The Maarten Swivel Chair from Viccarbe is designed by Victor Carrasco, who has taken classic 70's influences to create this very versatile chair. It features gauged lacquered steel tube structure and a upholsterer seat. Maarten is available in a wide range of finishes that will make it at home in both public and private settings.

Leigh

This stunning modern free standing bath with with Internal Overflow from WS Bath Collection features room to store books and bathroom items. It is molded from Korakril an acylic resin mineral mix, that is hygenic, light proof and stain proof and gives a beautiful finish. Perfect for those whose take pleasure from a book in the bath.

Leigh

"Kissing Stags" is a rather funky graphic stag print with an edge that makes this duvet cover an eye catcher with plenty of character.

The Kissing Stags Bed Linen is available in both double and single sizes and a matching pillocase pair is also availble.

Leigh

Wingardh Architects, Sweden, are "committed to the artistic and poetic dimensions of architecture." This guest house and sauna, simply entitled The Mill House, is situated in Vastra Karup, rural southern Sweden, and adheres to this committment by its soul-enriching and sympathetic yet modernist design. Wingardh Architects are selling sanctuary, a rural idyll of a rustic retreat where clean, contemporaneity envelops traditional Swedish design.

Visit Wingardh Architects online at www.wingardhs.se

Via Trendir | Best House Design | Images © www.jamessilverman.co.uk

Fiona

Just the other day I was watching Taxidermia and thinking how cool it would be to have a wooden bathtub. Then, by George, what should appear on the net? Why, wooden bathtubs, of course! If you, too, long for bathtime to give you wood, try a Madera wood bathtub by WS Bath Collections. These beautiful free-standing designs are available in several shapes - inlcuding round, square and oval - and are a elegantly rustic addition to any bathroom. Choose your tub in beech, mahogany, walnut or one of the other many choices and experience the beauty that hand-crafted solid wood sculpture can bring to your bathroom. Available Here

Fiona

The Fonteyn dressing table by Steuart Padwick is described as being, "Inspired by a dancer's poise" and presumably named after English ballerina Margot Fonteyn.

The piece is part of the English designer's partnership with made.com to bring the aesthetics of his own bespoke furniture to the masses. A mission which has proved so successful it's spawned nine pieces. Fontyn features matt finish walnut contrasted with high gloss red lacquer draw fronts and mid-century inspired lines. To find out more or purchase visit made.com.

Leigh

Powered by the most advanced ethanol burner, the Globe from Vauni is a free-standing, chimney-free fireplace that can rotate 360 degrees on its 'foot', so you can experience the pleasure of your home fire wherever you choose to sit. Simple and safe to use, this concrete-lined pod of fire can be regulated with a built-in control. Absolutely no compromise on aesthetics; Vauni - global warming at its finest.

Globe is Vauni and viewable at selected showrooms.

Via: Cube Me

Fiona

The Waters Edge Development is set at the heart of the Cotswold water park not far from the former Roman settlement of Cirencester. Each of the homes offer completely unobstructed views from the large decks built directly over the lake.

 "The properties have been designed to offer unrivalled breadth, light and wide open spaces. However, the most distinctive feature of any Waters edge property is its frontage. Unobstructed views from the interior complement decking that runs directly along the edge of the 28 acre lake. The relationship between a Waters edge home and its environment is integral to making this development so special."

 The houses take cues from continental modernism, something still rare in the UK, with its stringent planning regulations (which somehow stop innovation under the pretext of making things in-keeping with the area, but allow the larger developers to fill the country with horrific mock Tudor and Georgian pastiche, built from plans that have probably been lying around since the late 70's)

The Cotswold Water Park is Britain's largest wetland nature reserve (It is man-made however, the lakes being former quarries)

The homes come with the restriction that you can only be in residence a maximum of 11 months of the year. Making these most suitable to those in the market for a second home in the Cotswolds. So you'd probably want to have a good home insurance policy, for those times you’re away.

While I personally think it is slightly disheartening that these are "second" homes, it's great to see contemporary house design being deployed on a slightly larger scale in the UK.  One would hope this will help the case for individuals, architects and developers looking to build contemporary homes for family residence throughout the nation.

Leigh

This rather fetching table with a throw-back mid century modern vibe is from Il Loft, the furniture design company of Italian design supremo Giorgio Saporiti. His pieces have a really distinct aesthetic in which eye-catching, somewhat provocative colours play a central role. This particular table “Doral” is actually somewhat subdued in tone compared to some of the other pieces from Il Loft, but complements the collection perfectly.

Visit Il Loft, to see more.

Jo

It’s easy to see why this table design has been named Ñ, or perhaps it should be more appropriately typed “n”. Ñ is a practical auxiliary table designed by Rafa Garcia for Spanish design house Sancal. The design features a wheeled “pouf” that can be used for extra seating, housed under a lacquered n-shaped table. Ñ is available in 9 different shades ranging from cream to red. 

