It's a cover-up

Vanvik and Stockholm 1.5 enter the fold

Loose Fit Urban cover for Karlstad 3-seat sofa in Cobalt - Brera Fino. Loose Fit Country cushion cover in Cobalt - Brera Quadretto. Designers Guild collection for the Bemz Designer Collection.

With all the excitement around the launch of the latest addition to the Designers Guild at Bemz collection, we forgot to tell you about our latest family members.

Vanvik bedframe in Sand Beige Raffia

New to the Bemz bedroom series are covers for the Vanvik bedframe from Ikea. The Vanvik bedframe cover is available in two sizes, 160 cm and 180 cm and with or without a bedskirt. Sweet dreams!

The Stockholm family welcomes covers for the 1.5-seater armchair into the fold, completing the look for all those who already have the Stockholm sofa.

Karlanda sofa with long skirt in Gotland Stripe Silver Grey/Absolute White

And finally, all those unsightly pins can be tucked away under some beautiful fabric for all you Karlanda owners, as we now offer a long-skirt cover for the Karlanda corner sofa and Karlanda sofa bed, joining the two and three seater Karlanda sofas. The Karlanda is a range available in short and long skirt as well as Loose Fit Urban and Basiq. 

Is there a product or style you're holding out for? Tell us! Drop us a line at customerservice[at]bemz.com. We keep a tally of all requests and any products the majority ask for gets launched faster.

Månstad is here!

The wait is over. You can now get slipcovers for the popular Månstad sofa from Bemz.

After hundreds of email requests from our loyal and patient customer, and countless hours at the drawing board, Bemz is thrilled to finally be able to give you removable covers for the Månstad sofa from IKEA!

These new covers are easy to put on and remove (see below) and completely machine washable. 

As you can see, the seat, back cushions and frame each have their own separate covers, which are to be placed over the existing sofa covers, as the original covers on the Månstad are not removable. Thanks to a lot of ingenuity and some handy velcro in all the right places, both the bed function and storage space continue to be accessible. 

First choose whether you want a left or right-sided cover for your sofa. Then the fun bit: finding your personal favourite among more than 180 different designer fabrics, and test driving it on the sofa from the comfort of your home! Happy shopping.

Pop into our Urban Inspiration Store

With the launch of our new Loose Fit - Urban collection, the Inspiration Store has been given a facelift. We realise that most of you won't be able to make it in person into our store so we thought we'd share some photos here: 

Loose Fit - Urban covers in Rosendal Pure Washed Linen on Henriksdal chairs

Loose Fit - Urban cover in Rosendal Pure Washed Linen Medium Grey on a Karlstad sofa

Loose Fit - Urban cover in Rosendal Pure Washed Linen Absolute White on a Karlanda

Loose Fit - Urban covers in Rosendal Pure Washed Linen Medium Grey on a Kivik sofa and Klappsta chair. Karlstad footstool in Absolute White.

But if you are in Stockholm, then please pop in!

Trend alert: Denim Blue

Even though we first talked about this trend back in February 2010, it comes as no surprise that this timeless classic so firmly embedded in our wardrobes, has managed to hold its ground as a hot trend in our homes.  

And now it is even easier for you to introduce a touch of this enduring favourite into your homes, with the latest addition to the Bemz collection: Piper Twill Dark Denim Blue.

This 100% cotton fabric is dyed and woven using a special technique enabling us to create the perfect denim-blue look.

To convey that close-to-nature aspect of the Simple Life lifestyle, combine Denim Blue with beige tones, unbleached linen fabrics and shades of blue.

If the cosmopolitan-inspired Urban Living design is more your thing, complement this new fabric with different shades of black, charcoal and granite. Then break it up with accents of subtle pattern, like classic check.

Trend alert: Vintage Industrial

Vintage Industrial, aka Industrial Chic or Trash Deluxe, is one of the hottest trends in interior design right now, and the latest feature on the Bemz Trend Alert page. Here you can read all about the style’s defining characteristics as well as a few crucial tips on how to introduce it into your home.

