Showing posts with label My design. Show all posts
Showing posts with label My design. Show all posts

Sunday, 3 January 2016

2016


Welcome in New Year.

A new start…light and blank space in front of us, which feels like beautiful welcome for new ideas and challenges. I really like this time of the year, 
because it’s so easy to believe that all the new and good things are so close to my reach 
and that’s all I want is possible. Do you feel that too ?  

Making plans for 2016 makes me so exited. If you wrote my blog post: living-in-old-school 
you probably know, I’m looking for a new home for our family. In January 2016, we will know for sure if the place we found can be ours, and we believe this will be a start of a new journey for us. 
This year will bring us into our 40ties and we wish to celebrate it with an exotic trip…
but for now, I can’t tell you any more. 

There are many new ideas and plans for Rafa-kids brand in 2016
New furniture which we already working on and some exited collaborations.  Oh yes! We also hope to welcome a new people into our creative team.  Yes - look for a sign - we are hiring very soon.  
Rafa-kids stock will grow substantially and we’ve already made some logistics improvements, which will hopefully give us more space for creative work and to be with you! 


I can’t wait to start the journey! 





pictures 1/2 

Friday, 26 December 2014

Rafa-kids - year 2014 - thank you

K desk + x stool Rafa-kids


The year 2014 is going to end soon.  
Do you want to look back with us and see some of  Rafa-kids favourite moments?

The new year always gives us a boost of energy and we started the 2014 with testing, brain storming for our new design. In May we got the first prototype K desk and X stool and with new pictures  made in our studio, were proud to launch it.  It looks so simple but there is many months of hard work and design, behind this beautiful piece.  

K desk + x stool Rafa-kids





In summer 2013 our house was photographed, but it took a year before we finally could see the publication. We rebuilt and redesigned many elements of the house, also the first Rafa-kids’ bed was made for it few years ago. Since the boys outgrew the bunk bed this summer, and we had to change it, this magazine’s photos of the boy’s room are even more special for us. 

house of the Rafa-kids owners
house of the Rafa-kids owners - boys room with the bunk bed
pictures  | Souraya Hassan



We have had the honour of receiving the Junior Design Awards 2014
 for Best Furniture Collection, SHORTLISTED.

good design kids product acts milk japan

RaFa kids was selected for a very unique project in Japan! 

Blueprint is a new collaboration between a lifestyle brand ACTUS and Kids' magazine MilK Japon
They have started this new project to present a selection of children's furniture under a theme "Good Design Kids Products" As a first step 12 Japanese and International designers were selected for their personality, abilities, concept and outstanding designs. Their products were presented at the first design event taking place in Tokyo in September in Futako Tamagawa Rise/Galleria.

good design kids product acts milk japan excision in tokyo
good design kids product acts milk japan excision in tokyo

Which is an fascinating new social media and wonderful community. It gives us a chance to see our furniture in different parts of the world, starting from England, France, The Netherlands…and fly above the ocean to Australia or America. We are learning how to share with you our every day work and inspiration. 

rafakids on instagram
rafakids on instagram

We are so touched to see our beds in real children’s rooms , with their own personal toys and style. 
We always like to hear our customers’ feedback and stories. We started Rafa-kids customer reviews on our website, to share so many nice words about our products with others. 

R toddler bed rafa-kids in child room in malmo
picture  | pauletpaula
R toddler bed rafa-kids in child room in Australia
picture  | catherineandgrace
A teen bed rafa-kids in child room in Australia
picture  | thelittledesigncorner

We like to work in our studio a lot. 
Doesn’t matter so much if we need to make a new product photo of a basket or bedding, or to style the whole child’s room with our Rafa-kids furniture

K desk black and F bunk bed whitewash rafa-kids
rafa-kids studio in Rotterdam

Our K desk was welcomed so well in the press in 2014 : 
but we also get in our hands two new books with our design. How special is that! 
“Kids’ design”  is coming from braun-publishing in Switzerland featuring many wonderful kids’ design products of our time. I was writing about it here: braun-publishing - kids-design

kids' design book
kids' design book


In the summer we had a special visit of a photographer Kiyomi Yui with her husband. They worked for a visual book about Dutch kids’ room and the spaces for children.  21 rooms were selected for the publication, and our boy’s room was one of them! My older son is so proud of it that he shows this book to all his colleagues. 
The book is available at amazon here: amazon.co.jp
and it is absolutely unique to see the selection of Dutch kids’ rooms. You will find colourful, playful, full of creative DIY ideas for kids’ rooms out there. 

dutch children's rooms book
at home of Rafa-kids owners
book about children's rooms in The Netherlands

The Autumn came to Rafa-kids with a new linen, baskets and blanket collection
We would like to keep cosy and warm with style this winter. 

linen collection at Rafa-kids
beds for kids sharing one room - Rafa-kids F&A set whitewash

We look back and see a good year but we are ready to fight for more! 
We had many up and down moments too,  struggling this year mainly with productions issues, not enough stock, but we are happy to tackle the issues and start freshly the new year. 

