IKEA 2008 Catalogue - favourites

I'm late for this compared to other bloggers but the new IKEA catalogue has not yet arrived here - luckily it came to the office! So here are my favourite looks and items from it:

The Ektorp Jennylund armchair with the b&w chequered Stoarp cover is an instant classic. I like the pillow on it too.

This is a dreamy living room in b&w. It looks like the other side of the room from the previous pic. Again a great armchair, Lillberg, in its rocking version. The Granemo display with sliding glass doors is fab.

This year's big hit for me: The Mandal headboard: (dim 240X68cm_ lacquered solid pine wood slats on a metal frame. The photo shows three stacked one on top of the other. I am going to get it for my custom designed bed, it will fit perfectly on the wall behind it. Cannot wait for Christmas!
I also like this version of the Mandal bed, the storage underneath looks great and so does the coordinated storage cabinet in front of the bed. A very attractive proposition for the bedroom.

A very stylish b&w bedroom.I know the bed is in very dark brown, but the overall feel is b&w. Again the lovely chequered armchair is featured (see far left side). If I did this, I would try to find better looking black crystal chandeliers though - or even better forget them all together. The frames above the bed are the perfect icing on the cake!


Great looking wardrobe. It has the look of its more expensive Italian counterparts. And I'm a sucker for maple or birch wood.


The main color schemes of the IKEA catalogue 2008 for Greece are black & white, black, white and green and anything red! The photo is a great look for a home (or even proper) office. I might just make the wall in front of my desk a lovely deep burgundy red like this.


My all-time favourite kitchen from IKEA: the Ulriksdal doors in lacquered solid oak. Instead of the dark lilac wall, I would combine this with dark lime green-like my real kitchen is painted now.


Talk about green! Doesn't this green tile look amazing?


I got this rug for my kitchen! I always pick up cheap rugs for it as the cats mainly live there and they never last for long. The colors are great-they pop up at you!


I love these vases! They look so Renaissance in this photo. I might get them one of these days.


And finally the Varm pots - I got the big olive two-toned one on the far left (it was the last left that day) for one of my living room planters. The walls are going to be painted a very light olive green so it will match perfectly.

Stands at Thessaloniki International Fair 2007

I designed some stands at Thessaloniki International Fair. One of them even got an award as best designed stand in an enclosed space. Here they are:

The stand for the Information Society is the awarded one! I designed originally five different approaches to it, then they narrowed it down to one and a colleague took over while I was on holiday, doing the necessary changes and alterations until we reached the final result.

photo by Dinos Michail

photo by Dinos Michail

Then there was the stand for the Hellenic Sugar Industry. Here I took a design of a colleague he had done for them last year and revamped it, adding also the bubble display at the right side of the stand. Pity they did not let us do the set up of their products inside the acrylic bubbles, the result would have been much better.

photo by Dinos Michail

photo by Dinos Michail

Here is the stand I designed for IKA (Social Insurance Institute). This is my favorite stand this year - too bad the client made us change the 3X3 plasma screen display on the right wall and replace it with a single 60" LCD screen.

photo by Dinos Michail

The stand for three of the institutes of the Ministry of Employment and Social Protection had some difficulties in the layout, considering two of the institutes had only a 2,5m front and that they had to follow the general look of the Ministry we had established with the IKA stand and the OEE stand (designed by a colleague). The final result is modern and colorful, unlike the image one has in mind regarding state institutions.

photo by Dinos Michail

Because of the devastating fires in Greece, the Ministry of Economics canceled their participation. HELEXPO decided to devote the space left to a stand dedicated to gathering aid for the people hit by the disaster. In a limited amount of time we had to come up with an idea for it and this is the result:

photo by Dinos Michail

photo by Dinos Michail

The concept was that we had to give a sense of the devastation and despair the fires cased, while at the same time sending a message of hope for the future and the environment. Thus the black color prevailed, while the graphics, designed by my very talented colleague Zoi Gazila, showed lovely images of the forests (by Dinos Michail) accompanied by verses of Greek poets relevant to the theme. A different word on each of the eight towers in the stand, connected to the concept of help and compassion and hope, acted as the marker.