Well hope you are all recovered from the battle of the Maison&Objet, did we see good things, well what’s new for 2011, send us a mail and pray tell.
Crisp white was big news often paired with pure black. BS from U.S. Grey proved to be a popular choice; think stone, concrete or lighter shades with a hint of blue. HG from France. Bursts of bright colour included zingy yellow and energetic peacock blue-pink-red, deep purple and subtle or vibrant green were also significant, SY from UK.
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Clayworks Cornwall
Adam Weismann and Katy Bryce are based on the Lizard Peninsula of Cornwall. Their company Clayworks specialises in clay plasters for clients that seek the minimal embodied energy associated with unfired clay, its moisture-absorbing properties, its health credentials...or simply because clay plaster is about as beautiful as a wall can be. Adam, born and raised in the U.S and Katy have worked in the UK. Their inspirations for building with earth comes from living and gardening in Japan, designing and building water gardens and constructing neighbourhood skateboard ramps in his back garden! Katy says building with earth comes from a lifelong love of gardening and getting her hands dirty, and from the fact that cob is at once solid and enduring, yet also outstandingly flexible and forgiving. Having cut her teeth with a decade's experience in cob restoration and new build, they now sell their expertise well beyond Cornwall... view feature
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A Family Affair
Surrounded by safely drawn up and traditional wooden ‘Lego’ houses stands a solid brick house painted in white, slightly different than the rest in its class… This house, on the edge of town, or should one dare to call it suburbia, has been a generational home since the fifties, and its inhabitants always a design-conscious lot. Halvor Thorsen, and Jennifer Valone Thorsen have recently taken over a section of the house were Halvor grew up. The house, which his grandfather built, has since been redone to fit Halvor’s fathers vision of a life for him and his family. The clean, and tidy look of this place is partly due to Jennifer’s ability to create enough storage space. In an almost invisible way, Jennifer has managed to create enough closets and cupboards to store away everything that isn’t being used at the moment. Whole walls have been covered in shelves or closets. In the TV room, a black and white painting by American artist Ben Sham bough covers nearly the whole wall, becoming a focal point even when seen from the living room... view feature
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Glasgow Nouveau
Thomas Russell, his wife and children live in this classic tenement block in Glasgow which was built in around 1900 in the popular Art Nouveau style. The light, airy space has been given a sympathetic update; nothing structural, just some thoughtful reconfiguring and decorating. The apartment is kitted out with a mix of contemporary and 20th Century designs, many of them courtesy of Goodd, an innovative, design-led enterprise set up by Russell and fellow interior designer, Brian Proudfoot. Part exhibition space, part design company, part shop, edited collections of lighting, furniture and household accessories share the space with exhibition pieces and new products by fresh, contemporary talent... view feature
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Solstrand
If it were not for the Spanish flu, there wouldn’t have been a summerhouse here. In the years 1917-1920, thousands died in Norway as a result of this epidemic. As a special note of thank you for having cared for and saved a nearby landowner’s family, - Dr. Ringvold was allowed to pick whichever piece of land he wanted by the sea on the family’s property. He ended up with Solstrand, meaning sunny beach… This was the early part of the twentieth century in Norway, and having a vacation home surrounded by wild nature was just becoming fashionable. Forty years ago, the property changed hands, but the family who moved in, continued the tradition of mixing furniture and styles in imaginative ways... view feature
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The Colonsay Hotel
Set on the hillside above the harbour, The Colonsay hotel commands spectacular views over the sea to the neighbouring island of Jura. Built in 1750 as an inn for the local population, the exterior of The Colonsay has remained largely unchanged. It is now possible to fly on and off the island (on one of four scheduled flights), but most visitors and locals come and go by ferry, just as their forebears have for hundreds of years, alighting at the tiny harbour which looks up a single-track road to the hotel. The white-washed walls of the hotel are a heart-warming sight for the traveller and a warm welcome awaits inside. When Jane and Alex Howard bought The Colonsay hotel in 2004 it was more than 30 years since the family had been forced to sell in harder times. As they refurbished the building they were aware of how important it was to make every aspect welcoming to islanders as well as visitors... view feature
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The Art House
Art House may be a term more often associated with a type of movie but to go though the glossy black front door of graphic designer Morag Myserscough’s live/work space in East London is to enter a realm where colour, pattern and self-confessed obsessions are artfully showcased. Myerscough, her partner artist and musician Luke Morgan and their shaggy dog Lemmy live in a converted pub built on a corner site, so the main living room is L shaped with windows on two sides, and it was this room that sold the place to Myerscough. “I had lived in a terraced house with long narrow rooms and when I saw this wide open space I instantly loved it” she says. Apart from painting the walls white and taking the Shaker-style doors off the kitchen units the core of the building is pretty much as it was when she bought it five years ago. The decoration and furnishing is compiled from many contributions and locations. There are plates and prints by Luke, as well as surgical tubing light shade and decorated wooden stools made in collaboration with Morag... view feature
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