I’m not religious man… but if there is a heaven, I hope they have macaron shops like the Theurel & Thomas interior by Anagrama. I mean, just look at it! It’s nothing short of heavenly.

See more work by Anagrama.

A cool blast from the past. Way back in 2007, I mentioned Tiago Da Fonseca’s ‘Bedtime Stories’ project. Now, with Valentine’s Day approaching, the first commercial edition has just been launched, printed with the Brothers Grimm story ‘The Sleeping Beauty’: the timeless once-upon-a-time fairy tale romance.

London-based designer Tiago da Fonseca proposes a different take on reading in bed which will please book and cuddle-lovers alike. ‘Bedtime Stories’ is a duvet cover that literally reads like a book: each page adds or removes a layer of comfort to each side of the bed. More pages make you warmer and comfier, guiding you and your partner into a pleasant night…

Tiago da Fonseca explains: “What’s more appropriate for Valentine’s Day than to cuddle with your partner in a warm bed while lulling him or her with a romantic story?”

‘Bedtime Stories’ includes 2 lightweight synthetic duvets + polycotton kingsize duvet cover (to fit 230cm x 220cm). Currently available in red cover only. Price £105 + delivery.

To more info & orders, visit tiagodafonseca.com

I’ll catch some sleep on the plane. The Hotel Costa Verde in Costa Rica offers a fully outfitted, meticulously detailed, two bedroom, Boeing 727 fuselage suite. The refurbished vintage 1965 Boeing 727 airframe, which in its prior life shuttled globetrotters on South Africa Air and Avianca Airlines (Colombia) is now the most unusual and exclusive hotel suite in Costa Rica.

Find out more at Hotel Costa Verde.

How much is that grizzly in the window? Oh my god! This dude has got a bear. I want one too! That is all.

Seriously. Check out the slideshow. The dude is drinking beer. In a hot tub. With a Bear.

Graffiti: A Whodunnit Story. Last summer, whilst wandering around Italy, I took this photo. Some people take holiday snaps of the tourist attractions; I take photos of the cities’ graffiti.

I often wonder about the anonymous artists behind the work I photograph, so it was quite amusing to see the photo accompanying an article on Wooster Collective about the jerm IX tattoo project, which led me to this Flickr photo, which in turn led me to the artist, Microbo.

There’s no real point to this post. I was just amused by how the internet can help you make connections that you might never make without it. Ain’t the internet grand?

Where next on the map? I love to travel, and maps hold a special allure for me. They present suggestions and possibilities of new experiences to be had. Which is why I quite like Future Maps by Digitile. The company has created a modern redesign of the Cylindrical Equal Area Projection and made it available for people to cover their walls with on a massive scale via wallpaper or tiles. It’s an opportunity to cover your walls in something more interesting and educational than a tin of white paint

Did you know that on average, two new Starbucks have opened every day since 1987? With Starbucks attacking on all fronts, it’s refreshing to see something as uniquely glorious as London Tea shop Teasmith fighting back against the growing coffee mono-culture.

Owner John Kennedy, a self-confessed ‘tea geek’, runs the contemporary teahouse offering customers the world’s best teas amidst a beautifully designed interior created by Jonathan Clark Architects. Accompanied by Miss Random Fashion Coolness, I visited the teahouse this weekend, and instantly fell in love with the place. As if the beautiful hanging bare bulbs of the interior design weren’t enough to turn me on, the teas, biscuits and chocolates (by master Chocolatie William Curley, no less) certainly finished the job. Although, the absolute jewel in the crown is reserved for the owner, John Kennedy. Never have I experienced such warmth and enthusiasm from the owner of any establishment. Even though we were just another couple of customers off the street for all he knew, he took the time to educate us in the culture of tea and the skills involved in making the perfect cuppa. Christ knows how he gets anything done if he’s as attentive to every customer as he was to us this weekend.

I’ve completely forgotten what teas we tried, as I was so engrossed in Kennedy’s tales of the tea world, but guided recommendation using his wealth of knowledge, resulted in experiencing some of the finest tea I’d ever tasted. However, I can definitely recommend accompanying your tea with the chocolate dipped fruit, and salty Miso flavoured biscuits (I know, right? Salty biscuits? Sounds so wrong, but incredibly it works so right!)

If you live in the capital, or you’re just passing through, make sure you take a pit-stop at Teasmith. Saturday is a great day to go, when the nearby Spitalfields market is closed, and it’s quiet. I can’t recommend it enough. Go and experience the best the world has to offer in tea, guided by one of the nicest people you could ever hope to meet.

Teasmith is located at 6 Lamb Street, London.

Run for the hills, the sky is falling! Some of you might experience some issues with the Things of Random Coolness website. I’m not sure what has happened, but it’s decided to through a childish tantrum whilst I upgrade some of it’s software.

Hopefully order will be restored soon, and we can pretend it never happened.

