It's pronounced chair-sigh

Yesterday morning we hit Bologna, as part of our mini tour of the world of tiles with Savoia. The destination was Cersaie (pronounced chair-sigh), possibly the world's most ginormous bath and tile trade show. Apart from feeling kinda under dressed in my usual comfy trade show garb of jeans and sneakers (everyone there was rocking sharply tailored suits) I just didn't know where to begin.

Highlights were checking out all the tile trends (colour, texture and lotsa gold), as well as working my way through some seriously stunning bathroom fixtures and cabinetry. My two new fave firms on that front are Moab 80 (industrial and edgy with unexpected colour) and Falper (white, witty and sophisticated). On the smarty-pants side of things Fiandre, who own Savoia, launched Active, a major breakthrough in tile technology that is both anti-bacterial and able to purify the air. V. cool... On the, ahem, so-bad-it's-bad front Versace Home presented a line that managed to be gaudy, dull and old fashioned all at the same time. Moving swiftly along, check out Marcel Wander's latest, Aqua Jewels faucets for Bonomi, which appears to be going for a Flava Flav kinda vibe.

  

Marcel in the kitchen

Let's end the week with a bit of kitchen inspiration. The space below is a slice of one of the condo suites at the Mondrian South Beach designed by Marcel Wanders. The hotel/condo is quite the fantasy world, designed to resemble an up to date take on Sleeping Beauty's castle with lots of trademark Wanders witty excess. The kitchen really caught my eye since it feels modern, yet uses those blue and white Delft tiles in a wraparound to stunning effect, all set against white, tangerine and black. Though to keep things running in that Miami vein the tiles picture lifeguards, sharks and bikini clad girls, rather than windmills and tulips, lol. To see more of the over-the-top interiors from the hotel check out travel website Mr & Mrs Smith, and to see Wanders describe his design direction in video click here. It's all quite barmy really, but you have to admire Wanders guts and very singular vision.