Ikea Trendig Cabinet

We’re just a few days away from Chinese New Year (stay tuned to next week’s newsletter for a terrific recipe to help you ring in the Year of the Horse). And just in time, Ikea has released a capsule collection of Scandinavian-meets-Chinese design, Trendig, developed when the company’s Swedish design team travelled to China to collaborate with local designers and technicians. The collection has a limited colour palette—just two shades of red and two shades of green, paired with blonde wood—with playful nods, like the dinnerware adorned with goldfish. My favourite from the lineup, the Trendig cabinet, is a modern update of classic 19th Century provincial Chinese furniture—right down to the medallion-type handles on the front door. Perfect for both an eclectic and modern décor scheme.

Trendig cabinet, $249, available as of February 2014 at Ikea ikea.com

Sleek Modern Cabinet

Though it’s been too many years to count since I’ve been in a classroom, the start of September always feels like I’ve hit a reset button, pushing me to get organized again for fall. Some spring clean, I fall organize. I moved a few months ago, and while I technically have more storage in the new place, I have less display space for the things I’ve collected over the years—mainly quirky one-offs that are currently packed in boxes in my storage unit. As soon as I spotted this glass door cabinet from Ikea’s latest Stockholm collection (the brand’s fine materials, high-design collection released every three years or so), I knew I’d found both the perfect piece to free my collections from their confines (in yellow, no less!) and the inspiration to get organized. (And truth be told, it’s the latter that needs the most help.)

Ikea Stockholm collection glass door cabinet, $499, available in Calgary and Vancouver at Ikea, ikea.ca.

Saft Rabarber Rhubarb Cordial

When I was a kid, my mom used to make a sweet rhubarb stew for dessert. Essentially, it’s rhubarb pie filling cooked on a stove top with plenty of sugar and cinnamon, the resulting concoction poured warm over vanilla ice cream (or stolen by the spoonful from the pot itself.) It’s pure comfort food.

Which is why Ikea’s seasonal rhubarb concentrate is a nostalgic reminder of summer for me: a little bitter, a little sweet, and perfect mixed with soda water or something stronger. I plan to have plenty of it on hand come July long weekend.

Saft Rabarber rhubarb cordial, $3.99, available at Ikea, ikea.ca.