ferm living is this danish brand "
that aims at design and manufacturing interior products with a graphic touch. The product range consits of wallpaper, wallstickers, textiles, kitchen items and a large KIDS collection."
ferm also have a great blog and started this friday with a new section called
"Friday Shopping", and guess what? We're the first store to be featured. How cool is that?
1. Who are you?
My name is Sonia van der Zwaan-Barrigas. I'm a Portuguese married with a Dutch happily living in the Netherlands. I'm an urban designer but have this passion about interior design. Two months ago I decided to change the course of my professional life, I gave up my 9 to 5 job and started what I call 'my little dream', a shop in interior design and lifestyle with a Scandinavian touch! 'Gosto' is a Portuguese word with many meanings, it can be used for 'taste', 'style' or 'I love'. Everything in my shop represents my 'Gosto'. All my favourite brands, among them ferm in particularly, and also some young independent designers are represented. I also have a 'taste' corner, where I share my favourite olive oils from Italy, chutneys and curds from England and off course wines from Portugal! I like this kind of mix, my style and my taste!
2. Where is your shop located?
My shop is located in a small village called
Blaricum about 20 km outside Amsterdam. It was formerly the milkshop of my husband's grandfather. The building is more than 100 years old, a farmhouse, still with the thatching roof so typical for this region of the country. Blaricum is this sweet small village, where everybody knows everybody, known for its many monumental farm buildings, local cafes and restaurants and off course nature.
3. Which 5 words describe your shop?
Funny, unconventional, young, bright, Scandinavian with south European temperament.
4. What is the best with your local area/city?
The best of both worlds, the city and the countryside. Within 20 minutes we're in a busy city like Amsterdam or Utrecht, but with my bicycle I'm five minutes away from a big natural park. It's also a particularly region in the Netherlands, with great shops and restaurants.
5. Any good ideas for the weekend?
I love music concerts and in Amsterdam is always something up, look for more information at
paradiso or
melkweg. It's also going to start snowing this weekend and the first outdoors iceskating rings are opening, next Saturday I'll give a try with the kids at
in Laren. Then maybe I'm going to grab some great food at
hotel de goud fazant in Amsterdam, they have the best dessert in town, “hemelse mudder”!
