Around the world in 80 days...

Maybe you're a world traveller, are filled with wanderlust or simply have an interest in paying homage to your own heritage or favourite vacation spot.  Whatever the reason for your desire to add international flavour to your interior design, travelling to any destination can be uplifting, inspirational and invigorating and set your home décor on the road to a global look.

Whereas Phlieas Fogg had 80 days to travel around the world, you can explore international interior décor delights from your very own desktop and travel around the world in 80 homes - well, here’s six homes to get you started….
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Casa Sette Mullini. Italy

Originally an incongruent cluster of disparate buildings, the “Seven Millers’” house was created as a single villa by two ladies who were amongst the first to discover the remote Sicilian island of Panarea back in the late 1950s. Toto Koopman and Erica Brausen were society ladies who lived together for over 40 years, and who are as responsible as any for making Panarea into the most chic and glamorous island in Italy. Koopman was a celebrated model in the pre-war era, the first to grace the cover of Vogue magazine in colour, and Brausen ran one of the most successful contemporary art galleries in London, launching the careers of artists such as Francis Bacon and Alberto Giacometti. Many of their illustrious friends and clients, including Hollywood celebrities and aristocrats, came to Panarea as guests in what was - and still is - the most beautiful villa on Panarea Their house is now owned by a South African family, who have carefully and sensitively looked after the cascading gardens, the many tiled terraces with stunning views to the Mediterranean Sea, and the myriads of rooms with interweaving pathways. As is customary on Panarea, the whitewashed cuboid buildings are set into an almost surreal landscape of huge boulders, lemon and fig trees, colourful bouganvilleas, and flowering cactus plants. Toto and Erica understood the simplicity of Aeolian architecture, and their house remains one of its most stunning examples on this most beautiful of Mediterranean islands... view feature
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A Palace in the Tangier Kasbah

Gipy Richemont and his wife Laura Welfing, the designer,have a home at the heart of the Kasbah in Tangier, hidden somewhere in this chaotic labyrinth of steep streets. Entrenched in a recess, the entrance of this palace is hidden from view as a secret passage, almost invisible if you do not pay specific attention. The place is full of history, first owned by the Consulate of Spain in the 19th century then a Koranic school and finally the owned by a holy man. In addition to its rich past it enjoys a stunning position, suspended from the cliff it overlooks entirely the medina and the port of Tangier. Cultivating the unusual and eclectic the interior encompasses red walls with peeling paint, abundantly placed fruit cups, centerpieces, cut crystal decanters or fish-shaped, colored glass; silverware alongside Flemish paintings, portraits of emperors, queens and marble statues. This Aladdin's cave has no other horizon than the vast ocean on which all the windows open. In this eclectic renovated palace different styles are mixed with each other just to make a more homogeneous and unique decor... view feature
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Dramatic, modern and comfortable. Mexico

Manuel Herrera runs a building company with his brother, based in Mexico City. He chose the leafy and elegant suburb of Bosques de Santa Fé for his own house, and called in the architect firm of Guzman y Ogarrio. He wanted a house which would be dramatic, modern, comfortable as well as a hub and entertaining space for his many young friends and colleagues. The rather austere and geometric front entrance is softened by the pond lined with flowers and lemon trees, as well as the double height window and the use of different materials – wood and red bricks interspersed with the pale coloured rendered cement. At the rear, much of the wall is opened up with spacious, windows, overlooking a delightful garden with a long lap pool. Inside, a series of colourful and elegant rooms are arranged as living and dining area, looking out onto the garden but shaded form the harsh Mexican sunlight, although the use of gold leafed panels and doors help to bring the warmth of the sunshine indoors. Upstairs is the private area – with the bedrooms, a private lounge and relaxing area with television, and the bathrooms. A series of ceramic hands decorate the shelves that traverse the span of a window, and the sunlight is also allowed to create streaks of light and shade through the skylight punctuated by wooden slats in the master bathroom... view feature
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Cobbled House of Provence

A small road between Apt and Roussillon you will see the building; it already feels restored with taste. Bernard tells me about his home: “It had a crazy charm, a particular atmosphere, we couldn’t resist it! But there was so much to do... that's also the reason why it was for sale!” Passionate, he was very keen to find its yesteryear charm and for several months there were only the exterior walls left... the whole of the inside was in a state of disrepair. Retaining the original materials as much as possible Bernard has gradually re-created rooms with different levels, sizes and heights under ceilings, a wonderful work of architecture - we have the impression that they have always been like that. Renovation work led to the discovery of a fantastic “calade”, a courtyard cobbled with stones, which embellishes this mas house in Provence... view feature
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Palm Tree House. USA

This example of modern architecture takes its name from the large palm trees that surround it, and whose rich fronds intrude into the house itself. This is the home of Todd and Lisa, and located at the head of a canyon in San Diego in Southern California. Todd, a machine tool broker, wanted a building made out of recycled materials which he himself could source, mainly sheet metal and wooden beams, and he called on the services of the experienced architects Safdie-Rabines to create a three storey home on a plot which had already several mature palm trees. Todd’s wife Lisa, a fashion photographer, was also fully involved in the project, lending her eye to the style as well as helping the ingenious solutions of the architects of how to build and support the structure amidst and around, and without compromising, the trees. Brightly coloured yet simple in design, the home fully lived up to its expectations – it is an environmentally conscious structure, fully immersed within and respecting its natural surroundings, which give not only give it its unique quality but also offers the floor to ceiling windows and open terraces on each storey some privacy from the street above and from across the canyon. The interiors are simply laid out with modern furnishings and bright colours as well as with local cactus plants, which both complement and enhance the sunny and airy feel of the house. This is living with nature in the middle of a major city... view feature
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Nice Village, I’ll take it. Italy

When Brunello Cucinelli, the cashmere king of Italy, bought a huge house in a 14th-century hill town, he couldn’t stop there. He had to have the town as well If you had to describe your dream home, it would probably be much like Brunello Cucinelli’s. The cashmere mogul lives in a 17th-century manor house in Umbria, just up the road from Perugia. It’s set in an impossibly romantic 14th-century hill town, which he also owns and which forms the HQ of his business empire. And casa Cucinelli is the dream: flagged floors and vaulted ceilings, 400-year-old charm with 21st-century air conditioning. The house is filled with Renaissance art and antiques, the gardens with cicadas and cypress and olive trees. Terraces lead off every room and there’s even a choice of swimming pools, for goodness’ sake – indoor for winter, outdoor for summer. If Cucinelli weren’t such a nice, sincere chap, you could easily hate him. Or at least not buy his clothes in protest. But it’s difficult to begrudge him his house, because he’s worked incredibly hard for it, hauling himself up from humble beginnings... view feature
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