A few weeks ago we co-hosted a GREEN DAY with The Hood in Paris.
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Green Day at the Hood
Category: Event
We are just back from this year’s Dutch Design Week in Eindhoven in the Netherlands. Dutch design is outstanding and well known across the globe. So it is safe to say that the Netherlands have a certain design DNA similar to their northern neighbours in Scandinavia. Yet, Dutch design is standing out with its unique mix of cool, contemporary, playful, and experimental all at the same time. To get a better understanding and discover the latest green trends from Holland, we set off to a design weekend with a bunch of 15 European design bloggers. Buckle up, here we go!
Our first stop was something like the cell of Dutch design – the breeding ground for young design talents, the Design Academy Eindhoven. Bachelor and master students presented their works on several levels and many of the results floated somewhere between product design, art, and installation. Think of lots of conceptual work with a story behind. We didn’t spot anything particularly green, but you can see some of Judith’s favorites on her blog JOELIX.com.
Another highlight of our design tour was the headquarters of Dutch design icon Piet Hein Eek. The philosophy of Piet Hein Eek to avoid any waste and to recycle and repurpose materials resonates with our understanding of a green and sustainable life. No wonder that the showroom and shop was packed with plants! And the plants seemed to perfectly act as a backdrop for beautiful design pieces like the famous Scrapwood dining tables, repurposed wooden benches for a green patio, as well as lamps and home accessories made of natural materials. Here again, it was more the green context that caught our eye than any specific green design. But the Piet Hein Eek headquarters hosted also several levels of exhibitors, among them young design labels with very cool green designs. Let’s have a look.
Oh before we head to the next design spot, let’s have a coffee break, right? Let’s pick a spot with nice plants – we found this one and loved it big time: Onder de Leidingstraat is a über-cool deli and café in the hip Strijp area.
One of our personal highlights was the work of the yound Dutch design label Spruitje. Igor actually owns one of their first designs – a terrarium lamp in his home, you can see it on Happy Interior Blog. Their latest design is a fantastic propagation lamp with a wooden base, a brass switch, and a sleek glass tube. The lamp has an integrated LED lamp in the base so that the glass tube is illuminated from the bottom. This helps your cuttings to root quicker and look even more stylish in your home. Don’t you agree?!
In the same area we spotted a few more green design highlights. The folks of House of Thol presented their designs, among them their self-watering solution Waterworks. This device is also mentioned in our Urban Jungle book as a solution for easy plant watering. It is not only practical though, it also looks pretty ace: a combination of glass, partly glazed terra-cotta, and a cork stopper.
More green findings: How about a giant glass terrarium? If you have a humongous Bonsai or any other terrarium plant, opt for the giant terrarium called Terra by Sanne Weekers. Pretty impressive!
Ok it is time for another break! We need lunch. So let’s pick a restaurant worth an Urban Jungle Bloggers visit! How about these two options: Kazerne is a very cool and urban space set in a vast hall that combines both, a restaurant and exhibition space. We liked the food of course but we LOVED the plants set in crates and on the counters adding a wild touch to the industrial space.
Another lush spot in town is Stories Eindhoven. Just look at the following picture – do we need to add more words to it? The hanging cacti (Lepismium and Rhipsalis) are just stunning in this restaurant! Definitely a show stopper!
Let’s continue with green design now. We had a little green love affair with the new shelving units by Rotterdam based designer Femke de Witte of Nord Interior Design. Her plant shelf is a perfect addition to any urban jungle offering plenty of space for all kinds of houseplants or even herbs when placed in a kitchen. The contemporary look is accentuated by clean lines and the use of pure plywood and steel.
Another fabulous design from Nord Interior Design is the room divider slash shelving unit. With its organic arch shape it recalls the roaring 1920s, yet its overall look and feel is very contemporary. This was presented as a first prototype but we see a lot of potential for this one, don’t you think so? Eventually the three parts will be connected and this divider will come in handy to separate ares in open space interiors or small homes. Thumbs up!
Studio Carolijn Slottje was also present at the Dutch Design Week. Besides her well known floating air plant medusae, she presented her new Garden Quilt project. It is a creative way to add a green wall – whether in small for a home or as a larger installation for public places.
We hope you enjoyed the little green design tour brought to you from Eindhoven in Holland. The Dutch Design Week tour was organized by our fellow bloggers and friends Holly Becker of decor8 and Desiree Groenendal of Vosgesparis. Thank you both for a fabulous weekend!
