Minimalistic Animal Magetism: Luxury highrise in Miami

Entitled “Minimalistic Animal Magetism”, this deliciously designed apartment is situated in Miami, Florida, designed by local design firm Nieto Design Group. This luxury highrise pad has been designed with predominantly black and white interiors, offers stunning views out to the ocean. The mood is set for the entire scene as soon as you step off the elevator and see the dramatic Reflective Eye artwork that is flanked by a custom designed zebra glass wall, highly polished glass slab floors and an 8 foot wide high gloss lacquer pivot front door. Glossy and reflective finishes is mixed with textural materials to create a unique urban pad.

Once passing the camera and voice controlled security system, the 8′ high gloss black lacquer pivot door opens to reveal a dramatic entry hall where Belgian lighting housed in profiles reflect off the polished black glass slab floor to accentuate a portrait of Michael Jackson Invicible by Leonardo Hidalgo.

The kitchen appliances are concealed by custom designed glass panels as the kitchen is part of an open floorplan (the edge of the desk of the home office is visible in the foreground). The bar & kitchen peninsula anchor the kitchen.

The wave shaped sofa was custom designed to take in the expansive ocean view as well as to curl up and watch the 105″ plasma TV. The custom desk designed to comfortably seat two conforms to the fluid shape of the curved sofa. The organically shaped rug made of crocodile-embossed leather and hair-on-hide looks striking against the gleaming glass slab flooring.

The home office seamlessly merges with the living room as the custom leather-top desk-for-two hugs the curve of the back of the sofa, with its wave form and the wavy paneled wall giving homage to the waves crashing on the shoreline thirty stories below. The structural column becomes a focal point when clad in custom painted zebra glass panels with a linear light source embedded within.

Photos: Ken Hayden

Eclectic industrial-modern loft in Marina Del Rey

This incredible loft space has been designed by Daleet Spector Design in Marina Del Rey, California. With an eclectic, industrial, modern design style, the home features charming details with high ceilings and a bold color palette. The flooring throughout the main living spaces is polished concrete.

The rolling island has been custom designed to fit the space. The unique light fixture hanging from above is from Restoration Hardware.

The unique wallpaper featured in this bathroom is refreshing and playful, its hand silkscreened using water based inks on recycled paper by artist Geoff McFetridge for Pottock.

Grey Loft attic reconstruction in Prague by OOOOX

Grey Loft is the brilliant reconstruction of an existing attic apartment in Ostrovského, Prague, Czech Republic by design studio OOOOX. The designers slightly modified the 1,097 square foot (102 square meters) layout, especially in the bathroom where they connected the glazing to the bedroom. The center box with bathroom and toilet is separated distinctly by colored dark pearl paint. The other spaces throughout the apartment are bright in color with various hues of gray in accents walls and furnishings, bleached wood floors, industrial light fixtures and a stainless steel center island in the kitchen.

Photos: Martin Zeman

High glamour and spectacular views in Pacific Heights

The clients were not in the market for a new residence but when the wife noticed an open house sign she couldn’t resist checking out this condominium in the Pacific Heights neighborhood of San Francisco, California. One glance over of the light-filled space which occupies one floor of an Art Deco building with views of every San Francisco landmark from the Golden Gate Bridge to Alcatraz and they were sold. After purchasing the property, designer Candace Cavanaugh was hired to achieve their vision of a quietly elegant decor that focused on the views and provided for a suitable backdrop for their abstract art collection.

The apartment had not undergone any renovations in almost 40 years. The designer worked in collaboration with architect Gary Jerabeck of Architectural Development and contractor Design Line Construction. The space was transformed, leaving the original footprint intact, the project entailed a complete remodeling including new fixtures, tile, hardware, moldings, lighting and wallpaper throughout. The designer also raised the ceilings in the foyer, living room, dining room and library, creating architectural interest that has been further embellished with hand-wrought detailing and moldings.

