Betonggruvans blogg – En blogg om att trivas hemma

Thrive at home: Malwina Kleparska

In Betonggruvan’s mini interview series we explore what makes people thrive at home.

Today we meet crazy talented Malwina Kleparska @malwinakleparska, ceramics artist living in Gothenburg. Happy reading!

What is your favourite item in your home and why is it so?

My home mostly contains furniture and objects found in second hand shops and skips and things I have dragged with me from my childhood home. There are also some plants.

I have been thinking long and hard to see if there is anything that I like more then anything else. It’s important for me to surround myself with fine objects to create a comfy environment, and all the things are kind of depended of one another. I don’t own anything I’ve spent a fortune on so I don’t have anything of value in that meaning. It is a pick and mix of things that more or less look nice together.

But if I have to pick one thing it would be a big shell that I have next to my bed. I was on a holiday with my parents when I was little. We were at a beach and I saw my dad coming towards me with his hands behind his back. And there it was, the big shell he found in the ocean that was a gift for me.

When do you feel your very best at home?

I like to walk around and look after my plants, tidy a little and rearrange things. My boyfriend and I have recently moved to a new apartment so there is a lot of stuff I would like to redo. The same week we got the apartment we also got a dog, a rescue from Ireland. Most amazing creature! So I spend a lot of time with him. I also like to make a mess in the kitchen and cook and eat things and have people over for dinners.

What do you want to recommend?

My web shop, I’m currently working on. I’m hoping it’ll we be launched soon! I would also recommend trying not to work too much. I struggle with this sometimes, so I’m learning to say no to things. Even if they sounds like a lot of fun and money. Money is fun but not if you are a burnout! Enjoy free time and do the things you like and get a dog!

Thrive at home: Klara Doktorow

In Betonggruvan’s mini interview series we explore what makes people thrive at home.

This Sunday we chat with @klaras – Klara Doktorow, TV maker and podcaster living on Kungsholmen in Stockholm with her man and two kids. We love to follow Klara on instagram, she has a way to describe life that is both sincere and fun. Let’s hear about her feelings for her home.

What is your favourite item in your home and why is it so?

Oh, that must be the sofa. It’s perfect and beyond comfortable. Milky white but easy to wash in the machine. And it means a lot to me. This was the very first item me and my husband Kjell bought for our home. We’d only been dating for two months when we found it on 40% sale at Walles & Walles. It was still really expensive, but we were crazy and in love and it was very romantic. We’ve loved it every day since. And it’s perfect to sleep on when we fight.

When do you feel your very best at home?

When I cook! Or fall asleep on the sofa after dinner and a glass of red wine.

What do you want to recommend?

More is more. I’m not a minimalist. I’m the old lady with many cats!

Don’t miss Klara’s podcast @trettiplustrevar!

Thrive at home: Marta Vargas

In Betonggruvan’s interview series we explore what makes people thrive at home.

Today it is time to take a chat with Marta Vargas – graphic designer, photographer and art director. Originally from Barcelona she now lives in Stockholm, in a light and calm apartment with her boyfriend and an avokado tree. Read her story about the tree and her philosophy below. Happy reading!

What is your favourite item in your home and why is it so?

My favorite item is probably my avocado plant. I always say that if my house caught fire my avocado plant would be the first thing I would try to save. I remember putting an avocado seed in water when I moved to Sweden, five years ago. It took several months to start growing roots, I actually thought it wasn’t going to happen, but I kept it on my windowsill anyway. When I broke up with my boyfriend at the time, I went to Copenhagen on my own and spent few days there to go through it all. When I came back, I was surprised to find that the seed had started growing leaves while I was away. I understood it as a beautiful sign, and since then, we have been growing together. I have had many avocado plants, but none has grown so big and beautiful as this one.

When do you feel your very best at home?

I love the light at our place. I feel the very best when I can enjoy the light shades of the trees reflecting on the walls, when everything is clean and tidy and Graeme and I potter around doing our own thing. Slow moments at home are my absolute favorite.

