Turn your living room into a love nest...

In less than two weeks lovers all over the world will celebrate Valentine's Day. During our search on the web we found hundreds and hundreds of pages dedicated to this special day. Poems, e-cards, the history of Saint Valentine and tons of special gifts. Let's share them with you!

1. Pillows are always a great idea to make your habitat more loveable (and more fluffy and soft). This Dot pillow from Hay is one of our favourites:

2. One cannot emphasize enough: candles candles candles. We found some beautiful candle holders on Dotmaison:

3. Enjoy some coffee together with these cute cups by guzzini:

4. Valentine is the day of love. Celebrate that by keeping each other warm under this Wool Blanket from Brookfarm:

5. If you want more options you can either browse the web or have a quick look at the picture below:

From 1st until 14th February Smart Living Objects gives you a 10% discount on all red products.  Ball Chairs, Extra Large products or picture frames, as long as it has a reddish shine, you will get it for less :)

Happy Valentine shopping!

Calling on our readers

It's been a while since you last heard from us, but at the beginning of a new year it's always a tad busier. Apart from that, I realized inspiration is not something you can automatically invoke. You have to feed it. And that is why I'm calling on you, my dear readers. If there's something you want us to write about, feel free to leave a comment. Or if you've bought something in our online store and you have remarks or questions, we're always happy to help you via our blog as well.

In our search of beautiful, original or even bizarre decor items we bumped into some very interesting products. The Festival Chair or Dutch Design Chair - which has just celebrated its Copper Jubilee - is quite the invention:

In the picture you see an example of how it can look like, as companies choose the design themselves. It's excellent for events and music festivals. Tim Várdy - who is originally a pianist - is the designer of this carton board stool. We might order it this summer:)

Something else we bumped into and really liked is the Après Lamp by François Chambard:

This lamp is part of a collection that was created by salvaged and reclaimed parts of a devastated store right after Superstorm Sandy crossed the East Coast of the USA. The result is amazing, don't you think?

That's it for now! We'll get back to you this week with some great news.

See you then!

New beginnings

2013 has kicked off and we hope it may bring you everything you wish for. Apart from new dreams, resolutions and ambitions, a new year also means new trends in basically every area. But we're gonna stick to the ones in interior design :) 

As we've mentioned earlier on our Facebook page, the colour of the year 2013 will be:

Except for this Emerald Green, other highly fashionable colours are soft pastel pink, cobalt blue, turquoise, copper and gold yellow.
According to Stijlidee you can use these colours to accentuate certain areas in a room and they go very well with basic colours such as white, grey, black and earthy shades.

This rather sleek colour trend suits the popular Scandinavian design perfectly. The minimalistic approach that has its roots in the 50's and 60's is back in a new and more modern version: 

In our last blog message you could read that we're preparing our new collection. The new products will be available soon, but we would like to show you a little preview of what you can expect in the very near future. Of course we took the 2013 trends into account ;)
So here it is:

Feel free to post a reaction with your opinion.

See you next time!

5 original Xmas decorations

Our office is currently very busy with preparing the new collection and we can hardly wait to show you what we we've come up with for the next 6 months. But for now, we just want to drown in the warm and amusing Christmas atmosphere. So let's have a look on cool, surprising design and decoration that was specially developed for the greatest holiday ever!

Greeting cards are a very important part of the end of the year festivities, but it's sometimes hard to find original ones. Akimbo, however, really got the picture:

Now, your Christmas tree is probably already decorated, but in case it hasn't or there's still room for some extra balls, you should definitely consider Seletti's Pantone Xmas Balls:

On Design Milk - one of our favourite blogs - we found these cute round wooden blocks with which you can build 3 snowmen. These Stackable Snowmen from fruitsuper design are made of 12 different parts that you can mix and match:

We're pretty sure you have bought most of your gifts. But you still have to wrap them, don't you? That is why we browsed the web looking for original and cool wrapping paper. It's so cool that people might not wanna unwrap their gift in order not to damage it :)

This Robot Wrapping Paper is excellent for children. Available at Not On The Highstreet

In that same online store you can also find - among other unique wrapping papers -  this adorable Christmas Reindeer Gift Bag:

We have looked and looked for particular Christmas furniture, but were not able to locate any on the web. And then we came to senses, cause Smart Living Objects has a chair that will do just fine as Xmas decoration:

Tadaahh: Santa's Little Helper, aka the Ball Chair Red with Dots.

Voilà, our Xmas hunger has almost been satisfied.

