The White House (mark two)

Designing using a palette of white and cream is a risky step for a variety of reasons. Although it can give rise to an extremely relaxing interior, done incorrectly it can look cold and sterile. There is also the stain factor to be considered - this isn't really a child-friendly look! However, if you're lucky enough to live somewhere light and sunny with large interior spaces (and, preferably, someone to clean up your clutter so that you retain that "photoshoot" look!), it can be nothing short of stunning. This is a house just outside of Lisbon where owner and Portuguese architect João Cavaski has taken the white approach with great results. The use of whites, off-whites and creams with natural woods and neutral accents make the whole place look warm and large. That said, it'd be hard to make that poolside area look ugly!








Photos via Maxima Interiories

Useful kitchen implements from Studio Verissimo

Kitchen innovation from Portuguese product designers Studio Verissimo. A cake plate with a very clever measuring tape to ensure that nobody feels cheated (this would be extremely useful in my office!) and a cup that helps you to make perfect rice. The latter is something I'd certainly like to have given that my rice all too often looks like wallpaper paste...

Of coffee and castles

When most people in the UK have a coffee in the morning, it's watery milky blandness drunk from a mug the size of a pint glass in a dressing gown before work. No so for the Portuguese. There is a very distinctive etiquette surrounding the morning coffee. Enter any cafe in Portugal and you'll notice that the tables and chairs are nowhere near the actual counters. Go there again at rush hour (before or after any major meal) and you will see why. The counter area will be packed with people calling for tiny shots of strong, fragrant black coffee. These potent little espressos (also known as "bicas") will be given to them on the counter and will be drunk standing up, with one swift throw back of the head. Change is left on the counter as payment, along with a small tip, and the consumer leaves, shouting "good day" as they exit. The whole ritual takes less than five minutes (unless the consumers are old men, in which case they'll clutter up the counters all morning) but the fact remains that having (or "taking") a coffee at regular intervals throughout the day is seen as extremely important for the digestive system. So it's no surprise that when IPPAR (essentially the architecture and archeology institute of Portugal) wanted to incorporate the monuments of Portugal into a creative campaign, they chose to do so by inviting contemporary Portuguese painters, designers, sculptors and architects to reflect on any of the great monuments and to design an espresso cup that reflects them. Some of the artists chose to reproduce small parts of the buildings themselves, some picked a tiny detail or used abstract designs to represent the feel of the place. Some just screenprinted photos. But whatever the method, they've produced rather a unique collection of espresso cups, all available from the IGESPAR shop here for about €32.50.
Pedro Silva Dias: Torre de Belém
João Machado: Palácio Nacional de Mafra
Pedro Proença: Palácio Nacional da Pena
Graça Morais: Mosteiro de Alcobaça
José Brandão: Mosteiro da Batalha
Manuel Graça Dias e Egas Vieira: Fortaleza de Sagres
José e João Santa-Rita: Convento de Cristo
Monument photos from Conhecer Portugal, Guarda, Tripadvisor, and Wikipedia.

The ultimate in British lifestyle design: Rolls Royce picnic hampers

A bit of British design for you today folks. The expression that X “is the Rolls Royce” of a category has long been accepted as a way of saying that something is top of the range. So it’s exciting to see that Rolls Royce have taken one of my favourite things in the world (four person picnic hampers) and applied their design and engineering skills to it. The result is a trunk that puts even the famous Fortnum & Mason hampers to shame. Gavin Hartley, the Rolls-Royce Motor Cars bespoke design manager is quoted on the website as saying “The creation of a bespoke picnic set was always a question of entertainment, not just functionality. You choose to eat outdoors and you want to do it in an entertaining and elegant way, to make an occasion of the experience. Our design encapsulates that approach.” I couldn’t agree more. The set blends attributes of traditional wicker hampers, but in a leather front-folded unit that facilitates air flow while offering the solidity of a trunk. The hamper is made from oiled teak, saddle tan leather from a small tannery in Germany, polished aluminium and stainless steel. After opening the set and folding out Indian rosewood tables, owners are presented with Goodwood designed hand-blown and cut stemware, cutlery made by David Mellor CBE and clever design touches like magnets inside chopping boards to hold knives in place. This is indeed, the Rolls Royce of picnic hampers. And I want one more than I can say.

Humans (especially those at Munna Design) do it better...

Portuguese designers Munna design have a fantastic motto: "Machines do it cheaper, but humans do it better". So true. Not since I found Boca do Lobo have I been so excited by the quality of hand-crafted furniture. And their advertising shots are sublime. This is their "Becomes me" chair - I had no idea white leather could be so alluring but can't you just imagine the cool smoothness of it under your hand?