Photography by Urban Jungle Bloggers
Almost one year after we launched our Urban Jungle book in English and German in the Botanical Garden in Munich, we were very happy to finally present our book in French! In the past months we received so many messages from French speaking plant lovers asking for our book in French, that we’re delighted that it’s finally here! We worked with the team of Editions Eyrolles to translate our book into French and make sure it would look pixel perfect. They did an excellent job and holding our book en français (and seeing it in French bookshops!) really makes our heart skip a beat. As you know, we both have a very special bond with France 😉
Last Thursday we presented our book to French press and bloggers at the perfect Urban Jungle Bloggers location: Mama Petula, a botanical concept store in the 14th arrondissement in Paris. It’s a little bit off the beaten track, located on the site of a former hospital. Mama Petula is a green lush shop where you can find the most gorgeous selection of houseplants, plant accessories and garden plants… and our Urban Jungle book of course. If you’re lucky you may even be able to get a signed copy!
Mama Petula opened their doors just for us! We were so excited to welcome our guests at this planty location, and see them impressed by all the greenery. Definitely a must-visit when you are in Paris. Please note that Mama Petula is only open on Saturdays and Sundays (check their Instagram to find out more about opening hours, as they may open during weekdays soon!).
We spoilt our guests with delicious plant-based food from Wild & The Moon. Wild & the Moon is based on the simple belief that food should be good for you, good for the planet, and delicious. They go for wild, local, gluten-free, ethically sourced, seasonal and plant-based ingredients, that bring a little bit of nature in our busy lives. We took a few photos before the guests arrived, because this disappeared quickly, it was so yummy!
With the plant-based treats come plant-based drinks: all night we sipped evian fruits & plantes and their new evian x kusmi tea. For these new evian fruits & plants recipes, the world-renowned evian mineral water is mixed with lemon & elderflower, raspberry & verbena and raisin & rose, that create light and fresh drinks. The evian infused x kusmi is a remarkable mix of 95% evian mineral water with infusion kusmi tea and fruity, botanical and floral aromas. These new evian drinks are not too sugar-y, but have interesting flavours that come in cute little bottles:
Look how well our Urban Jungle book blends in with the planty decor at Mama Petula:
Our friends at Lovely Day Botanicals sponsored the event by providing some of their wonderful beauty products (that we wrote about earlier here), like the Coco Gloss hair serum and Mermaid After-Sun Spray. Lovely Day uses premium botanical oils and essences and fruit acids for their small but refined product range. Their beauty products are not only natural, they are also vegan. No animal products whatsoever find their way into their products, neither do perfumes, alcohol, nor any other synthetic ingredient.
Plantshelfie perfection:
A few months ago we found out about GreenMa, a young French lifestyle brand that proposes organic and herbal teas and recently launched a range of artisanal soaps and candles with organic essential oils. And besides making delicious products that make you feel better, GreenMa also focuses on packaging with a low environmental impact. The teas and candles come in fumé glass bottles that are anti-UV as well, and refills are wrapped in craft paper. All our guests left with an artisanal GreenMa soap and the RELAX, DREAM and MAGIC candles made Mama Petula smell heavenly all night long!
Lovely Day Botanicals Coco Gloss and Mermaid spray:
Yep, we are two very happy and proud authors:
Always happy to sign a copy of the Urban Jungle book:
Wild Dutch clover:
Mama Petula is open on Saturday and Sundays, but make sure to check their Instagram for updates!
On Saturday we had a second event in Paris for everyone that wanted to join: we hosted a plant hanger workshop at the beautiful Welcome Bio Bazar. A shop that specialises in bio and organic products for home and kitchen, in the same street as their organic grocery shop and restaurant. They also have a small café with the best chocolate cake we ever tasted and in the back you have a large corner with a selection of plants from Mama Petula. This is where our workshop took place:
In two rounds of workshops we knotted dozens of plant hangers and had a lot of fun. Plant hangers are such an easy way to decorate your home and create a nice dynamic in the room without taking up precious floor space. You can find the DIY instructions of the plant hanger (and more DIYs!) in our Urban Jungle book!
A big thank you to our publisher Eyrolles (and particularly to Julie, Géraldine, Camille and Eric) and Mama Petula for the dreamy location (merci beaucoup Zoé, Masami et Caroline !), GreenMa, Lovely Day Botanicals and evian for the planty products, Wild & The Moon for the delicious food, Welcome Bio Bazar (particularly Galyord, Rebecca and Julie) for hosting our workshop and to all the press and bloggers and plant lovers that made the launch of our French Urban Jungle Book into such a joyful celebration! Merci beaucoup !
