Yay for HAY

HAY is a Danish furniture and accessories company that both designs and manufactures a range of  functional and stylish goods. Whilst HAY products have an undoubtedly contemporary look and feel there is a strong nod to the Danish style of the 50’s and 60’s and this is can be most strongly felt in their range of furniture. As a fan of Verner Panton, Arne Jacobsen, Hans Wegner Danish greats who have all designed chairs that I shamelessly long to add to my collection, I have a lot of respect and admiration for HAY’s ambition to encourage a revival in Danish furniture design.

Furniture aside, I particularly like their stationery items and their eye-catching rulers have a special place on my wish list. Bold, playful and covetable for the stationery aficionado, HAY’s printed beech wood rulers are a welcome departure from the shatterproof wobbly things I used to take to school. With so much to offer and with such a strong commitment to design and create products that are simple, useful and modern I am finding more and more to like about HAY. - Yasumi.

HAY Stockists - Goodhood, Liberty London, Conran Shop, Skandium. 

You can find Yasumi at - Stranger London / Worship Blues / Twitter

Buckets & Spades x Balibaris Selection

From left to right - Steven Spieldberg t shirt/Nouveau Droit indigo selvage slim jeans/La Cie du Kraft A5 notepad/Madras navy gingham shirt/Pijama fluo Ipad case/New Balance 420 "Road to London" sneaks/dark green socks

I was recently asked by Parisian retailer Balibaris to to pick out some of my favourite products from their store, and here's the result. Balibaris started out in late 2009 selling ties and other small accessories, a couple of years on and the chaps have branched out into their own range of clothing which is all produced in France and a few other countries around Europe (apart from the Japanese denim). They also stock brands like Han Kjobenhavn, Opening Ceremony and Sanders as well as having some pretty cool, low-key collaborations going on. The online store has been a big hit, so much so that they will be opening their first boutique in Rue de Marseille, Paris this coming September.

The fluo Ipad case sticks out like a sore thumb I know. Every time I go shopping these days I end up looking at the same old stuff so I'm making an extra effort to challenge my normal tastes at the moment. I reckon this would make a pretty cool additional to my daily carry-arounds. Which is your favourite item from the selection?

Thanks to Balibaris for this opportunity and their photography.

Advertising - Fiat's Original Parts

You guys all know I like a nice bit of neatness of a Saturday morning, this series of adverts by Fiat for their Original Parts campaign fits the bill nicely. Showing all the parts and pieces that make up someone's certain profession but adding one rouge part in, which changes the whole mood. Bit sinister actually but I like the idea non-the-less. I wish I knew more about cars to tell you what Fiat use though.

I haven't got a car myself as I'm nowhere near in the position to be able to afford one but I could see myself driving around in a Fiat 500 (ayy not a sponsored posts or anything, I wish), Hollie has one and it's been pretty top notch over the last couple of years, minus a leaky pipe or two. 

Anyway I hope that this is enough inspiration for you have have a "neat" weekend. Possibility the most corny thing I've ever said on here but lets just go with it.

Image source

Inspiration - Ikea Kitchen by Carl Kleiner

One of my favourite posts I've ever done was on Carl Kleiner, back in August '11, so I was pretty pleased when I heard he's be working on a new project. The photographer, along with stylist Evelina Kleiner (they must have got married since I last blogged about them, excellent!) really do have some  brilliantly creative ideas and their latest effort really does get the excitement veins a-popping. Above is the second time Kleiner has worked with Ikea, the first was for their successful cookery book Home is Best. This time around he concentrated on Kitchenware, with pretty effective results. Now these photos tick three boxes for me, my love of homeware/designy stuff in general, cooking and of course OCD heaven, Things Organized Neatly.

Tidy house tidy mind, well here's to wishful thinking.

You can check out more of Carl Kleiner's projects on his website