As the name suggests, Vintage Industrial takes inspiration from old, defunct factories and rustic surroundings. Furniture choices are sturdy and functional, with straight lines and of a simplistic design, ideally a little worn with either rust or peeling paint to give them the sought-after tarnished yet unique, one-of-a-kind, look.

A balanced mix of unrefined materials with soft fabrics, such as concrete and untreated wood, tarnished metal and supple fabrics help interpret this style for the home. The kitchen plays host to a exquisitely worn yet sturdy table in unfinished wood, a look that is softened by chairs covered in simple, loose-fitting linen.

An old-fashioned blackboard lists the week's shopping, and industrial style lighting and tableware complete the look.

Typography in all its forms, like large metal letters, are used as art or spray-painted onto cabinets and storage solutions as practical labels.

The living room is unpretentious and bright, with a few well-chosen decorative details. The beautiful yet simple sofas, upholstered in washed linen or denim, soften the industrial theme. The coffee table, an upcycled pallet, is finished with a glass top and casters.

The bedroom with its simple, solid-coloured base is the epitome of calm. The bed sports a loose fitting bed skirt in textured fabric. Stacked boxes provide unconventional storage and a slightly worn metal stool is used as a bedside table.

Personal details, such as framed letters and black and white photographs, paired with fresh flowers, give the otherwise austere style a softer, gentler edge.

The well-defined Vintage Industrial style is created using shades of grey, with white, black and blue accents. Denim-like textiles also tick the box in creating the right look for this style, inspired by a genuine industrial feel.

Injections of soft pastel colours, particularly "dirty pastels" such as mint green or light yellow, can break up the predominantly grey colour scheme. On-trend metallics, which we are seeing grace both the fashion and the interior worlds, are the ideal partner, offsetting the less refined materials used in this style.

Patterns should be used sparingly so that the subdued, monochromatic grey, white and black colour palette remains uninterrupted. To achieve the right, worn look, opt for interesting textures instead, such as washed, tactile fabrics in any and every shade of grey.

New style of cover from Bemz for the urban lifestyle

There's something exciting happening today at Bemz: the Inspiration Store is closed for business as we are hosting a by invitation only press event and spilling the beans on some pretty exciting and cutting edge news. Bemz has created yet another unique and exclusive look for slipcovers for Ikea furniture. Today's press announcement is that we are adding a completely new look to the Loose Fit range: an Urban inspired loose fitting slipcover made from 100% washed linen.

Originally launched as a Shabby Chic-inspired style in May of last year, these new 100% washed linen slipcovers are an extension of the Loose Fit collection.

The Loose Fit - Urban look is characterized by an edgier, more metropolitan influence in contrast to his kinder rural counterpart. The look is taken from the latest in interior design trends: subdued and elegantly worn with a sophisticated, slightly looser fit. Seams are purposely apparent, with every aspect of the cover cut and sewn by hand with extreme precision.

"The Loose Fit collection allows us to transform an IKEA sofa using both colour and form in an exciting way. It will be great to see how our customers adopt this new urban look and make it their own", says Lesley Pennington, CEO and founder of Bemz.

Both the Urban and Country Loose Fit collections are manufactured using an exclusive linen from Belgium, a country with a centuries-old tradition of flax cultivation and processing. The fabric, Rosendal Pure Washed Linen, is pre-washed to give it a beautifully soft and vintage-like look, and comes in Absolute White, Soft White, Unbleached, Medium Grey, Sage Brown and Lavender.

Loose Fit - Urban covers will be available from early 2012 for a selection of models within the Karlanda, Karlstad, Klippan, Henriksdal, Nils, Klappsta and Kivik furniture ranges and as bedskirts.

Long skirts for winter - for Karlstad and Karlanda

Are you feeling the chill? Some parts of the US have already seen snow and even though many of us experienced one of the mildest October's in years, November pretty much always spells cold.

