Where Inspiration Comes From

An Art Deco 1930s house perched in the hills of the art district above Rio. They call St Teresa the ´Montmarte of the Tropics´and with its antiquated yellow tram rattling its way down cobbled streets with an expansive view over the city, you can´t help but see why.

And in this house? Once you´ve walked in the darkness of a mood evoking tunnel, closed the metal shuttered doors of the lift and ascended up into the heart of the casa you open the doors into a palace of simple elegance.

The place feels French first of all, like a 1930s film noir, but with fabrics, patterns and colours which offer a contemporary slant to the home.

You walk through the spacious dinning and living area - with its 50s lounge chairs and cushions dressed in natural and colourful patterns, and electic ephemera adorning the sideboard to a glass walled green room overlooking the Centro. With this dramatic backdrop you relax with a cup of chinese tea, taking in the mix of architecture - from the brooding Cathedral to the progressive 60s Petrobas building.

And onto your room, the Sony TV the only sign that you in the present. An Art Deco bathroom with a brave mud green ceiling, beautifully paterned tiles and a bath big enough for a family. And is in the rest of the house colourful patterns of plants, lines and nature - all the work of a french designer - Laurent, the owner of a French Agency - Robert De Helios. You can find his fabrics, cushions bags and hats in Selfridges, Barneys and La Gallerie Lafayette in Paris.

As luck would have it Laurent was our host for the new year, and as those of you who know me... take a good story, a connection and a creative medium (in this case a camera) and click... another idea. Keep you~re eyes peeled on this one...