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Angelot, turn disadvantages into advantages

26 June 2020

Angelot -a patisserie shop in Xiasha in China– was born from the experience and vision of two young but very experienced Chinese architects, Yan Zhang and Jianan Shan, founders of Say Architects studio.

The architects managed to solve some evident architectural disadvantages, like the recessed front door and the fact that the full height window inside that face a nice view. They didn’t try to hide these disadvantages, they made them focal points, strengths. The entrance, covered in customized tiles, is curved and it accompanies the clients inside, revealing the dining area slowly, like a surprise. In order to make sense to the two different heights between entry level (very low) and dining area (very high), they created a changing clearance along the route.

They used customized GRC (glass fiber reinforced concrete) to soften the wall and the semitransparent curtain to block exterior view but keeping the sunlight.

Some lemon tree add color and bring nature in the interiors, the cherry on the cake.

Photographs by Hao Zhang, courtesy of Say Architects.

in Color Inspiration, Furniture, Interiors, Ispiration, Outdoor, People

Casa Plenaire by Studio Child

12 May 2020

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Traveling with your mind and fantasy is a skill that we have developed over thousands of years but with the level of realism we’re now used to on TV and social media it seems we’re using our imagination less sometimes. The new abstract looks much more real.

Thanks to the technological evolution, we can create worlds that look like or are better than the one we live in, we can make objects with a complex printer and build idyllic spaces sitting at our desk.

This is what Studio Child did for Plenaire, a dynamic, sustainable British skincare brand. Che Huang and Alexy Kos designed the perfect lockdown escape, a place where most of us would rather be now. Using a 3D program, the prolific duo designed a house by the sea (maybe on an island), flooded by light and air. The rooms remind me of the white-washed Greek houses hugging hills that roll down to azure oceans or the southern Italian houses with sleek rounded edges and circular ceilings surrounded by olive groves. The furniture is spartan but chosen carefully: pieces by Pierre Paulin, Eero Aarnio and Greta von Nessen go together with summer objects like stray hats, shells, fans and amphoras.

Studio Child has nailed it again, I can’t wait to see their next project! In the meanwhile, check out one of their recent cool projects, Humble Pizza in London.

Images courtesy of Child Studio

in Arts+ Crafts, Color Inspiration, Furniture, Interiors, Ispiration, People

Let’s go to Paris! JAG Gallery

22 April 2020

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And just like that, traveling has become a distant memory, if not impossible. All of a sudden, borders have been closed and our immediate area where we live has became our whole world. Who knows how long for it will be that we won’t be able to take a plane, a train or a boat on a whim, not for work, pleasure or to explore, no matter how big the urge to escape is, no matter how much we want to visit a loved one.

What I like about blogging is that it allows me to make people travel from their desks to somewhere they might not imagine themselves going to, to inspire curiosity, to show readers new exciting things and places.

After Marrakech and the YSL Museum, Rome with the project by m2ft , Milan with Spinzi Design, today we are going to fly with imagination to Paris, to the sophisticated Galerie Jag.

Galerie Jag is where curator Jessica Barouch displays a carefully selected collection of objects and furniture by artists from all over the world.

The space is a cosy apartment in the 7th Arrondissement, displaying wonderful attention to detail and “beautify” (a word Jessica uses and that I love) by displaying numerous sculptural pieces that are a part of Galerie Jag’s collection.

Colors and materials play an important role in unifying all the artistic elements: warm white, black backgrounds, wood, earthy and mellow hues.

(Images courtesy of JAG Galerie)

in Color Inspiration, Furniture, Interiors, Ispiration

Save yourself

10 January 2020

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joanna laven, swedish interior design, swedish interior designers, plusdeco blo, +deco, interior blogs, interior design, swedish apartments, elena giavarini

This year seems to have started well. Nobody I know has mentioned the word “SALES” yet, which makes me hope that people are becoming a bit more conservative; Emanuele Farneti, Vogue Italia’s editor in chief, has decided to not publish any photos in the magazine’s January issue and replace them with illustrations, “in a nod to the need to take action to save the environment”; and at the Golden Globes a vegan menu was served, a sign that finally the mainstream is beginning to realise that some choices can have a massive ripple effect environment and therefore have a more positive influence. Things are moving in the right direction at last.

I am in this mood as well: save the planet, save yourself from frusrtating consumerism, save your brain from too much internet connection.

One of the best discovery I made this year it is that I can set time limits for apps, categories or websites on my iPhone. For instance if you put 15 minutes as a time limit for Instagram, after that time frame your phone asks you if it is ok to close down or if you want to to ignore the limit and continue browing. This function gives you a concrete idea of how much time you spend zoning out in front of a screen, navigating through too many images and too much incomplete information. It also suggests that it is probably time to stop and that you could be doing something else. I am also making a conscious effort to look at the sky more. I have noticed I walk most of the time looking down or at eye level (when not looking at my phone screen). I look at people, at shops, at the floor, at houses or buildings but rarely up. When I do look at the sky, I find it soothing. It is almost a little massage for my eyes.

Joanna Lavén‘s interiors are consistent with my 2020 mood: elegant and somehow sustainable because they are timeless. I love the light in this apartment and the subtly serious, very tasteful use of colors.

in Color Inspiration, Furniture, Interiors, Ispiration

Contemporary elegance in Warsaw

1 July 2019

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studio colombe, Marta Chrapka, interior design, plusdeco blog, +deco, +deco blog, elena giavarini blog, wooden floors, elegant apartments, warsaw interiors, warsaw apartment, polish interior design

We have more than once spoken about the fact that I love old things, for their quality and the stories they have.

