One of my favorite furniture designers, Romeo Sozzi – founder of the Italian Promemoria line, has just launched an outdoor collection. Oh how I wish I had a rooftop now!

The Green Tales collection was inspired by Lake Como and the surrounding mountains of Sozzi’s home, Lecco, in Northern Italy. Designed to be used both indoor and out, each piece is made with the same level of craftsmanship as Promemoria’s indoor collections. Using the same luxurious materials: wood, bronze, marble and rattan, the collection definitely does not look like any other outdoor range I’ve ever seen.

In addition to being incredibly chic, its also about to be incredibly Eco friendly. Promemoria is in the process of having all the timber used FSC certified, meaning it will come from sustainably harvested timbers. It also means it will count towards points for LEED certifcation. What more could you want?

The seriously stunning Belvedere Chaise. I want one. Or even better, two. Bronze and wood, my favorite combination.

Varenna Chair & Ottoman

Moltrasio Sofa. Yum.

various Lierna marble tables. Seriously cool for inside or out. imagine one next to a free-standing marble bath!

And last, but not least, the Erasmo table.

All images care of Promemoria

Remember I did a post a little while back about some fabulous tables I had discovered by Chicago based designers Caste? If you loved them as much as I do then we’re all in for a treat. In addition to their handmade one of a kind collection they are now working on a more complete range of furniture and lighting which will be available in the US through the Holly Hunt showrooms. The first sofa and lounge chairs are currently in prototyping for production later this year. These are a few of my personal favorites…

In addition to the expanded line, Caste are also now offering interior design services. Co-founder Brad Rowley says “We are very excited about this new business and are looking forward to having the opportunity to share a more complete Caste sensibility with clients by crafting beautiful and refined interior spaces in their homes”. Very exciting indeed. I can’t wait to see see project photos!

Photography by Michelle Litvin, care of Caste Design

Argentinian designer Marcelo Lucini is not only the resident and designer of this amazing apartment in Buenos Aires, but also the man behind the seriously chic furniture and accessories company Aire del Sur. This is a man who has managed to make home furnishings look sexy…

see? this picture is not advertising apparel….nice change, huh?

Anyway, I digress. TheAiredelSur line of furnishings is made from luxurious materials in classic forms, and I’m totally in love with the Anders desk and tables, made from iron and parchment….

Head on over to his website for more if this takes your fancy 😉

My latest love affair is with the home of the Malaysian-born Australian, Khai Liew. I’ve been a fan of Liew’s work for some time now so it was a real teat for me to see his Adelaide home. It embodies all that is good about the Australian lifestyle – laid back and casual, and is blended with a cerebral Asian influence. Its the epitome of East meets West (sorry, I know that term is so overused, but I can’t think of anything else). If you are a fan of the American designers Annabelle Selldorf or the firm Shelton Mindel then I think you’d like this place. If so, go buy yourself a copy of the latest German Architectural Digest.

As you can imagine I’ve been mentally re-decorating since I saw this….

Photographed by Derek Henderson for German Architectural Digest, Nov 2010 edition.

If the Nicholas & Alistair gallery had been open when I lived in Melbourne, I may never have left. Housed in a hundred-year-old building located near the banks of Melbourne’s Yarra River is what can only be described as Australia’s greatest collection of 20th century design.

The gallery is named after co-owners Nicholas Mesiano and Alistair Knight (of course) who spend much of the year travelling the globe sourcing pieces for the gallery. In fact they’ve recently returned from a 2 month buying expedition in Europe and the Americas. Lucky them!

The pair pride themselves on finding the more exceptional and unusual examples of design…and I have to say the list of designers whose pieces have graced the space reads like my favorites list: Gio Ponti, Osvaldo Borsani, Carlo Scarpa, Ico Parisi, Jacques Adnet, Guillerme and Chambron, Jules Leleu, William Haines and Paul Evans….and many more.

I’ll definitely have to pay them a visit next time I’m back home…

One of the most exciting events for me during my recent trip to London was being able to attend the launch party of the new range of furniture from Sé by Jaime Hayon.

