Paper Shades

Today I'm loving these beautifully designed paper light shades available from French store Cachette. The lights are inspired by the art of origami, and each light is folded from only one sheet of specialist paper. They come in seven colours (white, grey, pink, green, gold, canary yellow and autumn yellow) and are €89 each.

The paper shades come with a lovely fabric-covered cable and take a low-wattage bulb, meaning they give off a lovely soft light. Find them on-line here.

{Images: Cachette}

Ingo Maurer

Last Friday I had the pleasure of visiting the Munich showroom of German lighting designer Ingo Maurer and I wanted to share a few images of my day with you. If you are unaware of Maurer then read on as his work is not only beautiful and inspiring, but also functional and used by design lovers all over the world. Maurer began his career by studying graphic design in Munich. In 1960 he moved to America and worked as a freelance graphic designer in both New York and San Francisco. Eventually Maurer returned to Munich and in 1963 founded the company 'Design M', which would later become 'Ingo Maurer GmbH', which developed and manufactured lamps. His career took off when one of his first designs, 'Bulb' (1966), was included in the design collection of the Museum of Modern Art. The 'Bulb' design is still very iconic today and many lights have been produced since that emulate Maurer's original design - largely due to a renewed popularity of the exposed bulb in interior design. As well as creating lighting products for us to buy, Maurer also creates light installations for both public and private spaces and also takes commissions. If you've been to Munich before then you've probably been to Münchner Freiheit tube station and have seen the blue illuminated columns - this was one of Maurer's projects in 2009.

Maurer has two showrooms worldwide, one in Munich and one in New York. His showroom in Munich holds his entire lighting collection. There are over 100 products on show including prototypes and one-offs. It's set in a pretty ivy-covered building just off the busy street of Kaiserstrasse and is well worth a visit if you are planning a trip to the area. While I was there I took a few snaps of some of my favourite pieces, I hope you like them too!

If you are interested in any of these designs they are, from top to bottom: Johnny B. Butterfly, L'Eclat Joyeux, Seven Off The Wall, Bang Boom Zettel'z, Canned Light, Exit, the hologram light Wo Bist Du, Edison...?, Ingo Maurer's signature Zettel'z chandelier, two close-ups of the Zettel'z chandelier. To find out more about Maurer's work and designs, head over to his website where all his designs are catalogued.

{Images: Laura Blanksby}

ON LOCATION: Barcelona

With it being Valentines Day and my birthday last weekend I got to go to Barcelona for a good old city break. It must be said, the boyfriend is good to me! Whilst I was there I found Vinçon, a beautiful interiors shop specialising in quirky homewares with an industrial edge. The store is situated in Eixample, an area famed for its beautiful architecture, and this can certainly be seen from the outside.

Though on the more pricey side, especially on larger pieces of furniture, Vinçon has a great range of products from kitchenware, homeware, lighting, bedding, accessories and children's furniture as well as some novelty items. Here are some of the displays that caught my eye whilst wandering around.

Vinçon has only two stores, one in Barcelona and the other in Madrid.  Though the good news is that they ship to the UK. To see their full range head over to their website. Happy shopping!

{Images: Laura Blanksby, except image 1 from Vinçon}