"Manufacture de Luxe" New Website

When purchasing luxury furniture, you have to think if it's just for right now or if you'll want to hand it down through the generations. Though, If you want only the best new luxury furniture for your home, "Manufacture de Luxe" may have just what you're looking for and they've just come up with a brand new website !

Cabinets of Curiosities - AMOR - L'amour toujours

"Manufacture de Luxe" is a luxury furniture maker well-known in France for its amazing furniture and belongs to the great tradition of French decorative arts. They have produced some of the most beautiful furniture for Luxury hotels, just like Hotel Plaza Athénée, and for private clients.

OVO TUTTI FRUTTI - Coffee Table - "Emaux de Briare" mosaic tiles - Leather covered.

I really like their timeless creations that bring together the best of traditional craftsmanship with adventurous contemporary design. Just have a look on their website, they carry a wide range of furniture lines for your viewing pleasure :

TRIOMPHE - Tripod Desk

I love their Cabinets of Curiosities. Pure wonders. and my favourite items are the very sexy "Amor Hot" which sells €12,500 ($18,000) and this other cabinet, fully inlaid with mother pearl and black pearl priced at €15,000 ($21,500)... I also love their amazing chairs, and for my office, I would certainly chose the "Triomphe" (€8,800 - $12,000), a three feet desk which is very contemporary but old-style richly decorated.

FARNIENTE - Sofa

In addition, if you are looking for original pieces to decorate your rooms, they can also make you the most exceptional pieces you can imagine. Whether you already have an idea of the subject to be developed, or you are looking for a new source of inspiration, they will create the extraordinary piece that is missing from your interior.

These exceptional pieces of furniture are guaranteed for life and are also environmentally friendly : )

Luxury dog beds

The Cool Dog, Spanish suppliers of luxury and design sofas for pets makes different styles from classic to a miniature of the LC2 by Le Corbusier.

This little "Le Corbusier" styled bed or sofa (above) is available in vinyl or leather and with chrome or black powder coated accents. A take off on the LC2 collection, it's pretty reasonable priced compared to some of the other "luxury dog beds" out there.

The company also makes models under request.

$1,000,000 /m2 diamond floor, wall or ceiling tile

For the world’s wealthiest individuals, who are looking to create a magnificent incomparable interior of the finest luxury materials, Pietra Firma launched the exclusive limited edition LuxTouch range at the Monaco Yacht Show.

The LuxTouch floor, wall and ceiling tiles are hand crafted by master craftsmen utilising traditional skills using rare and precious materials. The company targets customers who wish to create a priceless centre piece within their home, yacht or apartment by transforming a living area, bedroom or bathroom into a bejewelled work of art.

Each square metre of marble tile is inlaid with over 1000 diamonds, 2400 pieces of mother-of-pearl, 400 pieces of abalone shell and 500 pieces of black onyx. LuxTouch sells for a whopping $1,000,000/m2.

The company’s decision to limit the design to 5 projects will ensure the exclusivity of the world’s most expensive floor, wall or ceiling. As I always say, Luxury doesn't come cheap :D

Estate of the day : Osler House, Brasilia

The Osler House, designed by Marcio Kogan, is located in Brasilia, Brazil. The house located in Brasilia, is composed by two volumes and a small pool and garden that organize the entire program.

On the ground floor we find the rooms that open to the outside using rotating wooden panels, and a small lobby that connects the second floor with a delicate staircase. The lobby is decorated with a panel of tiles specially designed for this wall by the artist Athos Bulcão. The small foyer in the entrance connects to the second floor with a delicate staircase.

The second floor is organized in a prism of glass and concrete, where nothing vertically interrupts the visual transparency of the volume. On the roof of the ground floor, connected to the living room, the terrace extends the external area.

The wonderful feature in its design plans is how they have incorporated the use of a pool so prominently. The night time picture really highlights the effect of the pool in the overall "curb appeal" of the home.

A New Luxury Lighting Line

We would like to briefly introduce a world-class line of decorative indoor/outdoor spherical lights that are colorful, versatile and create an alluring setting for home and garden.

Moonlight globe lights are dramatic, contemporary lights in whole- and half-spheres from 13 to 30 inches in diameter that operate on standard household wiring, extra-long cord, hardwired or rechargeable battery with remote control.

