Breakfast Set.

Simplicity and functionality on their best. Perfect for my home friends gathering.

Designed by Liliana Bonomi

Manufacturer Serafino Zani

À La Rentrée!

Summer is indeed the best season in the year. We catch up with friends and family we get to see once a year, we have the beach to go to, look healthier, eat healthier, feel happier, find reasons to be outside all night long drinking Margaritas, though I always get to the point I miss to retreat. Maybe because I am lucky enough to enjoy all these pleasures since early May, I already started feeling the need to retreat (well, it's getting cool here in Lisbon, perhaps that's why).

Galleries and museums are part of my retreat. I love to visit art installations in the Autumn. They have a better fit. Everything feels right. It's as if I've been outside my reality for some time and art is getting me down to earth.

Looking forward to my Art Rentrée.

Reflection on the window above the Turbine Hall.

Light installation at Tate Modern (2007), one of my favorites.


Related articles:
The Serpentine Gallery (London)
Architectural Installations (London)
Design Museum (London)
MUDE - Fashion and Design (Lisbon)
The Barbican (London)
MoMA (Manhattan)
Other Art Forms and Spaces (Everywhere)

I Wonder.

Two things I love to do:
1st - Looking at people and wonder
2nd - Looking at buildings and wonder

What do they have in common?
Both are alive stories.

Everyday I fall in love with this building.

The way the sun light reflects on this façade is admirable.

Even though I've never been to New Orleans, this building reminds me its architecture from the books I used to flick through when I was a kid (and from The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, remember?)

Details like the roof crown, the street lamps and the balustrades are the jewellery of the building. (this one here is abandoned, luckily not for long).

Do you wonder about non-living beings?

Related articles
Architectural Fragments

Home Desk #4.

Form follows function | Function follows form - I argue that form and function should always walk side by side. This way we can achieve a different yet communicative piece of design to make the difference in a world of abundance. It could sound redundant though I think it's a subject to reflect further.

Anyway, this home desk by Nádia Soares is a good example of form and function hand-in-hand. Super functional and engaging, the Multi Storage desk is a successful mix of shelves and desk which beauty is enhanced by its function, meaning, it is your accessories of decoration, material memories and books that will personalize the product.

It's indeed a white canvas where you decide to start on a collage, don't you think?

Shop online.

Detail Detail Detail | Bus Stop.

A bus stop is a non-place, which is a place of transience that do not hold enough significance to be regarded as "places".

When I took this photo I could only visualize this concept but reversed. These wooden kitchen chairs, which I imagine locals brought in, give all the significance a place needs to be part of someone's routine.

I look at it and I see a shelter, a meeting point, a chatting room. The TWO chairs invite to a friendship.

I don't argue that a bus stop in London, New York or even Lisbon is a non-place, but in small villages I am sure it has a different soul, don't you think?

Please click on the picture to enlarge.

Marc Augé coined the phrase "non-place" | Introduction to an anthropology of supermodernity - A good essay to read over the weekend.

Watch This Space: Studio Toogood.

First time I came across to Studio Toogood it was when Dezeen advertised a job vacancy for a designer, two maybe three years ago. Love first sight.

Formerly the Senior Stylist of the World of Interiors magazine, Faye Toogood plays with color and forms giving a unique life to spaces.

From minimal to eclectic her signature is easy to recognize. Here's a few images of her stunning work. Get inspired.

Faye's interview by Dezeen.

Function.

Detail.

Installation to display shoes for fashion brand Comme de Garçons @ Dover Street Market. This totally reminds my final project at Central Saint Martins (2005 until 2008). One day I will post a few sketches.

As eclectic as The Rug Company is.

Perspective sketches.

2D collages, my favorite media to express an idea.

Color and textures moodboard.

Isn't Studio Toogood an inspiration to all of us?

Photos from Dezeen and Studio Toogood websites.

À La Mode.

This year, furniture trends embrace Nature, or rather, natural looks quite well. Oak is indeed à la mode, though I can't imagine my house with a piece of furniture all in such finish. I always have the feeling a console in natural oak is unfinished.

Anyway, a few years ago, back in 2008, I saw this piece by Miguel Vieira Batista for TemaHome in London. LOVE FIRST SIGHT! Elegant and quite contemporary, this sideboard is indeed a feature piece. The detail which in my opinion makes the piece special is not the laser cute flower (designed with paper folding technique) BUT the rectangular oak feet.

Oak details make natural looks, indeed!

Curating Art.

I finally have started planning where I want to hang my flat art. A few paintings and photos in my living room, a little one in the kitchen (a gift from São Tomé and Príncipe) and for my bedroom I think I'm going to have my lovely and huge stainless steel frames as the headboard. A few other very stylish pictures next to my grand-mum chest of drawers will wrap up the space, I guess.

Something to bear in mind is simplicity. I don't want have the walls over crowded.

Picture via Soniei

Still Looking For The Right Home Desk #3.

I still haven't found what I'm looking for, a beautiful tinny home desk. These following two are quite nice.

This Scandinavian desk has everything I want: sleek design, small drawers and a nice wooden combination. Size wise would fit perfectly next to my table lamp.

What grabbed my eye on this one was indeed the wooden color and the top detail above the drawers. These are too wide, though the lack of handles and feet, as if it's floating, balance pretty nicely the design.
Check the lamp on the wall. Nice touch, isn't it?

Maybe soon I'll do a Flea Market trip. I have a feeling I'll find it there.

Touchy Colors.

Even though I decided to go white on my new flat, I'm still deciding which color or colors I'm going to pick for details. This year I'm totally drawn to pure green and blue, though I can't decide if I'm going to pick just one.

Different Green Shades?

Blues & Greys?

Mix & Match!

Knowing myself and what I like to be surrounded by, I think I'm deciding on mix and match several colors and patterns. I think it better reflects my personality.

Which color are you?