Vila Leopoldina Loft, by Diego Revollo

The above image stopped me in my tracks when I came across it. There was something so original in the canvas that hangs on the wall. The subject's eyes are so piercingly beautiful yet gentle, and the softness of her fringe so girl-like. I also wonder what she's listening to on her big head-phones... Beyond the uniqueness of the canvas itself, the photograph of the interior also has a great composition. The framed image plays with symmetry and gradient at the same time. The symmetry comes from the canvas' reflection in the coffee table, and the gradient of colour comes from the downward journey from the light creamy textured walls, to the grey minimalist sofa, through to the dark purple rug. It takes a special eye to make so many visual elements work in a space so seamlessly.

And the space in question is Vila Leopoldina Loft, by Brazilian architect and interior designer Diego Revollo. The 70 square-metre home was specially designed for the owner, who is an actor, with theatrical accents such as curtains playing a key role in the space. With limited use of doors, the curtains are used to divide the spaces where needed.

There is so much care and attention to detail that lives within the design of this home, and I'll leave you to enjoy the photos by yourself. But there's one thing that I found witty and quite playful in terms of visual repetition that I wanted to mention, and that is the reference to the swirl. In the living room area Leopoldina has used the Wiggle Side Chair by Frank Ghery, and then in the bedroom above the bed, hangs an image that looks into the spirally insides of a building. In an interior mostly dominated by straight lines and sharp edges, I love this subtle relationship between two soft and swirly elements, which complement each other... 

Source - design-milk.com

Images - design-milk.com

Related Nest of Pearls post - Paris apartment dreaming, with Paola Navone 

When pattern and colour get together, photography by Janne Peters

Based in Hamburg, Janne Peters serves up photos like rare candy in an exquisitely and finely wrapped box of expensive, handmade chocolate. I came across her work on Pinterest (the finest of hunting grounds for eye candy) and then absolutely lost myself in her divine website. Everything she seems to touch, from her photography to her website design, carries a crispness and modernity that is oh so faultless.

Coming across Janne Peters' work was one of those moments (this happens to me from time to time when I feel like I've fallen into an aesthetically infused goldmine) whereby I cannot flip through the work fast enough, because it's all just so good!! And then I have to go over it again and again ever so slowly, because I know that in my greedy, hungry speed I missed all the beautiful details... and then... then I have to decide what to pick to blog about, a tough feat when I love all of it!!

So I've decided to take a breath and be rational, and then choose one of my favourite shoots from Janne Peters' full collection. This mesmerising array of ten photographs is called MusterMix and is styled by the also ever-so-talented Anne Beckwilm. One thing that is quite clear from Janne Peters' work is that she collaborates with amazingly gifted stylist, who share her thirst for sharp, bold and confident concepts. 

I chose this particular project as it simply blows me away when the use of such rich and free flowing colour is treated so faultlessly. In a shoot where all this colour carries a heavy risk of coming across as kitsch, every object is given presence, every tone is given depth, and patterns that should be at war are dancing together!! Again, fabulous styling by Anne Beckwilm, but one can't not give credit to the eye behind the camera, the one that perfectly snaps the edge of the bright orange stool, the one that inconspicuously captures the shape repetition between the scissor handles and the glasses frame, and the one that makes a silent hero of the soft and beautiful tile pattern shyly half-hidden behind a vintage cutting board.

Source - jannepeters.de

Images courtesy of - jannepeters.de

Steampunked coffee experience by Truth Coffee, Cape Town

"The best in the world, or so we've been told". This wonderful quote comes directly from the website of the truly amazing coffee makers at Truth Coffee, in Cape Town, South Africa. More precisely, it actually comes from a quote from one of their customers, who happens to be Tom Midlane, a very well regarded travel writer!

Ok, so I've never been to the Truth Coffee shop, but just by looking at photos of their amazing shop interior, and their love and devotion to the coffee-making process, I trust that it really, probably is, the most amazing coffee on the planet.

I've been on their website several times over the last few days, just checking things out for today's post, and I'm not lying to you when I say that their choice of language, design, and utter coffee love, exudes the most delectable scent of fresh coffee beans. The thing that I respect, above all, is the complete experience that they've captured, far far beyond than just the coffee cup that they serve.

They have dissected what it actually means to have great coffee, where coffee culture comes from, and what it means to the everyday devoted coffee drinker, and have embodied this in every thread that makes the Truth Coffee experience. They have created their own Steampunk coffee machine, for crying out loud!!! I absolutely love this idea!!! The drama begins long before the coffee hits your cup,  it is tantalisingly theatricalised through the slow and nurturing process of watching the coffee being ground and manipulated, all until it's ready to serve. In the words of the one of the men behind this great brand, the culmination is "the catastrophe of the coffee dumping into a bag". See more of this funky experience via their youtube video.

To add to the Steampunk machine, or more correctly named 'Professor Jones's Fabulous Coffee Bean Contraption', is the interior that exudes notions from a lost world of zany inventors. Everything from the vintage telephone and typewriter, to the low, brass lighting and wheels and cogs that gleam in this soft light, take one further and further into the magic world created by Truth Coffee.

Tell me now, is it not amazing that I have the delicious taste of Truth Coffee on the tip of my tongue, albeit never having stepped foot inside the shop?    

Source - truth coffee

Images courtesy of - yatzer

The birth of the unique steampunk coffee machine - youtube video

Article on 'best coffee shop in the world' - msn travel by tom midlane

Visiting the Hollywood Hills

Here's a teeny little step back into the past for today's post. Completed in 2007, but by no means any less inspiring today, this West Hollywood home was revamped by Clive Wilkinson Architects. Designed for the personal use of the Clive Wilkinson, the architect himself, the house is a relish of fabulous tangerine accents and warm wood finishes. And what fabulous exploitation of the colour wheel rules! The touches of the spectrum of blues used to set-off the contrasting oranges is so refreshing. 

What I giddily get lost in, and what is probably my favourite element, is the mixture of old-school Hollywood elegance with a completely modern approach to the execution. I love the fabulous low furniture with its bold colours nodding to the 70's, and the simple, floating wide steps merging the exterior with the interior ever so seamlessly.

There is a Clockwork Orange feel to the hexagonal, bright coloured shapes which, adorned with little creatures, add speckles of colour bursts to the space. Although, unlike A Clockwork Orange, the feeling I get from this interior is not laced with crazy uncertainty and mystery, but rather of an incredibly delectable and welcoming space perfectly nuzzled in the Hollywood Hills.

Source - inspiration feed

Images courtesy of - inspiration feed