3 Days of Design - Copenhagen 2019

We were fortunate to be able spend a few days in Copenhagen last week for '3 Days of Design'.  The festival is an annual design event open to anyone interested in design.  The city comes alive with exhibitions and events with many designers opening their doors to the public.  It was a chance for us to meet with lots of our suppliers who were hosting events in the city. 

Determined to really get to know the city, we eschewed taxis and hired electric scooters (best craic ever, do it!) and bikes (felt like natives) to get us around the city from meeting to meeting.  At Menu, we attended the launch of 'The Audo', a concept store, hotel, cafe, co working and event space designed by Menu in collaboration with Norm Architects.  If you're visiting the city it is absolutely worth a visit and if you can stay in one of the ten hotel rooms whilst you're there you will not regret it.  The bedrooms are in the eaves of the building and decorated in soft earthy tones.  Every single item was considered and understated. (I wanted to come home and throw everything into a skip and start from scratch again, they are SO beautiful).

At Skagerak, we were shown a preview of the new lighting range to be launched in the Autumn.  Inspired by Japanese design, the range is as perfect as we've come to expect from Skagerak.  They are also launching a limited edition of 20 Cutter benches in scarlet red.  This particular piece of furniture was a stand out item from the trip for me. 

Ferm Living threw the doors to their 'Home' open and the company's founder Trine Andersen hosted an event where she told us how the company came to be.  Trine, a graphic designer, couldn't find the wallpaper she had in mind for her own home, so designed one herself.  She took the design to a trade show and things snowballed from there. The 'Home' (which is an apartment) changes each season to reflect the current collection and for the festival, featured a beautiful handpainted mural of Copenhagen.  Ferm Living kindly hosted a dinner at Ibu, an Asian fusion restaurant which opened in 2018, for some of their buyers.  This is one for the list for your next visit to the City.  The space is decorated with only Ferm Living pieces and the menu is mouth watering.  There is also a great little basement cocktail bar called Duck and Cover close by, so perfect for a night cap.

Hay took over the historic, rococo, Lindencrone Mansion.  Over the festival, they filled the place with furniture from the new collection and installed their Palissade outdoor range in the lush gardens.  Again, so beautiful and inspirational we didn't know where to look first.  One of the most exciting bits of news was that they are launching a new extendable table, a version of the CPH.  So many of you ask us if any of our brands have extendable table and now we can say yes!  Again, that scarlet red colour popped up.  This time in the New Order shelving by Hay.  This colour could be one to watch.  This particular shade of red is refreshing and vibrant and a welcome contrast and companion to the muted colours we've been enjoying of late.

We've returned inspired and full of ideas for the season ahead - so keep an eye out at Maven for newness in the months to come.