Engineered, developed and manufactured in Germany, Moonlight has won numerous design awards

Pricing ranges from $325 to $1000.

Shown are the 350 and 550 half-globes with green and yellow filters.

Moonlight Globe lights come in half-globe shapes and can permanently mount to any hard surface. Shown are the 350-mm half globes in Granite-Dark finish, which have been mounted to the sidewalk.

Shown are the floating 350 and 550 mm sizes and the mounted 550 mm version

Shown are the 250, 350, and 550 mm sizes in white.

Moonlight Globes shown in 750 mm size.

For more information please visit the Moonlight web page.

Most expensive loudspeakers

The New Zealand company Arvus has come with an exclusively stylish loudspeakers aptly titled "The Prerenaissance".

Each pair of the loudspeakers has taken hundreds of man hours each and the result is of course extravagant and almost artistic.

Starting from the bottom up, the plinth is made from hand carved granite. Four chambers house a quasi-five-way design and the sound technology offered is a perfect match for the expensive looks. With 6 channels of amplification, the speakers can make up a total of 3000 watts RMS.

The design was inspired by such objects as a exotic cars, the Coke bottle and musical instruments. The angles were chosen to give the speaker a feeling movement and life.
According to Arvus there are dozens of finishing options, from wood (like you see here), painted, carbon fibre, and even stainless steel.

Each pair of The Prerenaissance loudspeakers costs $140,000 (the price includes delivery, setup, and tuning)

Wonderful House on Australia’s Gold Coast

This Wonderful House has 4 bedroom/4 bathroom house in the Paradise Point suburb of Australia’s Gold Coast is for sale at $3.9 million, with most of the furniture and artwork included.

I love the "white" theme and how it flows through the house though :)

Susan Crook is the agent for the home, visit her website

Ferragamo to design Luxury Penthouses in Dubai

Italian luxury goods maker Salvatore Ferragamo, which has plans for a market listing, is to design the interior of penthouses in Dubai as part of an agreement with Trident International Holdings, a United Arab Emirates-based company operating in the high-end real estate sector.

The Florence-based company said on Tuesday it would design a set of luxury penthouses in the 'Pentominium' tower, to be completed in 2012. At 516 meters, and boasting 120 floors and 120 penthouses, the Pentominium is expected to be the highest residential building in the world.

Each penthouse unit boasts at least a floor space of 6,470 square feet (600 square meters) with ocean views. In addition, amenities in the Pentominium include an indoor pool and a Sky Lounge for business functions which directly overlooks the Palm Jumeirah.

"Ferragamo's entry into the world of high-end residential luxury is an important step in the brand extension process and opens the road to other development opportunities," Chief Executive Michele Norsa said in a statement.

While standard units are expected to command around US$5.3 million, there is no word on pricing for the Ferragamo-designed penthouses. The official launch of the Pentominium project will take place in Dubai on October 6 with a spectacular fashion show and a charity event. (Source : Press release)

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5th Peugeot concept car design contest 2008

Voting period for Peugeot design contest 2008 is on the go !

For the fifth time Peugeot is holding their futuristic design competition. Last year the Flux, designed by 20-year old Romanian Mihai Panaitescu, won the competition and was built as a concept car and eventually shown at the 2007 Frankfurt Motor Show.

This year the competition was themed as “Imagine a Peugeot for the Megalopolis of Tomorrow”. The participants should take into consideration Peugeot’s stylistic codes and their projects must contain the following four aspects: environmental awareness, social harmony, interactive mobility and economic efficiency.

Entries were submitted in July and a jury has selected their 30 favorite designs so that the a popularity vote (15 August through 15 September 2008) can be held on the internet.

A top ten will be revealed on 16 September 2008. At the Paris Motor Show on 2 October 2008 Peugeot will announce the winner of the competition so that the concept can go into development for a 2009 Shanghai Motor Show in China global debut.

And now the most interesting part… The finalists with their concept car designs are presented below. Just vote for the concept car you most like on the official Peugeot site. In a week we will get to know the best 10 finalists.