Is this the reason behind the latest new product from Bemz? The Karlstad and Karlanda ranges are stepping out this winter in a new style: in slipcovers with a long skirt. This slipcover is great for those looking to hide those (dare I say it: ugly) IKEA legs or for those who want to bring their furniture 'closer' to the floor, giving the room a cosier feel while not sacrificing on the contemporary look.

Perfect timing now that those chilly winds are nipping at our legs!

Top tips: It's okay to be blue

Have you ever heard of chromatherapy? Me neither! Apparently, it is the art of healing through colour. And why not? We react emotionally to lots of colours for a variety of reasons. If I say red, you say hot (or Christmas or love...). If I say green you say ecological (or money or jealousy...).

But let's talk about blue. It's associated with cold as well as with sadness but did you know that hues of blue can help soothe pain and promote relaxation?

It doesn't stop there! A blue room is even said to make people more thoughtful and productive!

All this and beauty too. The soothing shades of tropical waters like Oceanic Teal and Crystal Bay will help create a dramatic statement. 

And the fact that many of the names given to the various hues of this colour are derived from natural resources is evocative and telling.

And how timely: Bemz has just added a new colour to the Tegnér Melange texture fabrics collection. Mineral Blue (pictured above). It's a stunning dove-blue with a hint of sand and spot on trend for this ever-popular mellow yet intense colour palette. 

As with all nine shades included in the Tegnér Melange textiles, Mineral Blue is a yarn dyed fabric from Italy, made from a blend of cotton, viscose and linen. By mixing these natural fibres in different colours, a stunning weave with a unique structure and a soft, comfortable surface is created.

Credit: Elle Decoration, November 2011 issue; Photos, except Bemz: House to Home

Out with the old and in with the new Bemz

Everyone at Bemz has been working very, very hard on our biggest transformation yet. This time we are not talking about a sofa, or a room or even a whole home. This time we have given our website a complete overhaul - from the shopping experience to the inspirational lifestyles, from test-driving your favourite Bemz fabrics in 3D to introducing a completely new range of products. 

When we first opened for business in 2004, Bemz was all about living-room products.

It didn't take us long to bring in products for the dining-room.

We are thrilled to now be able to include bedroom products in our range.

We've also included a section entirely dedicated to trend alerts. Right now it's featuring the ever popular shabby chic decor.

Launch day was today - and as you can see, we are celebrating at HQ.

Champagne all around! Cheers. Please visit us and let us know what you think.

Win a free slipcover from Bemz!

It's competition time again and you could win a free slipcover* (up to a value of €250).

To enter, all you need to do is:

1. Show us your favourite Bemz slipcover: this can be a photo of the fabric, or a slipcover on a piece of furniture in the Bemz webshop or even use one of our in situ photos from our Lifestyle pages. If you have a Bemz slipcover at home, then you can use that too! 

2. Get the picture to us. This is where you can be creative: you could change your profile picture to your favourite Bemz cover, you could upload a photo to your blog and send us the link, or come up with your own idea. Regardless, we're here on the blog, on Facebook and email (blog [at] bemz [dot] com).

3. Answer the skill testing question: Which is your favourite Bemz fabric? Attach this to the photo that you use, whether it is through the blog, email or Facebook. For example: Hey Bemz! My favourite fabric is Flamingo Park Fuchsia from the Designers Guild collection. Your favourite fabric and picture do not need to match.

That's it!

Enter now! Competition closes June 24, 2011. The winner will be picked randomly from those who have met all three criteria listed above.

Just FYI: all the pictures included in this post are for slipcovers that come in around the €250 mark - just to give you an idea of what you can get if you win...

*The value of the prize is €250 (or equivalent value in SEK, Pound Sterling, US Dollar or Canadian Dollar at the exchange rate on day of draw) for shopping ONLY at Bemz. No cash alternative. The cost of a slipcover depends on the model and fabric. Not open to Bemz employees or their families or affiliates. Entrant consents to the use of his or her name, picture or likeness for publicity without further compensation. Competition closes June 24, 2011. Winner will be notified and announced no later than June 29, 2011. This promotion is in no way sponsored, endorsed or administered by, or associated with, Facebook.