THE BEAUTY OF WIRES

Many people like to hide as many wires and cables they can. No doubt, they can be one big visual distraction when things get out of hand. In many homes, the fact that the light sources on the ceiling are far from where you wish to position the lamps poses another bigger problem - those awful plastic casing which house the electrical cables.

Take a step back and start thinking about how to make the best out of the situation. As displayed by the examples shown below, you might begin to adore the idea that showing wires can be a beautiful affair.

Where We Work: Creative Office Spaces

SquareONE

Take the bare essentials of lighting: wires, sockets and bulbs and elevate them to an industrial, lofty aesthetic. This 'chandelier' can be hung in any configuration to suit a room's decor.

Pa-Design

Add decoration to an appliance's cable and it suddenly becomes an admirable art piece.

A Life Measured In Coffee Spoons

Play around with the colors of the wires. Bunch the wires up and you'll be surprised how 'clashing' bright tones together can actually make them look pretty.

Yi-Cong Lu

Or how about putting the lamp on a pulley system, making it flexible to be moved around the room? Yi-Cong Lu has exactly this interesting idea up his sleeves.

Stan

read more...

5 HIGH-END FURNITURE BRANDS EVERY SELF-RESPECTING HOME OWNER SHOULD KNOW

It's interesting that I should write this post, simply because I don't recommend high-end furniture to my clients that much. Yes, I'm a firm believer that price does not always equate to quality when one is talking about furniture. Good quality and durable furniture are available in various price points. Furthermore, not everyone has deep pockets.

Then why should one go for high end furniture? The pretentious few will tell you that since people should always be dressed in their best, they expect their home to look the part and impress their guests. If they can splash on Louis Vuitton or Chanel bags, what's another $30,000 for a sofa?

Beyond the looks, comfort, craftsmanship and quality assurance will be the key considerations for justifying the purchase, something low-end or mid-tier manufacturers cannot provide. Forget about just pleasing others, getting high end furniture is really about making you feel comfortable in your home.

The following are five exceptional companies which produce extremely stylish (and expensive) furniture. Their products have been copied by various imitators and sold at a fraction of the price, but when it comes to attention to detail, the fakes just wouldn't cut it.

B&B Italia SpA is an Italian modern furniture company known for its modern and minimal aesthetic. Its luxury products are sold worldwide. The company comprises the brands B&B Italia and Maxalto. Within B&B Italia, there are 4 different collections.

Under the B&B Italia Home Collection, the world has seen now classic products such as the Up Series Chair by Gaetano Pesce, the Charles Sofa by Antonio Citterio, Tufty Time by Patricia Urquiola and The Moon System Sofa by Zaha Hadid. On the other hand, Maxalto is a comprehensive line of interior furnishings designed and coordinated by famed architect Antonio Citterio.

Baker Furniture, part of the Kohler Interiors Group, may well be U.S's most prestigious furniture maker. Granted, their exotic, Art Deco-inspired ware is largely a matter of personal taste and preference. Old World craftsmanship, attention to detail and custom-selected materials are combined to create furniture with a classic sensibility in form, finish and function. Baker's versatility is apparent in the broad spectrum of its traditional, contemporary and casual collections.

In essence, Baker offers options for living today with a full range of classic forms and proprietary finishes.


DEDON is a German company which specializes in the production of luxurious outdoor furniture. Founded in 1990 by former professional soccer player Bobby Dekeyser, the company revolutionized outdoor furniture design, producing individually hand-woven all-weather furniture using Hularo, a totally weatherproof man made fibre developed in Germany. Unlike other plastic fibres, it contains no PVC, does not crack, is easy to clean and also biodegradable.

Cassina operates at an industrial level in the contemporary furnishing sector, with special skills relative to upholstered furniture and wood and leather working as well as with other precious materials. It produces chairs, tables, armchairs, sofas, furniture items and beds.

Founded by the brothers Cesare and Umberto Cassina in 1927 in Meda, Brianza, (Northern Italy), Cassina's continuous pursuit of design innovation and quality remains as true today through the work of some of the world's leading designers of the 20th and 21st century, "I Contemporanei" (Modern Masters) including: Mario Bellini, Gio Ponti, Vico Magistretti, Toshiyuki Kita, Gaetano Pesce, Theodore Waddell, Hannes Wettstein, Philippe Starck, Jean-Marie Massaud, Piero Lissoni, and others.

Cappellini is Italy’s leading high-end furniture design firm. Under the vision of its founder Giulio Cappellini, the firm's collections are known for tapping new trends and far-flung talents, and have included sofas, kitchen sinks, shelving and light fixtures displayed in an industrial hangar far from the gold-plated shopping district along the Via Monte Napoleone.

Described as a "tutti-frutti affair, with minimalism offered up alongside pop fashion, computer tech and amoebic forms", Cappellini's collections have included works by Tom Dixon, the Erwan & Ronan Bouroullec brothers and Ora Ito.

KUS

read more...