* * *
Title: SVP
Author: Mickael Soubabère
Location: France

* * *
Title: Module
Author: Cristian Fabio Di Filippo
Location: Argentina

* * *
Title: Peugeot 888
Author: Oskar Johansen
Location: Norway

* * *
Title: Streamlife
Author: Liang Tian
Location: China

* * *
Title: Opus
Author: Soheil Ghotbi Ravandi
Location: Iran

* * *
Title: Rugir (Roar)
Author: Onur Guvenc
Location: Germany

* * *
Title: OPENA
Author: Jaroslaw Koziel
Location: Poland

* * *
Title: Peugeot Stylight
Author: Ognyan Bozhilov
Location: Bulgaria

* * *
Title: Peugeot Pure
Author: Pierlot Damien
Location: Belgium

* * *
Title: Peugeot Rayo
Author: Ivan Kraljević
Location: Croatia

* * *
Title: MoVille
Author: Woo-Ram Lee
Location: France

* * *
Title: Ego
Author: Emre Yazici
Location: Turkey

* * *
Title: Globe
Author: Varun Gopinath
Location: India

* * *
Title: Seed by Peugeot
Author: Yann Terrer
Location: France

* * *
Title: OXO
Author: Lou Ke
Location: China

* * *
Title: P.R.O.
Author: Ke Guo
Location: China

* * *
Title: Peugeot Alegro
Author: Alexandre Raad
Location: Brazil

* * *
Title: xtreet
Author: Esteban Peisci
Location: Argentina

* * *
Title: Peugeot 50x
Author: Gustavo Hernandez
Location: Colombia

* * *
Title: Peugeot Blade
Author: Ying Hui Choo
Location: Singapore

* * *
Title: Peugeot Magnet
Author: Tolga Metin
Location: United States

* * *
Title: Facile
Author: Thierry Dumaine
Location: France

* * *
Title: [E cube]
Author: Seung Hoon Yoo
Location: Republic of Korea

* * *
Title: RD
Author: Carlos Arturo Torres Tovar
Location: Colombia

* * *
Title: Echo
Author: Sun Rujun
Location: China

* * *
Title: GALapagos
Author: Igor Yastrebov
Location: Russian Federation

* * *
Title: Peugeot Verde
Author: Michael Witus Schierup
Location: Denmark

* * *
Title: Peugeot 1009 Concept
Author: Edwin van der Mark
Location: Netherlands

* * *

Title: Vision
Author: Shinji Nukumi
Location: Japan

Sink with horizontal drain

These sinks with patented ‘Horizontal Integrated Siphon’ technology (basically a horizontal drain) were introduced by Italian company Axolute at FuoriSalone 2008 and will revolutionise your bathroom design.

The stunning polished stainless sink features the HIS system, which replaces the traditional drain pipe usually visible underneath basins. Instead, the water flows along the slot of the front of the basin and back into the wall connection.

The lack of pipes underneath makes these designs particularly effective when mounted by themselves, as well as highly convenient to be fitted over a vanity unit.

They are available now at Axolute’s website

Via Trendir

New York City - Modern building

These pictures are from a wonderful New York City penthouse apartment designed by UnStudio. This building features a series of metal bands at different sizes that creates a unique shape for the building and provides a little character for each floor.

These some pictures of this building, the wide living area with modern fireplace, modern bar stool table, the bathroom with an awesome views.

The building is Five Franklin Place in TriBeCa.

Via momoy

Designer Yacht

Pictured above: Guilty, a 115-foot yacht designed by Jeff Koons and commissioned by Greek billionaire Dakis Joannou, who owns one of the world's finest collections of contemporary art.

The exterior design was created by international art star Jeff Koons, famous for his basketball in perspex case, three-storey high "Puppy" made of flowers, and the "Made in Heaven" erotic series of photographs with Italian ex-wife and porn-star-member-of-parliament La Cicciolina.

Koons based his design on a WWI camouflage pattern. complemented by architect Ivana Porfiri's jagged shapes.

Guilty is likely to appear in next month's Italian Vogue.

A $300,000 Polished steel sofa

The first auction devoted solely to contemporary design will take place at Christie's in New York this autumn.

"It really is an increasingly popular market," said Carina Villinger, design specialist of Christie's New York. "There is a huge overlap with contemporary art. It has got to the point where we need a separate auction.

