Retro Villa, Art and Wallpaper

In 2009 Mette Helena, the owner of the fabulous vintage wallpaper shop Retro Villa, went to England to buy a roll or two of vintage wallpaper for her apartment and came back with 60 rolls instead! She found them in an Indian hardware store where the owner had not been able to sell the old wallpaper. Soon after, Mette Helena returned to England to buy the rest of the vintage wallpaper treasure and sold them through a shop i Denmark. In 2010 she was able to open her very own store in Copenhagen with Scandinavia´s largest selection of original vintage wallpapers. The store is called Retro Villa (Villa is the name of her daughter).

I got to know Mette Helena during an internship at her shop for a short period. I have wanted to write a post about her for a long time but it is difficult to write about someone you know. Mette Helena is very energetic, creative, spontaneous and so much more, and has a way of inspiring people around her to start their own creative projects (for instance my neon lamp DIY project). There is a bit of the author Astrid Lindgrens “Pipi Longstocking” character about her, and there is some”Villa Villa Kulla” – energy in the shop environment as well.

Compositions like these are everywhere in the shop and Mette Helena has a great eye for creating such  tableaus and also works as an interior decorator for magazines. She is an artist and studies at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen. Her creative projects with sowing patchwork blankets and pillows and selling wallpaper began as a hobby  to support her studies and has now developed into a business.

Also very cute in person : Mette Helena in her store, wearing a vintage dress.

Painting by Mette Helena called “Watch it happen” from 2006

Painting “Puberty” by Mette Helena from 2008

“Untitled” from 2008 by Mette Helena

See more of her art at Mettehelena.dk.

Vintage wallpaper from Retro Villa

My grandparent´s house – a soft embroidered place to fall

“Rød grød med fløde” -the first thing you learn to say when visiting Denmark, and to everyone´s amusement. It means red porridge with cream and is a traditional dessert. Here it is, rhubarb porridge with whipped cream, home-made of course at  my grandparent´s house. Since blogging has entered my life, some peculiar situations arise when I take pictures for the blog. Like when I arranged the porridge next to the flowers and my grandmother gave me a slightly worried look and I assured her that it is quite normal for my generation to document everything they do on camera.

So I took pictures in their basement of homemade fruit juices, jam, jelly etc. My grandmother Edith still looked worried but a bit amused at this point..

This is what the rhubarb porridge  is made from, fresh from the garden.

These toys are from when my mother was a child and my son really loved playing with them, even my old dollhouse was a hit.

Hand embroidered pillows are everywhere in my grandparent´s house, even the toilet has hand crocheted towels for the guests.

My grandmother gave me this pretty vintage flower dress from the 70s. Thank you Edith.

I hope you enjoyed my family story. My grandparents mean so much to me, when I was a child I used to stay with them in the summer and since I am partially brought up abroad, they have been a stable part of my life. They really understand how to value the simple things in life and my cousins and I loved to stay there, play and eat fresh beans, potatoes  and strawberries from the garden.

My grandparents are in their 80s and still very active. My grandfather-engineer and inventor- invented the first solar energy storage system for heating in Denmark, during the energy crisis in the 70s, called Sunwell, I am so proud. My grandmother works as a volunteer at a 2nd hand shop. These volunteers care for every garment, and clean and prepare the clothes for sale, and nothing is wasted but all goes to charity. These pretty porcelain teacups are from the shop -and very cheap too.

New Logo

Now with logo! My husband made this logo for me (thank you) -I love it. I gave him the challenge to design something inspired by the 20s and 30s Bauhaus style graphic but more feminine, cute and comtemporary. Hope you like it too.

Create your own cute Mood Board using Olioboard

My Olioboard called Cute Retro

I just discovered this site where you easily can create your own dream living space using Olioboard, it is free and fun to use. It works like a very simple version of Adobe Photoshop and you can use the items on the site (which you can buy of course). -Clever advertising but it is possible to add your own images as well.

Some of the cute retro furniture are from Vintage Looks.

Sailor-Button Earrings ♠

Sailor button earrings from Kawaiicph sweater from Petit Bateau

I bought some vintage buttons in a second hand store and made some jewellery from them. It is very easy to make these earrings:

First you cut of the button part with a diagonal cutter. The backside needs to be flat.

Then you glue on the earring studs, so simple, I gave them a lacquer coating afterwards so they are shiny and more durable.

Picture from my book Dansk Tatovering by Jon Nordstrøm. This picture is from a documentary from 1969 by Nils Vest and is a film about tattooing.

From the book Dansk Tatovering : graphics by Tattoo Peter, 1940

I love the naive and romtantic graphics you find in old-school tattoos.

Bikini from my vintage pin-up magazine goes nicely with the sailor style, would love one like it…

Kids sailor fashion with neon belt from Tommy Hilfiger.

Miniature jewellery

Giveaway here ♠

Tiny glitter shoe earrings in a shoebox from Harrods

I have a miniature stash of all kinds of tiny treasures the perfect size for jewellery making.

Bottle opener with bow

I have shown these sodapop earrings before, on the left you can get an idea of how small they are. I have given them a lacquer coating.

Playing card earring studs, decoupage and lacquer coated.

Vinyl record earrings. I made the hole by using a heated needle.

My favourites ♥

Here are some of my favourites

My perfume from Paul Smith

A dangerously addictive spicy tea I ♥ ♥ Yogi teas

Fresh herbs in the window sill in the winter and from the garden in the summer

I collect these Moomin cups from Arabia in many colours but of course my favourites are pink…

My Blythe doll from Japan

This is a gift I got, it is so cute from Danish Liebe

My best jewellery: the glittery stars and the butterfly earrings are made by me from recycled paper

This bag I have had for many years it is from HM actually

Shoes from Paris

Candy Apple Mint nailpolish from Essie

I love my blue scarf from Petit Bateau and I collect vintage children´s books

Bathtubs are highly underrated this is the ultimate luxury, children´s bubblebath from Hollys

Vintage pin-up magazines

Vintage magazine Frou Frou

I have read this book many times, definitely my favourite, written in 1975, fantasy novel by Salman Rushdie “Grimus”

I love this cd with Agnes Obel

♥ My stuffed bird

Without a doubt my alltime favourite: my son Silas

DIY Neon Pink Lampshade

My moodboard in my new office calls for something pink and I need more lighting. I have two old lamps from Netto without shades which were partly put aside for garbage but then I remembered an idea I saw from Retro Villa:

Foto from Retro Villa

This is a great and cheap way to redesign old lamps, so I decided to try. I used string from a bulding supply store meant for bricklaying in neon pink. I didn´t find out an easy way of using the string. It is difficult to wrap it around but with som patience it turned out nicely I think.

I put transparent glue on the knot I tied in the beginning and at the end:

Below you can see the white version of the lamp:

In the dark the whole room now glows with an amazing pink colour:

Mette Helena from Retro Villa, who creates beautiful things and has the cutest shop with vintage wallpaper, also has a facebook group where you can see more of her cute ideas here.

Foto from Retro Villa

Cute in Copenhagen : Retro Villa and Akimbo

If you visit Copenhagen it is a must to go to “Strædet” where alle the cute shops are nearby, my favourites are Akimbo and Retro Villa:

Wallet from Akimbo in Hyskenstræde, the place to go for gifts, cards and cute accessories

Cards and paper from Akimbo

Photos from Akimbo´s website

 

Photo from the shop Retro Villa in Badstuestræde where you can buy original retro wallpaper and handmade unique accessories

Photo: Tia Borgsmidt

Vintage Wallpaper with flowers from Retro Villa

Interior from Retro Villa

Photo: Tia Borgsmidt