This Wednesday’s wonderful wallpaper is brought to you by the lovely Christiana & Aimee over at Hygge & West. They founded their company after being inspired by the Danish word Hygge, for which there is apparently no direct translation in any other language and which no foreigner can even hope to pronounce. According to the Danish Tourist Board you can’t even use a collection of synonyms to accurately describe the meaning of hygge as it is allegedly greater than the sum of its parts. You can however, describe a situation which can give you a pretty good feel of what hygge means. This is the picture that the tourist board paints:
“Gather the family and invite over a couple of good friends. Push the sofas and chairs up close to the coffee table. Douse the electricity and light some candles. Better yet, light a fire in the hearth. Serve plenty of food and drink. Raise a toast or two, or three, and feel the warmth flow around the table. Look at each other until you see the candlelight shimmering in each other’s eyes. You’ve got hygge!”
Now I don’t know about you, but that sounds like heaven to me and now I understand why there is no direct translation of hygge. I can’t think of a single word in the English language that can describe that feeling. Anyway, I digress! So they set up the company in 2007 so that they could make wallpapers by collaborating with their favorite designers, starting with Julia Rothman.
They also work with Jessie Whipple Vickery and Claudia Brown, co-founders of Pattern People, who are profoundly inspired by the nature of the Pacific Northwest as is reflected in their collection for Hygge & West.
Also on their books is Oh Joy! aka Joy Deangdeelert Cho who is a graphic designer, beloved blogger, food adventurer, and published author.
Artist Terrence Payne has also created a range for Hygge & West.
Brooklyn-based designer Emily Isabella has created a range of papers strongly focused on childhood nostalgia.
The girls tell me that they will be launching a large new collection this coming autumn working with three different designers. So whilst I’m not quite ready yet to give up hoping for summer, at least this gives me a reason to look forward to autumn!
Beautiful & playful designs! I love the clouds, so dreamy…thanks for yet another new discovery, Stacey!
Thanks Igor, seeing your comments always makes my day!!
Didn’t you know the english language has the least prosaic terminology? They have 1 word for 20 meanings. I’m not complaining as it’s really easy to learn as languages go.
Lazy though, no???
Great post and beautiful wallpapers.
Great post! I love learning unusual words like that, especially when there is no translation – says a lot about the national character of Denmark I think!
bless, i think your work is really good, it looks liek summer is here now, finger crossed, also look forward to the autumn range to.