Design Debate

Oh I love this, a converted bank in Rome really knows how to make a scene. The Rome Edition was a 1940s bank designed by Cesare Pascoletti and Marcello Piacentini and now has a second life as a 91 bedroom hotel.  The colour of each space is limited and intense, be that coming from the wall to ceiling foliage in the courtyard or the epic draping curtains in the lobby in their verdant green or the cobalt blue furnishings of the bar. The super focussed pallet really sets the mood. The rooms though tell a different story. Smooth and subtle, the walnut panelling and strokable leather have a calming mid century vibe. The rooms feel safe, secure and snuggled, rather like a journey perhaps on the Orient Express but with more space to drape your dresses. These are a stylish blank canvases for you to paint your own story. The thing with a hotel is everyone there has a story to tell, something to conceal, something to celebrate. This space feels like a story in itself, like you have climbed i...

Absorbing myself in the world of internet publications, it was lovely when reading posts on Berlin-based website Ignant to find an artist in Cornwall I hadn't heard of. I am sure there are many I don't yet know, but finding an artist from my neck of the woods just makes me feel instantly intrigued by their work. Jess Allen , originally from Dorset, is married to sculptor Simon Allen and lives on the moorland near St Ives, the Cornish town famed for its wonderful light.  Light is important to Allen, her paintings return to the theme of shadows, impressions and moments that are so evocative and familiar they draw us in. Her subjects are minimal, inconsequential even, but beautiful. An open book left on the side, an embrace played out on the living room wall in shadow form or perhaps stacks of cardboard boxes, piled in such a way we stand and stare where naturally we would pay no heed.  It is the peace also I feel enriched by, Jess says o...