Opening night at IDS West 2013

Opening party at Interior Design Show West 2013, with many novelties, great booths, music, beautiful people, fun! Above is Montauk Sofa’s booth with a large vibrant and racy photograph by Vancouver-based Adad Hannah.




“The art of living small” a Laneway home, built by Alair Homes and designed by Gaile Guevara. “ An example of multiple-generational living, rental accommodation and aging in place on a property (…) an opportunity to keep families together”. Guevara also wanted to bring purpose to this project by creating awareness about Alzheimer’s, the home will be sold by auction on World Alzheimer’s day (September 21) with the net proceeds donated to the Alzheimer Society of B.C.

On the right talented interior designer Gaile Guevara.

Sculptor Marie Khouri with her latest creation for the Laneway home’s outdoor.

PR Shannon Heath with interior designer and TV personality Kelly Deck.

An interesting evening meeting many old friends and colleagues !

All images © Albarosa Simonetti
You may also like to read previous years posts on IDS West? Then… click HERE …or HERE …or HERE.
©2013 Brillante Interiors writes about new trends, timeless decor, iconic pieces, design ideas, or at times just musing about "a certain Italian way of doing things".
If you receive this post by Email and wish to leave a comment please click HERE and go to the comments section.  I love your comments!

If you need help to enjoy your home more, please send me an email.  It will be an investment in happiness at home, because a well designed house is always a good part of a great life and a beautiful room will make you happy every time you walk in!

The Romance of Design

Image by Matthew Millman

As designers we never have enough books or interior design magazines in our library. No matter how knowledgeable we are there is always something to learn and to be inspired from, that is why today I suggest you’ll take a look at this beautiful new book by famous interior designer Suzanne Tucker.
“Suzanne Tucker, a perennial on the AD100 Top Designers of the World, presents the best of the West Coast, featuring opulent Napa Valley estates, glamorous penthouses on San Francisco Bay, and art-filled apartments. All are united by an attention to detail where the designer's hand is evident in every tile, molding, railing and finish; Suzanne Tucker redefines the notion of the custom home. She interprets her clients' dreams of home and translates them into lavishly decorated rooms, perfectly tailored to their interests, passions and personalities. She marries each of her designs to the particular tastes and sensibilities of her clients while always honoring classic design principles. The result is exquisitely polished interiors that blend timeless, Old World elegance with modern luxury and spirit”.

image by Suzanne Tucker

As Suzanne Tucker says in the introduction to the book: “The process of designing a house and ultimately delivering a home is an intensely personal experience for all involved. It is a journey inevitably filled with lessons in patience, growth, frustration, satisfaction, surprises,
and finally, great joy. There is also a certain romance along the way. As we
spend time in the building and designing of a house, there is an inevitable engagement. We are seduced. And we fall in love with our homes (…)”.
Have you noticed that she says “designing a house” and then “delivering a home”? … how true that as designers we want to create the best home for our clients, not just a house.
I want to share some images with you, only a few of so many interesting ones you’ll find in the book, due to be published October 15, 2013 by Monacelli Press.

Image by Matthew Millman

A superb seventeenth-century inlaid Italian commode and Michael Taylor–designed “frog” chair. The sconce on the wall is also a favorite of mine.

Image by Pieter Estersohn

In the library  four “casino” chairs upholstered in chartreuse calfskin make the room sunny every day, a seventeenth-century sandstone Burmese Buddha head creates a focal point.

Image by Matthew Millman

In a “on my dreams” dressing room, luscious textiles, Lalique touches, and a custom-woven tiger-patterned wool and silk carpet create glamour.

 

Image by Michal Venera

The shades of blues, creams, and tobaccos on this exquisite onyx panel brings a luxurious touch to the master bath.

Image by Matthew Millman

A shaded terrace is the perfect place to enjoy breakfast on a sunny day.

Image by Edward Addeo 

Louis XVI-style caned-back chairs and a contemporary Lucite table beneath the Swedish crystal chandelier, splendid mix of styles. I love this Tucker’s words in the book: “I always say that things don’t need to match, but they definitely need to marry (…) Perfect pairings may not always be immediately obvious. The key is finding the common thread that stitches the dissimilar together”.

Image by Michal Venera

A marble lamp with a printed parchment shade, a Han planter, a Tang horse and rider, his bronzed baby shoe, and a turn-of-the-twentieth-century Loewy and Puiseux lunar heliogravure. Mastering the art of creating still life.

Image by Michal Venera

Passion, Vision, and Collecting
“Vision is the art of seeing what
is invisible to others.” —Jonathan Swift

I found this an inspiring book on many levels for designers and for interior design lovers. Looking forward to receive my hard copy!

