Art Gone Wild in Marseille Hotel Suites

Irwin Weiner ASID - I've often said that artwork makes a room special - but the Hotel Au Vieux Panier in Marseille, France turned over their room decor to top artists who produced unique creations and turned "hotel style" on its head. Design2Share readers have often heard me criticize high-end luxury hotels for promoting a bland, homogenized look that's seeped into residential interior design.

When I tell a client that their house looks like a hotel, she will be pleased at first, until I tell her that it all looks like they're staging the home for resale (read: your house is devoid of charm and personality). Well, this French hotel takes the stuffings right out of my hotel style beef. Each room is loaded with intensity and artistic angst. You wouldn't want to live day in and day out in these rooms, but you'd certainly love a short stay in this homage to artistic expression.

Enjoy today's featured video on the making of the Panic Room, a graffiti-covered jewel by Talousse-based artist Tilt.

Bonus

Click here to watch videos and read our decorating essay on Art Matters.

And click here to watch the video on New York's "Naked Hotel" Boasts Addictive Video Screen Elevator.

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Beautiful Jewelry and Decorative Objects at De Vera

Irwin Weiner ASID - Last week I told you how I was early for a client appointment in lower Manhattan and took advantage of the extra time to go for a Soho neighborhood stroll, discovering some teriffic design stores. A cluster of posts on Design2Share have been devoted to telling you what I found during my pre-meeting walkabout - and my final post is on De Vera.

Federico de Vera designs jewelry. He collects art, religious artifacts, historic antiques, rare and curious oddities from all over the world - and they're found in NYC in two stores. I discovered his One Crosby Street location, but there's also one at 26 East 81 Street on the Upper East Side. It's difficult to describe any single object that I saw because, quite frankly, objects zoom in and out of the De Vera shops. Consider this the H&M of high-end decorative objects and one-of-a-kind jewelry. By all means, visit De Vera and enter Federico's fascinating world of collecting, designing, curating, and decoration.

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3 Most Outrageous Range Hood Designs from Best

Irwin Weiner ASID - It's a beautiful thing when art and appliances shake hands and fuse. They've done this in the various "chimney hood" and range hood exhaust systems in the Style and Lifestyle collections from Italy's Best S.p.A.

I've selected a few of my favorites - totally outrageous - and you can see that they don't really look like range hoods or cooking exhaust systems; when at rest and not in use, they're

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3 Favorite Tiffany Lamps

Irwin Weiner ASID - Louis Comfort Tiffany was a master of interior design and decoration, and the lamps he created in the Tiffany Studios kept up with the times, changing from oil and gas lamps to lamps powered by electricity. Here are three designs we really love; click on each photo for more information.

What lamps are currently pushing the envelope? Click here to learn more about Modern Sculptural Lighting.

The following video from the Reading Public Museum is a great review of Tiffany's business life and career. It's fascinating, and you'll learn many new details about this fascinating artist and businessman.

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