Wrought iron furniture
Wrough iron design for the Hotel Amba in Taipei
A trip to Taiwan
BHAVEN JANI
An island barely four hundred kilometers in length and even less across, one might suspect you’d fall off into the sea if you ran too fast in any direction.
Not bound by such limitations Taiwan is where one experiences spectacular modes of transport; a high-speed train, dangling cable cars and ornate boats.
Hotel Amba where we spend our first night in Taipei requires special mention, for its location and character. A very casual ambience and club like atmosphere, wrought iron chairs and bookracks decorate its dining area.
Go down the elevator and you emerge outside a MAC store, right at the most happening intersection of Ximending, the mother of all night markets. It’s so lively, bustling, dynamic and vibrant, even a non-shopper like me doesn’t want the night to end.
from asianage.com
Wrought iron stove for a classic Cape house
Cape House Hunt: Heritage abounds in classic Federal
By KATHY SHARP FRISBEE
Some of the splendors of the Cape are heirloom homes, like this classic Federal-style house built in 1807 in a quiet corner of Barnstable village.
Spacious rooms have hosted the lifestyles and comforts of various owners for two centuries, including a deacon, a Massachusetts senator, a shipmaster who sailed to China five times, a bank president and merchant, two judges and a lawyer. Homes that survive time like this one serve as emissaries from the past, deserving of restoration and renovation-minded owners to take them into the future.
Shaded by a chestnut tree and surrounded by rolling acres edged with stone walls and a stream, the home’s slate and bluestone front steps rise to a columned entry. Inside are a wide center hall, three staircases, front parlors, dining room and large bedrooms, all with original pine floors, wide baseboards, horsehair plaster walls, high ceilings, and window and door casings with fluted and roundel moldings.
The south parlor has double crown moldings and a Rumford fireplace with an Elizabethan-style mantel and curved brackets. Adjacent is a library and a south-facing sunroom with pine tongue-and-groove paneling and 14 tall, muntined windows.
Wainscoting in the dining room and front parlors have 28-inch wide pine planks running their full length. The kitchen, which needs updating, began as a summer kitchen and includes a staircase to a second-floor housekeeper’s suite.
The front parlor is warmed by a coal stove with ornate wrought iron and imported green leaf tile detailing. A side hall leads to a bedroom that was once an office, with tall windows and period interior doors with tiger maple panels.
from capecodonline.com
Vintage wrought iron crib for sale
Vintage Wrought Iron Crib
Bring back the heyday of responsible child-rearing: the Victorian Era!
By Matthew Hampton
Is your child sleeping TOO soundly at night? If so, it might be interesting to yank that racecar bed out from under them and start forcing them to slumber in this vintage crib/child prison.
Admittedly, you don’t have to buy this thing for a child. It could just as easily be an unsettling piece in a Miss Havisham-style personal museum of lost youth that you’ve cobbled together in a dusty wing of your mansion. Or, as the Craigslist poster describes, “a terrace couch.”
Wrought iron furniture for Madame Brussels : Melbourne’s many roof-top bars
Melbourne is known for its laneways.
RACHEL NICKLESS
Venture up some grubby stairs away from the bustling office workers on Melbourne’s Bourke Street and you arrive at a garden scene of pink walls, synthetic turf and white wrought iron furniture. Hipster waiting staff in retro outfits, who look as if they have just stepped off the croquet lawn, are serving pink cupcakes and bubbles to an assorted crowd relaxing in the spring sunshine.
This is Madame Brussels, one of Melbourne’s many roof-top bars, which serves everything from high tea in the day to late-night drinks.
“I call it Wisteria Lane meets Alice in Wonderland meets Peggy Guggenheim in her palazzo in Venice” announces the husky-voiced Miss Pearls, who is a co-owner of the bar she presides over.
There is something deeply politically incorrect about Miss Pearls, a former actor who sees the world as her stage. The Melbourne eccentric is fond of throwing fur parties in her back room – decorated as a gentleman’s club – and on the day I meet her is proud of several pairs of white ’70s tennis shorts she has bought and is determined to squeeze her young male staff into.
