Artsy Appeal: Intimate + Fidel Design Focus

To buy an original work of art from a top contemporary artist to display in your home, you can either visit an international auction house or arrange for a private viewing appointment at a showroom in London, Paris, Tokyo or New York. The champagne and amuse-bouches will be free, but make sure you bring plenty of money.

For considerably less effort and expense, you can now visit a pop-up shop, an online store, or a department store where you can also buy an original item from a top contemporary artist to decorate your home or living space. Contemporary artists and creative 21st century trendsetters are shifting their focus beyond galleries and museums into living rooms, lounges, bedrooms and kitchens. This emerging wave of artist-branded items, homewares and decorative pieces is making an impact on the world of interior design and the decorators, interiors designers and urban art lovers who are in the know.

Artists and estates licensing the copyright of their images to merchandising partners and manufacturers is nothing new. What is new is the visibility of the artists in the current group, plus the demand from market savvy buyers which shows that making even a small art based purchase now can be both aesthetically pleasing and have great(er) investment value later on. Also new are the type of items contemporary artists are creating. Long gone is the cheesy artist pencil set and 11x17 museum shop poster. In their place are imaginative, cool, functional and collectible art objects that are expanding and redefining the design and decor universe. For those looking to bring modern art into their everyday world, update a room, decorate a space or simply acquire a special piece to appreciate and use, Intimate + Fidel presents a roll call of a few of the top artists today and a run down of the items you can currently buy.

Japanese Pop Art master Takashi Murakami has breathed new life and relevance into the humble pillow and throw cushion via his multicolour smiley-face sunflower and octopus interpretations. Plushie style items were previously assigned to toddler and infant spaces. Murakami’s versions have been discovered by a new, mature audience which has given them a more featured decorating role. The pillows change hands on eBay and other online sites for between $200 to $1000, depending on size, and can be found worldwide in the most adult of rooms and locations.

English superstar Damian Hirst is notorious for his shocking creations like sharks and cows suspended in formaldehyde and his cold, menacing diamond Mayan skull, For The Love of God. Turning his focus to the home...and using a more gentle expression, Hirst has produced a range of delicate butterfly printed deckchairs, and even more unexpectedly, a collection of decorating wallpapers, one with a kaleidoscope of insects and another of oddly soothing everyday over-the-counter pharmacy pills. The price? $324 USD per 33 foot roll.

No list of contemporary artists would be complete without the presence of Jean-Michel Basquiat. Moving away from dorm posters and t-shirts, and offering a modern take on dinnerware, the Haitian American artist’s cracked-out two dimensional images have now landed in fine style on the Yoox.com eCommerce website. Among the available items that take dining to the next level are AAA Limoges crafted $169 espresso sets, plates from $97, and a series of centre piece trays at $145.

Still a highly elusive figure after 25 years, Banksy is a folk hero and cult art celebrity across the world. His mostly black and white stencil pieces have seemingly magically appeared overnight on walls, buildings and murals on almost every continent. An expert marketer, Banksy’s most recent project is a pop-up shop and online store called Gross Domestic Product. Among the items available for sale: wall clocks featuring stencilled rats, £500, a glitterball police helmet, £500, a now trademark shredded t-shirt of Girl Releases Balloon, £35, slogan chair and couch cushions, £150, a welcome mat with an attached life vest, £500, a plain brick with pink leather handles, £750, a panel of 3 gold framed pictures, also £750, a baby chandelier covered in surveillance cameras and repurposed Nike and Adidas t-shirts. As expected from an artist with his skill, notoriety and social media clout, (6.7 million Instagram followers) all the items were completely sold out within minutes.


Copyright (C) 2019 Intimate + Fidel. All Rights Reserved.

English Glamour - Annabel's London

A picture is worth a thousand words, and in the case of London’s Annabel’s, this statement is spectacularly true. Situated in the middle of Mayfair, the private, members only club was designed by Swedish Interior architect and product designer Martin Brudnizki, and is a fantasy masterpiece of colour, whimsy and attention to detail. 2 doors down from its original location, Annabel’s has been a destination for royalty, high society, Hollywood elite, the rich and the famous since 1962 when it first opened.

The new Annabel’s is housed in a Grade 1 listed Georgian townhouse at Number 46 Berkley Square, just streets away from Nobu, The Palm Beach Casino and Claridges Hotel. At Annabel’s, the treat begins outside the front door. The exterior facade of the four-storey period building is completely flowered in a stunning blanket of pink and orange roses. The effect is colourful, delightful and a stark contrast to the dull grey and brown stone walls of the neighbouring buildings.

