We’re so happy to announce of 5 year anniversary. It was actually Monday of last week but unfortunately we weren’t in the most celebratory mood, so we are celebrating today!
In some ways it feels like we haven’t been open very long, and in others it feels like we have been open a lifetime. The whole retail scope has completely changed from when we first opened, peoples shopping habits have changed, stores have become vastly more sophisticated visually all in a very short period of time.

It makes it even more important to continue to develop products with the designers we admire and respect like the CEREMONY collection by Claesson Koivisto Rune, Sucabaruca and Aureola by Luca Nichetto, and a new collection by Anderssen & Voll launching next month. We plan to  host more exhibitions with an even wider range of artists, designers and artisans and expand our mjolk books. These things are an extension of Mjolk and a result of all of the experiences we have had since we opened.

In celebration of these new projects we thought it would be fitting to give away Sucabaruca cookies, and even a Luca Nichetto cookie made by our friend Lindsey Gazel to celebrate the limited edition collection of Sucabaruca coffee sets which are made right here in Toronto.

We look forward to another 5 years at Mjolk, with all of us still here at our home and store in Toronto.

There are too many people to thank for the last 5 years, but we will try to thank you in person whenever we get the chance.

CEREMONY tray/trivet, milk and sugar set by Claesson Koivisto Rune now available online and in store.

Swedish life in general is rather informal. Society has done away with most old fashioned rituals and form of address. But we do drink a lot of coffee. In fact, Sweden ranks as the world’s top consumer of it. In business and in private it is customary to serve coffee or ’fika’ whenever we meet. And it’s always very casually offered, but in its practice fika is in fact a kind of modern ceremony. Up to five or eight times a day.

Welcome to our fika. Or, if that’s not your cup of tea, the pitcher works equally well for maple syrup.

- Cleasson Koivisto Rune

We are thrilled to announce the launch of the much anticipated coloured versions of Sucabaruca. All of these coloured sets are made by Toronto based ceramicist Alissa Coe, who also made the prototypes for the Luca Nichetto exhibition we hosted earlier in the year.

What makes the colour so incredibly rich and vibrant is a result of the raw porcelain being stained by colour pigments. Each colour has to be mixed by hand in separate vats which is very labourous and time consuming so as a result we will only be producing 10 sets.

Each collection are hand numbered editions of 10 and come with a wooden gift box and complimentary book about the concept and production process of the coffee service.

(above) This is the Pastel version above sitting in our kitchen.

At the table pouring ourselves some coffee with Elodie.

The coffee pot being placed on the CEREMONY tray by Claesson Koivisto Rune.

A perfect pour for some cream from the CEREMONY pitcher.

Elodie giving us a hand by stirring our coffee.

Don’t worry, it’s just milk.

All of the lines on the cups and pitcher are carved by hand for every piece.

A special marble tray with ebony wood legs, a joint production between Italy and Toronto.

We had custom wood boxes made in Japan for the service. This is the same boxes used to hold precious ceramics for the Tea Ceremony, and we thought it would be a good idea to bring a ceremonious experience to purchasing the set.

Just peeking out for the photograph.

The two boxes also include a special book on the process of Sucabaruca.

you can purchase the pastel version here

The pop version here

and the trays here

I hope everyone had a nice weekend. Monday is our day off so today was pretty relaxed, with brunch at Luna, a visit with Sali Tabacchi, coffee at Full Stop and some grocery shopping. Since the dwell article a few things in our home have changed so we thought we would give you a little update.

The first little thing is our tiny little Peace Lily in an Arabia Finland planter, along with the Luca Nichetto Timeline bowl and copper Zoo table by Claesson Koivisto Rune. We also sell the TMM floor lamp by Spanish designer Miguel Mila, we always have his designs on display at Mjölk.

Available at Mjölk but not on the webstore yet: Luca Nichetto Timeline bowl and TMM floor lamp in white oak, beech, walnut or wenge. Please enquire here.

Underneath this little side table is our new (old) mid-century Swedish carpet by Judith Johansson. She is one of our favourite rug designers, you might recognize her work from the red and blue carpet we have at our cottage.

When we first moved in we didn’t have any rugs on the floor at all, and in the beginning it was really nice and minimalistic. However, as we grew into our home we starting craving the warmth you get from incorporating textiles. They are also so nice underfoot and remarkably cut down on sound.

The full shot of the living room rug.

The untreated vegetable tanned leather on our 2213 sofa is about 2 years old, and wearing beautifully. Eventually it will be a cognac brown.

