Category: Dutch Design

Dutch Design (39): Faux-Cardboard or Clochard Duvet Covers – Luxury for the Homeless

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We have seen myriads of faux trends for accessories and home furnishing, faux-wood, faux-leather or faux-fur, you name it.

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Luxury Faux-Cardboard Duvet Covers
Dutch copywriter Peggy van Neer, has not only created a great bed linen design, but also a way of marketing it Eco consciously. She opened the site Snurkbeddengoed (“which means as much as “Cool Snoring Bed Linen”). A significant part (40%) of the sales proceeds of the “Le Clochard” duvet cover go to a Dutch foundation for the young homeless. It uses the proceeds to fund housing projects which create jobs and education opportunities for the young Dutch homeless.

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Hotels that would use this bed linen could claim to be (a bit) more environmentally conscious.

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The cardboard lookalikes are made of 100% soft combed cotton and available in three sizes from Dutch By Design.

Via 2Modern Design Talk – Modern Furniture & Design Blog: Faux-cardboard Duvet Cover.

Dutch Design (38): Pimp your Mini Rooftop

Probably you all have seen the Ipod design for the Mini Rooftop. I Love it!

You might also know Mini offers an on line tool to Design Your Own Mini Roof Top. Unfortunately it is not possible to add your own image or logo in this tool. In the USA there is another Mini site: Roofstudio. However, I cannot get it working even after downloading the correct shockwave version to check if you can add your own design….I’m yet too busy to try it in photoshop, but I might.

Anyway, a Dutch Mini Website Top of Mini has held a competition for designers up to the age of 30 and recently announced the winners. I would like to share a few with you that I particularly like, some of them are winners, some not:

The winner and also my first choice is the one with the typical Checkered Dutch linnen or cotton pattern known under the name “Boerenbont” (i.e. something as “Checkered Farmer’s” see for more info in English Babylon). I don’t doubt this pattern is known elsewhere, as Dutch Merchants seem having it introduced almost everywhere. I certainly do like the association with the checkered flag that was used on many original Mini.

My second choice is the Knitted Dutch Flag. I have already predicted that in the direct future we are on out way back to knitting under the present economic down slide.

My third choice is the Google Map Mini. Almost impossible to make a stronger statement. Satellites know to find you.

Talking about maps: This one is very Dutch with a map of The Netherlands 1:300,000 on its roof.

Also very Dutch is this Delft Blue tiles design. Delft Blue is still an very touristy item for Dutch export. The Royal Delft Factory is worth a visit and attracts many visitors annually. And do you see that when you click? There is also a Marcel Wanders collection for sale.

There is also a Traffic Jammed British Flag nicely referring both to the British legacy of the Mini and the horrible daily Dutch traffic jams.

There are many more, but maybe another time.

via Design.nl Dutch Design on the Road

Dutch Design (37) : Marcel Wanders Designed Mondrian Miami Southbeach open

Recently the $200 million 335-room and condos hotel Mondrian Miami South Beach opened during Art Basel. Its design is by Dutch designer Marcel Wanders.

The Hotel site of the Mondrian starts wit the same video you can find on Youtube:

Luckily you can skip the intro. I do not like video’s on a Hotel website as a starter. First and foremost I like photos and lay out plans of rooms. For one reason or another the photos on the Mondrian Miami hotel site are still images from the design stadium…no real photos yet.

The video is part interview with Marcel Wanders. IMHO he should take some English presentation lessons.

An extensive interview in Fastcompany‘s online magazine gives more insight about Marcel Wanders, Fast Company’s designer of 2008.

Off course the opening party was enhanced by the Happy Hour Chandelier about which project I reported earlier here

I wonder Wanders, why didn’t he built on the name Mondrian? The Dutch Style Icon that was the inspiration for Morgan’s first Mondrian Hotel in L.A. Then maybe the plain outside of this Hotel at least could have been a bit more … flamboyant…or flashy

Before the LA Mondrian became a Morgan Hotel Group Hotel, it was family owned and featured a real Mondrian painting that inspired its name…probably lost underway…..

Juxtaposed Religion: A Must Have for Every Hotelroom? (Dutch Design 36)


From time to time images of this bookshelf with the 7 books of the world’s most important religions came along on my computer. It is a habit in many European hotels to have a Bible available.

I believe it is about time with the world shrinking and shrinking by all the traveling we do, to have the 7 religion books side to side available in every hotel room to enable us travelers to take notice of all these religions and to create more respect for each other.

Quote from Swell Future:

5,084,000,000 people, 5,360 pages, 3,700 years, 243 countries, 7 books, 1 shelf. For the first time, the world’s most influential religious texts are brought together and presented on the same level, their coexistence acknowledged and celebrated. JUXTAPOSED: Religion is the first in the Juxtaposed series of curated bookshelves.

Juxtaposed is an idea from the Dutch – American designers couple Mike and Maaike

What would you say?

Dutch Design (35): Fort Knox by Sietze Kalkwijk (2008)

Without fluids man is doomed to die. Why not treat our basic necessity with the respect it deserves? Fort Knox is a luxurious wine rack reserved for a single bottle, a gilded cage for the most precious bubbly.

A unique design, as each object is numbered by hand. The hammered-in digits adorn the golden halter like a beautiful scar, playfully flirting with the logo’s engraved letters. Its simple structure, bearing resemblance to the basic wooden archetype, is just a trick to fool the over-stimulated mind.

Fort Knox doesn’t need to scream for attention with ornamental curls and provocative patterns; its decadence and weight show off just by being there – or by an attempt to lift the five hefty kilos for that matter. Beauty is ensconced in the perfect finish, precise inscription and frugal make-up. It’s the peach at each banquet, the pièce de resistance at every table, the icing on the metaphorical cake. Eat as much cake you like, since gold will never lose its value.

Fort Knox (2008) | Sietze Kalkwijk