“You so Haole, you dont even know you haole.” I get emails from people who run t-shirt companies on a daily basis. It seems like every man and his dog wants to be the owner of a hip designer t-shirt company, and most of the time they’re just carbon copies of each other. It’s the same played-out vector graphics style designs time and time again, and I’m bored of it!

So it was a breath of fresh air to get an email from TheRyde.com. It’s almost like they’ve been going through my garbage to find out my likes and dislikes in order to design my ultimate t-shirt. They’ve got the hand-drawn type I’m a fan of, and a simple black and white colour scheme, but ultimately they’ve based it around my guiltiest pleasure, and that’s the greatest movie ever known to mankind, the 80’s surf film North Shore. Unless you were a surfer growing up in the 80’s you probably wont appreciate the North Shore T-Shirt, but for those who did, it’s probably the best t-shirt ever created (and as an added bonus for those people, check out the North Shore Soundboard!)

Even if you don’t appreciate the North Shore T-Shirt, there are many other great laid-back designs to choose from at TheRyde.com, so go and check it out.

Damn it, it’s not a bed! When I first saw the Plywood Chateau by James Westwater I thought it was a life-size bedroom concept. Unfortunately, it’s art or something. pffft!!!

I demand someone designs a bed cube thingymabob that has interchangable vinyl walls that make you feel like you’re sleeping in a variety of exotic, expensive and glamorous locations, when in reality you’re sleeping in a plywood box!

Sorry for the lack of posts this week… but I’ve been skipping around the country for the past few days. The highlight was catching Interpol play live on Monday night.

Also, I tried out a new design concept hotel in Birmingham called Nite Nite. The hotel is a boutique budget hotel that takes it’s inspiration from Japanese capsule hotels. Essentially, your room amounts to what can only be described as a luxury prison cell. That may sound awful, but it’s actually a great experience. The tiny windowless room which is kitted out with a 42 inch plama televisions and a high-spec wet-room area can be completely controlled from a star-trek style neon control panel on the wall. It’s what I imagine a cabin on a luxury space travel trip to the moon would be like at some point in the future.

If you’re not claustraphobic and you ever find yourself in Birmingham, UK and need a room for the night in the centre of the city, you should definitely check out Nite Nite.

You’ve gotta love people who use yellow. Designer, and sometime art director of the cult magazine The Illustrated Ape, Marcus Walters has a hand-drawn illustration style that tick all the boxes for me. His latest work for Yellow Pages really floats my boat. Go to his website and check it out.

See more work by Marcus Walters.

Wallpaper that’s so hot it melts your eyes! You’ve got to check out the work of Kenzo Minami, Particularly the ‘Chambre Avec Vue’ wallpaper type thing (it’s under Art > MMVI > Chambre Avec Vue). Minami’s website doesn’t give much detail away, but it’s a black and white visual freak-out that needs to be seen.

See more work by Kenzo Minami.

Quick post… I don’t really have anything to say about this, I just think the Light Cubes by Hans and Franz look cool, so I thought I’d post it. Hans and Franz work on solutions for objects and spaces.

Like a supermarket special offer, only infinitely cooler. Back in March I posted about the designer espadrilles over at The String Republic. It seems they’re now available to buy, and there is even a ‘buy two pairs, get third free’ offer this month.

So I suggest everyone pile over to The String Republic right now to take advantage of the offer before all the best styles are gone (many of my personal faves have already sold out!)

Get your espadrille fix now, before the summer is over, at The String Republic.

More beautiful locations & interiors porn. Since the last time I posted about a photoshoot locations agency I’ve become a bit obsessed by them. Now I’ve found Shootspaces which has locations as diverse as a London Routemaster Bus and a vintage Airstream trailer, as well as the usual fantastic properties with great interiors.

See all the locations at Shootspaces.

Christian Lacroix does it again. Everytime I visit Paris, I always stay in the Christian Lacroix decorated Hotel du Petit Moulin. It’s a beautiful designer boutique hotel hidden away in the streets of Le Marais, where each room has a uniquely different design and theme.

It seems the French fashion designer has now done the same thing again with Hotel Le Bellechasse. Apparently, lacroix was given carte blanche for the decoration of this new luxury hotel, which, much like the Hotel du Petit Moulin, has resulted in the 34 rooms of this new boutique hotel being a heady mix of motif and pattern with layered images of insects, astrological symbols, Jules Verne scenes, checkers, toile de Jouy, with texture, mosaic and a masculine use of colour. Looks like I’ll have to plan another trip to my favorite european city to check it out for myself.

Find out more at the Hotel Le Bellechasse website.

You can have it in any colour as long as it’s white! Seeing as my current travel adventures are over, I think it’s time to start planning new ones. I’ve never been to Brussels and The White Hotel gives me the option of choosing a white room, or a super-white room, which intrigues me. Plus, each room contains a work made by a top belgian designer, so that should satisfy the design-whore in me.

Find out more about The White Hotel.