Elodie rolling around on the carpet.

You might be wondering where our old Berber rug moved to. We found a great place for it in our bay window underneath the Conoid bench. The two carpets play off each other really well. We’ve always loved textiles but incorporating different styles in the same room can be challenging. That’s why we really took our time waiting for the perfect rug to tie everything together.

All of the subdued fall colours are really nice. Funny enough, when we bought the rug via an online auction, the colours in the photograph were more blue, pink and orange, so we were really disappointed when this colourway showed up. Thankfully because of all the white oak and natural leather it works and it ended up being a win!

A photo of Elodie to end with.

We just returned from a trip to Oslo and Stockholm for design week. It was a super busy time, meeting up with friends and seeing what was going on. I didn’t really take many photos of the cities themselves because we’ve been so many times I find it hard to capture (that and the nonstop overhead clouds and dreary weather made for not the best lighting scenario).

Although most of our shopping seemed to revolve around Elodie, we did manage a few fun purchases. Above is a Höganäs Keramik pot. We saw it at the Red Cross shop that’s located directly across the street from the Claesson Koivisto Rune office. We didn’t buy right away but then ran over minutes before closing on our last evening in town. It’s currently freshening up our front entryway, which still has a way to go in resolving the space aesthetically and practically.

These little owls are from Japanese boutique Kiki. They reminded us of Elodie because just before we left she was obsessed with the book Little Owl Lost, asking me to read it like 20 times a night.

Another last minute find at the Red Cross. I had been looking for some mid century Scandinavian art and the colours and simplicity in this piece stood out.

One of Elodie’s favourite peek spots. Also, she chooses her own socks.

We saw this book at designer Eva Schildt’s home. It’s a sort of I spy in Stockholm book, perfect for us non-Swedish speakers. I was going to get her a book to learn Swedish but we figured it wouldn’t be a good idea since we are clueless how to pronounce anything!

Elodie loves helping daddy water the plants, so we got her a Moomin watering can. Of course she tends to water the floor but I am sure it will improve in time. Skill building! Also, I can’t believe she chose matching socks!

Tall toddler = belly shirts!

They bloomed already! I’m liking where we moved this painting. The three items together make a nice grouping.

Prototype of the Float candlestick by Anderssen & Voll (their website never seems to be working lately so this links to Muuto) for Muuto. It doesn’t seem they went with this colour for production, lucky us!

We managed to pop by Blås & Knåda, a ceramics and glass store in Södermalm where we picked up four pieces by Hisako Mizuno Jonsson. Funny enough, our friend Alissa Coe told us about these pieces a few days prior and we ended up buying them!

So we ended up being pack mules on the way home, carrying a lot of breakables. Thankfully everything arrived home safely. We were reluctant to put anything in our luggage because on the way there the airline lost our suitcase with ALL the Sucabaruca prototypes!!! And the bag didn’t make it back to us for over 3 days, with no updates. But it all worked out as you can see in the previous post.

A really special compliment to our Luca Nichetto show is a limited edition of 10 “Doc” cars made only for our exhibition.

Here is what Luca had to say about “Doc”:

Each car is hand-signed by Luca, and only available through this exhibition. If you would like to get your hands on one, please send us an email. This special collector’s edition is $120CAD each and is available in store and online.

Visit TobeUs for more details!

Currently on display until February 9 at the Design Exchange is 100% TOBEUS: 100 DESIGNERS FOR 100 NEW TOY CARS.

TobeUs was born as a vent of a designer who became a father and could not stand the sight of his own children using toys for just a few hours and then destroying them or stopping looking at them.

This is how the idea of TobeUs was born: toy cars made of wood, strong and sweet-scented, beautiful and clever because they are planned by skillful and passionate designers.

TobeUs has become synonymous with a way of design and the creation of new objects, attracting designers who want to design their own TobeUs. It seems that everyone has an idea for a wooden toy car in their drawer. Be careful, though, TobeUs is made by two cuts in a wooden stump that always has the same size. It is a project exercise that imposes clear limitations.

Matteo Ragni has gathered the the projects of the great masters of Italian design and curated “100% TobeUs: 100 Designers for 100 New Toy Cars”. Following a successful run at the Museo della Scienzae della Tecnologia di Milano, the exhibit comes to Design Exchange to show the value of a different future.

Featuring designs by Marcel Wanders, Mario Bellini, Fernando and Humberto Campana, Claesson Koivisto Rune, Matali Crasset, and many more.