What do you want to recommend?

I recommend to not get attached to things. In the end, they are just that: things. To not bring items to your home that do not bring you absolute joy. To embrace imperfection, and to not get upset or annoyed when your favorite item breaks or gets worn out. I once read this fragment in a book, and it has changed my perception around items I love: ”To me, this cup is already broken. Because I know this, I can drink from it and appreciate it fully. And when it falls off the table, I understand. It’s the way things are.”

Thrive at home: Tekla Evelina Severin

In Betonggruvan’s interview series we explore what makes people thrive at home.

This week we meet star stylist, interior architect, photographer etc Tekla Evelina Severin, aka @teklan. Tekla has the most wonderful approach to color and composition (please don’t miss her instagram account!) and recommends adding more color to life to work and feel better. Happy reading!

What is your favourite item in your home and why is it so?

I if I can say a non-item I would definitely say the pink colour in my living room, if I should say an item it’s so much that I have affection for, (not because I have an object-filled home, rather the opposite; like a true ”skomakarens barn” kind of person, I’m working with interiors and spaces all the time for others but don’t really have a home-like home myself, but more because of I am a kind of nostalic person; highly value Grandma´s ceramic plate and vases, the 3d printed version of me as a ceramic figure from an Vitra event or a ”blomster lönn-stickling” from my dearest friend etc..

But if I would pick only one item and a dear design art item it would definitely be my side/bed/piedistal table: https://newtendency.com/collection/meta-side-table/ from Berlin based new tendacayou.

How did it become yours?

It /They (I have two) became mine from a collaboration/shooting I did for them (image is an outtake from that)

When do you feel your very best at home?

When it’s clean and spacious (almost never happens though, always packed with samples and stuff from shootings/different kind of commissions etc) when we’re all at home; me and my boyfriend and preferable the neighbour’s cat who’s visiting us a lot from time to time and when nobody’s stressed and we’re doing the simple things in life, like cooking.

What do you want to recommend?

Colour; always!; the white/grey shifting that have happened to interior/exterior/offices/cityplanning/cars in modern time etc is really such bad movement in history, studies actually show that we’re working our worst in white rooms, one explanation to why is that it’s so far from our nature herritage..

The sad reason is probably a misunderstanding what modernism was all about + that colour designing interiors takes so much more time and knowledge..

As an introduction I could really recommend @farge_dagny and her book ”farger till folket! ”.

Thrive at home: Swantje Hindrichsen

In Betonggruvan’s interview series we explore what makes people thrive at home.

This week we meet a person who’s creativity inspired us for a while now, @swantjeundfrieda

We love both her design creations and her feeling for interior. Swantje’s based in Münster but work all over the world. Ok let’s hear about her home philosophy.

What is your favourite item in your home and why is it so?

Actually I don’t have that specific favorite item, I do love all of my stuff, on one day it’s a handmade vase I favor and the other day it’s a pillow. But maybe if it comes to a piece I really saved money for a long period, it’s my pink w103 table lamp one of my favorite designers Inga Sempé designed for Wästberg Lighting.

How did it become yours?

It called me every day for one and a half years and asked when it finally can be mine. And one day, I said: NOW! Pinkie (how I gently name it — ok, I’m admitting now many of my items at home have names, call me crazy) was excited as hell and we still have the best lamp-human-being-relationship one can have.

When do you feel your very best at home?

Always. Since I’m a high sensitive person I’m constantly overstimulated by everything, the daily routine, noises, feelings, thoughts, work. When I come home from my studio in the evening my energy level is really low and the only thing I can do is being at home.

My home is my filling station. Whenever I have a day off I’m trying to be at home all day, do things I love, like decorating, putting art on the wall, reading, cooking, crafting. That’s my method to get new energy and I feel my very best after such a day.

What do you want to recommend?

Follow your intuition.

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