Pilgrimage to Dutch Design Temple - Moooi

On our recent trip from Toronto to Sydney, we made use of Keith's conference in Valencia to travel around Amsterdam & Belgium. Needless to say one of the must-see for me was Moooi Design Gallery in Amsterdam. Moooi, the epitome of Dutch design opened its door to the public in January 2009. I was only too happy to pay pilgrimage whilst I was there. :)

Stepping into the Moooi's flagship store (or more appropriately called Design Gallery) was like Alice falling into the rabbit hole and going into Wonderland. The oversized lamp & paper chandelier,  life size silver horse lamp (230 cm tall) & the pig table creates an absolutely surreal & whimsical setting. It truly felt like a gallery than a furniture store. Obviously there is no way that I can afford any of this..  but.. it's always nice to oggle. Think I'll ever find any of these on ebay?Hmmm... one can only hope!

I also discovered the wonderful work of Lorenzo Petrontoni in the Moooi Gallery. Kinda look like a giant mood/inspiration board.

See the wonderful installation of Lorenzo's work below : 

 

By The Quirky One

A good thing?

Have been thinking about this for a while.. & finally decides to do it.. It is an endless pit when one becomes more interested in window shopping in décor and design shops than shoes or clothing stores...  Pathetic... I know..

Scavenging in op-shop, auction houses & dragging my poor hubby along for weekend deals has been the norm these days.

Signs of coming of age? lol

Just came back from Melbourne & discovered some really good independent design shops, industrial vintage & mid-century shops such as Third Drawer Down, Tarlo & Graham, & Three Quarters 20th Century Furnishings.

Three Quarters 20th Century Furnishings holds an amazing collection of second hand Scandinavian & danish designs including fabulously worn leather couches that you'll comfortably indent your bump cheeks into & gorgeous looking screens that's hard to find these days. Owner Glenys & wife Ruby Weigh imports quality mid-century pieces from Scandinavia. Glenys with his wife & children also own three other shops across town, bbold (Carlton), 20th Century Scandinavia(Lygon, Brunswick East) & Le Contraste (Chapel Street). Le Contraste has a different theme of french industrial vintage.  I was admiring the shop front on Sunday when they were closed, so I didn't actually get to see Le Contraste.  The Weigh's homes must be very well decorated, I imagine?

I had my eye on a lovely vintage bus scroll that has "my hood" - Randwick, Coogee Beach, Clovelly & Kensington on it. Would look totally cool in my apartment... Well too bad that my budget doesn't allow it + I later on bought something else in an auction back in Sydney... All to be revealed in my next post!!! So.. Stay tuned!

Did not bring my camera when I was doing the rounds at the stores - will be sure to bring them along next time so there'll be more photos to oggle at in the future... :)

by The Quirky One