Cavanaugh repurposed a guest bedroom into a cozy home library and office for the husband (shown above). The space features a distinct masculine neoclassical theme with custom cabinetry finished in a black wash to allow the wood grain to show through; the library shelving is in a classic X-motif and strong statement fabrics such as the zebra-patterned linen velvet chairs by Ralph Lauren and mohair by Christopher Hyland, have been used to highlight the space.

Color choices were selected by using San Francisco’s legendary sunsets and ethereal rolling fog as a continuously changing backdrop, selecting a quiet palette of soft grays, golds and charcoals and translated them into opulent finishes and textural fabrics, with artworks and accent pieces providing pops of color.

The panoramic bay views are the main attraction in the formal dining room. The other units in the building all feature breakfast nooks in the kitchen, but the architect chose to extend the dining room to provide a multipurpose space that encompasses the view.

The homeowners can pass through from the dining room to the butler’s pantry and into the kitchen where a gallery of satiny-back cabinetry with antique mirrored panels frames a scenic bay view. The designer’s choice of opulent finishes, such as the glossy black subway tiles by Waterworks, imparts glamor, while her deer-leg bar stool design is an unexpected design choice in this space.

Photos: Matthew Millman

Stunning curvaceous brick house by Clare Cousins

This curvaceous brick house was designed by architect Clare Cousins as a personal home for her family in Melbourne, Australia. The home takes advantage of the long linear plot and rear laneway access, a garage with studio above was designed first, conceived as a windowless sculptural form perched on a garage clock to provide a studio or guest bedroom. The house extension curves to maximize its northern orientation and to visually incorporate the native landscaping into the house. This project plays with raw building materials, in concrete and timber, and with pattern, in brick bonds and linear spacing. The sculptural first floor contains a studio and bathroom inspired by Alvar Alto glassware with a ribbed timber cladding that continues across the west-facing windows to provide solar protection.

Photos: Shannon McGrath

Striking modern beach house in Mornington

The brief for this striking beach house designed by Clare Cousins Architects was to provide additional accommodation to an existing 1970’s Merchant Builder’s home in Mornington, Victoria, Australia. Located on a sloping block, the existing single storey house is sited well back on the block with limited access to ocean views. Rather than demolish or renovate the existing building the architects approach was to keep the building intact and design a new pavilion to sit adjacent to the original at the front of the site. The new pavilion includes a new master bedroom wing with living room and deck for outdoor dining that captures broad views of Port Philip Bay. Planning regulations permit only first floor structures that are located over car parking or storage areas which informed the elevated ‘stilt’ design. Timber construction is used holistically both internally and externally while an enclosed circulation stair clad in translucent polycarbonate connects the original to the new structure.

Photos: Shannon McGrath

Cherry Hills Western Eclectic in the Colorado Mountains

This elegant expression of a modern western style home combines a rustic regional exterior with a refined contemporary interior in Cherry Hills Village a suburb of Denver, Colorado. The Cherry Hills residence has been designed by Ekman Design Studio in collaboration with interior design firm Comstock Design. The client’s private art collection is embraced by a combination of modern steel trusses, stonework and traditional timber beams. Generous expanses of glass allow for view corridors of the mountains to the west, open space wetlands towards the south and the adjacent horse pasture on the east.

Photos: Ron Ruscio Photography

Carpenter’s workshop transformed into loft: Box House

Three hundred ballot boxes turn an ex-industrial space used for carpentry into a spacious and original loft in Florence, Italy designed by b-arch architecture. The property was once a dyeworks in the nineteenth century, a carpenter’s workshop in the fifties, today ‘Box House’ is the residential loft of an architect whose design language and signature style is the fusion of modern and antique. Alessandro Capellaro and his partner Sabrina Bignami of B-arch architecture studio are both interested in the integration of contemporary language ​​into historical contexts.

The architect has the challenge of foreseeing the potential of a space that might look very different from the final project, renovating it in a modern key, and adapting it to modern aesthetics and ways of life that still preserve the charm and essence of the historic atmosphere. As soon as Capellaro saw this space, he knew he wanted to transform the ex-industrial carpentry area into his own living room. “Behind the saws and planers that submerged from the wood, I saw an open space, free from conventions and full of memories.”

