It may look like intricately carved wood, but this magnificent chandelier is actually made from laser-cut aluminum, glass and stainless steel. Halogen bulbs illuminate faux candles and the result is a glowing spectacle that is surely fit for a mansion. If you don’t actually have a mansion in which to hang this chandelier, you will at least need a very large room as the fixture measures 3 feet across. Suspended by aircraft cables and available in several colors , this made-to-order chandelier sells for $3,700.

Source : Design Public

Jessica and husband Yianni bought this fixer in Southeast Portland with the goal of restoring the house to its original charm, while creating a comfortable home for their growing family. Yianni and Jessica did much of the work themselves: performing major wall repair; setting tile; adding moldings – which should have been original; installing doors and windows; painting; and building an exterior retaining wall.

Did we mention that Jessica was six months pregnant when they started this project? On their first night in the house, Jessica finally relaxed and promptly went into labor with their second child, Penelope.

Green features in the house include: non-toxic paints and finishes; improved insulation; reclaimed doors and hardware; an antique range; salvaged tile, lighting, and plumbing fixtures; locally-sourced stone retaining wall; recycled glass tile floor in bathroom; and new Oregon native plantings. The furnishings are nearly all vintage or antique.

Source : Jessica Helgerson Interior Design

Voon Wong and Benson Saw are based out of London and specialize in interior and architecture design and produce furniture, lighting and accessories.

The interior of a Victorian terraced house on four levels is completely remodelled and extended to suit the needs of a family both as individuals and as a whole.

The house is arranged as a collection of spaces that are stacked to make up a series of floors and half levels. Each of these interlocking volumes has its own character and spatial quality in response to the need of the particular users.

The public areas are open plan whilst the private accommodation is designed as individual ‘apartments’ within the house. The glass/timber extension at the rear of the house is yet another of these volumes which is displaced externally; this joins a composition of interlocking volumes that make up the rear garden façade.

New window openings and translucent materials were deployed to channel light into the centre of the house. Materials are chosen for their tonal neutrality as well as their light reflective qualities.

Source : voonwong & bensonsaw

The concept for The Kirketon Dining Room & Bar in Sydney is based in the great restaurants and bars of Europe and America built in an era of style comfort and quality. Key priority was to encapsulate the style of Paris and the comfort of New York and yet still incorporating the edgy style of contemporary Sydney restaurant design.

Rigorous functional requirements and intense design collaboration with the client, James Ingram, dictated generous egress for wait staff, soft ambient lighting and the maximising of seating capabilities to match licensing. The kitchen also required upgrading to match the newly expanded seating layout as well as providingroom service to the Hotel guests.

The colour palette is restrained and used in a predominantly structural manner to define areas. Cladding finishes – predominantly black stained American Walnut panelling with brass trim, brass cladding treated with a bronze patina and finely sanded stucco plaster finish polished with bees wax define the palette. The ceiling was repainted in Dulux Deep Onyx to recede and take emphasis away from the relatively low ceiling height.…Unfortunately, This restaurant has closed on 12 February 2007

Source : kirketon dining room, your restaurants

Reina Bruja is a must visit if you are or will be going to Madrid soon. It is Tomas Alia’s new creation for Madrid’s night life. Light is everything, at reina Burja, the combined use of the light, color and curves makes the space change constantly. The space is never the same, the colour of the light changes, the intensity and consequently, the club.

Tomas Alia is one of the most famous creators of trends in Spain. His fame is due to his capacity to mix harmonically ethnic and traditional objects with avant-garde materials, like the magic focus on the lighting. He received in 2000, the National Prize for Interior Design.

Source : outnext, Reina Bruja, Interior Design

Is your apartment up to date? Or would a designer scoff, “How passé!”? You’ll need more than throw pillows to keep up with Manhattan’s hottest design trends. Below are expert designers’ top ten trends for apartment living in the city.

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1. The Living/“Screening” Room
An unassuming living room transforms into a private movie theatre with large flat-screen monitors that disappear when not in use. Stephen Miller Siegel of Stephen Miller Siegel Architects has recently seen clients requesting this kind of double-duty. “As technology gets more compact, it’s easier to camouflage and become discreet,” said Siegel.

