BODIE and FOU Voted Best Interior Shops by ELLE DECORATION NORWAY

Trop coooool!!!!
I've just found out that BODIE and FOU have been voted Best Interior Shops by ELLE DECORATION NORWAY
I always get super excited when we get featured in Elle Decoration Norway because... well, it's Elle Deco (!!) and secondly because my great grand-father was Norwegian.
At least it was the story that my dad told me until I was 16 "your grand-dad was a sailor, blabla...Köng comes from Koening meaning King, blablabla" and in fact, knowing that the Viking spirit was running in my blood gave me some kind of pride and a great answer to all the stupid boys at school who thought they were hilarious when they were calling me King-Kong.
And then at the age of 16, my dad told me that actually he wasn't sure and my great grand-dad may have been from Switzerland....
What!? So not only I'm no longer the daughter of a Viking but now it seems that the grand-dad was a bit of slapper with wives in every port from Norway to Switzerland...great!
To this day, I have no idea where the name comes from but I shall stick to my Viking story!
Big thank you to ELLE DECORATION NORWAY for this but also thank you to Helene Bye for featuring our Gaivota rocking chair in their December issue as Editorial's favourites!

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BODIE and FOU Gift Guide | Blow-the-budget gifts for her

As yesterday our gift guide was on Blow-the-budget gifts for him, it seems only fair to make today's gift guide about Blow-the-budget for her, right?! :-)

 1. Gold leather shopper bag ( in black here) | 2. Helena necklace | 3. Milk table lamp | 4. White ball chair (see other colours here) | 5. industrial table lamp | 6. Stonewashed linen duvet cover in blue grey + pillow cases here | 7. Clare Vivier Tropezienne bag (see the whole Clare Vivier collection here)

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BODIE and FOU Gift Guide | Blow-the-budget gifts for him

...And here are some "blow-the-budget' gifts for him just because we love him...
Some of these gifts will make it look more handsome than he is and because as a guy, he will appreciate the quality and sharp design of these leather bags...
Some of these gifts will help him to sleep better while making our bedroom looking damn good...
Some of these gifts will be just what he needs for his home office...
Pssst...
At the time of this post, all these items are in stock & can be delivered to Europe within 2 to 4 days

1. Jules plumber bag | 2. Dark grey stonewashed duvet cover + pillow cases | 3. Postman leather bag in tan | 4. Wooden side table | 5. Mustard stonewashed duvet cover + pillow cases | 6. Scrapwood wallpaper by Piet Hein Eek

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BODIE and FOU Gift Guide | Gifts for foodies & bon vivant

Today, I've put together a little selection of great gifts for foodies and bon vivant. I don't know about you but I have quite a lot of those around me :-)
Our best-selling Cognac glasses are the perfect gift for Dads, father-in-law, brothers and friends. 
They always go down a treat and their shape is not just gimmicky, they've actually been designed to enhance the bouquet, temperature and volume of a fine spirit. They also exist in a smaller version here for women.
My favourite gift this year is this beautiful stonewashed linen apron which comes in blue grey, soft grey and dark grey. It's a very nice, unusual and stylish gift which I will offer with a jar of this Dijon Basil mustard Steve always uses for his kiwi roast. Last time, we were invited to diner to our friends', they required we brought the jar we had in the fridge with us to go with their roast - crazyfoodies!

Cognac glasses | Whisky glasses | Butterfly tin opener | EAT metal red letters | stonewashed linen apron | Eva Solo Cheese slicer | Normann Copenhagen wine pourer | Rubber washing-up bowl (available in 5 colours) | Set of 4 rocking glasses (great for friends!)