We would like to thank this year especially:  

Our Rafa-kids’ blog visitors, who reach almost 22.000 every month, and we hope to keep you inspired in 2015. The blog community has supported us a lot this year, featuring our designs, which we appreciate a lot.  
Just to mention few:  

Last but not the least we would like to thank all our clients 
for their trust and support of our family brand. 

We hope to grow and bring even more beautiful and well designed products for our kids!
thank you note
If you are interested: 

Tuesday, 27 May 2014

NEW - K desk from Rafa-kids

Rafa-kids new K desk
modern kids desk from Rafa-kids
modern kids desk from Rafa-kids in open position

Finally I can show you our new Rafa-kids K desk

I could not sit still for few weeks. There was a lot of testing going on, prototyping and I thought the process and trouble shooting will never end. My partner in business/life is a perfectionist and I'm a short tempered lady, so its not so easy sometimes. I always try to say to myself , when I can't speed up the process 'good thing's need time' . This is so true…

Now we can proudly present our K desk and we hope you will like this new piece of furniture as much as we do. The K desk is simply named after it's leg shape. When you look at old industrial drawing desks, many of them have the legs like that. We also like the old school desks with lid and hidden space inside so much. I think we managed to make a modern and new version of it! A modern desk, which is not only for kids, but also parents. A beautiful and good design which will last for years. 


Do you want to see more , please have a look :  k-desk

modern desk from Rafa-kids
desk for kids Rafa-kids
modern detail - minimal desk from Rafa-kids

few 'behind the scene' iPhone photo's from last Monday when we shot the desk
photo session desk for kids Rafa-kids
photo session desk for kids Rafa-kids
 desk and a teen bed from  Rafa-kids

Tuesday, 28 May 2013

Rafa-kids - behind the scene


Since last Thursday, we were so busy. We welcomed a big track in front of our studio with all Rafa-kids beds in colors and then we sort out all of them and prepare the first shipments for our waiting customers. On Monday we had planned photo session workshop, so we need also to prepare so many things for it. Sunday afternoon we just took boys with us to our studio.  Robert loves to help set up the beds and Franek got a serious work to stick the black dots on the paper lamps ;-) They feel like home there ….

We got a fantastic photo workshop with  Paulina Arcklin . I just can't wait to show you pictures we made. 
Stay wit us , more soon…. ;-)


Monday, 11 March 2013

Let's meet A teen bed from Rafa-kids





Many things are going on here at the moment. One of them is that Rafa-kids is growing!
Today is the moment I can finally show you our new A teen bed
The idea of the bed was born from getting e-mails from parents, where they told us, that they really like our F&R set of beds, but their second child is too old to enjoy the R toddler bed for long. Today we can finally show you how we fulfill this need. 
Rafa-kids A teen bed fits perfectly under the F bunk bed and makes together an F&A set, for older children. The two beds are in adult size and can be used for many years. The bed is low and gives enough comfort space to sit on the bed, read and just enjoy it during the day. We designed a very compact bed, which doesn't take much space in the room and it can be use also like a daybed or in the guest room, when the child moves out from the house.  We really like the simplicity and elegant lines of this bed. You can see and read more on our website : Rafa-kids . Enjoy! 






Rafa-kids collection - photo session in our new studio is coming in May!  I can't wait. 
New A teen bed is ready for pre-orders and will be available in mid - April. 





Friday, 1 February 2013

Rafa-kids R toddler bed in Estmagazine





I'm so happy to show you Estmagzine publication from a beautiful house in Amsterdam. 
The owner Eva from Orphan socks, was the first person who trusted us 
and got our R - toddler bed for her son. 
That's why this is very touching moment for me. 
The house was  photographed by  Marjon Hoogervorst and styled by AnoukB - what an honor! 

I hope you like this stylish, modern house as much as I do. 
Eva has a great taste of an architect and it is a real pleasure to be chosen to be part of her home. 
Thank you so much! 



 bedding set is from here : orange bus