Traditional styles made modern. I’ve got a thing for all things black & white at the moment, and these Ugly Home Toile de Jouy Tiles fit in with that trend.

Although the Toile de Jouy style was made hip by the Timorous Beasties, this is the first time I’ve seen it used on tiles. The illustrations are great, although I’m not convinced the Toile Tile look would actually work in a real enviroment.

Check out the other great range of products at Ugly Home.

Give you IKEA bed an antique touch. Fancy adding a touch of the baroque/rococo style to your current bed? Now you can with Baroque Bed Stickers by Geral Design. Just slap the stickers against the wall to create a fake baroque look at the head of your bed. It’s cheaper than buying an antique bed.

See more work by Geral Design.

I tried, I really did. I tried to watch the film, Zidane, un portrait du 21e siècle, but I just didn’t understand the appeal (I suppose the fact that I’m not really into football doesn’t help.) According to IMDB, the movie is, “Halfway between a sports documentary and an conceptual art installation, “Zidane” consists in a full-length soccer game (Real Madrid vs. Villareal, April 23, 2005) entirely filmed from the perspective of soccer superstar Zinedine Zidane.”

I was intrigued to see what M/M Paris did with the opening credit sequence of the film, but the real star of the film is the soundtrack by Mogwai. The soundtrack is contemplative, and quietly seething. It’s beautiful music, and if you’re into the more laidback sounds of a band like Air, you’re bound to like the Zidane Soundtrack too.

Check out the track Black Spider for a taste.

Art with chairs; it’s like it was made for me! I’ve got a craving to mess around with the Black Whole Conference by Michel De Broin.

The installation consists of a large sphere composed of an assemblage of chairs. The legs are attached to one another, bringing the chairs together. In this spherical conference room there is no central position, all the chairs float in solidarity with each other. They operate as an immune system – protecting themselves by blocking and kicking out their surroundings. As a massive object in the gallery space, the sphere acts as a centre of gravity around which the rest orbits. The reorganization of matter derives from a ‘big bang’ where the ancient order of the conference room has blown out and reconfigured into a ‘utopic’ geometrical endosystem.

I can’t help but want to roll it around the gallery!

Check out more work from Michel De Broin.

I seriously want this. Lampscapes by Studio Frederik Roijé is an amazing piece of design (choose Products>Lampscapes from the menu to see the details.) It’s a series of familiar lampshades blended together to form one single entity that resembles mountains on a landsacpe horizon. Simply beautiful.

See more work by Studio Frederik Roijé.

Revenge of the Espadrilles. Last summer The String Republic launched a range of espadrilles covered in fantastic designs. When they were first released, I tried telling everyone that they were cool, but no one would believe me. But, it looks like I’m going to get another chance this summer, judging by the The String Republic Teaser!

A year on, is the world now ready for “The Summer of the Espadrille”?

Keep your eyes on The String Republic.

Skulls and stuff aren’t just for the goths. Anastasia de Ruyter has submitted a nice pattern over at Naked And Angry. If you’re into skulls and stuff, that is.

Read more about Naked And Angry in an earlier article.

Doilies are the new black. I’ve tried to tell a few people that Doilies are bound to make a come-back at somepoint. Especially with all the retro-chic/Rococo/Baroque stylings that seem to be on trend at the moment. It’s not my cup of tea, but if it’s yours, try the Doilies by Lovely Lovely.

Life is full of difficult choices. The Decision Spoon by Alexandre Bettler.

The French word for friend “copain ”is made of co- (with) and -pain (bread). So, a friend is someone you share your bread with. Bread is an important part of the European culture, and whatever you are eating, you very often have some bread around the table to have with your meal.

Whatever kind of soup you are having, it is nice to have some bread to soak it with. A bread spoon is a funny and almost useful object. The nice thing about it is that it stresses the little fight between your brain and your stomach, as you have to make sure that you don’t eat too much of its bread, otherwise you don’t have any spoon left. And you are like a little kid, finnishing your bowl without cuttlery. I have always been very bad at taking decisions, so eating soup now became a good practice for me. More bread, less spoon. More soup, less bread.

Life is made of choice.

Brilliant! See more work by Alexandre Bettler.

The prefect hotel for the design-obbessed traveller. While I was messing about with uploading the Valencian hotel photos to flickr, I found a bunch of photos from a recent trip to Paris. We stayed in the Hotel du Petit Moulin, a boutique hotel kitted out by Christian Lacroix. The hotel from the outside looks like a 17th century Boulangerie

If you’re ever in Paris, I can’t recommend the Hotel du Petit Moulin enough! It’s not outrageously expensive for Paris, and it’s perfectly located in the very hip Marais area of Paris. Each room has a seperate design theme, so it gives you a reason to keep going back to Paris to stay in each one (I’ve been back twice so far – so they’ve got me hooked!)

Check out the photos of the hotel that I’ve uploaded to Flickr. The design whores amongst you will spot the Timorous Beasties wall coverings, Deborah Bowness wallpaper and the classic Arne Jacobsen Egg & Swan chairs.

Although, the word on the street is that the new Hotel Amour is the boutique hotel du jour for Paris. I’ll post more on this hotel if they ever get back to me (perhaps their too cool to “do” email!)

For reservations, see Hotel du Petit Moulin.