One home at a time!
Hello,
I want to welcome you to read the first Super Finnish Blog post. Let’s get right into business!
It can be hard for designers to find a way to get the message through when there are so many interior designers competing for the attention. That’s one of the reasons why this blog was started. I truly believe that there is a market for every designer and hopefully these posts will help our part of the market, our clients, to find us. We have so much to give for so many clients and homes, and it is our responsibility to make sure we are easy to find.
With this first post I want to touch base with the key elements of what you can gain reading this blog, what we do and who I am. We will dive deeper in every subject in the following posts.
How you can benefit from reading this blog?
It is possible that you will find the inspiration you have been looking for. Or maybe you find a connection with Super Finnish and want our help, to get the design of your home to a level where you want it to be. Our mission is to be able to help people find a way to make their homes work for everyday life, within the budget they have. One home at a time!
Our niche!
In this gigantic interior design market, our niche is Nordic design, our heritage! Nordic design is often compared to Scandinavian design and to be honest, there is a lot the same being so different at the same time. To put it in a simple form, Nordic design focuses more on functional, meaningful and cozy spaces when Scandinavian design is more about high end, sort of clinical design. Nordic design uses more light colors when Scandinavian design focuses on white. Both design forms use natural, high quality materials.
I have noticed, that sometimes people think that in Nordic and Scandinavian countries everyone lives in super modern homes that are full of high end design pieces. As fancy as it would be, it is not true. Most of the homes are very humble and built and designed to support the needs of the people living in them. Houses are definitely smaller than in the US, which I think is a good example of sustainability. But smaller homes bring more challenges with storage space, functionalities and design solutions. Coming from Finland and working with smaller homes have helped me to find clever, reasonable and affordable solutions in home design. I am happy and proud, to be able share what I have learned to our clients.
My work history and experience (in a nutshell)
Before completely falling in love with home design, I worked in real estate for almost ten years, serving hundreds of home owners and renters. As a restless, creative soul that I am, I also kept myself busy with buying apartments that I then fully renovated. I did most of the renovation work myself. I only hired people to do the work that required licensing, such as plumbing and electrical work. Holding the hammer myself taught me so much. It is a different thing to design a space and let others build it for you, and design a space and build it yourself. The learning curve is amazing when you need to solve the problems you are facing yourself and find the balance between ’this is what I wanted’ and ’this is what I can do’.
Running the projects myself taught me how to handle budgets. I know it is something a lot of other designer can’t, don’t know how to or even don’t want to focus on. To me, your money is as important as my own money and it is treated with that same respect.
I hope I am able to activate many people to think about the spaces they live in. No matter the size of the budget, there is always something you can do to solve the possible design problems you might have. I want to use what I have learned, to help as many people as possible. One home at a time!
Jussi-Pekka Kajaala
Suunnittelija, Creative Entrepreneur
