Category Archives: wonderful spaces.

ampersand house.

More inspiring design from Belgium; this time Ampersand House, a gallery of art and design located in the centre of Brussels. It is also a home, which the owners define as a living gallery, a constantly changing place depending on what is on show. They curate the gallery as an ever evolving environment mixing vintage, contemporary and prototype work to inspire a dialogue with and between collectors and creatives. Almost everything is available for sale.

The style is an eclectic mixture of pieces of different periods, from strict modernism to French opulence, with the only rule being the pieces need to be connected either by texture, material, colour or shape, for a cohesive overall aesthetic. I love the influences the owners cite, from the work of the architect and Brazilian designer Isay Weinfeld, to the mid-twentieth century furniture of Sergio Rodrigues to Australian architect Glenn Murcutt and French designer Pierre Paulin. What a fabulous design sourcebook.

http://www.ampersandhouse.com

Ampersand House via Photos: Karel Balas

More wonderful spaces, here

catalan house.

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In the ancient Catalan city of Girona is this apartment, in a building dating from the 16th century. The vernacular of exposed timber beams and rough stone walls is cleverly countered with the contemporary materials – black metal, wood veneer cabinetry stained black, rendered walls, solid timber floors. Openings and junctions are lined and restrained with black metal, horizontal surfaces are either recessed or allowed to float freely. Textures abound in the simple, raw palette of materials and neutral furniture.

And the good news? If you want to escape the sudden onslaught of fiercely cold weather in Northern Europe, it’s available to rent. There are two apartments, El Badiu (the gallery) and El Jardi (the garden), or it can be rented in its entirety.

Alemanys 5, Girona by architect Anna Noguera, via. Photographs, Anna Noguera

Are you ready for sunshine yet? I also love this property, Shelter7 in Ghent, also available to rent through travel site Welcome Beyond.

More wonderful spaces in sunny climes, here

a parisian in grey part II.

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With Paris still very much on my mind, I came across this beautiful interior, again in a classic Haussmann building, via the always interesting D Pages (see my previous Paris post, here)

The designers job, in this case, was to allow the home to adapt to a contemporary lifestyle whilst maintaining, along with the period mouldings and fireplaces, its essence. Circulation through the space has been simplified, alignments and vistas created. Individual rooms remain but are opened up, allowing an open plan layout or closed off, as required.

From palest pearl to anthracite, grey is again the predominant wall colour, this time accented with white. Dark stained parquet on the floors and black lacquered MDF panels provide the main surfaces off which the fixtures hang. Rich timber Danish mid-century furniture and a three-dimensional tone-on-tone wall hanging sit alongside other classic and vintage pieces in the living spaces. Sofas and chairs are neutral in colour, strong in form. The black-stained solid oak kitchen has a central island and Zimbabwe black granite worktop and tiled splashback. Jade green artwork provides the colour. An anthracite grey library is off-set with a vivid red 60’s armchair and footstool.

The bathroom beautifully exemplifies the blend of old and new, with traditional fireplace, plasterwork and chandelier alongside colourful, framed lithographs and contemporary window treatments.

What do you think of this mix of old and new? Which Paris apartment, part 1 or part 11, is your favorite?

Casa Parigi by Studio Double G, here Photographs, Helenio Barbetta

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a parisian in grey.

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This beautiful interior intrigues for two reasons. First, we are heading to Paris for a few days and this home is housed in a classic Haussmann apartment; and second, we are in the throes of purchasing a new flat here in London, with very high ceilings, period detailing, and parquet floors. I cannot wait to start decorating (although we had better exchange first!)

The interior designer owner has painted the entire space in a darkish mid grey – walls, ceilings, mouldings, cornices, architraves. I love this contemporary idea – all surfaces are treated with equal importance, rather than the traditional route of picking out details and giving them a hierachy. Tall French doors and equally vertiginous mirrors bounce the light around and keep the apartment from feeling drab. Gleaming dark-stained herringbone floors reflect the light and continue to bounce it around.

Grey is a fabulous muse for vivid colours; the lilac pink sofas, although not to my taste, work beautifully. Red appears throughout in artwork, positioned to entice the eye from one room to the next. Quirky artworks abound, as do odd, mismatched chairs, giving a it a charming, off-beat yet utterly elegant air. The study appears to be a departure, with a half-painted wall (I love half-painted walls and have several pinned on Pinterest, here); black door frames, stair and rope handrail, ravishing teal-coloured curtains and bright red Eames shell chair.

New Paris Style via Habitually Chic. Photos by Richard Powers and Jean-Marc Palisse

Would you use grey for the walls in your home? A useful resource for selecting the right shade of grey can be found, here

More wonderful Parisian spaces, here. Bon weekend!

house of the year 2013

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I attended WAN House of the Year award night in London late last week. It went to this house, a summer house on an island in the Stockholm archipelago by Swedish studio Tham & Videgård Arkitekter.

The most striking thing about the house is its simple, dynamic form: a row of zig-zagging, raw concrete gables that stretch across the site like a line of boathouses. Rather than the usual vernacular of a timber dwelling drawing on the forest for its context, the building takes its inspiration from the granite bedrock found on the island. One of the gables forms a glass canopy roofing the terrace, that also splits the building into two separate volumes. This provides a vista through the building to the seafront from the forest beyond and vice versa, as well as acting as the entrance. Three of the gables house the living and dining rooms; pale ash doors doors slide open to reveal the bedrooms behind.

