Bedroom colors

Let's be optimistic - it will be spring soon! Greyness will be replaced by colors. More light to take decent photos again. Nature will wake up. On that note, our bedroom has been in need of - well, something bright. We'd also need a new bed cover, the current one is simply boring (black), not very good quality and Urho's hair just gets stuck in it. While trying to decide on the cover (AVA room covers seem interesting and practical, experiences anyone?), wonderfully bright bed linen by Lemon Deco work beautifully to add some zest!

Summer

Summer

The world is full of bed linen, but each one of the Four Seasons pillow / duvet cover combinations is so surprisingly unique it is difficult to decide which ones not to want. For spring time and energy-craving state of mind, however, it is Summer and Autumn which are are screaming colour and thus hitting us home the hardest.

Autumn

Autumn

The design and photos of Finnish nature used in the bed linen are the work of Minna's friend Make, the man behind Lemon Deco (and Lemon Gay). Designing bed linen and other textiles is just one of his many talents, and in addition, Make is a great character to hang out with. He actually dropped by for a visit the other day and took all of the photos in this blog post. It was a fun few hours, spiked up with some great gossip, a lot of swearing on some unresolved mysteries of a new camera and deep discussions of dachshund's amazing life. Thank you Make, for the photos and especially for get company!

His Sausageness on Autumn

Being a fan of Urho Make could not miss the opportunity to have His Sausageness posing for a few shots. And as always, Urho collaborated eagerly knowing we would not hold on the treats afterwards.

Make from Lemon Deco

If you are in need of your favourite Lemon Deco season, you can contact Make directly via make.janhunen@kolumbus.fi. He will be delighted to help! 

And by the way, inspired by the colors and energy of Spring and Autumn, we are currently thinking mustard yellow or olive green (!) for the bed cover. Urho can have the old black one to replace one of his worn out sleeping blankets. 

DIY: Wooden curtain

After Suomen Kaunein Koti (the Most beautiful home in Finland), we got quite a few questions about the wooden curtain in the living room, concerning the measurements and how it was done. Therefore, we thought it would be a good idea to revisit an old blog post from 2013. So, the "curtain" was originally made when we were still living in our old apartment, but surprisingly few modifications were required to fit it to the living room windows in our current home.

Wonderful play of light and shadow

So, if you would like to make one it is pretty simple. First, you need some round wooden sticks (ours happen to be pine and have a diameter of about 10 mm) and screw-in hooks.

The simple essentials

Then, the hook is screwed in. The "mouth" of the hook was spread open a bit, so that it would be easier to attach the hook to through a ring.

A hook with a wide mouth

Finally, the sticks were hung to a regular curtain rail, hosting a required number of sliding rings. To make the sliding rings, we removed the curtain clip part from a regular curtain clip - sliding ring complex, just to be able to reuse something what was already available instead of shopping for anything new. Most probably you are able to buy just the sliding rings without curtain clips, which of course would be quite practical saving the step of disassembly.

Hanging in there

Finally, the only thing left to do is to hung up the sticks cut to the desired length and to organise the sticks to a preferred rhythm! Easy, quick and an excellent option if you want to try something else than curtains made of fabric!

Fennia Prize 2017 Grand Prix

So the other big news - Fennia Prize 2017 - Grand Prix!

Fennia Prize - the biggest design competition in Finland - is organized every second year and hosted by Design Forum Finland, the Fennia Group, Elo, and the Finnish Patent and Registration Office. This year the Fennia Prize Grand Prix was given to Merivaara Corporation for the Q-Flow™ Surgical Light, which is the latest addition to the company's portfolio of operating room systems and hospital furniture.

Pekka Kumpula, The Q-Flow & Jyrki Nieminen

Pekka's company Seos Design has collaborated with Merivaara since 2012. Together with the development team, Pekka has been advancing several projects including the definition of Merivaara's design DNA and the industrial & user interface design of several products.

Grand Prix winner

The Q-Flow™ Surgical Light - the winner of Fennia Prize 2017 Grand Prix is the tip of the iceberg, being the first of Merivaara products to be renewed during the next few years. The Q-Flow™ includes innovations to improve the level of hygiene in the operating rooms and increase personnel effectiveness.

The members of the award winning team were:

• Design: R&D Director Jyrki Nieminen / Merivaara, 
• Project Manager Paul Bärlund, Merivaara
• Creative Director Pekka Kumpula / Seos Design 
• Optical design: VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland Ltd
• Aerodynamic design: Halton Group

Fennia Prize 2017 Exhibition in Helsinki

Design Forum Finland approached Pekka some time before the award ceremony and launch of the exhibition of products recognised asking if he could design the exhibition. They aimed for festive, elegant, memorable, dark - something highlighting the products. Based on the feedback, it seems that Pekka succeeded quite well.

From Left Naava, Planmed and Merivaara

So, award winning Finnish industrial design from 17 companies, both products and services. If you have an opportunity make sure to go and visit the exhibition in Helsinki City Center (Kluuvikatu 6), it will be open until February 12 before starting a tour around Finland.

Definitely worth it!

Secto lights