Tuesday, 13 January 2015

linen loft - By Pia's design

BY PIA´S Design linen for your home  - photo Paulina Arcklin
BY PIA´S Design linen for your home from Finland photo Paulina Arcklin
BY PIA´S Design linen for your home  - bathroom - photo Paulina Arcklin

In this rainy and grey day we need some beautiful treat for the eyes. Right ? 
I could move without second thought into this amazing apartment. 
 Loft space with remarkable huge windows and beautiful light. Industrial furniture which are put together with softness, beautiful lightweight texture and comfort of linnen.  
Do I need more to convince you ? 
BY PIA´S Design is PIA ERLUND passion for natural linen clothing and home textiles from Finland. The story of the brand has started in 2011. The hole collection is made with strong, heavy-weighted, european softened linen. Linen has been grown for thousands of years and it is one of the world’s oldest fabrics. Breathable, antibacterial and anti allergic fabric, which after regular use and laundering will only make it more soft, supple and pleasant to the skin….Collection of PIA´S Design shown on the picture in a studio in Amsterdam is captured by the talented Paulina Arcklin
I honestly, can’t take my eyes of these pictures..... so much to adore! 

BY PIA´S Design linen for your home  bedding linen - photo Paulina Arcklin
BY PIA´S Design linen for your home  bedding linen - photo Paulina Arcklin
BY PIA´S Design linen for your home  - photo Paulina Arcklin
BY PIA´S Design linen for your home - photo Paulina Arcklin
BY PIA´S Design linen for your home - photo Paulina Arcklin

Monday, 12 January 2015

bunk bed from France - AM.PM.

loft bed with desk underneath from AM.PM

I’m always looking for new and well designed beds for kids which appears on the market . 
The AM.PM’s furniture collection of bunk beds from France caught my eye recently. 
Their collection have a pleasant basic shape and it’s looking functional. The bunk bed can be set up in two position: standard bunk bed and also two separate beds on the ground level.  White colour of the beds it’s a perfect start point to make a personal room. The bunk bed with the desk underneath is my favourite. I really like the storage shelfs incorporated into the bed and shelfs around the desk make an easy place to show child’s treasures. You can’t see the mattress and the sleeping area of the bed , which gives the owner a bit of privacy.

modern bunk bed from France AM.PM
modern bunk bed from France AM.PM
modern bunk bed from France AM.PM
single modern bed for child design and made in France AM.PM
single bed for child design and made in France AM.PM
furniture collection for children made in France AM.PM

Sunday, 11 January 2015

yellow bunk bed & studio soet

yellow bunk bed in children room photo kiyomi yui
colorful children room in the Netherlands
working space for children

Should we start the new year with some colourful, positive blog post and a splash of yellow ? 
Welcome in the house of colour and humour - 
owner of  Studio Soet and Soetwaren, stylist Myrthe Smit

The yellow bed is a transformation of standard IKEA bunk bed. Like you can see, nobody is afraid of colours in this room! We can see a yellow bunk bed, orange chairs and colourful walls. It always suprise me, that in Dutch children’s rooms you can see pattern wallpaper which is combine with many other textiles and it all magically fits together. Can you spot this retro flower pattern on the wallpaper and then bedlinen on the bed with grid, dots and other flowers?  If I would use a rich pattern wallpaper on the wall I would probably ‘calm it down’ by use of basic colours. Stylist Myrthe Smit is not afraid of playing with many different shapes and colours.  In her work for Studio Soet we can easily recognise the same personal style. 

photo’s credit for the children's room: kiyomiyui - dutch-kids-room-studio-soet

Images made by Studio Soet  for psikhouvanjou store .

Thursday, 8 January 2015

welcome 2015


I wish you all a good 2015! 

It feels so much like a new beginning and I  would like to clean, organise and change so many things….
I wish this year will be more planned and under control than the previous one. One of my new year’s resolution was to keep life more simple and to appreciate things we already have and cherish them every day.

Since yesterday’s terrible attack in Paris I didn’t feel like posting anything here, 
and have many mix feelings and thoughts at the moment, but as one of the illustrators we’ve lost said,  

 "Love is stronger than hate."  and I would like to stay with that for the coming year even more.



This 2015 calendar you can download here: cautiouslyobsessed

Friday, 26 December 2014

Rafa-kids - year 2014 - thank you

K desk + x stool Rafa-kids


The year 2014 is going to end soon.  
Do you want to look back with us and see some of  Rafa-kids favourite moments?

The new year always gives us a boost of energy and we started the 2014 with testing, brain storming for our new design. In May we got the first prototype K desk and X stool and with new pictures  made in our studio, were proud to launch it.  It looks so simple but there is many months of hard work and design, behind this beautiful piece.  