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BODIE and FOU Gift Guide | Favourite B&W prints

Not quite Santa yet but I feel I have became a bit of a Xmas shopping expert :-)
As my in-laws live all in New-Zealand and a few of my friends have moved to Australia, I appreciate how tricky/heavy/stressful/inconvenient (pick the one you want) packing gifts in your suitcase when you head back home for Xmas can be
I once had the brilliant idea to ship all our gifts to New-Zealand before we arrived to Auckland...I can't tell you how painful it was when I saw how much shipping had been so I've learnt my lesson.
If you're still stuck with gift ideas, let me tell you something: Art prints & posters are the best gifts you can get
Prints are light to pack which means low cost international shipping for you. On BODIE and FOU, you can order up to 1,2, 3 or 4 prints at once, the maximum shipping rates for a parcel going on the other side of the world will be between £8.50 to £22.50 (that's £5.62 P&P per print) and I know looking at the number of prints we are sending today to Australia, New-Zealand and Europe that a lot of you have already got that but I thought it would be useful for some of you to highlight this.
Here is a selection of my favourite B&W prints

Le Chat print | Batgirl print | Type Map print (available for British Isles, London, Ireland, NYC, Australia, New-Zealand, Canada, Italy and France) | Monkey print | Feathers print | Circus print (recently featured in The Guardian) | Small Talk print

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Seriously cool gifts for kids...

We had so many orders and press coverage for our decorative animal heads that I totally forgot to post about them here. So here they are!
For those, who have read me for a while, you will know that I'm not a huge fan of licensing toys like Barbie, Bob The Builder, etc... I think our children, our homes deserve better and I see so many talented designers out there that I make it my mission to show you things that are beautiful, creative and unusual to create inspiring, happy family homes.
When I put the BODIE and FOU Kids collection, I searched for things that would be beautiful to decorate a child's bedroom but also out of the ordinary - We don't like boring rooms, do we?
I love these animal heads because they change the look of a  child's bedroom in a positive way and break a plain wall. 
In Mila's bedroom, I painted one of her walls in Down Pipe by Farrow & Ball and the other 3 in bright white and you can see from the photos below that these lovely animals work equally well on a pale or dark wall.
All our decorative animal heads are handmade in India, ethically produced and then definitively add a striking decorative note to a kids bedroom (although we had one lady who bought the fox head for her kitchen :-)
Boys love jungle-themed bedroom so it's probably why the Elephant head is so popular (my favourite was the polar bear but I'm often in a white Xmas kind of mood) and I think these, are a great way to encourage creativity & imagination while decorating a kids bedroom.
For more animal themed bedroom, check out the Bat print or the Monkey print

Photography: François Kong  | Styling: Karine Kong | star garland from here

Nous avons eu tellement de commandes et de couverture de presse pour ces Têtes d'animaux, que j'ai complétement oublié d'en parler ici!
Comme vous le savez, je ne suis pas méga fan des jouets avec des licenses genre Barbie, Bob The Builder etc, donc lorsque je travaillais sur la collection enfant de BODIE and FOU,  j'ai cherché des objets de décoration qui soient beaux mais un peu différent pour créer une décoration dans la chambre des enfants qui soit belleet originale.
Si vous avez envie de créer une chouette chambre d'enfant qui sort de l'ordinaire, vous allez adorer ces Têtes d'animaux

Elles sont toutes faites en Inde selon le commerce équitable et elles sont juste parfaites pour ajouter une note de décoration a la chambre des enfants (bien qu'une cliente a acheté la tete de Renard pour sa cuisine :-)

Les petits garçons adorent tout ce qui touche a la jungle, c'est surement pourquoi la tete d'elephant a le plus de succes (ma préférée est celle de l'ours polaire parce que je suis plutot du genre Noel blanc) mais toutes sont parfaites pour encourager la créativité et l'imagination des enfants.

Si vous souhaitez trouver d'autres accessoires de décoration avec des animaux, jetez un coup d'oeil à l'affiche Bat ou l'affiche Singe

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Happy thoughts for the weekend...

(on mantelpiece) Milk lamp | (on the wall) Batgirl print, Bat print, masking tapes, white ball chair (C) Image by MILK magazine shot in my home

What are you up to this weekend?
For me, it will be a little run with Lucas, some shopping with my mum (I would love to take her to Islington), diner with friends tonight and hopefully some sewing tomorrow. 

This week I loved....

Being pampered by Jo and photographed by Victoria Birkinshaw for RED magazine ! You can see behind-the-scene photos on Instagram. I'll feature in their Feb issue to discuss Interior trends for 2013.

