We moved a week ago. I’ve been looking for the notification forms for our change of address ever since. I did not, however, have to search for the scented candles. The one from Atelier Oblique even travelled with me in the car because I didn’t want to damage the bag it came in.
That might sound crazy. When I moved from Hamburg to Munich with a friend years ago, the first thing she did in our flat was to work out the construction of our shared wardrobe. The first thing I did was to unpack the throw pillows for my bed. Perhaps surprisingly we had a lot of fun living together.
An official piece of paper with my new address on is of course very useful. But it doesn’t give me the feeling of being at home. Unpacking something that serves no other purpose besides making me happy does. Especially when the home is still a building site with power drills, paint buckets and moving boxes covering every surface. I’ve thought a lot about the „motivational windowsill“ this past week that my friend Steffi wrote about a couple of years ago when she was going through the renovation of her apartment. I really get what she meant now. For her it was flowers, for me it’s that candle from Atelier Oblique that’s a reminder of how beautiful the place will look once the builders are done.
And these candles are exquisitely beautiful. Designer Mario Lombardo founded the Atelier in 2015 and put so much consideration in to everything down to the wick – the lettering, the colour scheme, the labels. And of course the scents, made up of the 26 letters of the alphabet and the ampersand, that he developed with the perfumers at Robertet in Grasse. Every letter stands for a memory from Lombardo’s childhood in Argentina. The descriptions that he wrote himself don’t dwell on fragrance compositons – long explanations of scent ingredients never meant much to me anyway. Either something smells good or it doesn‘t –, but are poetic short stories. The charming store in Berlin fits in with the whole concept, with the black laquered tables that Lombardo built from old doors that the candles are arranged on almost as though on an altar. It’s a place that makes you loose track of time, and stress, for a moment.
My candle, the „M“ of course, is currently decorated next to a buzz saw. But it smells like home already.
Atelier Oblique
Mulackstraße 20
10119 Berlin
Wednesday-Friday 11am – 8pm
Saturday 11am – 7pm
030/42 80 36 19
2 Comments
Sarah
Liebe Marlene, alles Gute im neuen Heim! Zeigst Du uns bald mal ein paar Bilder? Ich fand schon Deine alte Wohnung eine riesige Inspiration!
Liebe Grüße
Sarah
Marlene
Liebe Sarah, vor fast zwei Monaten sind wir umgezogen – und hier sieht’s immer noch aus wie aufm Campingplatz. Ich befürchte, das inspiriert bloß dazu, nie, nie, niemals umzuziehen. Aber sobald es hier schöner aussieht, gibt es Bilder. Versprochen. Liebe Grüße, Marlene P.S. Und danke für das Riesenkompliment zur alten Wohnung!