Christmas Wishes ~ Best of Blogs

What an amazing year this has been! I have made so many wonderful relationships through the blogosphere, and want to thank you for that. I appreciate each and every comment you leave and wish you the very best this holiday season. Below are links from my fellow bloggers as well as some new friends I have recently made through blogging.

I look forward to a wonderful 2011 with you guys...

For the absolute most glamorous ~ visit {this is glamorous}, Dustjacket Attic,

little blue deer, Haute Design, Everything Fabulous, Dress Design & Decor ...

I am always inspired by you!

For inspiration from the most talented business women ~ Made by Girl, Isabella and Max Rooms, decor8, Colour me Happy, La Dolce Vita, Table Tonic, House of Turquoise, Plush Palate, The Love List, Ada & Darcy, coco+kelley

I learn so much from you!

For the ultimate in Fashion, Design and Style blog ~ The Zhush, The Decorista, Simplified Bee, Couture Carrie, Haven and Home, Pure Style Home, Flourish Design and Style, A Diary of Lovely, Lovely Clusters, Bon Bon Rose Girls, So About What I Said..., Casa Bella, Bright Bazaar, Emily Clark, La vie J'aime, Brunch at Saks, Decorology, apartment 34, escapade, everything LEB, deliciously organized

You are always on the cutting edge!

and Amazing Artists who always inspire ~ CREATE, Annechovie, Katie Daisy

Love your creative style!

~ Submit Your Favorite Blog post of 2010 {from Your blog} if you have not already ~

Top 10 of 2010 Favorite Blog posts on BB&B

Win a watercolor painting ~ Follow BB&B via Bloglovin'

Happy Holidays from me to you... Wishing you all the success for 2011 too!

More ways to follow BB&B

shop * facebook * twitter * bloglovin * tumblr

photos: pinterest, marthastewart.com

Modern Furniture in Rough Rooms

Recently I came across the photographer Michael Himpel via Lumas Gallery and his shots of beautiful old interiors, all with that fascinating dilapidated but luxe feel, all empty and all belonging to historic villas in Havanna, Cuba.

Only little later I saw the actual advertising campaign of the German furniture manufacturer WK Wohnen in the print media. And I recognised the rooms ! Their modern products were placed into these old villas in Havanna for the shooting - by Michael Himpel. The rooms were all empty because the owner's furniture was taken out before.

See here the photographs with and without furniture :

via WK Wohnen

Villa Eulalia, Havanna by Michael Himpel via Lumas

 

"the charme of past times is present in Havanna ..." via pmi publishing

Villa La Guarida by Michael Himpel via Lumas

What a ballroom !

via WK Wohnen

Villa Carlos, Havanna by Michael Himpel via Lumas

What a ceiling lamp ?!

via WK Wohnen

via Eulalia, Havanna by Michael Himpel via Lumas

What a flooring !! Love the tiles !!

And when writing about advertising modern / luxe furniture in rough / shabby rooms, I want to post two more samples :

red sofa (Charles) above by B&B Italia ...

... in the same room that I  posted it in Feb. 2007 !

However the above picture is not taken from an advertising. If I remember well it was the furnishing of a house in Italy. The style was called "neo-shabby chic" by the magazine it was featured in (Casa International, Beijing does not longer exist).

I do love the fresco !

This is clearly advertising for an Italian divano - the location looks like an abandoned church , similar feeling to the other two pics before.

While the German advertising campaign was this year, I am not sure about the Italian ones. The last (mantelassi) is from about 2 or 3 years ago. However, I do not care if a style is in or not. It has to fit. This shabby chic or rough luxe style just fits to old historic buildings that have a past to tell and to preserve. I hope that I can preserve some interior walls and ceilings in our palazzo in Italy that are testimonies from so many years.

My next post should show some dilapidated walls, ceilings and fresci of our Palazzo Pizzo ...

To round up my recent posts about rough luxe - or shabby chic - I want to provide a few links to some similar content, posted recently or a bit ago, here for the interested reader :

Rough luxe and the new antiquarians by The Architectural Antique Review (09/2009)

Rough Luxe by Wall Street Journal (WSJ, 09/2009)

Rough Luxe Hotel by Designers Block (03/2009)

Cote de Texas about Belgian Design (01/2009)

A description of Boho Modern by Decor8 (01/2008)

Axel Vervoordt

Rough Luxe Experience

Some of you and myself are fascinated by "rough luxe" - by the style and the term. And the Wall Street Journal writes "the world of interiors gets a new manifesto".

