5 Italian Furniture Favorites from Gallotti&Radice

Irwin Weiner ASID - I'm having fun with the new Home catalog from contemporary Italian designers Gallotti&Radice. Their so-chic offerings are client pleasers, and I've been having fun proposing items for projects requiring high style, great design, and timeless modernity. Here are five current favorites from their catalog - but, believe me, there are more favorites to be had. Click on each photo for more product information.

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Columbus Day Video: Visit to a Fishing Village on the Italian Riviera

Irwin Weiner ASID - As a South African, and essentially a long-term guest in the United States, it's fascinating to me that we celebrate Columbus Day throughout most of the country. Of course Christopher Columbus didn't "discover" America - it was always here, native americans were here first, other explorers may have traveled here long before, and so on. But the holiday has morphed into more of a celebration of Italian American heritage, focusing on the Genovan Cristoforo Colombo, and it's in that spirit that we feature today's design video on the architecture and street scenes of the small Italian fishing village of Camogli, not too far from Genova (near Portofino, on the Italian Riviera). The video is beautifully photographed by noted nautical and sailing photographer Onne van der Wal (Dutch born, he grew up in South Africa, and now lives in Rhode Island).

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Summer Luxury Video: Dream Yacht

Irwin Weiner ASID - In my next life, I'm going to have a yacht - and I think it will be the Diamond 70 shown in today's featured design video. The deck levels have been brought right down to ocean level to recreate a poolside experience - smart design. The pool on the lower deck features a transparent LCD hatch (made from a thick resin material).

There's also an "American-style" bar with armchairs, a sauna, and a dive room. And, well, it might be fun to have my own helicopter, too. The Italian marine firm Avadesign has this 70-meter concept by Andrea Vastano, and it's designed to be "sort of" green - aluminum construction, with four decks integrating low fuel consumption and technology in place to reduce emissions from two diesel engines and two electric engines couples with gas turbines.

Bonus

Click here to watch another video with a pool in it, albeit on dry land: Amazing Technology Turns a Patio Into a Pool (fun to watch - I'd like one of these, too).

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Wish List: Italian Style Home Goods from Promemoria

Irwin Weiner ASID - If you've ever had a decorating experience with a vendor, you know that some of the items they carry are grand and you'd use them for any client. Some things are so-so, and you hold your nose a bit and bear with it when a client falls in love with something not quite so wonderful ... but you go ahead with the purchase regardless because it's a client must-have. And then there are dreadful items where you ardently talk your client out of their infatuation with something akin to design drek. But a year ago, a ray of sunlight burst onto the New York City showroom scene, and while I've never shopped at Promemoria for a client - yet - I have a powerful hunger to buy out their store, so to speak. These Italian home goods are stylish and beautifully tailored, like items you'd see at the finest Italian 5-star hotel. I've included some of my favorites below, and for more information you can visit the Promemoria website. (And if any of my clients are reading this post, let's go shopping at Promemoria in 2012!)

Stretch Velvet Rainbow: Bilou Bilou Large Chairs

Perfect Tailoring: Mogador Sofa

Light Fantastic: Misultin Table Lamp

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