The lush life: Larry Laslo's Bungalow

A little over a year ago, interior designer Larry Laslo decamped from a triplex on Manhattan's Upper East Side to a charming cottage in Palm Beach, Florida. His new home, he quips, is "like living in Tahiti, with a Chanel shop six blocks away." After all, where else can you nip into town for enough Swarovski crystals to bejewel 200 tulle gift bags, fill them with painted eggs, and then hide them beneath a tangle of 100-foot banyan trees and 80-foot palms?

Laslo, who first came to the world's attention with his dazzling transformation of Bergdorf Goodman in the 1980s, now attracts a sophisticated international clientele that appreciates his passion for traditional styles and his talent for adapting those styles to the present. The urge to put that talent into play kicked in when a friend showed him a bungalow in one of Palm Beach's landmarked districts. "He was afraid it wasn't stately enough for me," Laslo says. "I've always liked to live in a grand, historic way." For someone who has owned an enviable string of New York City homes—sprawling uptown apartments with multiple working fireplaces, private elevators, and million-dollar views of Central Park—a 3,500-square-foot, two-­bedroom bungalow would hardly seem impressive.

via: elledecor

A Super Model Home

Traditionally, low-carbon housing has been a relatively high-cost affair, with its reliance on photovoltaics, gray-water systems and iPhone-controlled appliances. But a new kind of prefab house aims to put the highest environmental features and the lowest possible price under one roof. Last month, Santa Monica-based LivingHomes debuted its latest model, the C6, in Long Beach, California. The 1,232-square-foot, three-bedroom, two-bath house takes two months to construct and just one day to install on-site. Total price: $179,000 in most states. That’s less than half the cost of LivingHomes’ other models, according to the company’s chief executive Steve Glenn. “The two biggest cost categories in homes are materials and labor,” he says. “We got the C6 price down by sourcing lower-priced materials and by simplifying details so we needed less labor to construct the homes.”

This all isn’t to say that the structures skimp on style. Designed as part of a partnership with Make It Right, the nonprofit founded by Brad Pitt and architect William McDonough, the C6 homes were inspired by iconic developer Joe Eichler, who built low-cost modern homes throughout California during the 1950s and 1960s. With a focus on indoor/outdoor living, the homes feature multiple sliding doors to the backyard and courtyard, understated cork floors, wood ceilings, VOC-free paints, and, proving that no detail is too small, recyclable doorknobs.

Christian Liaigre's Showrooms

Christian Liaigre expands his empire with showrooms in Manhattan and Miami—and an array of stunning new pieces.

Step inside one of Christian Liaigre's Paris showrooms and it is immediately clear why he is considered to be among the world's top designers of furniture and interiors. His pieces are elegant and comfortable; his environments are spare, luxurious, and soothing. "Christian is simply the best," says André Balazs, who helped bring the Frenchman's sensual aesthetic to America in the mid-1990s when he hired him to design New York's Mercer hotel. "He's refined and soulful, with an exquisite sense of restraint."

And yet, until now, Liaigre's work has been available in the U.S. only on a limited basis. That is finally about to change. Thanks to a major investment in his brand by Edmond de Rothschild Capital Partners, this spring Liaigre will open his first New York flagship, an Upper East Side townhouse consisting of a three-story showroom and a floor devoted to his design studio. A second Liaigre outlet, in Miami, will be completed by this summer. (Both the New York and Miami spaces will be open to the public.)
Liaigre's designs are also being sold to the trade in 11 additional U.S. cities, including through Thomas Lavin in Los Angeles, George Cameron Nash in Dallas, and De Sousa Hughes in San Francisco. "We think Christian's brand has huge potential for growth, both in the U.S. and globally, in such places as Russia, Brazil, and China," says Eric de Montgolfier, a managing partner at Edmond de Rothschild. 
For the perfectionist designer, who opened his first studio in Paris in 1985, taking control of how his furniture collection is displayed and sold is critical to the future of his business. His goal with his new showrooms is to create environments that feel both casual and chic. In the New York townhouse, walls painted multiple shades of white will serve as a serene backdrop for Liaigre's meticulously handcrafted furnishings. "Twenty-five years ago, interiors were very fussy," he says. "But luxe today is space, air, and light."
For his latest furniture collection, Liaigre has reprised a handful of his iconic styles, from Florentine and Bocca, his sculptural floor lamps, to the Bartholomeo desk, which he has reimagined in bronze and linen. But the majority of pieces are new, including the striking metal Ecuyer saddle stand, first designed for a friend, and the Misaine table, whose legs were inspired by the elegant curves of a horse's legs. "My favorite pieces are usually linked to a memory," says Liaigre, who spent part of his childhood on his grandfather's horse ranch in the Vendée region of western France. "The quality of execution is very important to me. Most everything I design is made in an atelier in the country by artisans who have been working for me for more than 30 years."
Liaigre's new studio in New York will also enable him to expand his interior design and architecture practice. His clientele has included Larry Gagosian, Karl Lagerfeld, and longtime patrons Rupert and Wendi Murdoch, for whom he has created two New York apartments, a sailing yacht, and a courtyard house in Beijing. "He is a true artist and collaborator," says Wendi. "His designs are warm and classic, light and organic. His vision is sophisticated but never sacrifices livability."
As busy as he is on the professional front, Liaigre also has his hands full at home. After many years in a modern apartment in the Marais district of Paris, he recently moved into an ornate 18th-century townhouse in the city's 7th arrondissement. "It's got painted boiseries and a lot of gold, like at Versailles, which is new for me," he says. "I am trying to design furniture that contrasts with this style. It's a big research project."
What's more, four years ago he and his wife, Déborah Comte-Liaigre, with whom he also works, welcomed their first child, son Léonard (Liaigre also has a 40-year-old daughter from a previous marriage).
"Sixty-seven is often the age when people stop," he says, "but my son makes me want to stay young, even if I'm not. There is a lot for me to be excited about. C'est formidable."