But where does the term "rough luxe" come from ? How has created it ?

I googled - and found the "Rough Luxe Experience Network", a kind of platform for businesses that "share an understanding of a different definition of luxury".

And there I found this room combining colours and beautiful fabrics with existing distressed original walls :

The photos above and below are all showing interiors of the Rough Luxe Hotel in London, "transformed" by Rabih Hage.

What an interesting bathroom !

 Of course I selected all the bathroom photos as I have to do six for our palazzo.

And I wanted to show the rough part of the rough luxe style - the original walls. For me a bit too much (above).

The "Rough Luxe Network" seems to me like a "Charming Hotel" kind of network that is still new and very trendy. I deem their criteria to become member very interesting. 

Read some interior related criteria here:

ROUGH LUXE NETWORK CRITERIA :

* Unique location of the business in an exclusive site or address (maybe our palazzo's guest appartment should participate !?!) 

* Special or unique architectural and/or historical building where the (Rough-Luxe) business is established or operating from.

* The interior and architectural design are based on the mix of old and new elements; showing original parts of the building, preserving the memory of the site and built environment as well as adding new, useful and original elements to the property.

* The design is based on a mix that looks random but in fact is done with a conscious transmission of social and philosophical messages that put intellectual enrichment prior to the physical well being.

* Physical comfort is important. However, it comes second to intellectual exchange of ideas and personal enrichment through the time spent in a Rough-Luxe business.

* Rough-Luxe will only have original art and design pieces (no copies or prints of existing art or design).

* In a Rough-Luxe business: Luxury is original materials with a unique appearance and historical elements not solely rare materials and expensive finishes.

(...) 
----
 
The red section above is exactly what I think is necessary for our renovation of our 200 + years old palazzo !
 
However the grey sectio above means for the Rough Luxe hotel guest that :  "they might share a bathroom or have a small room or a small shower cubicle, but the luxury is in the choice of the wine, the bed linen, the art on the walls and the people looking after you." (o-tone hotel website).
 
Sharing bathrooms is not really what I like to do when travelling...  but I am fine with the rest.

Vietri Ceramics for Mediterranean Style

When in Italy we had to choose tiles for the balcony and terrace. This was when I learned about the colourful Vietrese ceramics (Ceramica di Vietri) that spread instantly Mediterranean atmosphere. I am sitting here and browsing through the beautiful catalogue (215 pages!) from Francesco de Maio, one of the famous producers of Vietri ceramics. I just wanted to scan the most beautiful pictures but also show the variety of colours, shapes and sizes they offer. So I have a total of ten pics:


Vietri tiles make your kitchen look rustic. It feels like being on holiday everyday.



Listelli are the decorative borders you can add for a perfect look. In the kitchen (above) or in the bathroom (below).



The blue bathroom above shows perfectly the way Italians use different shapes, sizes and colours of tiles to create a unique pattern. You can do the same at home, no need to have Vietri tiles.

For our balcony and terrace we choose similar unicolored tiles, kind of water-air-colour from Fornaci d'Agostino (see picture below).


Of course you can also order panelli, different Mediterranean motives to decorate your walls in the kitchen or in the garden.


And you can have motives for the floor. Above two examples to use for a terra cotta tile floor.



There is no limit for fantasies. You can use Vietri ceramics for your table. Perfect for the garden, rain and sun resistant. Above the very classic colours yellow, blue and green - and on the right a more modern fresh alternative.

(If you want to know about the production technique click on the above picture, the English text is on the right below.)

Have a great weekend and thank you for dropping in.

- All pictures from Francesco de Maio catalogue 2005, Salerno, Italy -

---------------
And once more the picture from our future terrace tile with matching listello, both from Fornaci d'Agostino.

Mood Board for our Project

Thanks to Holly Becker's 'Mood Board' contest on Decor8 I finally pushed myself to create such a board for our palazzo project. Here is what inspires me:



Here some more details from the board:


Shells in shells. That's how I could place our shell collection somewhere.