Inside, the interior design and decor are quite simply magical and fully deliver on the opulent promise of the outside. Every inch of the 26,000 sq ft private dinning and entertaining venue is a visual, tactile, sensory treat. Dozens of architectural and decorative details abound - from moulded sterling gilded ceilings to a perspex covered outdoor garden terrace. It is a dazzling example of how commercial design can inspire home interiors - via the attention to detail, to grandiose layers of texture and the play on curvilinear design. Enchanting fabric uses are also employed to illustrate and build up interior composition: masterful furniture upholstery, abundant tufting and lush draping. For the visitor...this is a place where words cannot fully describe the atmosphere and the exclusive ambiance. A Picasso painting hangs in the reception area, and above in the central foyer entrance...a giant white horse is suspended carnival-style and winged in gold. Each room in Annabels showcases lavish personal comfort and design intricacies swell throughout. The smoking lounge resembles a period English cigar store, complete with angled shelves, vintage lamps, side tables and gold riveting on the panelled green leather. Inside the Mexican Room/bar, golden ceilings illuminate red and yellow club chairs and Persian carpets, while framed prints and drawings pattern the walls and shelves.
To quote from the home website, “Annabel’s has earned a global reputation founded on superb service, first class cuisine and unparalleled entertainment.” These elements are masterfully expressed in the private dining rooms and garden terrace where crystal chandeliers hang over crisp white table linens, surrounded by low-backed dinning chairs with silver handles. The silver and white china impeccably matching the ivory and sterling drapes.

Annabel’s after-dark components are just as compelling and marvellously presented. The hallway to the nightclub is carpeted in plush blue and white with red serpents, elephants and fish figures outlined in the pattern. The walls are decorated in a thick navy chinoiserie print. At the end of the hallway, a life-sized gorilla sits perched on a low ottoman. Inside, mirrored inset banquets are intensified and highlighted with curved gold and red fabric ceilings and a continuous row of contrasting-matching pillows. “Fabulous party dressing” is encouraged for guests and patrons. Special attention is given to the top floor ladies bathrooms which have been described as an “explosion of pink.” Pink silk hand embroidered wall panels mesh sublimely with thousands of silk rose colour flowers in the ceiling and the coral-blush sinks. The final flourish? Each basin is dressed with swan shaped gold sculpted taps. Click through the Intimate + Fidel video gallery to view all the images of Annabel’s exquisite decor, flawless design and magical interior.

Copyright: Intimate + Fidel 2019.
File Under: Design Spotlight. Hospitality: Restaurant and Bars.

Nice to meet you...

Intimate and Fidel introduces... The Spaces, www.TheSpaces.com is an alluring and luxurious website which covers Architecture, Interiors, Art, Property and Travel. The site’s presentation is a quietly magnetic mix of plush layout, visually striking photography and spontaneously discrete writing. Visiting The Spaces.com website feels like being a guest in a hushed, expensive and elegant boutique hotel which you hope you never have to leave. More than just another pretty website with posts headlined in 10point arial font and a classical drop-down menu, the featured design and inspiration articles on The Spaces.com are smart, captivating and cover a vast range of creative projects. This is a comprehensively well informed, well sourced and well researched site which offers an infinity of inspiration and interior design resource.

A recent scroll through the site featured a headline story on the best riads and villas in Marrakech, Morocco, an article on Mr Kanye West’s old New York city apartment and a feature on English lighting designer Lee Broom.

In a field where focus is too often turned on a few well known and often-viewed sites, The Spaces is fresh view point for Intimate + Fidel where visitors and interior design experts alike can have a picture window view into the latest of design. In a splendid balance of realtor property photos, screen caps from Instagram and social media posts, the property section is a luxe “digest of the besthomes for rent and sale across the world.” See at a glance what you can rent for €5,500 a night in Ibiza or discover a red cabin home on its own island in Sweden. The section frequently highlights in-the-raw spaces before they are decorated, a day dreamy like suggestion as to what an interior decorator could, might do with an empty space, On the other end of the spectrum, the interiors link illustrates a multitude of completed designs and projects, a perennial favourite for professionals and those simply looking for inspiration. Spark your imagination or simply transport yourself to a fancy location. There is a seemingly never ending stream of decorating visions to see. One more reason to love The Spaces? The art section of the site. Often overlooked on most interior design websites, here art is given a showcase and deserving presence as a recognized feature of any truly complete room or project. From the latest Banksy objet or mural...to splendid and strange installations in the desert at Burning Man, there are paintings, sculptures and fashionable installations to satisfy any gaze.

As a new discovery for Intimate + Fidel, we are pleased to add The Spaces.com to the selection of permanent links on our blog and of course encourage you to bookmark and visit the site as often as possible.

http://www.thespaces.com/marrakech-holiday-homes-for-rent//