Arabian Lights

Just returned from holidaying in Muscat, Oman and I thought I would share with you the stunning lighting design in the hotel where we stayed. Getting the lighting right in a design is always a problem, get it wrong and it looks awful, get it right and it is magical. Apparently it took the lighting designers weeks just to plan these public areas.

Above is a photo of a restaurant. Notice the LED’s in the ceiling reflecting in the highly polished stone floor. This restaurant had a Moroccan theme.

The lights above are massive.To give an idea of size, there are doors to the outside at the bottom of the picture.

Above are photos of part of the public areas by day and night. All the lighting was recessed or up lit.

This is the front drop-off point by the reception by day and night. The lighting takes advantage of the architecture, giving a wonderful ambience.

Taken from the reception at night looking towards the drop-off point.

This is a photo of the ceiling in the reception, lit by day and then by night.

Hope these examples give you an idea of how to light areas both inside and out whilst taking advantage of any architectural features.

Anne Stuart

Amazing South Korea

Just returned from South Korea, what an amazing country!

Whilst there I visited The Galleria shopping centre, Cheonan, and I just could not believe the interior. Actually strictly speaking it is not just a department store, there also a library with lovely red settees to rest and read a book. On the top floor there are eateries and hairdressing. I ventured to have something done about my ‘poorly hair’. Luckily I was with a native Korean speaker so the fact that the stylists could not speak English did not matter too much. I was impressed though with the interior of the hairstylists – limestone walls, tinted backlit mirrors and beside all the chairs was a computer terminal to keep the children amused or if you needed to send a quick email.

The store has only been open for six months so it is truly bright and shiny. The interior colour scheme is essentially white, black and shiny chrome with splashes of red.

Here is the store:



The curvy shapes and recessed lighting make for a relaxing shopping experience, why can’t we have shopping centres designed with a little bit more imagination here in the UK?

Picture below standing in the middle of the ground floor, here is the view looking up.




I am always very curious about the ‘facilities’. The cubicles had all black walls and just a single down light. The toilets were ‘bidet style toilet’ with a little blue LED. All were absolutely spotless.





Here is another view of the ground floor.




I truly believe, with a little bit of imagination, we could also have shopping like this. This one took my breath away!



Anne Stuart

The sparkle of Decorex

Along with going to 100% Design, I love going to Decorex. The good thing about these two trade shows is that they are complementary, and Decorex is fantastic to see up to date home furnishing, furniture, lighting.... Decorex is my other favourite show to go to, and this year again, it kept all its promises. Once again, it would be impossible to make an exhaustive list of all the interesting things I have seen there, and I had the (very) difficult task of choosing only a few beautiful and interesting products I wanted to talk about after my visit there.

I am going to start with a way to accommodate antiques in a different way. The pieces are crated by "Antiques by design" and could bring humour and style to a classic interior. (I asked before taking the photo, and the lady sitting there was completely fine with it!)

To carry on the same sort of line, "The general book works" proposes to decorate your walls with false books (new or old), and even if I would rather have real books, I liked the secret style door, hidden by the books.

To stay in the "bizarre" style, look at Boca do Lobo strange and weird furniture. beautifully original.

This seat made by Christopher Guy, won't have its place in every house, but it certainly has a grand style, and is extremely comfortable!

Less grand, but beautiful in the detail is the armchair by Helen Amy Murray and its sculptural upholstery. A thin layer of foam gives the three dimension of the cut flowers. The result is a really lovely piece of furniture that you are sure not to see everywhere.

If you would like a something very special for your walls, it is now possible to design from scratch your wall covering using tiles, wall paper and other panels, as proposed by Surface View, I really liked the colourful tiles and their retro motif as well as the beautiful retro canvass. This opens up a world of possibilities to create a fully original interior.

This settee made by Pinch is less spectacular than others seen at Decorex this year, but I loved its delicate simplicity and the unhidden influence from the Arts and Craft movement. Maybe the covering used in here wouldn't be my first choice, but there is something in this little sofa that really attracted me... Lovely!