©2013 Brillante Interiors writes about new trends, timeless decor, iconic pieces, design ideas, or at times just musing about "a certain Italian way of doing things".
If you receive this post by Email and wish to leave a comment please click HERE and go to the comments section.  I love your comments!

If you need help to enjoy your home more, please send me an email.  It will be an investment in happiness at home, because a well designed house is always a good part of a great life and a beautiful room will make you happy every time you walk in!

A Tribute to Gabriella Crespi

I have written about the amazing designer Gabriella Crespi in the past ( click HERE…) and a few months ago in Milano there was a special event dedicated to her:

“A Tribute to Gabriella Crespi”.

The event, held at the magnificent historic Palazzo Crespi,  was organized by Sergio Rossi and Casa Vogue magazine to celebrate the new cooperation between the luxury brand Sergio Rossi and the sculptor-designer Gabriella Crespi, now in her 90’s but still active.

The atmosphere of Palazzo Crespi, built at the end of 1800 and where part of the family still lives, is sophisticated and opulent, with stunning collections and at the same time very lived in: Renaissance paintings, Louis XV pieces, neoclassic art, precious antiques, ceramics… but also books, accessories, daily life objects that create some coziness even in such a grand décor.

 

Daughter Elisabetta Crespi and Christophe Mélard, President of Sergio Rossi.

A special edition of shoes, inspired by Crespi’s furniture and many of her iconic pieces were presented in an intriguing way.

The Yang Yin table and the new shoe inspired by it.

Filigree art piece and shoes.

 

 

Coffee tables and desk from the 70’s and 80’s, iconic pieces of modern design, timeless elegance of forms, reflected by interplay of mirrors and gilded surfaces. An evening to remember.
Images from Casa Vogue and Marie Claire
©2013 Brillante Interiors writes about new trends, timeless decor, iconic pieces, design ideas, or at times just musing about "a certain Italian way of doing things".
If you receive this post by Email and wish to leave a comment please click HERE and go to the comments section.  I love your comments!

If you need help to enjoy your home more, please send me an email.  It will be an investment in happiness at home, because a well designed house is always a good part of a great life and a beautiful room will make you happy every time you walk in!

In Milan: a house with a view

 

This is a very interesting apartment, not just for its location, in the very centre of Milan, but also for many innovative ideas and the whole layout.

Let’s start with the entry hall which, surprise!… is combined  with the dining area which, great idea!… becomes also a library. Furthermore the table is an office boardroom one… by Tecno, and if you entertain a lot why not go “overboard”. The chairs are the Superleggera designed by legendary Gio Ponti and produced by Cassina.

White walls and charcoal wood floor, custom made cascade lighting and bookshelves make an elegant background for the contemporary furniture.

 

I love the idea of having two different carpets side by side, in this case the colors play with each other; the zabaglione color of the two sofas is just perfect, not too yellow, not too dark.  Eclectic choices of contemporary furniture and antique wooden madonne used for religious festivities complete the living room.

 

The view is priceless, so the owners decided to create a heated veranda on the terrace, which is now the focal point of the entire apartment. No fear of colors here, with a deep, vibrant, almost purple undertone blue for the large sofa. Did you spot another church here? What you see is the campanile of San Gottardo in Corte, built in 1336.

 

An unusual lilac chair by Tecno sits over a luscious mauve rug by ABC Carpet, New York.

 

A sleek, contemporary kitchen with a magnificent view and the Duomo as the focal point. The cathedral started in the late 1300 and…took nearly six centuries to complete, it is the largest in Italy and one of the largest in the world. It was built in precious marmo di Candoglia transported to the city over the water, when Milan had several navigli or waterways now almost entirely covered. The marble reflects the light changes during the day and becomes magnificent at dawn and at sunset.

 

To complete the apartment the terrace is linked to the roof garden by a stairway and from here the Torre Velasca, another iconic Milanese building, this time from 1950’s can be seen.

Definitely a house with a view!

Photography by Barbara Corsico

©2013 Brillante Interiors writes about new trends, timeless decor, iconic pieces, design ideas, or at times just musing about "a certain Italian way of doing things".

If you receive this post by Email and wish to leave a comment please click HERE and go to the comments section. I love to hear from you!

Past, present and future

 

In the world of design often we find new ideas based (either coincidentally or on purpose) on old ones. The same goes for other aspects of our life, of course, many times what is old is new again, not just our mother’s dress, all of a sudden fashionable again, but even an old love can become new again. But let’s concentrate on design… and play today with similarities in furniture and lighting, at times separated by decades.

