b&o – The Interiors Addict

There’s a reason Australians are so taken with Scandinavian design, and it’s far more than just a passing design trend. Scandinavians keep the design mottos ‘form over function’, ‘simple is best’ and ‘functional design is successful design’ at the heart of all that they do. Buying a piece of genuine Scandinavian design is investing in quality, functionality and timeless and understated style. Scandinavians have a practicality to their designs that suits the Australian way of life, and an innate desire to capture the beauty of natural materials that suits Australian indoor/outdoor living and our unique, pared back architecture style.

We’ve rounded up the best places to find genuine Scandinavian design in Sydney:

Marimekko

Opening its doors in 2012, Marimekko Sydney is housed in an iconic Art Deco building in the heart of the CBD and its fitout is light, bright and in keeping with the brand’s stores around the world. Marimekko is a Finnish design house, internationally celebrated for its bright and bold printed design patterns. It’s a lifestyle store, where you will find fashion, accessories, fabrics and a range of homewares that extends to towels, linen, kitchenware, cushions and décor.

Visit Marimekko to find some bold pops of colour for your home, to update your bed linen or to source beautiful new tableware.

Bang & Olufsen

A Danish company that have not only elevated the audio visual experience, they have turned it into an art form. Bang & Olufsen are at the forefront of the AV industry, with sound systems, TVs and audio equipment so masterful they are revered for their craft. Not only that, they are exceptionally beautiful, with speakers becoming sculptures for the home with typically Danish design detail such as perfectly honed oak legs. AV equipment is a fact of life in modern homes, and Bang & Olufsen not only make it stylish enough to warrant a spot in your living room, it will become a striking feature with exceptional functionality and quality to boot.

BoConcept

BoConcept was established 60 years ago in Hernig, Denmark, with the goal of producing stylish, functional and affordable furniture for the whole home. Now BoConcept is a global brand with over 250 stores in 60 countries, however their motivation remains the same: to help their clients get the most out of their home. With a particular focus on functional designs and customisation, the BoConcept range is extraordinarily comprehensive, with an expansive range of living room, dining room, bedroom, home office and storage furniture, along with coordinating lighting, rugs, gallery and décor. Given the size of the range and the endless possibilities due to the customisation options, they offer in-store or at-home design consultations with their designers and present shoppers with 3D drawings to simplify the decision-making process.

BoConcept is the place to go if you’re looking for quality, designer Danish furniture for the whole home. There is enough in their range to find that one special focal piece or to kit out your whole house from the one store. They have stores in Sydney’s Crows Nest and Moore Park.

Hay Design

A relative newcomer to the international Scandinavian design family, Hay Design has made a splash since it was founded in Denmark in 2002. Inspired by architectural forms and dynamics of fashion, Hay have a distinctive youthfulness and vitality to their designs with a global aesthetic and design ethos built upon quality, craftsmanship and functionality. Hay work in cooperation with a range of talented designers resulting in a unified but eclectic collection of furniture, including sofas and chairs, homewares and lighting.

The Sydney showroom in Surry Hills showcases the most popular and new arrivals from the collection and allows you to sit, touch and experience before taking home your selections.

Great Dane

Great Dane is an Australian business that is Sydney’s go-to for iconic Danish and Scandinavian design favourites from prominent designers. It is where you will find famous armchairs and design icons from the likes of Hans Wegner, Arne Jacobsen, Nisse Strinning and Verner Panton. They also house collections from more modern designers and young design studios. Specialising in furniture, homewares and lighting, check it out if you’re wanting to invest in classic Scandinavian designer pieces for your home such as the famous Wishbone dining chairs (56/58 chair), J16 Rocking Chair or the String shelving unit.

–This post is in partnership with BoConcept. Check out their catalogue or visit one of their two Sydney stores.

Is Bang & Olufsen’s good looking Beolit 15 speaker worth $699?

As with all things audio, we hand over to our resident former consumer technology journalist Damian Francis, otherwise known as Mr Interiors Addict…

Let’s play a straight card on this one. The Beoplay Beolit 15 by Bang & Olufsen needs to be bloody good. Really, really, bloody good. That may sound a bit harsh to just lay down the law like you would to a young child who has just thrown his Messina ice cream all over the pavement, but it is important that boundaries are laid down early.