The Christie's sale will feature items such as a polyurethane table by the London-based Iranian architect Zaha Hadid, who designed the aquatics centre for the London Olympics, estimated to raise $200,000.

Another lot will be a highly polished steel sofa by the British-born Israeli designer Ron Arad for $300,000. Arad's work will be exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art in New York next year.That sofa is made of steel that’s polished to match the reflection of a real mirror!

Via Independant

Munk Bogballe Luxury "Workstation"

For those who have embraced Mac hardware, but want something a little more refined, the European luxury company Munk Bogballe has launched a hand crafted executive workstation that combines simple elegance and the finest quality materials in an unusual design.

Award-winning Bang & Olufsen designer Henrik Sørig Thomsen has created this very special machine by taking the hardware from the Apple MacBook and reworking its exterior.

The housing is largely made of anodised aluminum and the underside of the workstation is covered with the finest quality of Italian aniline leather. This gives it a unique sense of life and character visually as well as physically when the fingers slide over the natural texture when opening or moving the workstation.

However, Bogballe’s workstation weighs in at a whopping 6.9 pounds, nearly two more than the original 5-pound MacBook.

With each workstation come two black, hand sewn calf leather bags for the workstation and the powersupply.

Assembled by hand in Denmark, the workstations are available with leather in three colours: ivory, black and dark red. In addition a bespoke option is available to people who wish an entirely personal solution.

This is quite a unique product so it doesn’t come cheap ! You can order one at £3,500 ($6,700), which also includes a donation of one XO laptop to the One Laptop per Child organization. The Munk Bogballe Workstation will only be built in limited numbers.

The Workstation specifications:

* 13,3 inch widescreen display (1280 * 800 resolution)
* 2,4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor
* 4 GB memory
* 160 GB hard drive
* 8x Super Drive
* built-in webcam, microphone and stereo speakers

Every Workstation comes with both the Mac OS X and Windows XP operating systems pre-installed

Luxury lighting design for luxury living

Are you the lucky owner of any penthouse that has been on the market recently? If so, you may need help to decorate it.

Though, surfing the web, we have discovered Delightfull, a Portuguese design company that makes High-end and luxury lighting design for luxury living.

In their first collection of 25 pieces, called “heritage”, they reviewed Design trends from the 50s & 60s. Divided in four categories (suspension-ceiling, floor, table and wall) their pieces are totally handcrafted in Europe and come with customized color.

Prices start at $500 but the most awesome designs that you can see below are much more expensive! Not sure exactly where you can buy all the 25 pieces but you can buy the lamps through their website though.

Ella - ceiling - $7,250 (€4,620)

Cole - Floor - $4,365 (€2,772)

Sinatra - Floor - $4,670 (€2,964)

Miles - Table - $2,535 (€1,608)

Vlaemsch() - RendezVous

Summer is in the Air so it is time to redecorate your walls and give them a “luxury touch”. Are you ready for a change?

Casimir, one of the leading designers of his generation in Belgium, has been producing and distributing furniture designs under his own name since 1995.

His designs are characterised by his use of warm, rich varieties of wood. Although his comfortable, sturdy pieces of furniture wouldn't have been unfamiliar to Breughel, Casimir's use of surrealism, through some clever optical illusions and semiotic, adds a new dimension.

He established recently the Vlaemsch()-collection. Vlaemsch() stands for Flemisch traditions, humour, design, simplicity, sensible, the surreal, no-nensense, quality and solidity, and combines creativity with the highest level of quality : quality of design and quality of product.

Casimir works together with a team of international designers and Wallpapers “RendezVous1&2” are their latest creations :

Carmen Devos for Tickle magazine said “These “naughty” patterns take their inspiration from those repetitive floral garland patterns which so many of our forebears were exceptionally fond of.

It is only upon re-focussing our eyes, inclining your head slightly to the left and humming the Brabançonne that you may discover yourself surrounded by intertwining figures, salaciously winding themselves around your walls in never-ending twists and turns of shameless sensuality.”

They are both available in three colors (black on beige, red on red and silver on beige) at their online store.
The vinyl papers come in 0.53 x 10m rolls at 70 euros each!

The Alice Chess Set pieces magically turn transparent