Enja Vironmäki 2002



60s style by Enja Vironmäki - Avotakka 05/2002

 Here is some true customer service - I contacted the oldest Finnish interior design magazine Avotakka to ask, whether I could get the articles by Enja Vironmäki. It turned out that she has worked on so many stories that it would be impossible for them to send them to me. But they kindly sent me a list of all the magazines she has had articles in during the past 2 decades!

Talk about great customer experience - even though I've felt for some years that Avotakka hasn't really been on the edge (perhaps because I'm following a number of international editions, or because I've lived outside of Finland for 9 years, I don't know) Avotakka is again on my monthly reading list.

So - I get all magazines 1998-2010 from my Mom, and they are downstairs W-A-I-T-I-N-G for me to dig in. You know what? Perhaps this is no news to some of you, but I was a bit surprised - it really hasn't changed that much in 13 years. There was a number of items I could've purchased even today - especially textiles. Okay - the walls at the summerhouse are not natural pine anymore (of course they are, but just not in the magazines), the walls at home aren't yellow (according to trends autumn/winter 2012 they again will be...), and foremost: the quality of the photos in the magazines is excellent compared to these 10 years ago, and THE PRICES OF THE PRODUCTS HAVE SKY-ROCKETED!! Imagine - the Le Klint pendant (pictured below) sold for 167 € in 2002 - currently we are talking over 700 €!! Inflation my a***.

70s by Enja Vironmäki - Avotakka 05/2002

And - the mystery of Enja Vironmäki, why I like her style so much, that is, is slowly starting to unravel. First of all - SHE is on the edge. She wrote these articles 9 years ago, but could've published them today! Second of all - I've been reading Avotakka all my life, and she's been writing in the magazine as long. So I guess she is one of the people who have more or less defined what I learned to appreciate. And third - I just happen to like the same things she does. It is as simple as that. For example - those Tsaikka-glasses in the above picture are on my must-have vintage items -list (provided to my mother-in-law who enjoys auctions) since 2 years.

An article by Enja Vironmäki I found in Avotakka 03/2002...The Vaavi-babygrid produced by Sokeva (association for visually disabled producing a number of products in Finland), still available from ROKA-TUOTE (the base is still made by Sokeva) in the picture below is one where me and my siblings have spent our first months. The same babygrid goes around in my husbands larger family from cousin to cousin as new babies are being born. My husband has slept in it, and so has his siblings. To those planning to have a baby, and living in Finland - get this bed! It is light, you can move it around in the house, and it is just...right.

Sokeva VAAVI -babygrid - Avotakka 03/2002

Another article in Avotakka 04/2002 - here is a nice idea for bathroom! Buy some cheap, tall flower vases, and stick your bathroom necessities, like cotton balls and hair-rollers, in them!

Avotakka 04/2002