Green walls

It's everywhere... it's more than a trend, it's a "green trend".
More and more, we are seeing green walls, aka living walls or vertical gardens.

Living walls or green walls are self sufficient vertical gardens that are attached to the exterior or interior of a building. They differ from green façades (e.g. ivy walls) in that the plants root in a structural support which is fastened to the wall itself. The plants receive water and nutrients from within the vertical support instead of from the ground.

This excerpt is from "www.greenovergrey.com", a Canadian company the specializes in green walls.
It's quite a fascinating project that creates no damage to the exterior or interior wall. It comes with an automatic irrigation system and is hydroponic (soil less). SOLD!


What is amazing as well, is that frames are used to group the plants together, which allows you create patterns and designs:

In addition to aesthetics, there are many other benefits in having a green wall:

• indoor air quality (purifies air)
• LEED credits
• reduces stress and enhance wellbeing
• building protection
• energy savings by cooling the inside air
• accoustics

Green walls accommodate floral perennials, foliage plants, small shrubs, moss and succulents, making a green wall design interesting and dynamic.

Here are some Canadian applications:

Edmonton's International Airport

ING Cafe - Downtown Toronto

Surrey - BC, Library - Largesy living wall in North America

And why not throw some more amazing residential  and commercial applications:

Now do you want one? I do :-)
After doing some online research, succulents seem to be the best suitable type of plants to create a more "urban"/"easy to maintain" green wall. 
This link has a great DIY project using succulents. The results are amazing:

Not too far from Toronto, in Niagara Falls Urban Oasis Tropical Plantscapes offers a great variety of services, including green walls, free standing or fixed.

Hope you got inspired as much as I did and that next time you see one, you go: wow! genius! 

Theo Flamenbaum

- Style + Function + Love + You - 

"Summer whites"

Hola :-)

 White is king! White has the powerful effect of making a room fresh, sophisticated and yet tie all other colours together. I heart white. Crate and Barrel's "summer whites" page is amazing.
It has some great ideas and stuff to whiten any room in your home.

I loved particularly:

• Gingko Leaf Plate

• Holden Ivory Pillow

• Pleat white megaphone pendant lamp

Theo Flamenbaum

- Style + Function + Love + You -

VIVA ITALIA

Hello bloggers,

You know that I love to feature here my latest findings, stores etc.
This past week, I was walking on King St east near Jarvis. I was a bit in a rush but I glanced inside this Italian Furniture Store "Calligaris" and needed to come in because of the below:

Mya chair

So I went back to take a further look inside. A very nice sales associate (Anne) helped me out falling even more in love with their stuff.

The pieces are all made and shipped from Italy. With dazzling dining sets and living room pieces, Calligaris's style is crisp, clean yet edgy, kinda like me :-)

I would like to highlight their multiple stylish expandable dining tables with simple slide and snap mechanisms.

Airport table

So my picks are:

Astro table

Tokyo Table

Lib Shelving

Seattle Media Unit

L'eau chair

Wien Chair (spin-off of the iconic Thonet chair)

Theo Flamenbaum

- Style + Function + Love + You -

2 cabinet styles, 1 kitchen

Ola bloggers,
So today, I decided to feature a design element/style that it's not overly done but yet, adds a dynamic kick a kitchen design: Upper and lower cabinets in 2 different styles.

-Everyone is always concerned about "what colour do I paint my kitchen cabinets". My answer would be: pick  2!
When space is available (in a very small kitchen it wouldn't work as well, and it would just look odd), adding 2 different finishes in the kitchen cabinets will create a visual interest making your eye travel up and down.

There are endless ways go about doing this.
We can play with the following things:

• Dual tone cabinets:

•  Opposites (very common - black/white):

• Different finishes/materials:

Wood lower cabinets and frosted glass uppers

Wood table/island on right side, and high gloss lacquer on the left

•  High contrast:

And finally, for a more traditional approach, you can definitely use white paneled cabinets wrapping around the kitchen and use a dark stain/colour island to anchor the room or the opposite:

• Different island:

Finally, my favorite combination:

• Using a walnut veneer finish and a high gloss/lacquer. It marries "earthy" with "modern" in the most harmonious way possible, playing with uppers and lowers, islands and cabinetry, right/left side etc:

Your choices are limitless just like your designer's imagination ;-)

Theo Flamenbaum

- Style + Function + Love + You -

Moooi vs Bocci

Hello dear blog readers.

Today I will talk about my current 2 favourite light pendants.

I have been in love with both of them since they came out and if I had to choose one of the 2 to use in my own place for example, I would have a really hard time.

• BOCCI 14 collection 

"This low voltage pendant is designed to be clustered. Each individual pendant is an articulated cast glass sphere with a frosted cylindrical void that houses either a 10 watt xenon or 1.5 watt LED lamp" from Bocci.ca

The appeal of this lighting is the cascading effect that it creates:

"The pendant lengths are pre-set during production and are not site adjustable. The client specifies the shortest and longest lengths when ordering. Cable lengths over the standard 10’ (3m) are available up to 120’ (36m) for special requests."

They come in a variety of single pendants, 3, 5, 7, 14 21, 26 and 36.

What is amazing about these is the airy effect, almost like fireflies.

I believe that the best residential application for this would be for: foyer/staircase or centered above a stunning dining table!

• MOOOI  - Raimond model

"THE RAIMOND LAMP: A PERFECT SPHERE OF MATHEMATICAL INGREDIENTS PUNCTUATED BY TINY LED LIGHTS. LOOKING AT THE LAMP FEELS LIKE STARING INTO THE SOFT GLOW OF A STARRY NIGHT. INTO THE ESSENCE."

This spheric pendant is dotted with LED lamps creating an even luminescence that will never burn.

This pendant comes in 6 different diameters making it able to fit in any possible room.

 

                             

They are both absolutely beautiful and so versatile. Which ones strikes your fancy more?

Theo Flamenbaum

- Style + Function + Love + You -