Petit and Olson on THENEWSHAPE

The Right Mix

A West Coast native combines vintage and modern chic in this Bainbridge Island shop.

Design aficionados in the Pacific Northwest are now turning to Bainbridge Island, Washington, for vintage decor and furnishings. One of the newest destinations, Petit and Olson, stocks Gustavian antiques alongside equestrian saddles and 1940s chairs upholstered in a cheetah-print fabric. Owner Kathryn Petit draws inspiration from the past—from her own Scandinavian and French roots and the provenance of the pieces she finds. “I always wonder about the story behind an item—I think about the house an antique was in and how it got here,” says Petit. The store also features new pieces, including red-and-cream hemp pillows by local textile designer Bainbridge Blues and bedding by John Robshaw. For those looking to adorn themselves as stylishly as their homes, Petit carries rings by Seattle-based designerJamie Joseph, Rebecca Ray handbags fashioned from grain sacks, and luxurious Magaschonicashmere.

Giampaolo Sgura and Miguel Arnau's Milan Home

In a factory building on the outskirts of Milan, a fashion photographer crafts a sleek loft that’s the perfect stopover in between his global travels.

In case there's any doubt about his jet-setting bona fides, the Italian fashion photographer Giampaolo Sgura puts this credo at the top of his frenetic Twitter feed: "Giampy lives in Milan and New York and travel world for his Passion!!!!" Fortunately, his partner, the Spanish menswear stylist Miguel Arnau, feels much the same way. So it is perhaps fitting that this high-flying duo has created a home in Milan inside a former airplane-assembly factory.

Sgura, who has shot advertising campaigns for Gucci and Dolce & Gabbana, bought the loft just over a decade ago after visiting a friend's architecture studio in east Milan. The gritty street was lined with old industrial buildings that were being converted to television and photography studios, design showrooms, and residential lofts.

Sgura soon learned about a nearby loft for sale and made the move. The location near one of Milan's three airports, Linate, was certainly convenient for this photographer on the go. "It's outside the city, quiet and calm," he says, "but it's also very central. I can get to the Duomo in just 15 minutes."

Lorenzo Castillo's Madrid Home

In the heart of Madrid, decorator Lorenzo Castillo infuses a duplex in a 17th-century former convent with a supremely elegant mix of pattern and patina.

It's only fitting that Lorenzo Castillo happened upon the Madrid apartment building that would become his future home while en route to El Rastro, the city's famous flea market. "Madrid's old neighborhoods harbor hidden treasures," he says. "It's one of the things I love most about the city."

Castillo was immediately drawn to the building. "It's very madrileño," he says—in other words, it's quintessentially Madrid—"with a neoclassical stone façade that is noble in scale but remarkably simple." The portera, or doorwoman, told him the history of the building, which was constructed in the 17th century and was once a convent: Located on the border between the now-trendy neighborhoods of Lavapiés and Barrio de las Letras, it became one of the most prestigious addresses in the Spanish capital during the 18th and 19th centuries. A new façade added in the 1770s by Ventura Rodríguez, the architect of many iconic monuments in Madrid—including the sculptures of Neptune and Cybele on the Paseo del Prado—heightened the building's allure.

Two days after Castillo's first visit, a half-floor apartment on an upper story was his. That was 10 years ago, when he was building a reputation as a leading antiques dealer in Spain. Now he runs his own interior design business, with assistance from his partner, Alfonso Reyero. Castillo's projects range from a historic Andalusian country house to a London restaurant slated to open this summer. He recently renovated Madrid's Santo Mauro, giving the hotel a five-star upgrade.

As Castillo's business has grown, so have his domestic needs. Nearly four years ago he sold that first apartment, along with his collection of furniture and art, to purchase and renovate an 11,000-square-foot space downstairs, spread over two floors.

Jenna Lyson Vincent Mazeau Park Slope House for sale

Jenna Lyons's House Is Now 

For Sale (Update)

In the wake of the rumored split of Jenna Lyons and her husband Vincent Mazeau — and her subsequent purported pairing with Courtney Crangi— Lyons and Mazeau's frequently published Park Slope townhouse is now listed for sale. They bought the seven-bedroom, 4,400-square-foot home, which was built in the 1880s, for $1.3 million in 2004. It is now listed for $3.75 million.

Update: The sale of Lyons's home has just closed, according to Curbed. A couple namedVincent and Tracy Martin bought the house for $4 million, seven percent over the original asking price. Lyons's new address is listed at the American Express Carriage House in New York's Tribeca neighborhood.

ENGLISH GARDENS

MY PERSONAL FAVORITE...

My personal favorite furniture is the sofa. Suitable

for the afternoon tea parties and small 

family gatherings.