Hip & stylish accommodation in Malta. If you’re like me and love quirky, hip boutique style hotels and you’re thinking of heading towards Malta anytime soon, you might want to check out the a new luxury self catering accommodation option in Malta called Maison La Vallette. It’s a discreet self catering luxury town house, situated in the old part of Valletta. Decorated in a mix of Maltese style baroque and bespoke designer furniture, it looks like a great setting for a romantic stay, for those looking for a bold, stylish, sophisticated yet affordable option for their travels.

Even if you’re not looking to go there on your travels, it’s worth checking out the website just to pick up some decor style ideas on the virtual tour.

For more info see Maison La Vallette.

Wallpaper for cyclists. I’ve mentioned Dan FunderBurgh before, but I’m doing it again because he’s created some amusingly beautiful bicycle themed wallpaper for Flavor Paper (I should be working on commission for these guys today!)

See more work by Dan Funderburgh.

If you’re on a diet, look away now! It’s a new year, and like many others, I’m doing the obligitory resolution to eat in a more healthy manner. However, the exact moment that you start denying yourself sugary snacks, you start dreaming about cake. At least I do. Or to be more accurate, I’m dreaming about the edible creations of Carles Mampel at Bubo.

I found Bubo last year whilst mindlessly wandering around the back streets of Barcelona. The Bubo shop is more akin to an art gallery than a shop selling cakes and petit fours, which is fitting as the edible artworks created by Carles Mampel are beautifully designed statues of taste. Seriously, it’s almost a crime to eat these things!

If you ever find yourself in Barcelona, skip the tourist traps and head over to Bubo to stuff yourself with beautifully designed award winning cakes. Even if you’re not hungry, just go and feed your eyes.

Visit Bubo ]]> http://www.thingsofrandomcoolness.com/2008/01/10/bubo/feed/ 0 http://www.thingsofrandomcoolness.com/2007/10/21/bon-dia-barcelona/ http://www.thingsofrandomcoolness.com/2007/10/21/bon-dia-barcelona/#comments Sun, 21 Oct 2007 14:11:53 +0000 admin http://www.thingsofrandomcoolness.com/2007/10/21/bon-dia-barcelona/

Don’t Worry, I haven’t developed a soup fetish! I know I posted about another design soup bowl the other day, and now I’m about to do it again, but it’s just a coincidence! It seems we’re on the edge of a new trend for designer soup bowls. And the Topography Soup Plate by Kyouei Design is a corker! Plus the wonderfully disjointed english blurb they have on the site is like somekind of crazy beat poetry:

please pour the soup into this plate. mountain range and a lake are completed. and the bottom of a lake appears when you eat the soup. please enjoy the taste, the landscape and topography of the plate. when you use it as a salad dish, it becomes a forest. you can create a landscape on your very own table.

See more work by Kyouei Design.

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.

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.

Hola España! Bonjour France! With all the endless rain we’ve been getting so far this summer in the UK, Miss Random Fashion Coolness and I have decided to hit the south of Spain/France for the summer. So normal Things of Random Coolness transmissions will be momentarily interrupted until we reach the Mediterranean and set up base camp.

If any of the Spanish/French readers have any good recommendations on things to see/do/eat/etc, please let me know.

A gallery where you can spent the night. That is what a hotel in one of the Berlin’s most exciting neighborhoods is often called. The Arte Luise Kunsthotel offers almost 50 rooms, each one decorated by a renowned artist.

Check out the rooms to see all the individual room concepts. There’s some interesting themes going on.

If you ever find yourself in Berlin, it might be worth checking into the Arte Luise Kunsthotel.

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.

Home alone. My girlfriend went to Valencia for the Fallas Festival this weekend, while I sat at home sulking about the fact I couldn’t go.

Knowing that I’m a whore for fresh design stuff, she kindly took loads of interior photos of the Aqua Hotel she stayed (talk about rubbing my face in it!). I’ve shoved the photos up on Flickr if anyone else is a whore for modern interior design. I particularly love these amazing tiles.

So, If anyone is over in Valencia, the Confortel Aqua Hotel Valencia might make a hip place to stay.

Is it weird to enjoy the interior design, rather than the food, in a restaurant? When I was in Paris recently I went to a Japanese restaurant that had some amazing pendant lights. I grabbed this photo, and I’ve been trying to figure out who designed it ever since.

It turns out that it’s called the Big Bang, made by Foscarini, and designed by Enrico Franzolini & Vicente Garcia Jimenez. It’s pretty expensive, but if you see one in a real enviroment it’ll blow you away. The photos don’t do justice to it’s design or it’s large size.

It’s available from places like Made in Design and Purves in Europe.

Sorry, no posts for a few days! I’m popping over to Paris for a few days before Christmas, so I won’t be posting anything for the next few days. I’ll be staying in Christian Lacroix’s Hotel du Petit Moulin, which is a fantastic hotel for the design-concious traveller, but I’ll tell you more about that on my return.

See you all soon!

Travel in style. I love this Bag from Rockwell Clothing. The Rockwell Clothing company is run by Parra, an underground star in Amsterdam, where his work is treasured by a generation of design fanatics.

Check out Parra’s illustration work.