Very modern and bare apartments are not for me.

For me there is a contemporary elegance created by the charm of natural materials, inspiration from the past, furniture tailoring; this elegance never tires the eyes.

It is what I call the ‘well made with taste’ category.

This apartment in Warsaw, furnished by Marta Chapkra of Studio Colombe, is a perfect example of this elegance. To tell you the truth, all the work by Studio Colombe is an example of this.

The wooden herringbone floor and a sophisticated choice of colors form a background for some refined pieces. The choice of natural colors, all light, is vibrant. White is presented in different hues, it is never simply white. Textiles introduce color and structure.

The kitchen, custom made like a lot of the furniture, is original but simple.

The insertion of wooden circles, the division in panels, the two colors, the marble backsplashes are all endearing elements.

The art, small and discrete paintings, add interest without dominating the scene.

I would move into this apartment tomorrow, without changing anything.

Rarely do I feel like stating something like that but in this case the balance between the quality and the taste of the decoration has really impressed me.
Studio Colombe‘s house looks comfortable to live in, really comfortable, full of wardrobes and easy to live in spaces.

If you want the see some more houses of this category, check the old converted church in Australia and the London former stable presented in a previous post.

in Furniture, Interiors, Outdoor

Love at first sight: Filicudi chair

20 June 2019

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Filicudi Chair, Marcantonio, Qeeboo, Elena Giavarini, plusdeco blog, +deco, +deco blog, plusdeco, interior blog

Filicudi chair entered powerfully in my wish list. It is elegant, Mediterranean looking and with a naturalistic shape.

Designed by Marcantonio Raimondi Malerba, one of the most promising young designers around, Filicudi Chair is produced by the super fun brand Qeeboo.

It takes its name from the Eolian island Filicudi, where prickly pears grow everywhere.

The seat is made of polyethylene and the base is metal; it is ideal for indoor and outdoor in all its colors, black, white, balsam green, bright green.

It was love at first sight like for Nemo by Fabio Novembre for Driade.

I am going to have to get one, thankfully it is in the market for a reasonable price!

in Color Inspiration, Furniture, Interiors

White is back (and rounded sofas)

27 December 2018

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White is back in fashion or I would it be better to say a fascinating range of off whites and beiges are back in fashion.

In fashion and in interior design, it is evident that there is a desire to create looks that last, a revival of natural materials and shades, an appetite for quality and classicism.

Andreas Martin-Löf‘s interiors perfectly represent these new intentions.

Andreas Martin-Löf‘s practice is based in Stockholm, Sweden with an award-winning portfolio and the apartment shown below is actually the architect Andreas Martin-Löf‘s house in Vasastan, Stockholm.

It is a space where a lot of attention has been put into every little detail, a space with an essential decor but not cold. Surely it is a place that communicates calmness.

in Color Inspiration, Furniture, Interiors, Ispiration, People

Powder shades and a great use of (a small) space.

8 October 2018

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This place attracted my attention for the use of color: pink, a pinky terracotta, a powder pink, a powder beige-pink. The different areas and rooms are unified by the use of all these shades that the eye perceives as variations of the same pink color, when in reality they are all different colors; these shades also look more intense or more brilliant according to the amount or quality of light coming through the windows as well.

At a second glance I was hooked by the sapient division of the space.

This is a 48 square metre apartment, basically a big room divided according to functions, an entryway and a bathroom (of which no photos were published because they are probably too small or with no windows). The owners are a Swedish couple that managed to transform a problem (the lack of space) into an opportunity.

The laying of the wooden floor and the colors help separate and unite the areas at the same time.

The bedroom is cleverly closed by a 3/4 plasterboard wall and framed glass windows and doors, to let the light flow in but also makes it private when necessary (is that a stripy curtain, the one I can see to the right of the window door on the third photo from the top? I am pretty sure).

Overall it is a place full of good bits to copy, including the kitchen with its cabinets in pine plywood.

A few years ago I published another example – more industrial- of how to divide the space with glass windows, a Paris apartment by Studio Moc.

Photos by Jonas Gustavsson for Elle Decoration Sweden through Planete Deco

in Color Inspiration, DIY, Interiors, Ispiration

Piero Lissoni Color Collection

12 June 2018

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Three years ago we saw many blue walls, two years ago many black walls and last year we saw many pink walls and burgundy walls.

Lets hope in 2018 we will see many natural and bio-friendly painted walls.

We can start with Piero Lissoni Color Paint Collection for Kerakoll for instance; they are water based, odour-free and free fromVOCs, formaldehyde, alkylphenol ethoxylates (APEO), coalescing agents, plasticizers and heavy metals. It also comes in 100 beautiful shades.

This is the future of paint, I hope.

I really like the green, terracotta red and metal blue in the first three photographs from top in the chalky extra-mat finish @GEL PAINT.

Piero Lissoni –art director for prestigious brand like Alpi, Boffi, De Padova, Lema, Living Divani and the designer behind some iconic pieces of furniture- knows what effect, performance and quality is looking for when picking a paint for his projects, so who better than him could have worked with Kerakoll for a new line?