Use the form on the right to contact us or send an email to annika [at] lilleputtstudio [dot] com.
Portland, ME
USA
Made in Maine, Scandinavian-Inspired Print and Pattern, Designed and Handmade For Every Day Use in the Home. Created in late 2011, Lilleputt is the creative studio of Annika Schmidt.
A little quiet around here as we hunker down and focus on packing up 5+ years of collecting, living and working in this apartment and home studio. The shop will be closed for several weeks until we're settled ...and I've had the chance to hang some Lilleputt wallpapers in our new place! Follow us on instagram @lilleputtstudio for updates, or check back late February 2017. Thanks for stopping by!
Excited to see my first samples back from the weavers... say hello to Lilleputt Wovens! Tweaking and testing, and pondering how to incorporate these into the line. And thinking about finally getting back to some furniture work with these upholstery-weight fabrics.
I grew up attending the Swedish Yuletide market and festival for the Lucia Procession, Swedish vetebröd and köttbullar, and we were excited to return as a vendor this year for our 5th year in a row (!).
A long day as usual, up at 4am to drive down from Maine, but always a fun event. I didn't get a chance to take a single photo at the Swedish Yuletide Market in Boston today, and Ryan caught this silly one of me in the calm before the storm (of Scandinavians) came pouring in. We were thrilled to see so many regulars and familiar faces, as well as many new.
Thanks to everyone who stopped by!
A couple of months ago I posted on instagram (photo below) about The Nordic Theory of Everything, a thorough and humorous book by Anu Partanen about the state of 'the American Dream' in this country, from a Scandinavian perspective. So imagine my excitement to see author Anu Partanen herself, speaking in front of my work on display at the Scandinavian Cultural Center in West Newton, MA!! So sorry I missed it.
Regram from: @scandicenter
When it rains, it pours. More shower curtains in the shop!
Minimal Midsummer celebrations for us here in Maine, maybe next year we'll finally make it up to New Sweden for the midsommarstången and festivities. A few days old, this arrangement from @watershedfloral still looks lovely, and I'm torn on whether or not to pull some flowers from it for a floral crown... Happy Midsummer!
More wallpapers in the works; decided to go larger with my Ronneby print, named for my mother's hometown in Sweden. And below, the inspiration for this print: Ronneby! To the left, the building where my morfar and mormor had their dentistry practice, and straight ahead, the church where my parents got married.
Where it all began (it being my love of wallpaper, and basically all my inspiration for lilleputt): hos mormor (grandma's house). I was digging through old photos at my mom's this weekend, in search of photos from my mormors house, trying to recall details in the bathroom wallpaper, the steep steps up to the attic and old toys, the gnarled trees in the orchard and snails on the slate walkway, and the roses around the gate... And then I found this one of us at the kitchen table where the salt and pepper shakers became my toys, and the smell of steamed milk and melting butter always take me back.
I love our little apartment, but our little closet bathroom is far from photo-worthy. So when my mom decided to run some errands.... I decided to commandeer her bathroom to showcase the next Lilleputt product in the works.... shower curtains!! Stay tuned, more prints to come.
I tend to hibernate a bit in winter, but I've been plugging away quietly on some bigger projects, for one... lilleputt wallpapers! Wallpapers seem to be a love or hate thing; with me, it's all love.
I still think about the wallpapers in my mormors house, especially the light and airy white and green leaf/floral in the upstairs bathroom. With the windows swung open (her windows opened outward, and hooked in place with a latch), I remember looking out the window, over the tiled roof, down to the orchard and roses below. My room growing up had a simple blue and white print, and while there were many times I longed to paint my room this bright color or another, I still miss it now that its gone (as I know my mom does!). So how could I resist.
Still just in a testing and trial period, but more prints to come.
Tidying in the studio this morning, and I got side tracked trying to find pictures to fill a stack of empty picture frames I uncovered... Until I remembered I had some 8x10 test prints made up in December while working on a custom order. A perfect fit! Lilleputt nursery art?
Finally some seasonally appropriate weather for Season's Greetings: Wishing you all a very Happy New Year!
'Home' for the holidays, and keeping up traditions at my mother's house. And it wouldn't be Christmas at our house without at least a couple homemade gifts. So refurbished for my nephew, en röd lilla bänk.
Helping my mom finish up a gift for my nephew; a little bench that was a little worse for wear after the three of us kids used it 25-40 years ago! New color, new fabric, new seat, a couple extra screws... And little dose of Swedish for his new room.
And because the 60-70 degree weather in New England doesn't exactly inspire feelings of Christmas.... baking pepparkakor was a must. God Jul, Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, I'm ready for some❄❄❄
Fun to see this list of Maine Made Gifts from Alex Steed and the Bangor Daily News grow each year from so many Maine-makers (and so many talented folks we've come to know!). And so happy to be included in the line-up again this year! Be sure to take a look; apparel, jewelry, home goods, baby goods, natural beauty and body products... you name it.
Enjoy!
Good news! We'll be setting up at SWEA Boston's Swedish Yuletide Market again this December, so save the date!
Saturday, December 5th, 2015 10am-5pm
Cyclorama at Boston Center for the Arts
539 Tremont Street
Photos from the 2014 Yuletide market taken by my dear friend, Jessie Clements, of J&S Photography.
More info on the sale on SWEA Boston's Facebook Page.
...And as usual this year, we will be sending out a coupon to offset the $10 door fee, so be sure to sign up for our Newsletter!
Back in Maine for peak-leaf colors, and it's time to face it, it's coming. (Julbock mugs and cards now in the shop!)
Back in the studio (and back on the grid), catching up on emails and orders, and enjoying this collection of Scandinavian themed items, curated by Ingridesign. Part two of another Scandinavian inspired collection, be sure to check out the first part here.
Thank you, Ingrid at Ingridesign for including my Birch tea towel!
Our crisper drawers are still full of unidentified apples from our yard, so we have baskets sitting out about the apartment until we get to work, Frostbites, Alamedas, and a handful of Black Oxfords we finally get to try... And I just identified the final scent that I couldn't never put my finger on, but one that always brings me back to mormors house. Melting butter and steamed milk always take me back to her kitchen, rain on slate to searching for green snails in her yard, and now that slightly sour smell of maturing apples, to her orchard and the cellar, where years of winter-stored apples leave a comforting smell that never quite went away.
A little extra dose of 'Swedish' this morning.
A new variation on my poppy print; a ring of poppies for my friends on their wedding day. Perfectly matches the nasturtium growing in my window.
My mom was amused when I suggested she was inspired by Elsa Beskow when she made this little ceramic hut/vessel, but opening 'The Children of Hat Cottage', a mutual favorite children's book of us, I think it's safe to say we share this same inspiration.