A beautiful vintage industrial home and café

What happens when you combine two foodies, South of France style, North American charm and a Michelin-starred chef? The wonderful café Maman, that's what!  Elisa Marshall and Benjamin Sormonte had been living and working in various places around the globe including France and Ibiza before taking over a former machinery shop in SoHo, New York. The pair left the tin ceilings, exposed brickwork walls and original 1920s flooring untouched and added vintage and antique furniture to maximise charm. They also installed an industrial window so that guests can watch Michelin-starred chef Armand Arnal in action. Oh how I could drop in there now and wile away a morning?! Their six-floor loft in nearby Tribeca is pretty beautiful too and follows the same industrial vintage style - but with a touch of romance - think florals, sheer curtains and pipes painted in gold. Let's take a peek inside the Sormonte-Marshall household and café Maman....
 

The loft

The café

 

Photos: Nicola Franzén - shared with kind permission. Lonny mag. Post inspired by It's Monday but it's OK

What a world they've created? Just beautiful, don't you think?

A few notes on where items in the home are from in case you're interested: vintage letters, dresser found on Krrb / bar cart, table and chairs found at Brooklyn Flea, plant pot from Anthropologie, hanging plant holders.

Two fab DIY ideas to steal- Marshall and Sormonte collected Pez dispensers, sprayed them gold and framed them - such a nice idea. The sofa  / day bed was made from pallets (see a step by step guide here).

You can read more about the home and café here. 

Oh and there were lots of questions about where the throw was from in this Swedish home on Monday - and now I have the answer, yay! (thanks lovely anonymous commenter!!) You can find more details in the post if you're interested. 

Got to rush off as I have a V.V.V.I.P guest arriving from London tonight - my Mum! There's a bed to be made, a bar to be stocked and some recipes to be whipped up (if only I had the helping hand of Armand Arnal!), go, go, go!

Have a lovely day!

A super stylish get-away in Northern Sweden

I hope you had a great weekend?! I'm often receiving mails from readers asking for suggestions of wonderful places to stay in Sweden. And today I found a new tip - Sågverket - an oh so cool youth hostel / conference centre in Northern Sweden. Described recently in Residence magazine as Norrland's super stylish hang out, Sågverkat is a got-to place for romantic weekends, creative conference or simply somewhere to relax and get-away from it all in a stylish environment. Personally I'd go there just to enjoy the decor and scenery alone how about you?! But we all need to be quick, it's up for sale. Anyone sitting at their desk this Monday morning feeling like a new challenge?!

Fantastic Frank

To get a complete picture of the beautiful property and it's surroundings you can see more pictures over at Fantastic Frank.

Tempted?!

Today is my eldest daughter's first day at school. I thought she was so big until I dropped her off at the school gate this morning and she suddenly looked so small. I hope she'll be OK.....

And I hope you have a great start to your week too!

A wonderful Copenhagen home

Happy April Fool's day! Have you fooled anyone yet?! In the UK you've got until midday but in Sweden you've the whole day - and then, once fooled you call your poor, unsuspecting subject a silly herring. What about in your country?! I'm oh so excited about today's home tour photographed by Tia Borgsmidt for the wonderful Danish magazine BoligLiv. It's the home of Marie and Andreas and their two children Uma and Morris just over the bridge in Vesterbro, Copenhagen. The space is teeming with personal items including art and furniture they've either inherited or sourced from antique and second hand markets. It's such a wonderful, unique home!

 

Photographer: Tia Borgsmidt (with kind permission) for BoligLiv, found via Coco Lapine

Anything in particular you love about this space?

I spy design items including the AJ floor lamp, Ant chairs, and the Flowerpot VP3 desk lamp. Pick up mid-century treasures at Lauritz.

Love to see that Marie works at Central Hotel og Cafe, the world's smallest hotel. I recently booked it as a birthday trip for my husband and I and our breakfast will be served in this cafe. I can't wait!

I'm also excited to introduce a new sponsor today. Montreal based Irene Suchocki is the incredible fine art photographer behind the oh so fab online shop Eye Poetry. Her work combines her love of travel with her dream-like aesthetic which include city collections such as  Paris, City of Love (I'm looking at you, Erin), New York, New York, and Italy, La Dolce Vita. My personal fine art photography favourites include night glitter, ordinary silence, and plain sailing, how about you?

Have a lovely day!

PS don't miss out on the t-shirt soft bedlinen give-away here!