.

dream away-photography

Photographer Karen Rosetzsky was born in Denmark, but moved to the Netherlands when she fell in love with (and later on got married to) a Dutch guy. Lucky for us, because now we can enjoy her beautiful images to dream away on. They remind me of warm, romatic holidays. They are romantic and femine, but always with a nice edge.

toilet drawings

Yesterday I finally remembered to take pictures of our toilet while the sun was shining. "Why?", you may wonder. Because recently Olga Scholten made some beautiful, funny little drawings in a corner near the ceiling, because I designed a closet for her.

Olga Scholten is a graphic designer based in Amsterdam, and works for several companies like Het Zuiderzeemuseum and Het Concertgebouw. She also make really funny animations, if you have a moment to spare, check her website and play.

Two years ago she was invited by Dave Eggers to be a part of his exhibition at Apexart 'Lots of Things Like This' in New York, and now she's organising an exhibition like that herself with drawings by different artists from all over the world, to open sometime next year.

She also published a book with lovely, poetic and funny (and also sometimes sad) drawings, that you can order through her website.

And she made some cute little drawings with edible ink for some cupcakes for the book Happiness is a Cupcake, that I made with Sanne Dirkzwager.
Happiness is a cupcake set
Stephanie Rammeloo & Dirkzwager, S.

Julie Cockburn

Today I was working on a colour scheme for a beautiful house that a new client bought. I started with collecting images for a mood board, and I refound this beautiful image of a nice, cool and sleek toilet, in an Elle Decor from a year or two ago. The atmosphere would fit nicely in the house, which is already breathtakingly beautiful. But what caught my eye especially was a lovely artwork on the wall by Julie Cockburn. 

Julie Cockburn makes touchingly beautiful sculptures and paintings created out of printed image, or books, and other objects she found. Like Plasticine Flowers, from a still life painting, or An Attempt to Copy a Drawing I Made When I was 5 (like the title explains: a drawing she copied, in embroidery). Or, the one that made me curious about the artist, a sculpture of pages of a book, the Keats Flower book. More recent work you can find with Re-Title.

Sur Place

 One night you do this and another night you do that. Yesterday we went to the opening of Sur Plus, in Mediamatic in Amsterdam. 

It is always inspiring to get an insight of how some people live and their passions and now we could explore the world of the fixed gear subculture (a lot of couriers). Our neighbours DUS architects  (who are always good for inspiring projects) built a big indoor track, so you can cycle past the portraits made by riders that had really cool accidents (at least, it looks like they feel that way), documentaries, rare fixed gear bikes, wall paintings and installations.

loft

It is nice to see how things come together. I still remember the first time that I discovered products by Aveda. More than twenty years ago, when I bought a jar of bath salt in a little shop in Antwerp. The scent was heavenly and I wanted more! Unfortunately it took a while before Aveda was sold in the Netherlands. And, a whole different story (hang in there): few years ago I thought: why can't you buy empty bottles that you can refill with water, instead of buying those plastic bottles that you throw away when you've finished the water? Now you can buy beautiful re-usable bottles at Aveda, and the money goes to Join the Pipe that wants to build the longest pipeline in the world, so clean water will be available for everybody. And, to make the story complete, my friend Nathalie has taken over an Aveda lifestyle salon Loft in Bussum with two friends.  Now I can visit her, buy a beautiful bottle AND buy my favourite products in one go. Congratulations and good luck!

kleurinspiratie.nl

A few weeks ago I mentioned the website I was working on: kleurinspiratie.nl. My work is online now on this website. You can find six colour forecasts for the coming season for inspiration for you own house, plus a tool with which you can test these colours on an image of a room in your house. It is in Dutch, but if you don't speak the language, you can still look at the images. I made the colour forecasts with Maaike Koorman, plus I wrote the texts.

mood boards

When I'm working on a design for a house, or a cook book, or an interior production, I like to work with mood boards. They they give me inspiration before I start working, they really make me happy and excited about my work when I'm making them, they make sure I stick to the idea that I first have (which most of the times is the best idea) and they give other people a general idea of the direction your working in. Plus they look nice. At home I just stick them to the walls in the spaces that I happen to be working in at that time.
The images are taken by Paul Barbera

styling production for VT Wonen

While I was cleaning up my computer, I found some images of a production I did last year for VT Wonen, a Dutch interior magazine. I did the styling with Maaike Koorman, I designed the ideas for the bird cage, the mirror inside a picture frame, the clothes hanger made of a piece of leftover fabric and lace. Tjitske van Leeuwen (www.tjitske.com) was the photographer. The production was called Intstant Styling, to show everybody that a nice atmosphere can be created in a short time.

Virginie Besançon

One of the things that I'm looking forward to when I go to the south of France this summer, is meeting Virginie Besançon again. I made a cook book with her a few years ago (see below), and she is a lovely, colorfull and inspirational person. Originally she is a costume designer, and she still does some designs for theater groups. And she joined a theatre group and circus to cook for them twice a day, every summer. Only because of all the work an admirable job! And then she still finds the time and energy to make beautiful pictures of her 'everiday life' with the theatre group.

a discovery in my own country

To my big shame I have to admit that only last weekend I discovered that my country has a part that is at least as beautiful as parts of France (Brittany) and England (Cornwall) that I love visiting so much. So now I don't have to travel all the way there anymore. It is called Het Groene Hart, the green heart (quite appropriate) and it is a perfect area to go if you want to have a break from the big, busy city. We took our camper for a little testdrive, because it has got a new motor, and stayed two nights on an eco-friendly campsite that is part of a small farm, in Snelrewaard. We became a member of www.natuurkampeerterreinen.nl so now we can visit all kinds a beautifull, green small campsites in the Netherlands.