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2. The New Wood Floor
A hardwood floor is still par for the course (sorry, carpet salesmen), but their continued popularity has spurned the refinement of the ready-made floor. “Pre-finished, engineered wood floors have really grown in quality and popularity,” said Keith Steier, President of Knockout Renovation, an all-in-one design and remodeling service. They are significantly less expensive and much faster and easier to install. The boards snap in to place and don’t require the laborious process of staining and re-staining. Your guests will never know they are walking on laminate instead of solid oak.

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3. Living With “The Valuables”
Designers suggest that you don’t separate the objects you love from the rest of your living space. “There seems to be a return to the great design of the early seventies when one mixed great antiques with contemporary elements,” said New York interior designer and architect, Robert Couturier. “The newest trend I’m seeing is using furniture, even functional pieces like sofas, as art or sculptural elements.”

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4. Bye-Bye Bathtub
Designers are opting to install a full-size walk-in shower these days, in lieu of cramming in a too-small tub to narrow bathroom spaces. “Bathtubs have definitely fallen out of favor,” said Jennifer Melis, chief designer for Knockout Renovation. “There’s been a focus on updating bathrooms and kitchens, because you tend to get the best return for your investment in those rooms,” Melis added.

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5. New Granite Counter
Every home design show on TV has the decorator drooling over a new granite countertop. “People like the look and they’re durable,” explained Steier. As with hardwood, popularity has spawned more options, like fake granite, that allow you to upgrade without blowing your design budget. “Man-made products give you the look and require zero maintenance,” said Steier. Another plus: while it’s not possible to control the color and pattern distribution in a slab of naturally occurring granite or marble, man-made delivers a completely consistent result.

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6. Apartments Go Green
Designing using environmentally-friendly materials and renewable energy sources is a current trend. “There is definitely a new direction as far as using environmentally correct materials that did not seem to exist a couple of years ago,” said Couturier. Knockout Renovation has experienced a lot of demand. “Energy efficient appliances are quite popular,” said Steier. They’re easy on the conscience and the utility bills.

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7. Recessed Lighting
Who really wants to look at a fluorescent dome in the middle of their ceiling? Modern apartments have the lights tucked away and dimmable. “It creates a softer, nicer mood,” said Melis. “It’s a really clean look since nothing is hanging down from the ceiling.”

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8. Space-Saving Innovations
Designers are coming up with creative solutions to get your clutter out of sight and out of mind: from floor-to-ceiling shelving in bedroom and living rooms, to extra tall pantry closets, to roll-out bins. “Any idea that will get things off the counters and off the floors,” said Melis. New appliances are helping in the fight against clutter (and small spaces). “More manufacturers are offering drawer dishwashers and counter-depth refrigerators,” Steier said. Drawer dishwashers are the only way to offer the amenity in many tiny galley kitchens, and the new models are of a higher quality than leaky, breakage-prone early models. Counter-depth refrigerators give a small kitchen a sleeker look, since they sit flush with the line of the counter instead of protruding out into the middle of the room.

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9. Closet Pros
If you’re sick and tired of the weekly sweater-avalanche from the top of your closet, you are not alone. “Custom closet interiors continue to be a huge trend,” said Melis, “And people don’t mind putting a significant amount of money into it.” Be careful before you attempt to nail up some boards on your own. “We often refer clients to someone who specializes in making custom closets,” said Melis. “It’s a whole trade in itself.”

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10. Open Floor Plans
To make your apartment truly modern, consider using a sledgehammer. Melis and Steier agree that taking out extra walls is a huge trend for remodeling apartments. “Many clients have had us take out the wall between the kitchen and the adjacent dining or living room,” said Steier. “It visually opens up the space.”

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Source : New York Resident, Interior Design

Barcode is a new bar and club in Vauxhall, LONDON that takes sustainability to the next level. It was designed by Rob Steul, Principal at Woods Bagot, an international architectural firm, on behalf of Troy Wears, owner of Bar Code.

The club is situated in the Vauxhall Arches, a site that is Grade 1 listed and previously owned by Railtrack. As such, Rob’s mission was to envision a first-rate clubbing experience that could be built-up around the existing fixtures.