For more information and stockists, visit Sancal

Jo

From young, and by the looks of things rather talented British designer Elliot Barratt comes SYNC. A modular seating system which consists of engineered upholstered cubes. Each seating cube sits on gas springs. When pressure (you sit down) is applied to a cube the surrounding cubes become the seats arms and back rest, regardless of which cube you choose to position yourself on. With a vast number of upholstery to choose from and base plate covers availble in several finish, the style options are near limitless. Each cube is 450mm x 450mm 700mm (At starting height) and its minimalist modular design means SYNC with be at home in anything from swanky apartments to public spaces.

Visit www.elliotjames.co.uk to find out more

Leigh

I like my furniture to be happy. Oh yes, I make sure its always comfy, cosy and relaxed. Why? I’m a furniture lover. And look, its smiling.

“Smile” is the new armchair by luxury Italian design studio Sand & Birch. This happy little piece of furniture (treat it nice mind, we don’t want it to grimace) is available in two versions: plain colour blue or white, produced in hard and varnished polyurethane, and the one covered with velvet, cotton and silk, in grey and white.

So add some irony to your living room and become a furniture lover too.

For more information visit Sand & Birch

Jo

Monone's Library .... Design and music from the 60's and 70's 

Via: Monone's Library

Leigh

"Four Works" is a chair come workstation designed by Danish Studio Four Design. For those that do most of their work or browsing from a laptop this is a nice solution to get you out from behind a restrictive desk. The chair also features plenty of storage, power sockets and an integral light.

Visit Four Design online at www.fourdesign.dk

Via: www.digsdigs.com

Jo

Beautiful aesthetics are for life, not just for Valentine's Day. But on this annual celebration of love, BoConcept will assure it's at least not good design for which you pine. In matters of the art, it's passion and persistence which fuel their mission to bring the philosophy of beautifully modern design to the urban-minded shopper. 

It will be a stylish marriage for couples looking sweet upon the Terni Love Seat, but for the close comfort of affectionate relaxation, the Lugo Lounging sofa will serve you well. But you needn't follow heart over head when pursuing the object of your design-hungry affections, as BoConcept's highly customisable modular seating units, such as the Como sofa, offer personal lifestyle solutions to suit.

If you're feeling more like spreading the love to a wider social circle of deserving design aficionados, a selection of Veneto chairs will show your warmth through hot aesthetics. But who says you need to be selfless with the love on Valentine's Day? Show some amor to the one you adore with the deliciously selfish contemporary treat that is the strikingly curvaceous Imola armchair.

But if your heart is bigger than your pocket or you simply want to accentuate a room with a lighter stance on the romance, BoConcept offer some beautifully subtle accessories that will still show that love is definitely still in the air.

For celebration of the inspiration of seductive modern design, cast your eyes over the BoConcept 2010 Digital Catalogue.

BoConcept

Fiona

Functionalist design-hunters with an eye for the craftily scholastic pieces of Formes Scandinaves can, for a starting price of £7,633, furnish their lives with this classic contemporaneity by Poul Kjærholm. Introduced by iconic Danish furniture design company Fritz Hansen in 1958, the PK31 Easy Chair is a free-standing integration of comfort and artistic conception met with leather and a matt chromed sprung steel base. Leather is available in a choice of seven colours. 

Available at Nest

Via: Retro To Go

Fiona

With his architectural background and roots in Chicago's progressive design scene, it's hardly surprising Jeff Vioski honed his design talents with his self-titled furniture collection. Now based in L.A. but with several showrooms across the U.S., the VIOSKI collection is a modernist's configurative dream. Exhibiting fine mid-century modern aesthetics, the collection puts beautiful form in its high functionality.

Working with the highest quality coverings (Glant Textiles, Spinneybeck Leather and Designtex Fabrics) and skilled craftsmanship in structural construction, VIOSKI emphasise longevity as well as comfort in each unique, handmade-to-order piece. Accentuating the company's promise to furnish your lifestyle with forms to please the body as much as the eye is the equal assurance of customisation; some pieces, such as the sectional sofas and Isola Lounge, are flexible by design, but custom orders requiring specific modifications are welcomed (a 34-foot Nicholas Sectional for a Hollywood Hills home which required a 75-foot crane to install is exemplary of the lengths to which they will go to ensure client satisfaction.)

But if relaxing design purism isn't comfort enough, VIOSKI's environmentally ecological and socio-ecological ethics should have you sitting comfortably. With three levels of environmentally conscious manufacturing on offer, you can recline sublime knowing that your clean style is sustainable and the durability can be left to posterity. Equally important, though, is the social awareness aspect and theirs is prudent. Aside from the goodness of their hearts, they adhere to the sadly seldom seen yet simple business equation; be good to your employees and they will be good to you. So, if you like your style with substance, you're in good company with VIOSKI.

Also you might like to check out picture hanging hardware by AsHanging 

Fiona

When designers Oluf Lund and Eva Paarmann were in need of inspiration for a re-working of the classic lounge chair design, they looked to the ocean. Their Lobster and Shelly chairs, based on the exoskeletal forms of lobster and crayfish respectively, are beautiful treatments of that which is naturally influenced. And just as in nature, this creature feature works to support and protect by way of sculptured construction. Produced exclusively in Denmark, Lobster and Shelly are fashioned from a moulded beech shell with a choice of walnut, oak or Aniline veneers. Each comes with a chrome plated steel base so you can sit and spin. A Lobster footrest is also available.