These pretty fonts (and free) spotted on La Mariée Aux Pieds Nus

These gorgeous sheep skins from Mechant Design

These eco-friendly, animal free-testing soaps

Reading The Simple Things magazine (issue 3 is now in kiosk and I love it!)

These Xmas styling tips and these

Have a great weekend!

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Gifts for him | BODIE and FOU Collection

I'm very excited by our Men collection this year. We have some seriously cool and gorgeous things in-store for him and his pad and you shouldn't have any trouble finding really stylish and unusual things. My favourite (and it seems to be yours too) is this linen scarf and our new skincare collection from Prospector Co which we imported from the US. 

Specifically designed for men's skin, each skin product from the Prospector Co range is free of any additives, artificial fragrances or colourings and made from natural ingredients blended and packaged by hand in small batches. You won't find anything supernatural in these products, accept for the way they make you feel (great and taking care of!!). Personally, I love Prospector Co' s traditional packaging which will look very nice in our bathroom.

Now I had a few emails asking about the jacket Steve is wearing. It is from G-Star, last year collection but they have similar ones in the current collection. The Urbanears headphones can be found here.

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Just arrived....

Isn't this gorgeous??!! We just received this beautiful tutu in slate grey to complete our collection. I'm sure it will make a lot of little girls very happy this Christmas.

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Happy Halloween | Kids

Mila and I are flying back to London this afternoon. I would have loved to stay longer with her but my beloved sister is arriving in London tonight and Mila is really looking forward to celebrating Halloween with her friends. Life goes on, doesn't it ?!
Francois and I took these photos last September. It's crazy how Mila looks so grown-up on these with my shoes.
Like the polar bears, we've been overwhelmed by orders for this tutu but we are trying to get more before Xmas. Nothing is guaranteed. On a positive note, we will soon add a new tutu in charcoal grey which is really beautiful

Here are 5 Halloween treats for your home
#halloween1: Bat print
#halloween2: Batgirl print
#halloween3: Le Chat print
#halloween4: Wrought iron wallpaper
#halloween5: White cast iron wallpaper

Mila et moi rentrons sur Londres cet après-midi. J'aurais aimé rester avec elle un peu plus longtemps mais ma soeur adorée arrive à Londres ce soir et il tarde à Mila de feter Halloween avec ses copines. La vie continue, n'est ce pas....

Francois et moi avons pris ces photos en Septembre dernier. C'est hallucinant comme Mila fait ado sur ces photos avec mes shoes.

Comme nos ours en ceramique, ils partent comme des petits pains et nous n'avons presque plus de stock pour ce tutu. Nous essayons d'en avoir afin Noel. Rien n'est garantie. En attendant, nous allons bientot ajouter un nouveau tutu en gris foncé qui est vraiment beau! 

5 Halloween treats pour votre maison
#halloween1: Bat print
#halloween2: Batgirl print
#halloween3: Le Chat print
#halloween4: Wrought iron wallpaper
#halloween5: White cast iron wallpaper

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Pigmée | handmade dolls

I first wrote how special the Pigmée collection was to me almost a year ago here and while it was too late for us to include it in our last Xmas catalogue, this year you will find Pigmée a bit everywhere
...lounging on our stonewashed linen collection
...in Mila's bedroom here and there as we have two at home now
...in the white Christmas moodboard from our Autumn/Winter catalogue and below.
Pigmée is a beautiful, handmade collection designed by Florence Bories, a young designer who just gave birth to a little boy named Oscar so things are getting a bit busy for Florence right now and the delivery we received will be the last one we received before Christmas so don't wait for too long if you wish to offer one of these beautiful dolls as a gift. The good news is that we managed to get more of this beautiful garland, the bad news is that Florence is stopping them to introduce new designs and keep her collection fresh - which is a shame because I really like how beautiful it looks in Mila's bedroom but hey we all need to move on from time to time and I'm sure the 2013 Pigmée collection will be wonderful!
PS:
Lots of deliveries this week so the UP poster, Friends of Violet poster, the Paumes books and the turquoise linen scarf are all back in stock

Photo: François Kong | Styling: Karine Kong

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Morning in Manhattan wallpaper | Famille Summerbelle

My posts were not meant to be all about beautiful, striking wallpapers this week but the truth is, we've recently added a lot of new wallpapers which I really need to tell you about!
My new favourite to decorate a kid bedroom is this Morning in Manhattan wallpaper by Famille Summerbelle - who also designs these beautiful city maps.
I've recently taken down the Nelly print from Mila's room to replace it with this beautiful map of Paris in coral pink to match her newly painted pink desk - she loves it!
Do you recognise the stylist behind these photos?