K desk + x stool Rafa-kids





In summer 2013 our house was photographed, but it took a year before we finally could see the publication. We rebuilt and redesigned many elements of the house, also the first Rafa-kids’ bed was made for it few years ago. Since the boys outgrew the bunk bed this summer, and we had to change it, this magazine’s photos of the boy’s room are even more special for us. 

house of the Rafa-kids owners
house of the Rafa-kids owners - boys room with the bunk bed
pictures  | Souraya Hassan



We have had the honour of receiving the Junior Design Awards 2014
 for Best Furniture Collection, SHORTLISTED.

good design kids product acts milk japan

RaFa kids was selected for a very unique project in Japan! 

Blueprint is a new collaboration between a lifestyle brand ACTUS and Kids' magazine MilK Japon
They have started this new project to present a selection of children's furniture under a theme "Good Design Kids Products" As a first step 12 Japanese and International designers were selected for their personality, abilities, concept and outstanding designs. Their products were presented at the first design event taking place in Tokyo in September in Futako Tamagawa Rise/Galleria.

good design kids product acts milk japan excision in tokyo
good design kids product acts milk japan excision in tokyo

Which is an fascinating new social media and wonderful community. It gives us a chance to see our furniture in different parts of the world, starting from England, France, The Netherlands…and fly above the ocean to Australia or America. We are learning how to share with you our every day work and inspiration. 

rafakids on instagram
rafakids on instagram

We are so touched to see our beds in real children’s rooms , with their own personal toys and style. 
We always like to hear our customers’ feedback and stories. We started Rafa-kids customer reviews on our website, to share so many nice words about our products with others. 

R toddler bed rafa-kids in child room in malmo
picture  | pauletpaula
R toddler bed rafa-kids in child room in Australia
picture  | catherineandgrace
A teen bed rafa-kids in child room in Australia
picture  | thelittledesigncorner

We like to work in our studio a lot. 
Doesn’t matter so much if we need to make a new product photo of a basket or bedding, or to style the whole child’s room with our Rafa-kids furniture

K desk black and F bunk bed whitewash rafa-kids
rafa-kids studio in Rotterdam

Our K desk was welcomed so well in the press in 2014 : 
but we also get in our hands two new books with our design. How special is that! 
“Kids’ design”  is coming from braun-publishing in Switzerland featuring many wonderful kids’ design products of our time. I was writing about it here: braun-publishing - kids-design

kids' design book
kids' design book


In the summer we had a special visit of a photographer Kiyomi Yui with her husband. They worked for a visual book about Dutch kids’ room and the spaces for children.  21 rooms were selected for the publication, and our boy’s room was one of them! My older son is so proud of it that he shows this book to all his colleagues. 
The book is available at amazon here: amazon.co.jp
and it is absolutely unique to see the selection of Dutch kids’ rooms. You will find colourful, playful, full of creative DIY ideas for kids’ rooms out there. 

dutch children's rooms book
at home of Rafa-kids owners
book about children's rooms in The Netherlands

The Autumn came to Rafa-kids with a new linen, baskets and blanket collection
We would like to keep cosy and warm with style this winter. 

linen collection at Rafa-kids
beds for kids sharing one room - Rafa-kids F&A set whitewash

We look back and see a good year but we are ready to fight for more! 
We had many up and down moments too,  struggling this year mainly with productions issues, not enough stock, but we are happy to tackle the issues and start freshly the new year. 

We would like to thank this year especially:  

Our Rafa-kids’ blog visitors, who reach almost 22.000 every month, and we hope to keep you inspired in 2015. The blog community has supported us a lot this year, featuring our designs, which we appreciate a lot.  
Just to mention few:  

Last but not the least we would like to thank all our clients 
for their trust and support of our family brand. 

We hope to grow and bring even more beautiful and well designed products for our kids!
thank you note
If you are interested: 

Thursday, 18 December 2014

black&white kid's rooms

Chrismas mood in home of photographer and stylist Elisabeth Heier
white tent for kids
I love you to the moon white pillow
teener room in black&white

One of the strongest trends in kids deco past year was the black&white interior
I wonder how long it will stay around…and what will be next.

I think black&white kid's rooms can be very playful when we mix different patterns and textures. I collected few examples for you to see how nice we can play with accessories. The base is most of the time white ( walls, furniture) which keeps the organised and fresh look of the room and then all special elements will stand out. Popular graphic patterns are : stripes , half-moon, cross, dots, clouds, trees and then also a text on textile or wall poster. We can also add a bit of grey and it will all stay in the same monochromatic atmosphere and give calm and quiet effect. 

Below you can see a room with a very nice black bunk bed. It was custom made by a Dutch architect’s studio ateliers197. The most important for the architect it was to create as much storage space as possible, so important in kids’ rooms. You can see more pictures from the house here: woonhuis delft

modern black&white minimalistic playroom for kids
build bunk bed from ateliers197
build bunk bed from ateliers197
photo credit’s 1/2/3/4/ - 5/6/7