Cool Long table design

= Cool long table. At one end it is part of higher ground = coffee table. Then further down the level drops lower = high table with high stools

Jasper Morrison designer

http://www.jaspermorrison.com/html/index.html

VITRA PRODUCTS

Follow Me is available with soft light carcass colour for €451 ex VAT or with translucent carcass for €549 ex VAT.

Alcove sofa is available in various sizes in a number of fabrics or leather. Prices start from €3170 ex VAT. We currently have a 3-seater display model on sale in red Laser fabric for €2595 reduced from €6385. I have attached a brochure for Alcove sofas, should you require a quote on a particular model please do not hesitate to contact me.

Dream holiday home - 8 separate lofts

Build a holiday home like this. 8 separate lofts for friends to buy and can rent out when not there. Communal fund for common expenses. Share expenses with 7 others and benefit from shared experience. I get to control where my holiday home will be and let friends catch up.

http://www.rivalofts.com/eng/home.asp

Standard Studio - 210 euro

Standard Studios, up to 350 square feet, feature unique choice of sensitive materials, settings and furnishings, each with specific characteristics as the private tiny terrace, the mezzanine, the original kitchenette or Jacuzzi bath tub.

Deluxe Studio -240 euro

Up to 400 square feet, feature unique choice of sensitive materials, settings and furnishings, designed kitchenette and parlour, each with specific characteristics as the Jacuzzi bath tub or the antique artisanal drainer set in the floor, the direct access to garden or the cosy entrance alley with lemon tree and roses.

Superior Deluxe Studio -280 euro

Up to 480 square feet, feature unique choice of sensitive materials, settings and furnishings, designed kitchenette and parlour, each with specific characteristics as the direct access to garden or the cosy entrance alley with lemon tree and roses, the impressively high ceilings and dark wooden floors or the fancy mezzanine with view over the garden.

Loft Studio - 550 euro

Loft Studios, incredibly wide spaces, up to 1.000 square feet, particularly refined antique and contemporary architectural details, designed kitchenette, stunning view over the riverbanks, park and city centre and in one case also a private terrace.

cool artemide lamps

http://www.artemide.com/

HOW TO BUY A HOUSE IN PARIS

Michael Herrman, a successful American expat architect and veteran Parisian real estate savant, has helped more than one star-eyed owner convert their Paris pied-à-terre into a dream home. We’ve invited him to help educate us on the traps to sidestep on the way to purchasing your ideal Paris apartment, from the (apparently sometimes pajama-clad) hunt all the way through until you are “Home at Last”. In this installment: The Hunt.

Buying a little piece of the City of Light is a rite of passage in and of itself. Before becoming the owner of a beautiful 19^th century apartment in the heart of Paris with original oak floors and marble fireplaces, or converting a floor of maids’ rooms into a penthouse haven, you must first begin with an apartment hunt and all of its uniquely Parisian idiosyncrasies.

The first thing to understand is that like few other cities in the world, there is always intense competition to buy an apartment in Paris. At the worst of the recent financial crisis, Parisian real estate prices didn’t even make a small dip.  The crisis actually increased the demand for apartments as people took their money out of bank accounts with nose-diving interest rates and invested in the ever-reliable Paris housing market. Another good thing to know is that the average cost of real estate in Paris is still below the average price in London, Rome and numerous other European cities, making Paris an even more attractive place to invest.

What this means for your apartment hunt is that good properties are sold within a few days and the best ones within just a few hours.  Apartments advertised at 9:00am may have an offer accepted by lunchtime …

Once the hunt is on, the first obstacle is finding an honest, reliable real estate agent. Although this may hold true internationally, fanciful exaggerations are especially commonplace in Paris. After finding the perfect apartment, for example you might be worried about the fact that it is on the 7^th floor with no elevator. Your agent may reassure you that an elevator is going to be installed next year, guaranteed. This, however, may have been in the works for over 10 years and it may be another 10 until it actually happens.