Remade in Portugal entry by AMA Design

There's an old saying that used to be very popular with young couples putting together their tableware wedding lists. "Take ten, because twelve is too many and eight is too few". This isn't to say that couples were commonly expected to dine with four others on a regular basis, but rather that they would need enough place settings for the whole family with some extras in case of breakages. Is there anything more irritating than a dinner service rendered useless because too many plates have been broken and you now don't have enough settings? However, worry no more as AMA Design have an interesting idea about what to do with the odds and ends you have left over. For their entry for the Remade in Portugal competition in 2009, the used odd plates and cups to make really unique vases. This idea actually wouldn't be too difficult to put into practice, as long as you used a really small fine saw to take out the china bottoms (hel-LO bizarre fetishists landing here from Google!). Superglue could then be used under a thick glaze to make it watertight.

Plastic spoon chandelier by StudioVerissimo

I've always wanted a large entrance hall, preferably with a marble floor and large swooping spiral staircase and a huge chandelier hanging down from the ceiling. So this plastic chandelier by Portuguese designers at StudioVerissimo caught my eye. Made from plastic spoons and metal links, it's another exercise in trying to use items that are wasted in their thousands for something longer lasting. And perhaps surprisingly, it doesn't look nearly as cheap as the name would suggest. This lamp won Portuguese product designers Cláudio Cardoso and Telma Veríssimo massive acclaim at design shows across the world. These are, without a doubt, two to watch!

Joana Vasconcelos for Vista Alegre

Twice a year, the Portuguese tableware brand Vista Alegre, launches a limited edition bowl called "La Tache" (usually in a signed and limited run of 500) designed by a Portuguese artist. The fourth installment was launched a couple of days ago and was by one of my favourite modern artists, Joana Vasconcelos. She follows in the footsteps of artists like Eduardo Nery, Manuel João Vieira e Pedro Calapez. Her bowl is light and cheerful and perfect for summer. Or, seen in a more covetous light, an affordable (hurrah!) opportunity to own an original piece of artwork!

Shopping for a kitchen

The kitchen has always been known as the heart of the home. Indeed, market research shows us that more and more people are abandoning the formal atmosphere of dining room dinner parties in favour of holding casual friendly suppers in open-plan kitchens. Whilst I think I'd always prefer an actual dining area, those of us living in small flats in big cities, often aren't afforded the choice. However, wherever you actually do your eating, the space in which you do your cooking should be relaxing, spacious and well-organised if at all possible. In addition to this, they should be as personalised as possible rather than stocked with the same IKEA gear that everybody else in the building has. For example, I have multiple wine openers and about 50-odd different glasses. The boyfriend has a ham slicer (he is nothing if not dedicated). With this in mind, I've done some surfing and have come up with a little shopping list that I'd use were I going to redecorate my kitchen:

"Ants on my plate", from $32, Bailey Doesn't Bark. These plates are so original that I don't even think I'd use them, I'd just prop them up somewhere.
"Birds on a wire" blind, £48, Bodie & Fou.
Individual vintage egg poachers, £6, Re-found. These egg poachers are adorable but beware the gadget addiction that is easily found in the purchase as such things. It's too late for me - I own more kitchen oddities than anyone I know - but you can still be saved.
Enormous wire wine rack, £39.50, Scotts of Stow. No explanation required.
Brabantia 30L Retro Kitchen Bin, £60, Heal's

Gaggia espresso machine, £200, Heal's
Vintage 60's Hovis tin to be used as a windowsill plantpot, £24, Pedlars.
Le Creuset red over mitt, £14, Debenhams
Oversized pocket-watch clock, £59, Rockett St George.
Various tea towels, From £6, To Dry For and Lush designs

Hardshell Crab handles, £16 from Anthropologie. Perfect for those off-white repainted vintage dressers.
Red bread-bin/bread-board, £33, Red Candy
Joesph Joesph red colander, £11, Joesph Joesph

Hotel Teatro

Some people have the knack of looking at a space and knowing exactly how to decorate for maximum impact. I'm not just talking about being able to position furniture in an attractive way but being able to use lighting to create a mood, knowing how and where to resculpt walls and how to use fabric. The new Hotel Teatro (theatre hotel) opened in Porto a couple of months ago and is yet another fantastic notch on Nini Andrade Silva's belt. She used thousands of yards of the most luxurious fabric throughout the hotel to echo the stage curtains of the theatre in former years. Seats all over the hotel are shaped like the bucket seats in the old auditorium and black and white prints of audiences cover walls, floors and are printed on carpets. Every tiny detail, from the famous prose scripted across the doors to the lobby, to the industrial stage lights in the restaurants to the old costumes spotlit in glass cases throughout the building, has been completely thought through. The result is a strikingly glamorous and luxurious boutique hotel that I can't wait to visit.