We wish you a very merry Christmas!
See you next week.

Amazing gifts for your Grandparents

In less than 2 weeks we can finally unpack all the wonderful Christmas gifts we have been collecting so far. But we bet a lot of you haven't finished their Christmas shopping and so here we are with our last gift ideas! This week we're going to show you what you can buy for the Grandparents.

1. Grandparents love their children and grandchildren the most and when they can't see them in real life, they always want to be reminded of them by pictures. So if you buy them for example the beautiful Surin Frame and you put in a nice photo beforehand, Granny and Granddaddy will be very pleased!

2 + 3. Smoking is a bad habit, we want to be clear about that. But people who do smoke will definitely like our Extra Large Metal Ashtray and the Extra Large Petrol Lighter because they're original and funny, yet functional. And you can always use the petrol lighter for other things to light than a cigarette. Huge candles for example :)

4. Playing cards with normal cards is fun. Playing cards with the Extra Large Playing Cards Set A4 is hilarious! And very convenient for people who have a bit of difficulties to see clearly. 

5. The Banco Box is a beautiful handmade accessory that is perfect to store many different things in: jewellery, cigars, tea or coins...It doesn't matter, Banco will look after it :)

6.  Made from full cork this Tribe Table looks very good in classic and traditional interiors that have a high 'cosy factor'. Your Grandparents will adore it! And so will you, which will result in more visits. Everybody happy ;)

Looks like we're done here.
We wish you the best Christmas ever and hope all your wishes will come true.

See you next time!

Boys and their toys

Sinterklaas, Christmas and the end of the year. December is by far the greatest month for kids when it comes to presents. But hey, all children deserve to be spoiled once in a little while and that is why we have collected as much as 8 gift ideas for...the boy.

1. Whether they're young or a bit older, boys usually have trouble getting out of bed. In that case the Extra Large Alarm Clock could be the perfect solution for oversleepers. But besides a great Alarm it's also a funny gadget. A BIG funny gadget :)

2. Very convenient and also perfect for girls is the Extra Large Coat Hanger, which has room for at least 5 pieces of clothing. No more messy sleeping rooms!

3. Children have a lot of creativity. We've heard stories of kids who use The Extra Large Back Pack as a great hiding place for hide & seek, others like to put their toys or party clothes in there. Not only kids like this though: grown-ups seem to find it a terrific laundry basket.

4. Extra Large Dice: who wouldn't want to play with them? Games like Monopoly or Risk are perfectly suitable for that, but why not take them on an adventure to outdoor games?

5. Ah, the Baby Ball Chair. We never get tired of this classic and neither will your little guy. This design of Finn Stone is available in various colours and is the perfect chair for every type of child.


Boys will be boys, but in the end they start growing up and become more mature. A nice side effect to that is that they also start doing their homework. And one needs tools to do so:

6. The Extra Large Paperclip is a perfect storing place for books (yes, also comics apparently) and folders. And it's a lot less boring than those desk trays and holders. 

7. AN ERASER. Yes, in capitals, cause it's a huge one. We bet you only need to buy one Extra Large Eraser for the whole school career of your (grand)son. Ok maybe 2, as it depends on how many mistakes he will make ;)

8. The Extra Large XXXL Coffee Mug is multifunctional and can therefore serve as a stationary device. Pencils, pens, paint brushes, markers...You name it, it will all fit in this gadget.

We hope these tips help you to find your boy, nephew, cousin or grandson the perfect present!

See you next time. 

How to hang a picture frame on your wall

We received an email from a customer asking for tips to hang up one of our picture frames. Even though we don’t sell screws, nails and other DIY-materials, we think it can be interesting to show you how the job is done :)

If you want to hang up frames, it’s important to know the surface you want to hang it against:

-Wood allows you to use any screw with the help of a(n) (electric) screwdriver.

-If your surface is bricks steel nails or a plug with a screw do the trick.

-A concrete surface requires a plug and a screw. You have to drill a hole for the plug and then turn a screw in the plug. A light screw is sufficient for every frame.

Now, how to put your frames straight on the wall?

You can do that by using a handy tool, that is a combination of a level and a ruler (a device you can find in most DIY-stores)

This is how you do it:

1. Mesure the distance between the hooks of the picture frame

2. Put the ruler/level against the wall and make sure it’s perpendicular

3. Mark the distance with a pencil

4. Drill a hole and put (a plug and) screw in the wall

Et voilà, you’re done. Enjoy your new picture frame(s) !