All posts filed under: workspaces

A dark office corner before and after

*This post includes gifted items During phase 1 of the renovations at CASA PYLA, I was keen to try out a really dark room for a change. With the help of Hübsch Interiors and Farrow & Ball, I created this intimate and minimalist workspace in one of the bedrooms. Just to give you a bit of a background on our house plans, we signed the deed for villa Bagatelles (which I rebranded CASA PYLA) on my birthday in March ’19. Given our project to rehabilitate this big house, I knew we couldn’t achieve all we wanted to do before Summer ’19. So I broke down the work in several phases. March-June ’19: Freshening up the house to make it welcoming and liveable for Summer ’19. December-June ’20: Tackling the major renovations (new windows, the concrete floor on the ground floor, new bathrooms, etc) September ’20: planning a series of creative workshops. As soon as we got the keys, I started three months of intensive renovations to create a natural, Summer vibe in this old house. The bedroom …

The beautiful home studio of Photographer Ditte Isager

Ditte Isager’s wooden home studio

Published by BODIE and FOU Style Blog

I mostly work from home so I’m always interested in discovering how people organize their home studio and creative spaces. I love it, even more, when a home office is filled with natural light and feels inspiring. I think this one ticks those boxes, don’t you think!? This is the home studio of Danish Photographer Ditte Isager who photographed Gwyneth Paltrow’s books “It’s All Good” (which I love), and her second book “It’s All Easy”. She also photographed numerous campaigns for H&M, Fritz Hansen, Toast, and many more. After seven years in New-York, Isager moved back to Copenhagen with her husband and son Wilder (what a cool name!). As a fan of plywood and interiors featuring natural wood, I was naturally drawn to Ditte’s home studio which is covered from floor-to-ceiling in wooden planks of Dinesen’s Douglas Pine. The studio is right next to their home and can be accessed via an old re-purposed staircase. Yet it feels like it is in the middle of nowhere. Calm and remote. To maximize the space of this home studio, they built a mezzanine and put a mattress for …

A warm, minimaliste lounge in neutral hues

A warm lounge in neutral hues

Published by BODIE and FOU Style Blog

Follow my blog with Bloglovin While doing some research for Mila’s bedroom upcoming makeover to add storage and give her walls a fresh coat of paint (see the most recent makeovers here and here), I came across this soothing lounge in natural hues in the home of Interior Designer, Susanne Swegen. Since we sold our home in London and relocated to the beach in France, I have been moving towards interiors with a more natural feel, textures, and hues of whites and soft greys rather than the all-white Scandi look we had in London. A trend that I can see happening on my two Instagram accounts too: @bodieandfou and @peoplefromthesea (did you notice the change!? :-) As we now surf a lot more and go to the beach at least twice a week offseason, it was inevitable I guess, that the beauty and natural vibes of the surrounding white sandy beaches would rub on me. At first, it was the soothing blend of neutral colours that caught my eyes. Those light grey walls work beautifully with …

Positive personal planners to match your mindset

Published by BODIE and FOU Style Blog

Now that we are well into mid-January, back to work, how do we make this year a productive and positive one? If you are a check-list person like me, I find that the best way, is to consign all the things you want and need to do in a personal planner following the SMART goal framework: SPECIFIC MEASURABLE ACHIEVABLE RELEVANT TIME BOUND For instance, as one of my major goals, this year is to make 2018 sugar-free (and I’m talking refined sugars only!), I can easily focus on doing one week at a time and tick each day on the page of my personal planner as a mini success and then cross the whole week as a weekly success. Week after week, I’m building positive momentum. I write down other things that will help me to achieve this goal (i.e. finding food I really enjoy eating, food that gives me plenty of nutrients, etc). By the time, you have crossed a whole month, I bet you will be pretty happy with yourself. There are lots of things that I …

An inspiring creative space

Published by BODIE and FOU Style Blog

Looking for some inspirations to create a desk and private space within a room, look no further! This beautiful creative space, filled with natural light, is a DIY project from Dutch magazine VT Wonen. You can find the tutorial to create this little nook (tutorial & instructions here). The instructions are in Dutch but if you are using Google Chrome, you can activate an add-on (Google Translate) in the toolbar to translate automatically pages written in a different language (very useful!). They’ve used Light Blue No 22 by Farrow & Ball, which I think, looks really pretty and summery. What do you think? It is a colour I wouldn’t usually think of using as I tend to go for hues of whites and greys (see our bedroom) but I really like how it softly contrasts with the rest of the room in white and it makes SO inviting, doesn’t it!? It’s always nice to work from a space filled with natural light, isn’t it!? I initially set up an office in one of the spare rooms in …

Jacqueline Morabito’s inspiring home office

Published by BODIE and FOU Style Blog

French Interior Designer Jacqueline Morabito is by far my biggest inspiration in the world of interiors. I love how she combines effortlessly the simple lines of a modern building with vintage, baroque and handmade textured objects. Faithful to her signature style, Jacqueline Morabito’s home office exudes calm, peace and creativity. Black & white photography, illustrations, books and drawings are casually displayed on a wall-mounted desk while wooden. While vintage furniture adds warmth and textured accents to an all-white room. SHOP THE LOOK The two vintage Fanett chairs designed by Ilmari Tapiovaara in 1949 pictured by the desk, beautifully contrasts with the peaceful, clutter-free monochrome room. The upper level with the door open makes me wish this lead onto a roof terrace but maybe not… I can also spot a picture of her late Architect husband Yves Bayard (1935-2008), who designed the MAMAC (Modern Art Museum in Nice) and a vintage ladder similar to the one I had sourced in a second-hand shop in London. For the little story, Jacqueline Morabito was the French Designer who inspired me to …

How to optimise your home office: 4 ways

Published by BODIE and FOU Style Blog

Are you looking for ways to optimise your office space at home? The number of people working from home rises to its highest level since records began. In the UK alone, there were 4.2 million UK home workers in the first three months of 2014 (2015 figures TBC), amounting to 13.9% of the workforce. Whether you live alone, share your space with your partner or a full house with children, here are four clever, contemporary ways to maximise floor space and create a nice office space at home. Home office #1: If you have toddlers, you will agree that most of the time, they love hanging out around their parents, sometimes, much to our dismay when we need quiet time to meet a deadline. Mila certainly did when she was young and still does. Designed by Dutch Architects Van Wengerden, these minimalist wall-mounted desks (pictured below) have been designed with family life in mind. Fitted at different heights to accommodate little kid chair like a mini Eames style chair (available on NOTHS in white, yellow and blue), these workstations not only look …

office space in a tree house. Read on www.karinecandicekong.com

Office space in the tree house – Part 1

Published by BODIE and FOU Style Blog

Steve started building the tree house in 2009 after we went for a run in Cazaux during which, I showed him a little tree house in someone’s garden. As it happened, he then spent the rest of our holidays building this “little” gem which is now 10.1 sqm (3.75 x 2.70 m) and about 5m high. Over the years, we’ve made small improvements to the tree house which is becoming a work of love. In 2012, Steve added Plexiglas windows. In 2013, he built a lower deck to make it more accessible to everyone and last year, we painted the outside black with used oil from cars, something fishermen in the area do a lot to protect their huts (yes it is a dirty job!) and the inside white. Mila had a tea party on the new deck when Côté Ouest magazine came to shoot the house. This year, we are turning it into a home office… In the last few weeks, Steve has insulated the walls, added large recycled plywood panels and fitted electricity. Half of the ceiling and a few other …