Sponsored post by City of Malmö.
I have been part of a European group of design bloggers and (yes, that dreadful word) influencers, for little more of a year. We have been to Helsinki, Eindhoven, Hannover and Milan. Not exactly the same people always but we are about ten, twelve in our group. Italy, Sweden, UK, Germany, France, Denmark, the Netherlands, Poland etc are represented. Part of this group was invited to Malmö for a design tour in Sweden’s third largest city. I got to join eventhough I live in Sweden.
I like Malmö. I could even argue that I like Malmö better than Sweden’s second largest city Göteborg. Stockholm is of course my hometown but Malmö with it’s 330 000 inhabitants is really nice. And it is just 20 minutes from Copenhagen. Happy trendhunter at Form Design Center, but more of that later.
We all stayed at fancy boutique hotel Duxiana. This is a hotel in the same organisation as furniture and bed brand Dux. You can imagine how lovely their beds are…
This Malmö trip was for two nights. Friday until Sunday. Plenty of talks about design and trends. Remember what is typical Scandinavian design?? Three things – minimalistic (or reduced of ornaments), functional (a practial chair wins over a funny chair) and true to materials (no mixes).
This first night in Malmö was spent by Lilla Torget. This is a buzy area with lots of bars and places. A classical Friday night with music and people. Dinner was spent a Bastard, a bistro themed restaurant with meaty dishes.
Lots of food and mandatory pictures. You can see a glimpse of Danish super blogger Mette at Monster Circus.
Niki, Stefan and Igor. Two of my favourite things… Pizza and wine. 🙂
Saturday we strolled a bit after breakfast. This is apparently the largest painted commercial wall in Europe.
Constant photography. You just see their backs but this could be a good opportunity to introduce the crew. From your left. Hostess Niki lives in Malmö but comes from the UK. I would argue and say that she has one of Sweden’s largest blogs. Mainly because her audience is international, and not local. Her blog is called MyScandinavianHome. Next to her stands Agata from Milan. Her blog is called PassionShake. Elisabetta in the middle, is also Italian and her blog is called ItalianBark. Mette is in black and we already talked about her blog Monstercircus. And in baseball cap is Igor. He lives in Munich but also works in Paris. His insta account is huuuuuge. And so is his blog at Urban Jungle Bloggers. Igor has also another blog – not only about plants – and this is called Happy Interior Blog.
So this was my weekend team.
Walking around in Malmö is really a treat.
Happy Igor.
Malmö have a lot of design shops. From Bolia to smaller crafts stores.
Egg cups from Formargruppen.
At Olsson & Gerthel we got to talk about Swedish design and brands like Massproductions and Asplund.
We obviously stoped at Form Design Center and talked about Malmötalents like Lisa Hilland, Louise Hederström, Jonas Lindvall, Minus Tio, Studio Stoft and here Petra Lilja.
We also got to see a bit more conceptual design by Katja Pettersson.
One of the newer spaces I never seen in Malmö is AB Småland. It’s not completely new. Perhaps two years old. In two floors they mix vintage and newly produced pieces. A great mix. And also voted best café in Malmö.
After visiting a handful stores like this and Grandpa we headed off for bubbles and flowers.
At flower shop Florista we got to do wreath.
I call this “Wild Meadow”… Well, I won’t quit my day job. Fun, but pretty difficult. I would say Mette won the prettiest wreath.
Dinner took place a Mineral. Green and super nice.
Happy crowd.
Sunday was partially spent on boat. In Malmö you can rent a boat by the hour and it runs on electricity, so no need for gas or anything.
Niki did her sightseeing with us. The smaller houses in the pic are actually fisherman’s houses and work as restaurants during summer.
Hostess Niki
The only downside was that the boat stopped working when we had basically 15 minutes back to our starting place. Titanic mood…
Enough of adventures – more focus on art. Malmö have a few good places for art such as Moderna Museet and Malmö Konsthall.
Girls looking at art.
Trendhunter looking at his phone
After 48 hours in Malmö we all separated to scatter off to our homes. I really like Malmö and can surely recommend anyone to get a nice full weekend here.
Really lovely post Stefan and thank you so very much for sharing just a tiny bit of all yr insight and info on design #grateful for your company
It was great to see you again and see you in January!!