Restoration at its Best

Dear All,

The mansions in London stand as symbols of architectural heritage, no matter how old and dilapidated they look on the exterior, the interiors are refurbished to match the contemporary trends. This sort of renovation is definitely a challenge to any design & execution team. 

An exclusive property which has been restored its glory is Roehampton Mansion in London. Two Gatehouses, five garden villas have altogether have been converted into 29 properties expanded in 4 acres of landscaped grounds.  

Designed in 1712 by Thomas Archer, this was a family home and later extended to be used as convalescent home until it was acquired by St.James. 

The Georgian architecture of the facade rising upto 3 floors

The living spaces have been designed exclusively with the most contemporary theme. Especially the colour theme appears to be classy and exquisite.

 The bathroom featured may not be spacious but well planned with white theme so as to create a spacious feeling

The lighter and simple the shades are, the richer and elegant it looks. The book shelves however, seem to be a part of the 19th century styling. It seems to be a perfect blend of two eras.

The kitchen symbolizes the modern day trends with minimal cupboards and white theme as well to create space....this is part of the apartment thats on for sale; The lovely spherical chandeliers are a special feature here.

The bedroom have been designed in pale beige and satin white combination, the headboard cum wall facade appears exclusive and plays a vital part in enhancing the quality.
If you observe, the chandeliers chosen are bespoke and a perfect match to the chosen theme which is our personal favourite aspect in this design.
I think this sneak peak has given you a glimpse of what a luxury restoration would be like...of course the budget involved will also be huge in such cases. But the bucks being spent on a masterpiece is always worth their value..isn't it?

[Image courtesy: Adelto]


Keep Visiting

J & R

IKEA Inspired

Hi

We know many of are well aware of world's largest furniture retail IKEA. Its well known fact that IKEA has zillions of fans across the world. The simple and smart engineering is the key to IKEA's success. No item I have seen in this brand is complicated, heavy or silly. And assembling pieces using their manuals can be great fun. Shopping experience in IKEA itself is wonderful. We loved the store and often made visits just to bring back more and more stuff. While we moved back to India from London, we brought in some of our favourite IKEA collection with us. We always missed IKEA but on hearing the news that it will  soon be launched in India, we are so excited.

Today we wanted to introduce some beautiful homes which have been totally furnished with IKEA stuff. We are sure you will be amazed to the aesthetics that these range of furniture and furnishings bring in.

The Bedroom and cabinet shelf and the lamps(floor mount & hanging) and the chairs etc., are from IKEA. The hanging lamps from IKEA are our personal favourite and we own one too. 

This space is one room which has all, living, dining, bedding, cooking and working areas in one. IKEA's range of white colour cabinetry and furniture brought in brightness and so much space to this one room home.

Kids room are no exception. The baskets, wall frames, wall prints, window drapes are all in their range including the cute little stuffed toys. We kinda always loved that cute stuffed toys they offers for just 1-2£. 

The red stool, long mirror, the wall paper, and the orange throw shall all come for minimal price yet look very designer type.

The picture speaks it all as you see the modular kitchen including the utensils and accessories and the dining table altogether are part of their range. The red and white combo of modular kitchens is a hit in UK market. 

The whole setup you see here is one type of classy modern kitchen stuff. The utensils, we should say are one of its kind, with very fine quality and unique look.

This kitchen is another example of white modular kitchens famous in European countries. In India with the humid and tropical climate, its quite a task to maintain the whiteness but there are good choice of colours too.

The sofa and frames go very well with each other including the bolster cushions. 

Another outdoor dining table with unique design and very simple in look.

The play of colours here briefs you what kinda colour range and prints can they offer.

This post might seem like an IKEA commercial blog ad, we just wanted to share our lovely obsession. In fact, the ads are also very unique too. If you want to taste some Swedish food, do visit the store. Hope you all have got a feel for this wonderful brand. Concluding, we want to add one more vital point why this brand is such a big hit, that its price range is very affordable and quite tempting. 

Keep Visiting

J & R

Tuesday Tour: An Extravagant Float

Hi

Every week, we have been introducing you a space that we think is the best in terms of several different aspects of design, this week we are taking you to tour one of the extravagances that one filthy rich human could crave for. Any guesses???

A Yacht!

This Yacht is named as Celestial Hope designed by a luxury yacht designer company from Netherlands 'Heseen' a one of its kind ship builders never compromise on giving the best quality. 

The details of this masterpiece goes like this, the length is 47m, guests 12, crew 9, cruise speed 22knots, cabins 6, and 2 engines of 2740kw. Also equipped with satellite communication with phone, fax and email. The interiors of this yacht has been done by the London based interior designers Intarya. 