Sea view from the garden floor with iron gate.


Fresko over a door, painted by reputated painter 'Carioti', who has last lived in the house until he died in 1997.


Bouganvilla and cactus plants at the Restaurant Go, near Pizzo Calabro. That is how I picture my tiny garden on the rock.

Actually, the renovation has not started yet. Architects were supposed to make proposal, but nothing has happened in the last six month. Of course the main problem is that at the moment we are based on the other side of the world. However, my father-in-law will be on site in the next days and kick-off the thing. He will be there until we arrive in mid-July for a three weeks summer holiday.

Bathrooms

Instead of splitting a big room into a tiny bedroom and an even tinier bathroom with no window I rather opt to sacrifice one entire room to be a nice bathroom, 'boudoir'-style, maybe even with sea view. Here is my inspiring collection of bathrooms:








The only remaining question: which of the five rooms should be the bathroom?
My favorite at the moment is the top left, with one window facing the sea.
And maybe the sink in front of the window with little round mirrows on the side, like in two of the pictures.


Photo: source are different blogs, sorry I was not keeping track who posted it first, from the internet and magazines.

Wallpaper Chinese Style

Although wallpapers are not really used often in Italian houses, I got interested into wallpapers through blogs like Absolutely Beautiful Things (ABT) and an article in AD about Villa Polisena in Rome that has a Chinese room (see my post). I can picture to have a Chinese-theme room in our Italian house. This would always remind us of our exotic life we had (and still have) in Asia.





... and maybe even wallpaper in the bathroom:



Pictures from:
Thibaut thanks to ABT (no. 3,5)
Lehman & Qian in Shanghai (no. 1,2)
Wallpapers and digital murals ... from flickr.com (no. 4)

And one more link I just found via Designamour:
Fromental in the UK

Impressions of the House

Today I tried the The Mosaic Maker for my photo collection. Do you know similar tools?

Palazzo To Do: Layout and first Details

We have over thought the use of the different areas and floors and came to the following:

Seminterrato – Garden Floor:
Inside: 1 Bedroom, 1 Living Area, 1 tiny bathroom, 1 open kitchen and bar style eating area
Outside: 1 Garden (big enough for 2 sun beds and outside eating)
To check: Is tiny bathroom with shower possible in basement?
Style: ‘shabby-chic’ --> mainly leave old stone walls, ceilings and floors – combine with modern furniture
Colours: Orange, Yellow, White, Black, Mocca
Special: The Garden Floor has a separate entrance and can be used as independent apartment for guests.

Piano Terra – Ground Floor:
Inside: 1 Entrance Hall, 1 Living area, 1 Dining room, 1 open kitchen, 1 bathroom with washing machine and dryer, 1 working garage space
Outside: 1 Balcony (big enough for outside eating)
To check: can we take out separating walls between living – dining – kitchen for bigger space feeling?
Style: ‘smart casual’, ‘simple elegant’
Colours: Coral Red, White, Black, Mocca

Primo Piano – First Floor:
Inside:
Sea Side: 1 Master Bedroom, 1 Living area, 1 Master Bathroom
Piazza Side: 1 Children Room with small bathroom, 1 working or guest room, 1 separate WC
To check: can we have a shower in the small (overhanging) bathroom?
Outside: 3 small balconies to decorate with flower pots
Style: different room, different style
Colours: different room, different relaxing colour matching the blue sea and the green hills

Secondo Piano – Terrazzo – Terrace:
Inside: 1 small pantry including cooking facility and bar, 1 living area, 1 WC or small bath, 1 service area (water tank etc.)
Outside: Hugh Terrace (big enough for several sun beds, daybed, outside eating, small pool, flower pots)
To check: would floor be strong enough to carry pool?
Style: casual, simple, beach
Colours: fresh mint / cool blue, white

Shabby Chic Look for the Garden Floor - Seminterrato

They call it 'neo-shabby chic'.
This is how I can picture the basement of the Palazzo. Leave the stone walls and even the floor partly like it is to keep the charm. And than use some modern furniture with bright colour.

I found the picture in one of last year's issues from my favorite Magazine in Beijing: Casa International.