It is the lovely Aurelie Lecuyer who I wrote about a few days ago when she launched Sunday Market with her friend Anne Millet - and the more I see photos of this half-painted grey wall, the more I want to do the same in our guest bedroom. What do you think? Tell me please bises

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MERCI | Brookly Tins wallpapers

Following the huge success of the Scrapwood wallpaper collection by Piet Hein Eek, NLXL have teamed up with Parisian concept store MERCI (my favourite concept store in Paris) to design the striking and very unique Brooklyn Tins wallpaper collection 

Easier to apply than most wallpapers - and I can vouch for that having used the Scrapwood wallpaper in my home in France - the Brooklyn Tins wallpaper collection by MERCI is the perfect solution to create a striking feature wall at home, or re-invent a commercial space while adding a chic industrial feel to any space.  

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The BODIE and FOU Autumn catalogue has landed

Wow...it has been very busy today!
I was planning to show you Mila's bedroom update but I will do it over the weekend.
Between our VIP Enews that went out yesterday and our BODIE and FOU Autumn catalogue* that landed on our customers' doorsteps today, it has been totally mad!
We have packed so many order for our beautiful linen collection to send all over the place, it's insane! but it makes me really really happy because its success means that we will be able to have more colours in our Spring/Summer collection.
I already have the styling in mind and I can't wait to start working on a few kids rooms (watch out for the Spring/Summer 2013 catalogue!)
Last but but not least (bear with me...this is my "Award-winning" kind of thank you speech...), I would also like to thank from the bottom of my heart, our hard-working, passionate and dedicated little team especially Sophie who masters catalogue production & deadlines like no-one, Francois for his amazing photos and Doryan who recently joined us and has been very busy with the new collection and all of you who constantly support BODIE and FOU by sharing things we do on Pinterest, Facebook, your blogs etc and all our customers!
Yeah it may sound cheesy but I dont care...I have been doing this for 7 years now and I know one thing, without customers, you can have the coolest concept store on the planet, if nobody buys from it, you may as well go back to bed and do something else.
While I was travelling a few years ago, I read something in the plane that said "We know you have the choice to shop anywhere, so we would like to thank you..."). That little sentence always sticked with me. It is true....nowadays we all have the choice to shop anywhere we want so I'm hugely grateful that you choose to shop with us.
I wish you a wonderful weekend! bises

PS: If you haven't received a copy of our catalogue, you can request a copy here and you can view the digital version on ISSUU)

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Sneak-peek of our catalogue: White Xmas spread

We just received the first copies of our Autumn catalogue* which is being mailed to customers on Friday. It's always quite something for Soph' and I to see months of hard work finally in a print form. The White Christmas double page (the spread as we call it) below is a new format we introduced to reflect our love for mood boards, masking tapes and Pinterest but also to put together a lovely and unique selection of gorgeous and unsual gifts for everyone.
My top 4 favourites under £30 are
- the white tealight holder: £15 each
- the decorative star: £15 each
- the handmade Star garland: £20
- and the set of ceramic polar bears which looks really cute in a kids bedroom: £28
Also our lovely ceramic white owl is now back in stock

*Request a copy HERE

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Lucas' first steps as a model...

Mila is fed up modelling unless I bribe her heavily so Francois and I enrolled Lucas to be part of the shot we were doing last Friday.

Lucas happens to have the perfect fur to match the shot we had in mind for the Gaivota rocking chair (amazing piece of design!). I hope you like the photo we did, let me know :-)

Small Talk print (BLA design) | Gaivota rocking chair

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