Last week I spent three days in a region in Central Europe that is rather unknown by many people outside the German speaking world. South Tyrol is a beautiful region in northern Italy bordering Austria – it combines the wilderness of the Alps with the beauty of a Mediterranean climate and lifestyle. Think of ‘The Sound of Music’ scenery combined with cypresses, oleander and a good chilled Spritz! South Tyrol is a perfect spot to enjoy throughout the seasons – whether you like sunny days by the pool and in lush gardens, or winter adventures in the mountains. Whatever season you choose, you ..read more

Sometimes a rug in our home might be just a detail in home decor, a warm and soft layer on our floor, something we chose because of its look or its feel solely. When you opt for a handmade rug, then you also think of all the work and passion woven into the rug that will embellish your home. But how much do we actually know about how our rug at home was made? A few years ago, I was lucky to meet Maryam, the founder of EDELGRUND, a Germany based rug company with Persian roots. She introduced me to the incredible world of handmade Persian rugs and – silently – I had put an EDELGRUND rug on my w ..read more

When I talk with foreign friends about Germany, most of them know cities such as Berlin, Hamburg, and Munich. Sometimes Cologne and Frankfurt too. However, Germany offers so much variety across the country and one of those gems is the city of Ulm in the southern German province of  Baden-Württemberg. Truth be told, it was the first time for me too to visit Ulm. It was a sunny and mild weekend end of September when I took the train from Berlin to Ulm and headed to the local and pretty hip ‘me and all hotel ulm’. And what can I tell you – I was more than pleasantly surprised! Let me ..read more

SPOILER ALERT: Get 12% off Royal Copenhagen & more designs at Connox by using 12IGOR until August 29th, 2021. My love for plants goes a long way – so long actually that I decided to host a botanical brunch this week. Together with one of my all-time favorite design online shops, Connox, I threw a little botanical brunch for three. My husband, who was a great help in preparing the food, and a good friend who helped finished the great food. But let me tell you that the food was not the main cast in this brunch – the tableware was! It’s been a long cherished wish of mine to have a set o ..read more

Spring has sprung and despite the chilly temperatures here in Berlin, everything is in bloom and you can feel spring is in the air. So it was well about time to start a little spring makeover for the balcony. Some of you remember my small balcony in Munich. Now in my new Berlin apartment the balcony is even smaller, not to say very tiny. But that does not mean you cannot make it all cozy, beautiful and ready for spring season! I have teamed up with Amazon Germany for a little styling update and I hope you like it as much as I do! And stay tuned as you can win an Amazon spring makeover for yo ..read more

My love for nature and plants in particular is no big secret here. So whenever I spot something new in the sphere of plants, plant design, plant accessories and more, I am all ears. Or better yet: all eyes! Because I just came across these amazing news that I want to share with you today: the Belgian brand Domani, known for its hand crafted pottery from natural materials, presented their latest collection in the breathtakingly beautiful nursery Solitair close to Antwerp in Belgium. The Domani pottery seems to have ‘grown naturally’ in the Solitair nursery hosting an array of amazing tre ..read more

How fun and cool is a name like ‘Dear Sam’. Now you might not know yet what is hiding behind this name, but let me tell you it has something to do with your walls. What exactly? ‘Dear Sam’ is a Stockholm based poster label offering a wide array of contemporary posters on high-quality and eco-friendly FSC certified paper. To give you an idea what they have, I teamed up with them and selected three beautiful posters including a sleek black aluminium framing for my new Berlin home. The ‘Pomegranate Study in Color’ is such a simple yet beautiful poster that is currently moving around in the apar ..read more

What happens when you match a creative Belgian design duo with a refined Danish design label? Well it’s a MATCH – to be precise, the MATCH kitchen fronts by Muller van Severen for Reform. For those of you not yet familiar with Reform, this Copenhagen based label offers amazing fronts for IKEA kitchens, wardrobes, bathroom furniture and more. Basically adding an upscale design touch to solid and good IKEA corpuses. Muller van Severen created a colorful statement that is not only an eye-catcher in a home, but also a statement of the design savviness and solid stance of the owners. I imagine ..read more

I promised to tune in from time to time and keep you posted about the adventure of furnishing and decorating the new Berlin apartment. It is indeed a cool and amazing task – basically it feels like creating a new home from scratch. But the current ongoing crisis with the lockdown still in full force here in Germany makes thing much slower than anticipated. Now patience is a virtue for sure. And I have more than once highlighted the importance of taking time when decorating a new home. No rush, no hurried decisions which will be regretted later on. Thus I should be content about the slow p ..read more

I just wanted to wrap up the past DDN Safari Fest German Edition that happened this month over on Instagram. You can find all my personal design highlights in my IG Stories Highlight ‘DDN Safari’. I compiled my favorites from these Italian and German design labels: Arblu, Boffi/DePadova, Bruehl, Pointhouse, Res and Tecnografica. Was there anything that caught your eye in particular? Some of my overall favorites are here depicted again. I guess I am loving those beige and blue hues! This blog post has been brought to you in collaboration with Design Diffusion.  As always all opi ..read more