Visit PID for pricing and shipping details.

Fiona

Winner of the 'Holiday' category at this year's World Architecture Festival, Barcelona, is Restaurant Tusen by Swedish architectural office, Murman Arkitekter. Lying at the snowy outpost of the small but perfectly formed Ramundberget ski resort, Sweden, Restaurant Tusen, with its bark-covered birch tree frontage, stands like some post-apocalyptic fort.

The strangely welcoming imposition of this foodie citadel, situated as it is in the bleak, snowy landscape, is a fine example of Murman Arkitekter's intentions of environmental engagement for reasons both ecological and humanitarian. The carefully chosen location places Restaurant Tusen between the birch trees of its facade, mountain streams and rocky outcrops. This, coupled with its wind-reducing and therefore view-optimising funneled form, makes genuine fulfilment of their goal to create architecture which is absolutely to affect and bring joy to the eye (aswell as the stomach) of the beholder.

Images courtesy of murman arkitekter and WAF with thanks to designboom.com (view more here)

Via: designboom

Fiona

The Amaki chair is part of the contemporary Odue range from Italian manufacturer Oasis. Taking inspiration from nature to create forms reminiscent of Future Systems amoeba inspired "Blob" architecture, the Odue range is at the forefront of funky organic form interior products.

Visit Odue online at www.odue.it

Leigh

Lady X. Only a bathtub this seductive could live up to such a mysterious name. It's taken three designers - Giovanni Ronzoni, Luisa Frigerio and Fabrizio Proserpio - to craft this stunning sculptural tub for Axolo from satin stainless steel and precious woods, and the finished product is nothing short of gorgeously sleek, industrialised minimalism.

Visit Axolo online at www.axolo.it

Fiona

She's an educated follower of fashion, but background disciplines in art and design have also converged to ascend Kara Mann to well-deserved recognition amongst the interior design elite. Hailing from Evanston, Illinois, Kara has since founded a Chicago-based showroom, KARA MANN, LTD., an offshoot of her Kara Mann Design (KMD) firm which launched in 2005. But distinction cannot only be found in the merits of her media celebration (features in The New York Times, InStyle and Vogue, to name but a few of the publications to hold this stylemaker du jour in high regard,) but in her unique creative vision, also.

Striking the balance between modern and classical design, her bespoke interiors excercise complete design auteurism, featuring the seamless integration of approaches from the darkly decadent to breezy, thalassic infusions. To attain this uniqueness, Kara works with a range of collections from artists and design studios, spanning handmade contemporary Americana from BDDW, to 'surreal and provocative' textiles from studio Timorous Beasties, to the punk regalia of Brit-based duo Jimmie Martin. And this knack for collective esotericism is why this one-time 'Rising Star Award'-winner has gone stellar.

For more information or to make enquiries, visit Kara Mann Design.

Fiona

12 different floors, 12 ways of understanding the architecture and the design. A hotel that is unique in the world. 

When nineteen of the world's top architects and design studios spanning thirteen countries were invited to let loose their respective creative visions on a 5-star luxury hotel in Madrid, they must've felt like kids in a sweet shop. And we are invited to similarly respond; to take our love of design back to its purest form, to touch, to interact, experience the pleasures of form, colour and material. In the Hotel Puerta America, cultural capital is the freedom of expression. 

The Hotel Silken Puerta América Madrid is an idea of freedom come true, a gathering space merging different cultures and ways of interpreting architecture and design.

For the Silken hotel group, the project objective was simple: give each a floor and absolute expressive reign. The result? Near-boundless artistic diversity. The audacious level of eclecticism in this design pick 'n' mix combusts any strict adherence to implied rules, whether cultural or academic, with a preference for innovative intimation. Floor 10, for example, sees Arata Isokazi apply his signature 'east-meets-west' approach; a fusion of Zen-like clean simplicity and contemporary blocks of primary colours. Meanwhile, down on the first floor, Zaha Hadid explores spatial concepts and futuristic form with fluid, cavernous rooms.

But, as an interactive medium, it will be your gorging on these sweet treats that consummates their purpose. It is only truly in interpretation that these designs become alive.

Hotel Silken Puerta America (Madrid) Images by Rafael Vargas

Fiona

Designed by Paolo Rizzato for Poltrona Frau, the Regina ll swivel armchair puts a regal spin on the classic Bergere design. Available with accompanying pouf, this elegant seat is formed from a single rigid polyurethane shell on a lacquered steel base. Upholstering comes courtesy of soft Pelle Frau leather which is embossed with uniquely modernistic stitching.

Pricing is available on request.

Fiona

Designed by Emaf Progetti, the Alpha from Zanotta is an icy cool winter slumberland. Comprised of 3 units - pouf, headboard and base - the Alpha is a personally adjustable modular bed system designed to present the bed as a feature focus. An aluminium painted demountable steel frame nestles upon height-adjustable, brushed and nickel-plated steel feet, with headboard, base and pouf upholstered in polyurethane/Dacron Du Pont.

Visit Zanotta online at www.zanotta.it

Fiona