Marshmallow sofa by George Nelson, 1956
Borhese Sofa by Noé Duchaufour Lawrance for La Chance, 2012

 

 

Sacco by Gatti, Paolini, Teodoro for Zanotta, 1968

Boa by Campana brothers for Edra, 2002

 

 

Philippe Starck Zenith chandelier for Baccarat,  2003

Ron Gilad  designs Dear Ingo for Moooi, 2003

 

 

Poul Henningsen designed PH Artichoke pendant for Louis Poulsen in 1958

Ingo Maurer designed Zettel’z 6 in 1998

 

 

Nesting coffee tables by Gianfranco Frattini for Cassina, 1960

Nendo designs Cloud Table for Moroso, 2012

 

 

Gala rattan chair by Franco Albini for Bonacina, 1951

Felt chair by Marc Newson for Cappellini, 1993

Now I am wondering: would these new creations have been born without their iconic predecessor? Whatever the answer is I love them all, old and new. What do you think?

©2013 Brillante Interiors writes about new trends, timeless decor, iconic pieces, design ideas, or at times just musing about "a certain Italian way of doing things".

If you receive this post by Email and wish to leave a comment please click HERE and go to the comments section. I love to hear from you!

My fascination with artists and their homes

 

I have just discovered the artist Pierre Bergian, from Bruges, Belgium, through two paintings from his most recent body of work which focuses on interiors. Oh, joy!

 

Pierre Bergian, Palazzo Mora in Venice, 2011, Oil on panel, 80 x 95 cm

I also had the fortune to receive from the artist images of his home and studio, a real treat for someone like me interested in art and in interior design.

Photographing where artists live is one of my passion and this time, without any travel involved I was able to enter into this inspiring home, full of color, full of life, full of art as in the above image of a living-working room.

His art instead is quite subtle, almost ethereal as you could see opening his website HERE.

Pierre Bergian, Abandoned Room 2012 Oil on panel 40 x 47 cm

We can imagine any story for this interior, grandeur, mystery, solitude…

A subtle palette, a minimalist approach, with just a few lines evoking the story of these  interiors.Usually painting is about “adding” and photography is about “deleting” but here obviously there is abstraction, due to only selected lines and objects.

 

Artist Pierre Bergian at work.

 

Pierre Bergian, Temple, 2012, Oil on panel, 71 x 80 cm

 

In a living room of his home-studio we find antiques, a faded Persian rug, a Thonet chair, a collection of precious white and blue china (do I spot Meissen?) on the wall.

 

Inspirations…

 

A well lived, simple kitchen with an interesting Venetian Terrazzo floor.

 

Brushes, painter palette, drawings, unfinished paintings,

books…functional lighting.

 

A lively living room facing a garden and another more

classic room with a Murano chandelier.

 

A glimpse of the decorated floor, a classic bust in a niche.

 

Another work area, a large simple table filled with books and magazines,

different old chairs add a Bohemian touch.

As I said I am always fascinated by how and where artists live and I have many images of artists’ houses I will share with you in the near future. I believe that in every home there is (or there should be) the true soul of the owners, like in this inspiring one.

If you are in London don’t miss his latest exhibition with an intriguing title:

All photographs by Pierre Bergian with express permission of the artist.

©2013 Brillante Interiors writes about new trends, timeless decor, iconic pieces, design ideas, or at times just musing about "a certain Italian way of doing things".
If you receive this post by Email and wish to leave a comment please click HERE and go to the comments section. I love to hear from you!

Top 25 Interior Design Blogs in the World

Brillante Interiors has been mentioned in "The Top 25 Interior Design Blogs in the World".
I am honored to be nominated and happy to be part of such a great group of bloggers, including my friends Ivan at Meade Design Group and Patricia at Patricia Gray.

Thank-you Designs-n-Deal.


©2013 Brillante Interiors writes about new trends, timeless decor, iconic pieces, design ideas, or at times just musing about "a certain Italian way of doing things".
If you receive this post by Email and wish to leave a comment please click HERE and go to the comments section. I love to hear from you!

Brillante choice

 

 

One of the most seen design objects, the iconic Stool 60, designed in 1933 by Alvar Aalto, turned 80 this year and for its birthday Mike Meiré added pastel colors for  the stool new limited edition.
Yellow, turquoise, green, orange and touches of black and white all create more movement on the three legs and the top of the stool, which changes colors from each different perspective.
Meiré affirms that for classic objects like this a new version, with small changes, can recreate the surprise of the first edition.

I agree, do you?

©2013 Brillante Interiors writes about new trends, timeless decor, iconic pieces, design ideas, or at times just musing about "a certain Italian way of doing things".

If you receive this post by Email and wish to leave a comment please click HERE and go to the comments section. I love to hear from you!