Our neighbors

Bloesem Living | Home of the Choo family, Tiong Bahru Singapore

Please meet some of our creative neighbors … The Choo Family!

Singapore photographer Franz (who we first introduced to you here) visited their wonderful home right opposite the Bloesem Creative Space.  The great thing about the Tiong Bahru estate is that we are around all these other talents, we just love the atmosphere here. It's always a delight bumping into Pern, Innika and the most adorable Eadie Bo, while we are out in the neighbourhood grabbing supplies or lunch. They are such a sweet family!

Bloesem Living | Home of the Choo family, Tiong Bahru Singapore

Bloesem Living | Home of the Choo family, Tiong Bahru Singapore

Bloesem Living | Home of the Choo family, Tiong Bahru Singapore

Bloesem Living | Home of the Choo family, Tiong Bahru Singapore

Bloesem Living | Home of the Choo family, Tiong Bahru Singapore

Franz and his team, Melody, Hosanna and Gil are always looking for nice houses Singapore so feel free to drop them a line if you have any sugestions. 

Email: franz@lilreddotfolks.com.

.. lilreddotfolks
..The Choo Family 

Just 2 of us (& our 7 pets)

Bloesem Living | Home of Pet Lovers, Ann and James

Another edition of Lil Red Dot Folks. This is Ann and James, animal advocates living in Yishun, Singapore. Their beautiful home is inhabited by themselves along with 7 other much furrier friends, Dasher the dog, Eet and Mathy the cats, Meatball and Mac Jr. the guinea pigs, and Effie and Appie the gerbils. (How they keep their home in such tip top shape is just baffling to me.)

Bloesem Living | Home of Pet Lovers, Ann and James

Bloesem Living | Home of Pet Lovers, Ann and James

Bloesem Living | Home of Pet Lovers, Ann and James

Bloesem Living | Home of Pet Lovers, Ann and James

Bloesem Living | Home of Pet Lovers, Ann and James

Bloesem Living | Home of Pet Lovers, Ann and James

Bloesem Living | Home of Pet Lovers, Ann and James

We love how their house is not totally minimal and empty but everything has it's place and all thir things are so beautifully arranged, especially on the shelves.

For more homes to be jealous of, look here and here.

 .. Lil Red Dot Folks

Jon’s Sweet Home

Bloesem Living | Home of Interior Designer, Jonathan Poh

You've heard us go on and on about our love for young Singaporean talent, Rebecca Toh's photography, now we are proud to introduce to you, Franz. Franz along with his team (Melody, Hosanna and Gil) are the geniuses behind Lil Red Dot Folks. Interviewing creatives in Singapore and along with taking beautiful pictures of their home. 

It's always nice to see the designer or artist in their "natural environment". Plus their houses always look so great, you just get inspired to whip yours into shape. We'll be featuring some of the people and houses that have been showcased on Lil Red Dot Folks here on Bloesem, and to start the ball rolling, we have the home of architectural and interior designer, Jonathan Poh and his home in Dakota Crescent, Singapore.

Bloesem Living | Home of Interior Designer, Jonathan Poh

Bloesem Living | Home of Interior Designer, Jonathan Poh

Bloesem Living | Home of Interior Designer, Jonathan Poh

Bloesem Living | Home of Interior Designer, Jonathan Poh

Bloesem Living | Home of Interior Designer, Jonathan Poh

Bloesem Living | Home of Interior Designer, Jonathan Poh

Bloesem Living | Home of Interior Designer, Jonathan Poh

Bloesem Living | Home of Interior Designer, Jonathan Poh

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Franz also has a kinda, for a lack of a better word, epic, instagram feed that you have to check out.

.. Lil Red Dot folks

Keep Calm and Carry On

Looiersgracht_irenehoofs_bloesem

Dear Bloesem readers,

It has been one of those months where the work has just been piling up…backlog, backlog, backlog! I am sure you know the feeling … one step forward and multiple steps back… and on top of that, I am also back to a one-woman operation until I find someone to help out on all sorts of back office stuff and social media … (let me know if you can recommend anyone, preferably in my time zone…)

But I cannot complain, feeling completely re-energized by this wonderful mentioning of  the Bloesem Blog in the UK The Independent newspaper of last weekend… with Bloesem landing in 4th place of their blog awards …! So, thank you Independent editors, UK readers, you my dear readers and my sponsors for your continued support for Bloesem … which was needed more than ever before I can assure you for me to, as the British say,  “keep calm and carry on”…

 But not to despair … one of the reasons I have been in the
trenches is because I am about to launch a revamped Bloesem … and I am
doing all of the actual tech-work myself!! … talking about a steep
learning curve … but looks like after two weeks or so outside my comfort
zone … not sure in which zone I was 🙂 but suddenly I saw the light … I
think I might actually be able to pull it off!

Anyway, I promise to write a separate post on my “html/css coding
travails” next week, sort of a Biz tutorial … my sincere apologies to
all the sponsors, new and existing, for the delayed responses to your
emails … it is great to see that there is so much interest in Bloesem
and I will respond to you, so please bear with me … and while I am
getting my admin house in order during the next few days, I will go a
little light on the new posts … I hope you understand … Bloesem will be
back in full swing in a couple of days … I will see you then! ~xoxo
Irene
 

ps. image by me of our Amsterdam apartment. 

