The table is made from zinc and I was very lucky at that time to find a quiet artistic workshop who where able to interprete my ideas.

photo credits:Kees Hageman. From the book ”Sierlijke potten by Elisabeth de Lestrieux”

I like the design and the pattern of these beautiful dresses.

Peter Pilotto and Christopher De Vos.

Entire collection to see via STYLE.COM

I hope that you enjoy this looks as much as I am.

Benoit.

At last I see in a European quality magazine an interior that is not minimalistic or vintage, put together with forgotten furniture from the attic that is whitewashed and boring.

This house has chic and is easy to live in, surrounded by objects of exceptional quality and contemporary art and above all a home feeling.

Grand living room.

another living room

library

A perfect and chic combination of contemporary art and various French antiques on a subtle coloured background.

Who would't dream of such a beautiful dressing room.

The Master bedroom.

The upstairs hallway.

Thanks for reading.

Benoit.

photo credits. Habitania magazine and Google.

Pieters studied at the Modeacademie in Antwerp and graduated in 1999 where after he went working for Christian Lacroix and Maison Martin Margiela and worked as a freelancer for www.delvaux.be. He went on producing his own label in 2001. After a stint  of 2 years from 1997 to 1999 as head designer of HUGO by Hugo Boss he went on a sabbatical journey through the south of India where he developed his new idea looking at the people using local materials to make their clothes. His team as well as himself looked for one year to source biological made fabrics and products.

Another innovation of him is to invite other designers to create and develop clothing that will be sold exclusively through his website and what is genius in all this transparency is except that you know what the garment cost to produce is that 20% of the benefits go to charity and 80% go back into investments in the business. He will produce Winter and summer collections in small quantities throughout the year and what is sold out will not be produced again.His clothes are not fashion, They are beautiful items that are investments and basics and that you wear with pleasure as a second skin. I believe that all of us have this kind of comfort zone items in our wardrobe that we can wear day in day out.

Bruno Pieters.

Image from honest by.... I love this skirt. Timeless fashion

Image from honest by....

Please have a look at his well designed site and look at the way he calculates everything till 4 numbers after the comma. allez in dutch , na de komma.

image from honest by....

Thank you for reading this article.

Benoit.

They asked me some advice for colour and I suggested to use a bold palette of strong colours  as they have a beautiful carpet in the evening room from www.lignepure.com .

All the soft furnishing that we choose till now are in harmony with the carpet, even if the carpet is in a different room.

Family room.

View from the dining space / family room to the evening room.

Detail of the carpet.

Let colour be part of enjoying daily life.

Thank you for reading.

Benoit

Pipistrello.

Gae Aulenti is the most famous Italian woman designer with international recognition from the second half of the twentieth century  .After studying architecture in Venice and Milan she went working as a graphic designer for the magazine Casabella . This from 1955 to 1965.

In the meantime she opened her studio in Milan and worked for Olivetti, Tecno,Knoll and Zanotta, between others. Her international fame came when she designed the Musee d’Orsay, located in the old train station of the Gare d’Orsay in Paris.

Musée d'Orsay. Image via Wikipedia

I will show you designs of her that are iconic and that I really love.

April stool for Zanotta. Designed in 1964.

Ruspa lamp for Martinelli designed in 1968.

Mezzopileo for Artemide. 1972

The one I prefer. the Patroclo lamp for Artemide. Designed in 1975.

Mezzoracolo for Artemide. 1968.

Aulenti was a very successful furniture designer and one of her most known pieces is this table for Fontana Arte.

Tavolo con ruoto for Fontana Arte. 1980.

I love this very chic coffee table that she designed for Knoll International in 1964.

Thank you for reading.

Benoit

Cream and celadon green collection

I like this small collection of celadon green and cream coloured pottery.It was made between the 1930s and 1960s by SPODE and is very beautiful used as a centrepiece on a dining table, filled with garden flowers and a lot of green leaves

on sale at www.collectionsof.com

 I am absolutely in love with the kind of architectural and strong linear gardens done by Caruncho.

Fernando Caruncho

Fernando Caruncho is best known for his minimalistic and contemporary gardens where light is one of the key elements together with water and geometry. He was born in Madrid in 1958 and after studying philosophy at the university of Madrid and learning of the Greek method of teaching in the garden, he was motivated to study at Castillo de Batres School in Madrid where he received a degree in landscape design in 1979. The obsession of Caruncho is the control of light. In Western cultures, light is often viewed as a source of wisdom; therefore it is an element of meditation in Caruncho’s gardens.

A great number of his gardens were realised in Spain and he translates elements of Arabic and Moorish gardens in his contemporary designs.

Mas de les Voltes in Mallorca.

playing with light.

Garden in Florida.

Thank you for reading.

Benoit

I have written the text mainly in Dutch and some English.As I intend to work most of the time in Belgium. A lot to declutter and rearrange in Flanders and elsewhere.

www.thehomewhisperer.com

House in Ibiza.

My favourite fabric designer in the eighties was Manuel Canovas, well known for his bold designs of flowers in the most elegant colour combinations assorted with an astonishing variety of plain fabrics as chintz, silk velours and satin cottons and this in the most marvellous colours. This was in the pre beige,greige, grey linen period we live in at the moment.

Manuel canovas

Another master of fabric creation was Jack Lenor Larsen. I worked with a travel case that contained little square samples of all the fabrics. Rich embroidered silks with little plasticised mirrors to the most dazzling handwoven wool fabrics to make cushions and upholster chairs.

Jack Lenor Larsen fabric for a chair designed by Pierre Paulin for Artifort.

For the more traditional interiors I worked a lot with a Swiss company called Zumsteg and the very old French house of Comoglio that was bought by Pierre Frey in the 1990s.To upholster chairs , my favourite material was horsehair by Le Crin. I also liked very much Rubelli and Colefax and Fowler. In the eighties working with Designers Guild and Souleiado was very fashionable. It was the period when the Indian cotton Dhurries were in fashion. An overload of soft colours and a base for many an interior. The most beautiful came from Shyam Ahuya, whom I visited in New Delhi.

Indian handwoven cotton dhurrie

It was in a period when going to Paris and London to do the fabric fairs was quite a posh. It was in a pre internet world. A smaller world where you could express yourself very individually.

Now things have changed. I think that people take less time for their house and go in the malström of mass ideas. In magazines and books, it is very often the same kind of interior that is showed, often without personality. Anyway the influential magazines of the 80′s and 90′s have disappeared and  what is left is of no comparison with what I was used to read.

Well, everything changes. Nothing stays the same and so did I. I had this wonderfull time being surrounded in my office with all those colours and fabrics and now I see decoration in a new way and with another kind of fabrics and inspirations

Fabrics that are soooo beautiful, but comes from Market places wherever I travel. I buy old French bedsheets to make slipcovers. I go to Zara Home for pillows and throws ,Ian Mankin has wonderful striped cottons and I like a lot of  cushions at Ikea and Hema. I buy wool fabrics in clothes fabric shops to cover seats and I like pinstripe fabric for suits to make curtains. With some luck and patience I find the most amazing linens for normal prices and of course I let my imagination work in another way. Fun and versatility, changing moods, evolutional moods. Creativity, Low budget thinking and a lot of wandering around open my mind to constant innovative ideas.

Colours ins clothes fabric shop.

Silk velours in a London market.

Ian Mankin - London.

So chic.

 When it is possible to use fabrics made in the region where I work, I do it. I use Mallorquina fabric in a house in Ibiza and I use linen in Belgium.

Typical Mallorquina.

Belgian Linen.

photo credits: Pinterest.