Haus Design: Amsterdam

Showing posts with label Amsterdam. Show all posts

Friday, July 27, 2012

Who Needs Amsterdam...

...when we have the beautiful Pike Place Market flowers right here in our back yard? I snapped a few shots recently while at the market. And, lucky for me, the visitors that we took there to see the market on this particular day kindly treated me to a beautiful bouquet!

Don't get me wrong - my trip to Amsterdam just over a year ago was fabulous, especially the flowers, but I am so very grateful to have all of this beauty nearby!

What is your favorite spot to get beautiful flowers?
A special market or in your own backyard perhaps?

Monday, May 14, 2012

I'll Be In The Bar

Happy Monday! I hope you had a great Mother's Day.

We are doing some remodeling on the new house and as part of that we are adding a small-ish bar/butler's pantry area off of our dining room. It's been going on for two weeks now and I'm crossing my fingers that it will be complete by the end of this week!

Designing what we wanted prompted me to look around for some inspirations for great home bar areas. Check out these fun inspirational bars (residential and commerical) and other bar-/wine-related deas:

I love the look of this bar! Notice the worn finish on the stools and bar.

This was a great "wine wall" at a chic wine bar I visited on my trip to Amsterdam in May of last year.

A great non-permanent solution...

Ours will have a shelf across the top with three units like this - I am excited about this fun detail!

So fun!

What's the coolest bar (in terms of design) that you have ever been to?

Saturday, April 7, 2012

The Travel Bug

Nothing decor-related today, just a fun picture that I thought was worth sharing...

So y'all know I just returned from almost five wonderful years roaming around Europe. I feel like we saw so much and I left feeling very content. However, the other day I stumbled upon a simple picture that make me want to hop back on a plane and do more exploring!

This is a photo of a cafe, with the border between Belgium and The Netherlands in the walkway...how cool is that?

via

Have a great Saturday!

Monday, May 9, 2011

Shopping in Amsterdam

For my last post about Amsterdam, I thought you might like to hear about the shopping exploits. :) Below are some pictures from the great places my friend and I explored, as well as my finds! I didn't luck out on home design products, but did have some fun with a few fashionable items. Maybe I was inspired by all of the fashionable people around us!

If you want to read more about my trip to Amsterdam, you can click here and here.

Such a quaint shop in Haarlem, where we took a day trip.

Great art was on display at this outdoor market on Sunday morning...

I brought these home for my beer-loving husband. Since it was a souvenir I chose the most typical Dutch symbols, but Heineken has TONS of varieties of these fun labels to choose from - from fireworks to tulips to graduation caps. You can also personalize the label with anything you want. Unfortunately they only ship within Holland. :(

A great flea market that mixed antiques, hand made new products and ethnic textiles.

It was such an interesting mix with something new around every corner.

I bought two beautiful scarves from one vendor at that market,

and these cool bracelets from another.

The woman was so friendly and helpful that we were tempted to buy much more!

An upscale boutique housewares store - a very Dutch feel to the designs, combined with the Indonesian influence from their colonial days.

I loved that elegant, yet ethnic, combination!

That cabinet looked almost Swedish-influenced...makes sense considering where we were on the map. I love it when history, design and geography collide. :)

I also pondered buying these colorful, funky bracelets...

Another great shop with lots of natural elements -

so many similarities with Belgian Design.

{taschenstore.de}

We also stumbled upon these Italian handbags on our very first morning out, at a market that was set up for Queen's Day. I had been in dire need of a new one and loved these so much I bought two! The first one is camel and the second is more of a gray/green but you get the idea. My friend also bought a very cute smaller burnt orange bag. We had good luck at that stand! I know, we cheated since these are Italian, but every girl knows when you find a great bag, anything goes. :)

http://www.rituals.com/nl-nl/

I also fell in love with Rituals, a Dutch product.

They featured the products at our charming little hotel.

"Under a Fig Tree" was my favorite scent - it's really amazing.

This was a very fun boutique that combined cute,

trendy - but expensive - fashions with colorful housewares.

I hope you enjoyed the highlights of Amsterdam.

Next up: Madrid!

Impressions of Amsterdam...

As many of you know, I was in Amsterdam for a long weekend a little over a week ago. I think I am finally back into the swing of things and thought I'd post a few pics of what Amsterdam felt like, to me...

Of course the architecture didn't disappoint! There were beautiful doorways and rooftops at every turn. Many of the houses are built with the top jutting out to protect against weather, so that provides for some interesting viewing!
I was a also intrigued by the dress code. Granted we were in the absolute city center, so the urban influence was unfairly skewed in the direction of high fashion, but still...they were extremely fashionable, in a very European, casual kind of way. Surprisingly, we especially noticed how fashionable the men were - hopping on and off of their bikes with very trendy accessories, longer wavy hair, ultra-cool sunglasses, hipster jeans, etc.. My friend and I commented many times that they could step right into an ad and look just right!
On the downside, the city was incredibly dirty. I was pretty turned off by that because it detracted from the charm of the city. It also smelled quite a bit - they have little stalls for public urinals that don't have any drainage so you can imagine how that works out. Not so nice. That would be my only complaint and typically I am very tolerant of this in cities...
The cafes were incredibly charming and cozy, with a bohemian influence. This was the case even in the infamous red light district, where one can find a window with a woman waiting for her next customer, followed by the next window opening into a beautiful restaurant.

Anyway, here goes with a sampling of my pictures...enjoy!