Style & Decor Blog

I’m feeling very Scandi today.

Having come straight from CityLine, where I styled a very merry Marimekko-inspired tabletop (the episode airs Tuesday, July 28th - check it out!), I’m seeing Scandinavian style everywhere - including (new this week!) the stunning Muuto collection at Hollace Cluny.

Muuto is a Nordic design company that hand picks designers from Sweden, Norway, Finland and Denmark for a high-impact line of furniture and accessories that follow a “less is more” approach – products that are light, bright and airy, but also pack wholloping great bucketloads of punch.

Just check out some of the Muuto pieces that Hollace Cluny is carrying…

As I mentioned in Home & Style in the August issue of Style At Home, origami-inspired whiteware is totally hot, and Julien De Smedt’s “Crushed Bowls” is another architectural twist on this trend. “The Crushed Bowls show big-scale architecture applied on small scale objects,” says Julien. “The bowls are composed of equilateral triangles and principles we use for big-scale computer modeling.”

Louise Campbell’s “The More the Merrier Candlestick” marries baroque decadence with spare Scandinavian style - two forces normally at odds with each other, but melded together, make for a striking centerpiece. “As the saying goes, the more elements you join together, the merrier the result,” says Louise. “The design is a blend of the formal and informal.”

Although it’s a sculpture in its own right, Jakob Wagner’s “Flow” is actually a fully functional jug. “With the shape of the jug I wanted to tell a straightforward story about its functional anatomy,” Jakob explains. “A large hole to fill up the jug, a small hole to pour, a low centre of gravity, and a middle area to get a firm grip.”

And how’s this for a splash of summery brights? (After the summer we’ve been having, we can all use a touch of this uplifting hue…) Jens Fager’s “Raw”collection of chairs, side tables and candelabras are made from wood that’s hand-carved with a band saw machine, and finished in an array of vivid colours.

For a “virtual tour” of Susan Fowlie’s impeccably curated collection at Hollace Cluny in Toronto, check out the September issue of Style At Home – on newsstands soon! (Subscribers will be getting their copies this week!)

Muuto at Hollace Cluny, Toronto, 416-968-7894

I’m really loving the new Edland collection at IKEA, and 99% of that love affair lies in the lower half of each piece – those cabriole legs are such an elegant detail, providing a light, graceful contrast to the otherwise imposing stained pine. I’d love to pair the dressing table with a prettily-printed skirted Parsons chair… It could even double as a home office workstation… 

Edland dressing table, $249

Edland bedside table, $129

What I’m most pumped about, though, is my exclusive preview of the new IKEA PS Collection next week… Tomorrow, I leave for Almhult, Sweden (the worldwide base of operations for IKEA!), to interview the delightful Wiebke Braasch, a designer behind two of the products in the exciting new line. Can’t wait to see what she’s cooked up for us this time, as her resume for IKEA includes the popular Skimra lampshades (the ones with that you can switch out in any number of colours)…

And the Vano easy chair…

Following that, I’m off to Copenhagen to soak up Danish design in its natural habitat… So crazy cited!

I’ll be blogging throughout my trip, so stayed tuned over the next week for some Scandinavian sweetness…