I once visited a former warehouse in the heart of the Marais being divided up and sold as enormous apartments. The agent claimed it was an incredibly rare opportunity. However, upon visiting the space one major fault became clear: there were no windows. The agent claimed it wasn’t a problem because one could ask the city for permission to create as many windows as desired. However, they failed to mention that the Marais is a protected historic district where ever since 1963 – when the famous Malraux preservation laws went into effect – it is forbidden to change any façade in the neighborhood…

Despite the competitiveness, exhaustion and potential disappointments of the hunt, somehow there always comes a moment when you find yourself standing in an incredible apartment, on the perfect street, in the heart of the city, in a beautifully maintained building… Whether it is the 200-year-old limestone wall, wooden beams, the postcard-like views on to the city or into the garden of an adjacent palace, or the fact that you are a few meters away from the best restaurants or galleries in Paris, you realize that you have just fallen in love with your little piece of the City of Light. Apartments are actually advertised as “coup de coeur”  (love at first sight) and I can testify that it really does happen.

However, the most incredible part about the moment you find the perfect apartment is that skipping breakfast, running across town in your most elegant overcoat thrown over your pajamas, pushing through a busload of tourists on the sidewalk finally paid off because you are the first person to visit this apartment and you are about to make sure you are the last…

Stay tuned for Michael’s next installment, The Find: from an informal offer to signing the “promesse de vente”, securing a hold on that ideal apartment is the next step in the adventure.

Written by Michael Herrman for the HiP Paris Blog. Looking for a fabulous vacation rental in Paris, Provence, or Tuscany? Check out Haven in Paris.

APT

It took Crawford roughly a year to accumulate the glass jar’s worth of loose change. “I don’t like to carry change around and I never make it to Coinstar—it’s embarrassing going there,” he laughs. “Anytime someone gives me change, like at Starbucks, I give it to them as a tip. It’s not real money to me.” His underestimated wealth sits next to oil cans that belonged to his grandfather, who was a mechanic.

For the past four years, fashion designer Christopher Crawford has rented his loftlike 900-square-foot studio in the swank Armani/Casa–designed condo 20 Pine the Collection(20pine.com). But it didn’t take long for those around him to notice his artistic flair for interior design: Once his neighbor started doing the sales push for the building, she immediately tapped Crawford to decorate some of its model apartments. “I have a whole storage unit in the building filled with the weird stuff I pick up, and this is a good opportunity to use it,” he notes. “It’s either that or I become a hoarder.”

Crawford used house paint and fabric to create this Rorschach ink-blot–inspired piece. “I made one for a model apartment and then I liked it so much, I made one for myself,” he explains.

Crawford bought this Eames lounge chair on eBay and discovered the crocheted throw at a barn sale in Kentucky. “It’s like middle America’s version of a yard sale, except it’s in a barn,” he explains. The ashtray is a holdover from his college days.

To separate the dining room from his bedroom, Crawford had green contractor Ed Nugent(nugentcm.com) create this reclaimed-wood divider. “I was at Frette and they have headboards made out of this wood in the showroom,” he says of his inspiration. “I thought it was so cool.” As a result, this CB2 table—flanked by Kartell chairs and stools Crawford picked up at a stoop sale—has its own defined area. The patinated crystal chandelier is from a Paris flea market.

Rather than use a run-of-the-mill shower caddy, Crawford displays his bath products on top of a tree stump in his shower. “Fortunately I’m not a girl, so there aren’t many things that I need, like razors and such,” he points out.

Wimberly House by Cunningham Architects

2 HOMES IN 1

I LIKE THE IDEA OF HAVING 2 HOMES AS ONE. SHARE WITH A FRIEND ETC AND MORE SOCIABLE.

SPANISH VILLA - CALIFORNIA

ITALY

the Ponte della Costituzione Bridge Venice

BEDROOM

BEACH HOUSE

Admiring this one on their evening walks “We come in Friday night, take off our shoes, and don’t put them on again till Sunday—it’s that kind of mood here,” the luxury of having the beach so close it felt like an appended backyard