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 an advertising campaign of German furniture manufacturer WK Wohnen in print media (February 2008). - And I recognised the rooms! Single modern pieces were placed into these old villas in Havanna for shooting the campaign - in November 2007 with photographer Michael Himpel and Creative Director Christian Follert. The rooms usually are not empty. For the shooting the owner's furniture was taken out. I wonder how these interiors normally look?

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).

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.

Rough Luxe Style

Today I came across this beautiful living room featured by Remodelista :

Timothy Haynes and Kevin Roberts of New York based interior design firm Haynes-Roberts designed this living room for their summer house on Long Island.

I am not only impressed by the rustic, reclaimed flooring - that we could consider for our guest appartment in the vaulted cellar.

Isn't this an interesting mix of rustic old and contemporary elegance ?

If you want to read more about "rough luxe" style :
Remodelista points to a recent article by WSJ magazine that talkes about this maybe new trend - not only in interior design but also in furniture design and fashion.

Venice Shower Curtain by Izola

Did you see the pictures of my wedding in Venice (nine year ago) ?
Guess what arrived and surprised me on my wedding anniversary (yesterday) ?
A Venice shower curtain by Izola ! Shipped from New York via DHL.

I was amazed by both, the coincidence of the timing and the new look of my "redecorated"  bathroom.


I will give you the before and after photos :

Isn't this a quick change ? A fresh new shower curtain can spice up your bathroom - and save you lots of money.

My bathroom (in Germany, not in Italy) is floor tiled with Brasilian slate and wall tiled with Roman travertine. The sanitation is all in white.

Above, another funny match: the name of our double sink is "Gran Kanal" (we love it because it is the smallest and best looking douple sink available, 1110x505x150 mm, by Rapsel) - and the new Venice shower curtain shows the "Canale Grande" with gondola and part of Rialto Bridge.

(the shower curtain from inside the shower)

Sweet memories of our wedding day !
Grazie Izola !

BTW Izola, a New York based company, offers plenty of fresh and sophisticated designer shower curtains and accessories. The shower curtains present the work of artists or feature subway maps, photography and bold patterns. And they do ship worldwide !



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PS: I hope you don't mind that I am posting sometimes from my main home in Germany, where I am also still renovating (more to come).

(images: SC for Palazzo Pizzo)

My Italian Wedding

Today is our wedding anniversary.

On September 30, 2000, I arrived with a water taxi at the island of Torcello. Torcello is the oldest island in the lagoon of Venice. Unfortunately the weather changed overnight and it rained cats and dogs.

"Acqua alta" urged me to make a big jump with my tight wedding dress on my way to church.

This was the scariest step I did that day… And I remember all Italians saying "matrimonio bagnato, matrimonio fortunato" (wet wedding, happy wedding).

Today is not only my wedding anniversary - but also my father's birthday.

He walked me down the aisle. Happy Birthday Daddy !

Oh, and while the guests were waiting for me in front of the church, one of my German single girlfriends met my future husband's 4th degree Italian cousin - and they are together since that day and happily married with a cute daughter - now a 5th grade (or so) cousin to our son.

And that's it.

Since here I am married !