Along with the facade, the terrace and interior floors are made of exposed concrete. The raw concrete has been cast in-situ against plywood boards, giving a subtle grain and wonderfully worn quality to the surface. The interior is simply painted white, window frames and joinery are ash.

House Lagnö by Tham & Videgård Arkitekter, here. Photography: Åke E:son Lindman

What do you think of house of the year? It’s certainly less dramatic than last year’s winner, here

a parisian delight.

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The classical symmetry of a staircase running up from the centre to the left and to the right is re-interpreted in this otherwise utterly modern, tiny loft apartment in Paris. White, suspended boxes housing the bedroom and bathroom are then positioned left and right. Beneath, the living space on one side, and the kitchen on the other. The staircase of folded metal creates a bold, geometric statement.

The palette of white walls, black metal and oak floor is punctuated by shots of bold colour and form. In the main salon are fabulous classic furniture pieces from the 60s and 70s – the marvelous, resin Taraxacum S2 suspension light takes centre stage, the Tre Pezzi armchair (in white Mongolian goat hair, no less), Pierre Paulin’s voluptuous Pumpkin sofa. Muuto chairs in this season’s palest pink and mint, a dark yellow wall. Oak pocket cupboard doors are simply decorated with diagonal strips of oak (a clever detail that – the diagonal used as a symbol in architectural drawing to indicate whether the door is left or right opening). The full-height doors open to reveal the kitchen units, finished in matt black.

Un Espace en Suspension, Paris, via AD Magazine

Photographs: Vincent Leroux

More wonderful spaces, here

world interior of the year.

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Inside Awards World interior of the Year 2013 is the refurbishment of a piano nobile (or main floor) apartment in the Gothic Quarter of Barcelona. A triangular-shaped site, it is situated at a major crossroads in the city. Stripping back the internal partitions revealed the vertex, reconnecting the apartment with the streets beyond.

A look within reveals minimal intervention. The shell of the building and its classical elements are retained. A balcony that connects bedrooms and en-suite bathrooms is lined with books, becoming a high-level library. Simple, rectilinear furniture compliments the simple layout. But the materials palette is an ecelectic mix, unrestrained and rich in colour and materials – gold, black painted metal, dark red wood, cobalt blue tiles, green glass. More than I would ever put together in one space.

But I love how the architects have interpreted the brief, thus: the new mosaic floor is decorated with a triangular pattern matching the geometry of the plan. The tile pattern is graded in colour from green at one end of the apartment to red at the other to differentiate the clients’ private spaces – two brothers who share the space as a holiday home. At the street corner the red and green tiles are at their most mixed; this is the dining area which is also the meeting place for family and friends.

What do you think of the interior of the year? Apartment in Barcelona by David Kohn Architects via

More wonderful spaces, here

old jaffa house.

a parisian pied-à-terre.

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51 rue Raynouard is an apartment block in the16th arrondissement in Paris, designed and built in 1932 by Auguste Perret. Perret is a seminal architect of the 20th century, responsible for heading the re-build of Le Havre post–Second World War (now a World Heritage Site), and for his pioneering use of reinforced concrete. He constructed no. 51 to house his design firm and his family, in an apartment on the top floor. His concern was not so much how his building looked from the ground, but rather how the world outside would appear from his building. Perret wrote that the apartment ‘is filled with sunlight from dawn to dusk’. Now a listed building, architectural interventions are restricted and the architect owner has refused to make even minor repairs. But he has certainly filled it with pretty things…

The walls throughout are lined with French oak panelling in the most beautiful pale honey colour, floors are narrow timber boards of a similar hue and columns are made from stone-blasted concrete, not the marble one would expect of the era.

The furniture is a master-class of design classics. In the dining room, black marble-topped Eero Saarinen table and Eames wire chairs. I spy an AJ floor lamp by Arne Jacobsen and Flos desk lamp. Red Utrecht armchairs by Gerrit Rietveld and his Zig Zag chair sit alongside more modern pieces – Low Pad chairs by Jasper Morrison and a Still coffee table which echoes the circular plaster feature ceiling above. A beautiful, circular stone basin sits within the turquoise-green bathroom.

Modern High Design Pied-à-Terre Paris, via Dwell, here, and ‘One hundred houses for one hundred European Architects’ by Gennaro Postiglione.

Photographs: Hotze Eisma.

Or do you prefer a pared back parisian, here?

house in noto.

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I’ve always been an Italophile but last year was the first time I had visited Sicily. Having been seduced by the superior piece of writing Il Gattopardo (‘The Leopard’), and the rather lighter, but no less charming stories of Inspector Montelbano, it was raw and intense and wonderful. This house is in Noto, a jewel of a Baroque town on the east coast (we stayed just outside Noto, in this fabulous hotel).

White stone walls that look as if they have been laid dry are juxtaposed with surfaces of smooth render. Other hard surfaces – concrete floors and full height metal framed openings – help to achieve the feeling of respite from the hot sun. Mid-century furniture languishes in the cool interior – Bertoia walnut bench; Alvar Aalto tables and PH5 pendant (more PH5, here); beautiful, sculptural moulded plywood armchairs.

Have you visited Sicily? Casa Eloro by Gordon Guillaumier (also worth a look: Casa Muro, also in Noto, here)