Photography by Madame Love (photos 16-17-18-19) and Urban Jungle Bloggers
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Urban Jungle rooftop dinner in Berlin
Today we’re happy to share part II of the Jungle Styling project we worked on in Berlin last month. As you saw in part I we created a lush jungle hangout for 30 fashion influencers that were invited to attend the Bread and Butter show by Zalando. But brunch alone is not enough, right?! We also worked on a fantastic rooftop location and turned it into a planty setting for the Saturday night dinner.
A wooden “house” structure was the base of the design, to which we attached plant hangers from fabric yarn, that we created following the DIY in the #urbanjunglebook. It was bright and sunny in Berlin when we set up the rooftop dinner, but there was so much wind that we had to cancel all the beautiful candles and Eno studio candle holders that we planned to use. No candles, but lots of greens, terracotta pots and pops of yellow made for a fun rooftop dinner location.
Together with the talented ladies from 79 Berlin, we styled the table top with ceramic plates and hand-stamped napkins with botanical patterns, presented on large Monstera deliciosa leaves used as natural placemats. We used Green Dots by Living Things as a “botanical table runner”: these small terracotta bowls are perfect for small grasses or crass, but also look really nice with different Echeveria succulents. They tumbled in the wind!
A windy rooftop jungle dinner:
The guests enjoyed a nice dinner with a star barbecue master, cocktails and a private DJ . And a beautiful sunset over the German capital from the rooftop terrace. Ohhh the hard life of a fashion influencer 😉
A big thank you to Living Things for the cool Green Dots, to Botanic Art for hundreds of beautiful plants, to 79 Berlin for the fabulous teamwork, to Rose Garden for the wonderful food, delicious Rose cocktails and behind-the-scenes-fun, and to Gebrüder Fritz and Zalando for working with us!
Photography by Urban Jungle Bloggers
A week before we launched our Urban Jungle book in Munich, Berlin, Paris and Amsterdam, we worked on another exciting project: the styling of the Zalando Summer House in Berlin. Online fashion retailer Zalando, invited 30 fashion and lifestyle influencers to the German capital for the Bread & Butter Show, which after years of being a tradeshow for professionals-only is now open to everyone, and includes concerts, fashion shows and lots of good food. These thirty fashionistas and fashion-loving guys stayed in the brand new Amano Hotel and had access to their own private hangout in the soon-to-open Rose Garden café restaurant with a brunch room and a pop-up showroom by Zalando. Our task was to to transform this very raw and urban space into a lush jungle. No biggie!
The entire Zalando Summer House identity was all about color-blocking with lots of yellow, blue and green. We opted for easy DIY plant hangers made from fabric yarn that we hung from the ceiling for an instant jungle vibe. The DIY instructions of these hangers can be found in our Urban Jungle book; one T-shirt is enough to create at least one plant hanger.
When looking for beautiful plant pots for the project, we immediately thought of the fun tumbling pots by Living Things, called voltasol. These are handmade terracotta pots from Spain and have a semi-conical base that avoids the static nature of conventional pots. The Voltasol pots are playful and “tumble” and come with different colored rims, that fitted right in:
The Rose Garden proposed a menu of fresh and healthy food and delicious Rose Garden cocktails. It tasted great and looked even better!
We ordered over 300 plants to create a lush urban jungle feeling and choose different kinds of ferns, ivy, palms, Monstera deliciosa, Zamioculcas, aloe plants, succulents, banana trees and ficus trees. A pretty cosy hangout, don’t you think:
We not only decorated the lounge area, we also added mini urban jungles to the 30 hotel rooms at Amano Hotel. Each hotel room was fully personalized with name-pillows, frames, outfits, goodies and a cute Voltasol mini pot to take home.
The view on the Fernsehturm from the balcony: this is Berlin!
We will share part two of this Urban Jungle event styling very soon, because we also decorated the Saturday night rooftop dinner of the Zalando Summer House. A completely different setting, lots of sunshine, plants and coolness. Stay tuned!
A big thank you to Living Things for the cool Voltasol pots, to Botanic Art for hundreds of beautiful plants, to 79 Berlin for the fabulous teamwork, to Rose Garden for the wonderful food, delicious Rose cocktails and behind-the-scenes-fun, and to Gebrüder Fritz and Zalando for working with us!
Photography by Urban Jungle Bloggers – Photos 9 & 10 by The Styleograph