Displaying posts labeled "Apartment"

I just can’t get enough of Italian design firm Marcante Testa. They absolutely blow my mind with their use of colour, materials like brass, wood and marble, and their attention to detail of every square inch of their spaces. What I would give to be a fly on the wall in one of their design sessions. I mean, read this description and you’ll see what I mean. For this apartment, set within a building from the late 1960 on Corso Sempione, the Turin-based duo has applied its immediately recognizable style to reinterpret a typical bourgeois Milanese home in a highly original way. The floor in “Cipollino Tirreno” marble extends from the entrance hall to the living room, even being used on the walls and “closing” at the ceiling to frame a view of Milan that appears almost like a meditative landscape. Moving towards the dining room, this material gives way to “Verde Alpi” marble, which becomes a “carpet” on the floor for the dining table, a wallcovering, and even furniture itself in the form of a shelf on which to place objects. The floor in “Cipollino Tirreno” marble extends from the entrance hall to the living room, even being used on the walls and “closing” at the ceiling to frame a view of Milan that appears almost like a meditative landscape. Moving towards the dining room, this material gives way to “Verde Alpi” marble, which becomes a “carpet” on the floor for the dining table, a wallcovering, and even furniture itself in the form of a shelf on which to place objects. The cement tiles, the original wood floors updated with resin coatings, the colored metal structures for the doors in wire mesh glass, along with the materials used for the custom furnishings (laminate in the kitchen, the bath furnishings and the storage cabinets) reference the period in which the building was first constructed. They also “dampen” the high notes of more precious materials, such as the brass, marble, and the wallpapers and the fabrics of the wardrobe doors in the master bedroom. In this way, the interaction of materials, forms, colours and surfaces, as manipulated by the designers, is transformed and creates unexpected emotional reactions in the viewer linking the contrasting styles of everyday and sophisticated, high and low, past and contemporary.

Photos: Carola Ripamonti
And other features on Marcante Testa here and here

I love to see people take risks in the world of interior design, even if it isn’t to my taste nor something I can imagine living in. If it’s ballsy I give it 2 thumbs up. Like this all black apartment in St. Petersburg I found on The Village. Black from floor to ceiling, sparkly drippy chandeliers, swag burgundy curtains and bedding. I hate to say it but had I not known what website this was from my first guess would have been it was located in Russia. Do you think you could live here?

Photos: Victor Yuliev

It’s an interesting mix, moody master bedroom and a tactile, almost organic bathroom in the lightest shade of grey. Inspired by luxurious Greek villas think sinuous shapes offset by angular joinery,  light bouncing off walls, floating drapes, a calm oasis in a hot, hot city. Teneriffe Apartment, Brisbane by Alexandra Ponting of AP Design House.

Paris-based interior designer Caroline Andréoni is turning dreamy Paris apartments into bold and vivacious spaces with the addition of wallpaper, graphic tile, dark paint colours, modern lighting. Keeping my belief strong that Paris has some of the coolest apartments out there.

I’m real estate strolling scrolling in the inner Melbourne suburb of Collingwood and have found a 2 storey apartment with roof top terrace that the agent describes as a penthouse. Yes it is at the top of the building so I guess it is a penthouse but that word to me conjures up images of opulent rooms, extravagant space, luxurious living. Don’t get me wrong. There are many things I like about this contemporary inner city pad. Being at the top means there is a handy roof terrace with great views. The building has interesting brass accents and the kitchen is a definite favourite with its sleek black lines. Simple yet very stylish. Your idea of a penthouse? Or should we just agree that it’s fab inner city pad? Link here while it lasts.