 

Keecie a short movie

This cute little movie only shows again how super creative and talented Klaartje from Keecie really is! Together with photographer Sandy 'birds and dogs' are flying out of the bag!

The dark blue couch potato pad sleeve must be my favorite piece from their latest collecction but I still love using my 'mini me' for my business cards.

Keecie_Ink-blue


Klaartje_Keecie

Keecie

ps. would you like to see where Klaartje lives? Click here it will bring you to her gorgeous Amsterdam home

 

.. Keecie

X and L interior artists

Xandl_lab

Last week I already shared some pics of our friends' studio home in Amsterdam. Just a couple more today to give you an even better impression of how incredibly stylish XandL actually are. Ever since they started designing interiors they stayed true to their inner voices. 

No easy or quick trends have ever affected their work and still their work is very modern and new – but above all genuinely timeless…  This for me makes them so unique and special. You do see very subtle changes in their creations and ideas – but it's always in the details, the craftmanship and the materials they chose…

[READ MORE]

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Xandl_Teak_cabinets
Xandl_cabinet_bright

Xandl_living

In true XandL style, they prefer their privacy and shy away from too much publicity…or any publicity at all…! Although you see their work occasionally featured in the well-known magazines they almost always only allow this "under protest"…These pictures were not taken with a hidden camera of course but after I pleaded with Xander for some time to let me shoot some images to practice my skills…:) he eventually kindly agreed as long as I did not shoot any images of him…they are too modest! While I hadn't seen Xander in many years it didn't feel like this at all which is great when you meet old friends again…seeing Xander brought back fond memories of when I started out as a (then still young…) freelance graphic designer in Amsterdam – XandL were an inspiration to me then and I am sure they will continue to be…

All images by me, Irene Hoofs

.. XandL

Face-to-face a new designer’s profile with Caroline Ellerbeck

Caroline_ellerbeck

Face to Face a designer's profile with Caroline Ellerbeck . 

I truly hope you will enjoy visiting this home today as much I do. Getting the opportunity to see how artists live, how they decorate their home is I believe really inspiring. I am very grateful first of all to all the designers and today in particular Caroline Ellerbeck for opening their houses and to Sandra and Marjon the interviewer and photographer for making time to prepare and create these amazing home tours for us. 

Caroline is a famous illustrator and graphic designer in the Netherlands. By starting her own publishing company recently a dream came true for Caroline … but much more about her and her family life right here at our Designer Profile's page … Let's us know what you think of it, we love to hear from you!

 

All images by Dutch phtographer Marjon Hoogervorst aka Vorstin 
.. Caroline Ellerbeck 
.. Caroline Ellerbeck's collection is available at BijzonderMooi 

Face-to-face a new designer’s profile with Jessica Nielsen

JessicaNielsen_facetofaceAll images by Vorstin.

It is especially nice to feature a home  from a designer (… graphic that is) that I have worked with a couple of times here on Bloesem and whom I really like. Her name is Jessica Nielsen and Marjon Hoogervorst en Sandra Jacobs visited her in her 80's apartment a couple of weeks ago … see here the very inspiring result and read how she  thinks about work her home and her own designs … 

 

 Previous Dutch Designer Visits

Face-to-face a new designer’s profile with BuroJet

Burojet
{photo credit: Marjon Hoogervorst }

It's going to be a good day today! My mom and stepdad are arriving today to see how we now live in Singapore and here on Bloesem I can share images of a super inspiring home with you. Two well-known Dutch designers, Jorine Oosterhoff and Egbert-Jan Lam live here with their little girl Fiep and their three cats.

Sandra had a lovely chat with them about design, what they like about their home, how they work and life in general. Marjon knew exactly how to capture this home in the best way possible and focusing of the charming characteristics of this home.

BuroJet, the label of Jorine and Egbert-Jan, are probably best known for their awesome snout cups and the beautiful laser lights. I would love to have one of those in my house. But the couple designed much more and from what I understand lot's more can be expected!

Face to face: a designer's profile with BuroJet

 

Face-to-face a new designer’s profile with Lucas and Lucas

Lucasandlucas

{photo-credit: Vorstin}

Yes yes yes … a gorgeous new home for you to visit today via Bloesem! Marjon and Sandra visited Dutch designer couple Sander Lucas and Marijke Lucas-Geurts in their very charateristic home in Tilburg, the Netherlands.

Sander, an independent product designer, and Marijke who specialises in graphic design combined their forces and now work together for their own label Lucas and Lucas. Available at BijzonderMooi.

If you look at the pictures of their home you will see some items that made me so jealous … gorgeous contemporary items and I have gotten a new feel about the color red … never thought it could be so nice and warm.

Face to face: a designer's profile! Head over here for an interesting interview with Lucas and Lucas and discover how this couple decorated their home!

 

 

..Lucas and Lucas