Why? Because the Beolit 15 is a portable bluetooth speaker… that costs $699! It costs $699 because it is made by Bang & Olufsen. And while it falls under the lighthearted entry level Beoplay brand, it still has to be held up to the same standards that all Bang & Olufsen products should be held to. It’s Bang & Olufsen after all — you don’t buy and Mercedes-Benz A-class or a BMW 1 series and walk away with a smile on your face if it drives like a Toyota Yaris.

Beolit15-14JS-Me29 — B&O’s Beolit15 in Shaded Rosa

So, the question is, can a portable bluetooth speaker justify a $699 price tag? Here are some of the key takeaways from a week using the Beolit 15… and an answer to the question of value.

The look. I’m going to defer to Jen on this. She thinks it’s better looking than me. And I have it on good authority that I’m pretty good looking. Ahem. There are three colour options (natural champagne, polar blue and shaded rosa), all in muted pastels that tend to soak into the background rather than draw attention. Jen loves the gold (natural champagne) version (and all gold accessories judging by our living room). Away from design aesthetics, this is good. A speaker is meant to sound good first and foremost. If it looks good too, that’s a bonus. The full grain leather strap is a bit take it or leave it in my opinion, but lovers of accessories will likely adore the touch (as Jen does).

Set up is a breeze. The hardest thing is taking it out of the box. Once you have, plug the power cord into the neatly hidden compartment at the back and you’re in business. This will charge the battery at the same time. Connecting it to your bluetooth device is just as easy. Press the bluetooth logo button on the top and hold it down. It beeps. Then search on your device for Beolit 15 and connect. Simple. There are a number of bluetooth products I have tested in my time that can’t get this step correct. Connecting becomes a laborious, time-consuming, rage-filled activity. Not the Beolit 15. It will take a couple of minutes from opening the box to playing music.

The sound. I’ll be upfront – I don’t like wireless sound, especially over bluetooth. It can be patchy, highs are often lost and bass is overcompensated in the hope that the young types will think the quality is brilliant because the speaker is vibrating. Dr Dre has a lot to answer for. Wireless over a network is better but wired is where it is at. As far as bluetooth sound goes, this is really good. Really, really good. Good to the extent that my credit card has stopped trying to cut itself in half having heard the $699 price tag and is asking to hear just one more track. The bass is good, not overpowering. Treble is balanced well. While there is certainly a little murkiness at the very top end, it takes a while to get there and is certainly not a deal breaker. In fact, for a bluetooth speaker of this size I have never heard treble balanced so well before. It dances brilliantly with lower notes, with the Beolit 15 producing a very well balanced sound. In layman’s terms — classical music sounds classical on a Beolit 15 — you won’t feel like you’re missing anything.

And the X-factor? One could argue that the $699 price tag is the X-factor! Thankfully it’s not. There is a little X in the design, a lot in the sound quality, but the real X-factor is in the versatility. It has a built-in battery that lasts up to 24 hours from full charge. You can take this virtually anywhere. But when plugged in at home, you can add another Beolit 15 to create a (extremely expensive) stereo system with proper left and right speakers. While we haven’t tried that, it is likely to be pretty good. The bluetooth technology will also allow you to connect two devices at a time for dual control and it will remember up to eight individual devices without having to connect again.

The specs. So you want to know what you are really dealing with here (if you don’t like tech specs, skip to the next paragraph)? The Beolit 15 has 240 watts of peak power thanks to four active drivers and two passive bass radiators, driven by dual Class D amplifiers. There is more, but this probably isn’t the audience for it! I’m barely the audience for that. As far as I’m concerned, tech specs mean nothing if you don’t personally enjoy the product.

So, $699 for a bluetooth speaker. Justifiable? Yes, after a little while. But when you really give it time to listen properly, the Beolit 15 will grow on you big time and won’t look bad at all in your lounge or bedroom. I’ll take two, thanks.

You can get more information here.

Disclosure: We were gifted the Beolit 15 with no guarantee of a review, let alone a positive one. But we were so excited about its good looks and sound, we had to share!