There we many lights presented at Decorex, and to choice only one or two to show in here was a difficult choice to make!

First I would like to show these two fittings by Serip, spectacular and delicate.

This is at the same time a sculpture and a light, with the particularity to descend from the ceiling instead or growing from the floor.

And the last but not the least, this incredible fitting from Illuminati S.R.L. in its golden or white covering with one or two levels, simply stunning.



Once again, I so much enjoyed my visit to Decorex that my eyes are still full with all the sparkles and beauty I have seen. There would be many other pieces of furniture, lights, flooring, fabrics to talk about, but this post is not aim to be a catalogue of what happened there, but more a way to share what I enjoyed the most.

Thanks to these two shows, my batteries are now fully recharged with an incredible sort of energetic inspiration tickling me with the urge to create something beautiful......hum... I have to go now!!!

http://www.antiquesbydesign.co.uk/

http://www.originalbooks.net/

http://www.bocadolobo.com/

http://www.christopherguy.com/catalogue.php

http://www.helenamymurray.com/flash_content.html

http://www.surfaceview.co.uk/

http://www.pinchdesign.com/

http://www.serip.com.pt/

http://www.illuminati-lighting.com/main.html

Emmanuelle Lemoine

Visit to 100% Design 2010

100% Design is one of my favourite show, it is always full of new and intriguing things for interior designers. As usual, I came back from the show with new inspiration, my eyes full of sparkles, and I have decided to talk about the products I have found the most striking, as it would be difficult and too long to talk about all the very interesting things one can see out there.

Whatever I do, I am always influenced by my scientific background, and it was no surprise that I found myself naturally attracted by the work of a young artist who mixes scientific observation and art. The result is intriguing sculptures using gravity, light... His name is Balint Bolygo

Lighting is one of my favourite subject in interior design, as I strongly believe that a fabulous scheme can appear to be only medium if badly light, whereas an average scheme can appear fantastic under the right lights. During this visit I was happy to see that LED are now offering a warmer range of colour and might be used inside the house in a living room. before I use it, I would like to see it on site first, as I wouldn't like my clients to look like ghosts while saving money under a brand new LED lighting installation (there is more about lighting to finish the visit!).

Accent lighting is a powerful tool to create a special atmosphere for your home, and when I saw penelope Batley's work, I had to stay and have a chat with her about her fabulous "light humour"! Her big necklace and earing lights are just stunning, and I can't wait to use one of Penelope's creation for a future client!

I recently wrote about the benefits of having plants inside the house, not only are they a beautiful addition to the decor, they also actively participate to the quality of the air inside the house. Even though I had already seen some green walls, I couldn't resist taking picture of this one, which can be installed inside your house. The whole system is entirely automated, so the plants will happily prosper. I can easily imagine such a wall in a bathroom, or why not a big living room.


A wall not well established and a wall fully established

When we live in a flat where our unique link to the outside is a terrace or a balcony, what a beautiful way to decorate it or create privacy using the screen and decorations presented by logical space.

If you have backaches or difficulties to keep the best posture while seating, you might find the Wooridul chair very helpful. I couldn't resist trying it when I saw its funny shape, and wondered if it would do what it said... And I must say I was positively impressed by its comfort while keeping your posture the way it should be!

I will now finish with sparkle of the incredible light fitting I have seen at the show.

First this clever (and "green") way of illuminating your room with natural light, with the sun tunnel. Natural light is very important for our biological clock to work at its best, this tunnel is an elegant way to bring natural light in any room.

If you like grand lights sparkling and shining... then you will like the lights made by La Murrina, absolutely stunning.

Of course,this is a very short tour of what I have seen at 100% Design. The variety of products is as always very big and so enjoyable to look at. The sad thing is that I now have a full year to wait before the next 100% Design show!

References:

http://picapoint.com/balintbolygo/

http://www.penelopebatley.co.uk/index2.html

http://www.biotecture.uk.com/

http://www.logicalspace.com/vegdesign/index.php?prog=prog1

http://www.wooridulchair.com/eng/

http://www.lamurrina.com/home_en.html

Emmanuelle Lemoine