I can safely say that each of the pieces in this collection is set to be a future design classic. The ‘Arper’ lounge chair (seen below in the showroom window) is the signature piece of the collection and its easy to see why. The Arper was inspired by the form of the traditional wing-back club chair and interpreted in a way that has Hayon’s signature all over it.

My favorite piece might be the tambor table (second last image) – the super sexy shape and the combination of carrara marble and lacquered metal is so simple yet so chic. Its hard to choose though, each and every one of the designs are charming, and show a delightful selection of materials not normally seen in such a contemporary range – velvet and leather upholstery and lacquered metals in a range of subtle metallic colours teamed with classic marbles. Oh, and the colours, did I mention the colours? Divine.

If you’re in London and you missed the launch, the collection will be in show in the pop-up showroom on Brompton Road until October 5th, so go check it out!

Happy Friday everyone! It’s been a long week for me, but has been brightened somewhat with the discovery of Slovenian designer Nika Zupanc‘s work. She’s had a bit of press coverage lately with features in Wallpaper and the Australian Belle magazine. It was the latter that brought my attention to her ‘Phonique’ sofa (below) which was shown at the Milan Fair this year. I’m also quite in love with the ‘Tapisserie’ sofa (bottom image). Her work is refreshingly new and yet familiar at the same time – making them instantly likable in my book. There are plenty more fun and quirky designs on her website, so if you like these head on over and check them out!

The second great discovery of the weekend for me was Francis Sultana. I had seen his London apartment published in the European editions of AD before and fell in love with his style. As luck would have it, his apartment was also published in the Australian Belle magazine, and so now I finally know who the man is behind those funky rooms. And, not only does Sultana create wonderful rooms, he also designs furniture. These are a few of my favorites, but go check out his website for more!

Bridgehampton Sofa

Hamptons Chaise

Eurodice Ottoman

Bond Side Table

These photos are just divine…I think I could move into any of those rooms right now!

I recently discovered the work of French designer Christophe Côme and am totally enamoured. It seems like I am preternaturally drawn to French design, modern or otherwise, however I’m sure I would have loved Côme’s work regardless of his nationality. His work seems to me to be inspired by a mix of art deco and industrialism and its apparent that I am not his only fan, as Peter Marino has commissioned him for pieces in at least one Chanel store – his beautiful screens can be seen below in the new Shanghai boutique.

If you like what you see, check out Côme’s website for more images and information.

Edition 20 – a new site that displays 20th-century design classics from the world of furniture and interiors which are still being produced – was launched over Easter this year after 12 long months of hard, but passionate, work by Munich based Robert Stephan.

The site offers a comprehensive and free research platform for architects, private property owners, interior designers and all other aficionados of classic design. Furniture and design pieces can by searched for by Theme, Designer, Style, or Product Group, making it a fast and fun way to search for design classics.

Five questions put to Robert Stephan:

What is it that makes 20th-century design classics so fascinating?
RS: Essentially, 20th-century design classics are conceptually timeless. The year in which a piece was created may lie a decade back or – in the odd case – a century or more, and still such a classic retains its modern appeal! Those of us who resist the temptation of short-lived fads and instead opt for design classics are effectively choosing the collector’s items of tomorrow.

Why was edition20’s focus placed on design classics still in production and not simply on vintage designs in general?
RS: Unfortunately, a great may vintage designs are extremely hard to locate, having originally been produced only as limited editions. And if one does show up at an auction, then it often goes for an outrageous price to some aficionado prepared to pay anything for it. Design classics, on the other hand, which are still (or once again) being produced by authorized premium vendors, continue to meet the standards of workmanship demanded of them by their original creators. And at a reasonable price, too! To illustrate the point – in 2005, Christie’s auctioned off a 1949 Carlo Molina table for a then-record $3.8 million. An almost identical piece, however, can be had today from the Italian manufacturers Zanotta, who have re-edited it under licence. This means you can secure the same design – free of signs of wear and tear – produced to the highest standards by premium vendors and even choosing the colour of the table base yourself – and all at a fraction of the auction house price.