His design aimed to free up the space, removing partitions and replacing extant small windows with much larger ones that go all the way up to the vaulted ceiling, in order to create extra-large, bright space. But the memory of the old carpenter’s workshop is not dismissed, but it is indeed evoked in a new, original and fun way through the distinctive furniture which is the true, leading character of the house.

Three hundred wooden boxes – authentic ballot boxes from the 1940s – are arranged in every room, acting as creative boiserie in the dining room, a mobile counter in the kitchen, as a cupboard, couch, desk, and even bed. Sensing the enormous creative potential in these boxes, the architect purchased them en bloc at an auction with the intention of turning them into shelves or real base modules with which to design very personal furniture.

The natural wood tones are also found in the industrial hardwood flooring that paves all environments. The harmonic shades of this material are maintained and matched in relation with other materials used, such as cement which accents soft and natural atmospheres, or iron; originally used as coating in the bathroom.

Even more fascinating is the contrast of the colorful design pieces that architect has surrounded himself with, collected over time, or of the vintage lamps of his own production, paintings and vases. Original Robin Day chairs from the sixties surround the old dining table and “readymade” found objects that come directly from the streets are located at the entrance, such as the operating-room lamp.

In this modern loft in the heart of the historical center of Florence, pieces of personal life relate dialectically with recycled objects in an installation that relates both to collective national memory and to fresh, real life.

Warehouse style home in Melbourne: Quilted House

We just received photos from one of our reader’s home’s, Natasha of Fat Shack Vintage, an online retailer of unique vintage and industrial light fixtures based out of Australia. Her home is now officially one of our favorites that we have posted here on 1 Kindesign. Designed by Natasha and her husband, the dwelling is chalk full of character and charm and the exterior is just as intriguing as the interior. We could go on and on about how fabulous this home is, but instead we will let Natasha take it away from here:

“We have quite an unusually designed warehouse style home in Prahran, Melbourne, Australia.  It is 240 square meters of internal space spread across three levels with two outdoor entertaining areas. The locals call it the ‘Quilted House’ as the outside is pressed aluminum and looks like a quilt has been thrown over the front of the house. We recently had renovations done to the bedrooms and bathrooms as well as a renowned street artist named Reka put up a mural on the side wall (Reka is a part of the group ‘Ever Fresh‘ who had a residency last year at the ACMI gallery) and the piece and house attracts quite a bit of attention and photographs!

I like to think that the internal decor is equally as interesting and would describe our decorating style as vintage eclectic featuring an Asian twist with a pinch of industrial. The photos describe it far better than I ever could though. We have a love of all things vintage and have been collecting pieces in our travels for quite some time. My husband and I own and operate our own business called Fat Shack Vintage, which is an online retailer of vintage industrial styled lighting and home decor.

Fat Shack Vintage also sells a selection of genuine vintage furniture which is how we have accumulated a lot of the pieces in the home. It’s always hard to say no when you come across a really interesting vintage find! Between decorating our home and the office I’m surprised there is actually anything ever left to sell!”

What do you think of Natasha’s incredible home, please leave comments below, we would love to hear what you think!

Photos: Natasha, Fat Shack Vintage

Little Venice House showcasing playful design details

Little Venice House was designed for a family of four by Andy Martin Architect in Little Venice, West London, England. Warren and Claire Johnson live in Little Venice with their two young boys Charlie, three, and Jake, two. Their apartment is set on the ground floor of grade I listed mansion terrace overlooking one of London’s most beautiful garden squares. With ceilings reaching 4.5 meters, the space has been designed and converted to suit their busy work and family lifestyle. The architects were appointed to help achieve this.

Private rooms moved to the north and public living spaces to the south overlooking the gardens. Every area has been remodeled to offer abundant storage and walls purposely left free to offer space for their expanding art collection. Existing details were removed from doors and walls and reinstated the moulded ceilings and parquet flooring. New elements are made obvious by the use of color or texture, and are designed more like interventions.