Miss Pearls is no stranger to taking a fashion risk herself. She has commissioned a young taxidermist to create her race-day hat and shows off a beautifully crafted headpiece made out of rather a lot of a dead magpie.
Welcome to Australia’s quirkiest city, where many of the best destinations for those visiting during the spring racing carnival are not at eye level.
“What I find about Melbourne is the hidden aspect, whether it’s dining, shopping or cocktails, has become really important to the city’s identity,” says shopping blogger Lady Melbourne (it seems honorifics are very de rigueur in this city).
“Melbourne makes you work for its shopping but if you are prepared to do the work you will be very well rewarded,” says the Lady, otherwise known as Phoebe Montague.
Dressed in a long cardigan and sporting glittering blue nails, Lady Melbourne takes us to the GPO for a spot of designer shopping, then we wind through beautiful arcades, up stairs and down alleys to discover out of the way shops such as Alice Euphemia, which stocks only Australian and New Zealand-designed fashion and jewellery, European designer store Marais and the Scandinavian store Somewhere.
For male punters, Henry Bucks in Collins Street and City Hatters at Flinders Street station are good destinations to pick up a hat.
For well-heeled women seeking race-day accessories, the perfect stop is Christine’s at 181 Flinders Lane. Down some steps and with a red tartan hallway entrance, the uninitiated could mistake this treasure trove – which is fit to make Carrie Bradshaw swoon – for a cheap vintage clothes shop.
This is the passion of professional bowerbird Christine Barro, who spent a quarter of a century buying glittering things for the former Melbourne destination store Georges, before opening her own store.
There is a bouquet of Philip Treacy hats, including his signature gondola hat, and the pillbox hat of the style worn by Victoria Beckham to the 2011 royal wedding. A $6950 pillbox studded with hand-sewn Swarovski crystals is the most outrageous of the collection. There are also Lanvin and Celine bags and shoes, and Adrian Lewis jewellery made from horn and quartz.
Melbourne’s changeable weather may be the butt of many interstate jokes, but Barro, who grew up in Sydney, insists that “the weather in Melbourne allows people to be more stylish because you can layer up”. She says that “it allows Melburnians to be more creative, because you are not outdoors as much, you are indoors doing something”.
to be continued
from afr.com
Abu Dhabi wrought iron design for the Lanvin new boutique
Lanvin Inaugurates their New Boutique at ‘the Avenue’ at Abu Dhabi’s Etihad Towers
Renowned French fashion house Lanvin celebrates the inauguration of their new women’s boutique at ‘The Avenue’ in Abu Dhabi’s Etihad Towers. A contemporary mix of angular and linear patterns, the boutique is juxtaposed against rustic wrought iron display cabinets. The black and white checkered floor gives the boutique a modern edge, while exotic zebra skins add to the authenticity and is complemented by the bright pop colors of the brand’s collection of accessories which are displayed elegantly within mirrored box shelves.
Included is Lanvin Petite for the aspiring fashion-focused youth of the region. With a selection of intricately stitched dresses for ages 4 to 12, and patent colored ballerinas, both mother and daughter can look elegant in Lanvin. The boutique, which is situated on the lower level of the new shopping haven, devotes a corner to the beautiful Blanche collection. With a mix of delicate dresses and demure accessories, the radiant selection of romantic ensembles caters to any bride’s taste.
Teaming up with Avenue at Etihad Towers, the opening of the boutique was celebrated in typical Lanvin style. Running alongside the grand opening event at the Avenue at Etihad Towers, the brand presented the best of the Fall Winter collection in a luxury fashion show. While guests explored the newly opened stores, Lanvin celebrations were in full swing with animated and lively decorations displayed, inspired by the 10 year anniversary celebrations of Alber Elbaz at Lanvin. Brightly colored balloons, dancing mannequins and a vibrant window display attracted guests, while an in-store artist entertained them with Lanvin style portraits. Guests could chose a dress from the Fall Winter collection, along with accessories from the store, while the artist drew them in full Lanvin glory.
from hauteliving.com