Each room has class comfortable proportions ad large expansive windows filled with light. 

 CH offers guests endless choices for dining, relaxing and sunning including a full dining suite on the bridge deck and sun deck and casual lounges ideal for cocktails on the main deck and fore deck.

The master suite unusually large for any yacht of this size provides a dressing room with its own vanity, bathroom with his n her sinks, a tropical rain shower, built in flat screen TV, a bathtub and a real working fire place.

The other guest cabins including the VIP are equipped with state of the art entertainment systems, creative and original art and design and large ensuite bathrooms.

A open jacuzzi on the top deck of the CH.

The ceilings and walls were all lacquer finished, and used bespoke ironmongery. Venetian mirrors, moulded resin and hand carved timbers are also a speciality. Door handle knobs were crystal made, also the bathroom fixtures were all nickel and crystal. 

If anyone asks us what is your greatest materialistic extravagance, we would now have an answer to say " to spend few days on this wonderful yacht and experience the unique feeling". What would you say???

Cheers

J & R

Sunday Intro: Thomas Heatherwick's UK Pavilion

Hi

We have been featuring the best designed spaces under our Tuesday Tour segment, now on we will feature an Architect/Engineer/Designer's best work under the Sunday Intro segment. 

As part of the 1st intro, we chose the famous English designer, Thomas Heatherwick, the mastermind behind the London Cauldron stadium. While the Cauldron stadium brought in more fans for his work, we personally admire the UK Pavillion done by this ace designer studio at World Expo-2010, Shanghai, China. 

Considered as the one of its kind expo which features themed pavilions by different countries in the world which are done to represent their technology, culture and advancements, Heatherwick studio represented UK in the year 2010.

The pavilion itself sits on a crumpled landscape like enclosed in a wrapping paper. The surfaces of the pavilion were inclined, giving an amphitheatre atmosphere, with grey turf.

The Heatherwick studio's focus on the sustainable aspects is what we think is the commendable and contemporary thought for the theme "better cities, better life". 

With the building's façade representing the look of the grass, the building took its name as the Seed Cathedral with 15m hieght, the surface with silvery hairs consisting of 60,000 identical rods of clear acrylic, each 7.5m long which extend through the walls and lift up into the air. 

Using the concepts of the seeds from the seed conserving society as seen at Kew gardens botanical gardens, the building used 250,000 seeds cast into the glassy tips of these hairs. 

The daylight lights up the glass and the seeds inside while the light sources illuminate the box in the nights. 

The amount of detail and the concept to make it a seed cathedral connecting the modern day technology to the nature is what interest and amuses us in this design. The challenge to work this out in a constrained budget is definitely a daunting task. While the design won a gold medal, the pavilion had about 8 mi visitors which make it one of the top in tourist attractions of UK. 

While there many other marvels to his credit, we cannot stop admiring this one. Go for a video tour here.

Cheers

J & R

Green Walls

Hi

If you have come across vertical gardens or if you are growing one at your place, this may not seem a surprise. However, if you never saw one, this is surely going to awe you. Vertical gardens are Vegetation-Bearing Architectonic Structure and System. More than for its aesthetics, vertical gardens serve a very good purpose of space conserving greeneries. We are featuring some of the beautiful vertical gardens from across the world. 

Patric Blanc from France, is a pioneer in popularizing this vertical gardens. There are several works to his credit in France and around the world. In our research it is found that, Paris has the largest no.of vertical gardens.

This interior green wall is at the France embassy in New Delhi.

This exterior wall green cladding is done for Atheneaum Hotel in London. Don't you think greenery added beauty to the outsides.

As far as our research and visits concerned, Heathrow is one airport which adopts the best practices, one of which is green wall at sky team lounge.

We all are aware that Singapore is one the cleenest cities in the world, may be they are aiming for the green city too, here is the vertical garden wall at emporium shopping mall at Singapore.

Wondering if these vertical gardens only pertain to commercial places??? Not absolutely.This is a garden wall done for an apartment terrace.

If you ever had a chance to visit the Anthropologie Store at Regent street, London, you will love the green wall inside...our personal favourite.

The wall might seem good and interesting but if you want to adopt one or know the technique, here are the detailed illustrations. 

Thanks to Patric Blanc, for introducing and popularizing a sustainable concept to conserve space and yet have greenery around. 

There is a simple technique to get one in small spaces using recycled plastic bottles something similar like the one below...find the details here.

Cheers

J & R