Most clubs require air-conditioning to manage the heat given off by the lighting system, but Bar Code uses LEDs, which emit virtually no heat at all. The club uses natural ventilation and only in the hottest nights in July is air-conditioning required that make the build environmentally friendly.

Source : dezeen, Barcode, Interior Design

Your bedroom is the room in the house that is a true reflection of yourself. It is the room you will spend the most time in and should provide the ultimate comfort and support. It is where you begin and end your day so it is important that it is restful, personal and intimate but also simple and free from clutter.

Assess your room

First of all you need to take a cold hard look at your room and assess the pitfalls that need to be overcome before the room can become and oasis of calm. Ask yourself a number of questions:

How big is the room? Depending on the size of the room depends on the colours you use to either give the illusion of space or to create a cosy retreat

Is there adequate storage? If there isn’t adequate storage and if there are a number of electronics on display no amount comfortable bed linen will make the room feel a restful retreat. Invest in good quality wardrobes and hide TVs away.

Which way does the room face? An easterly facing room will have the morning sun, which will wake you long before the alarm does. Invest in some good quality curtains to block out the morning sun (this is especially important in a children’s room unless you want to be woken at 5am every morning!!)

How comfortable is the bed? The type of mattress, duvet and pillows all has a significant effect on how good a night’s rest you will have. It is recommended that you replace your mattress every seven years by which time you will have logged up more than 20,000 hours there. By then your mattress will be full of dead skin cells, dust mites and fungus.

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Colour schemes

Greens and blues are the best colours choices for the bedroom because they are associated with feelings of peace, calm and serenity. Use soft muted tones and pastels to ensure the room is restful and calming after a hard day. Neutrals are another good choice with gentle earth tones. The calming colour schemes can be livened up with deep rich colours as accessories to give your bedroom that individual touch.

Bright stimulating colours like yellows and oranges are best avoided in a bedroom, as are deeply contrasting or clashing colour schemes.

Use colours effectively to make your room appear larger or smaller. For example a low ceiling will appear higher if painted a lighter shade than the walls and paint the darkest shade near to the floor to give an illusion of space.

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Bed Linen

The most luxurious fabric for bed linen is 100% cotton. Cotton “breathes well” absorbing moisture and heat whilst feeling deliciously smooth and soft against the skin. Generally the higher the thread counts the softer the fabric however the length of the cotton fibre is also important in determining the softness. Egyptian Cotton has the longest cotton fibre and thus is the softest cotton available. The way the cotton is woven also contributes to the softness. Cotton sateen is the softest but the classic linen effect will give a beautifully crisp feeling.

The bed and the linen will be the most dominant feature in the room and therefore it is important to consider the colour and pattern if the linen to achieve to overall affect you wishes to create in the room. Throws and cushions can be changed to reflect the different seasons and to keep the room updated.

Bedding

The choice of bedding depends on your personal desires. The best filling is down, it is more effective than feather and is lighter. However for people who suffer from allergies synthetic fibres are better. Depending on how much warmth you require from a duvet will determine the tog rating you need. Another consideration is the effect of the different seasons. An all seasons duvet maybe the answer – it is a combination of a 9.0 tog and 4.5-tog duvet to create a 13.5-tog duvet in the winter and either a 4.5 or 9.0 tog for the rest of the year.

Lighting and accessories

To create a peaceful and restful mood in your bedroom it is essential to have bedside lighting rather than simply relying on the overhead lighting in the room. Also the use of scented candles will appeal to all senses.

So the secret to a very deep and restful sleep is to invest in good quality products and to create a very restful scheme in the bedroom. Hopefully we have inspired you to use your imagination in order to create your own very personal space.

Source : Grand Ideas, Interior Design

Making its debut at HauteGREEN this year, Propeller’s gorgeous new pendant lamps demonstrate the potential of combining CNC milling with sustainable materials like Plyboo. What particularly attracts us to the Furrow Parkade pendant light is the simple linear design, with cuts that reveal the inner core of the material, making it equally beautiful when showcased in natural light or when used to light-up a dark night.

+ Propeller Design

+ Haute Green

Source : Inhabitat