Serpentine sofa by Vladimir Kagan

Why doesn’t edition20 feature any design classic copies? Wouldn’t these be much more affordable?
RS: The reason is clear – in more than ten years, I have yet to come across a copy which comes anywhere near matching the formal and functional demands placed on the original creation. What might at first glance appear a fair price to the purchaser is anything but. Design classics produced under the original licence excel by virtue of their superior quality, durability and lasting value.

Fontana Arte lamp by Gio Ponti

How did the idea of edition20 come about?
RS: My work as an interior designer has given me first-hand practical experience of the comparative merits of interiors research platforms. While there are a number of perfectly decent on-line furniture catalogues, the researcher still has to wade through reams of indiscriminate data without any practical guidance or inspiration. Existing portals for design classics present a different problem – users are often disappointed to find that a large proportion of the items displayed are no longer available. So what was needed was a well-constructed and easy-to-use research platform for design classics which have recently become available. Which is what edition20 is.

Eileen Gray Bibendum chair

What do you want edition20 to achieve?
I want edition20 to become the first address anyone turns to for 20th-century design classics still in production, whether they’re looking for actual items or just information or inspiration. edition20 is there for both specialists and absolutely anyone else interested in the exciting world of design.

Ardea chair by Carlo Molino

Images all care of Edition20, and are just a tiny portion of the designs to be found on the site. Happy hunting!

I’m absolutely smitten with these new pieces from French designer Hervé van der Straeton’s latest collection – Manipulations. Check out the entire collection and an interview with the man himself on Luxury Culture.

I love the iridescent quality of the glass this chandelier is made from.

An amazing mix of luxe materials on such an unusual design.

And last but not least, this is definitely my favorite piece. The “Soulages” writing desk shows Van Der Straeton’s eye for detail. Parchment lined interior with lighting, and custom hardware that is actually part of the design. Just stunning. Is it too soon to be making a wish list for Christmas?

Seeing Anouska Hempel’s new London home reminded me of another old favorite – the Paris apartment of US based furniture retailer, Holly Hunt. I first saw this in Elle Decor’s Margaret Russel’s book “Designing Women” published a few years back. I fell in love with this apartment and may well be what first introduced me to the work of Jean-Michel Frank and the other French moderne masters. And as I had never heard of Holly Hunt, it may well have also been my first introduction to the work of Christian Liaigre and Axel Vervoordt (there are pieces by both in the apartment). That’s a lot to learn from one apartment! But this place certainly has style in spades.

I absolutely fell in love with this cabinet when I spotted it. I’m sure I’d never seen anything like it at the time and while I couldn’t quite put the style into words I knew immediately I was onto something. Did you spot the books on top? I certainly did. Monographs on Jean-Michel Frank and Eugene Printz sparked my curiosity as did “Les décorateurs des années 40” . I was living in Tokyo at the time and tracking down copies of these books took me forever! In fact, I’ve only just got my hands on the Printz monograph recently.

The rosewood and parchment cabinet was designed by Hunt. Its obvious, as I came to learn later on, that the design is highly influenced by the work of Jean-Michel Frank. He was so ahead of his time…

I fell in love with the sense of relaxed glamour in this space. Everything looks so stylish and so comfortable at the same time.

And lest you wonder how all this loveliness reminded me of Anouska Hempel’s home…these lovely Chinese antiques fit right into this space along with the over sized sofas and the french moderne pieces. It’s no wonder Jean-Michel Frank was such a fan of Chinese antiques, they can be incredibly modern looking, depending on their surroundings.

One of my all time favorite Interior Designers, Christian Lyon (who also happens to be an Aussie) has a website – finally! There isn’t much on there yet….but as they say, patience is a virtue. Seems that on top of the international projects he has been working on Mr Lyon has also found the time to design a furniture collection or two for the Japanese furniture company Matsuoka. And not surprisingly, every piece is stunning! I’m loving these images of their showroom space…

From the new Christian Lyon designed collections I would have to say these two are my favorite pieces…

The drinks cabinet (above) I have been drooling over ever since I saw it in Vogue Living a few years ago (below) and posted about it here.

Above image taken by Lisa Cohen for Vogue Living Australia, May/June 2005 issue. All other images courtesy of Matsuoka International.