Karim Rashid takes on appliance design for Gorenje

Karim Rashid is a 50-year-old, Egyptian-born, Canadian-raised, Italian-educated force of nature. He's an industrial designer whose Manhattan design practice seems to touch every product category in existence. A year ago he designed a line of appliances for the Slovenian manufacturer Gorenje.

Gorenje isn't distributed in North America unfortunately, but looking over this collection is almost enough to make me want to import them myself.

Distinctive doesn't begin to describe the eye and hand of Mr. Rashid and I have to say that I've never felt the urge to describe an induction cooktop as ethereal until I saw this.

That same design is available in either induction or radiant electric. Amazing.

Here's his version of a wall oven.

That same wall oven is available in a variety of colors and what's interesting about them is that the color comes from LEDs hidden in the recessed handle.

Dear Gorenje, please enter the North American market. Please.

Fibonacci sequences for the kitchen

Fibonacci sequences make me lose control. My logo is based on a Fibonacci spiral and I still get woozy when I look at it. A Fibonacci sequence is an example of a divisibility sequence. That sounds more complicated than it is. As numerals, the first ten places in a Fibonacci sequence are 0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34 and 55. Starting with 0 and one, each subsequent number in the sequence is the sum of the previous two. It's that simple-looking sequence that describes the proportional relationship of things as diverse as the pattern of scales on a pine cone, the florets in a head of broccoli, the arrangement of branches of a tree and the whorls of a nautilus shell. It's the math that describes life.

Many thanks to the brilliant David Nolan who sent me a link to a set of Fibonacci knives. Yes, Fibonacci knives. Although the designer, Belgium-based Mia Schmallenbach calls them Nesting Knives.

"Meeting is a set of kitchen knives: paring knife, carving knife, chef's knife, filleting knife and a block. They all appear to be sculpted from a single piece of stainless steel. The proportions are determined by the Fibonacci sequence using the average width of a human hand as its base. " 

Made in France by Deglon.

Oh look, an adorable and homemade teddy bear

Oh it's homemade alright, I can't think how anything could be more homemade. It looks like it's made from some kind of leather right? Not so fast.

Apartment Therapy picked up a story from Inhabitots that explains what this is and how it was made. You'll never guess. Seriously. Never in a million years will you guess how this is made. Can't handle the mystery anymore? Check out Inhabitots' Five Fun Things You Can Do with Your Baby's Placenta.

Ask before you pick up somebody's teddy bear, you never know where its been.

Is this Italian style?

When I think of Italian design and Italian style, especially when it comes to kitchen designs, my mind goes to rooms that look like this beauty from Snaidero.

However, I have a feeling that Snaidero is showing me Italian style for export. Oh it's authentically Italian, it's just that it's on a scale that I suspect wouldn't work in Italy. Most Italians don't live in homes large enough to accommodate something this size for starters.

My firsthand experiences with Italian kitchens, though limited, are pretty far removed from the Snaidero room above.

I can remember seeing a kitchen showroom in Rome and wondering what my work life would look like if I were to ply my trade in Italy rather than in the US. I suspect that it would look more like the following kitchens from Acquario-Ceramiche in Padua.

I have a feeling that those kitchens from Acquario-Ceramiche come a lot closer to authentic Italian kitchens than a lot of what passes for "Italian" in the US.

Maybe one of my Italian readers will weigh in on this pressing question. Do contemporary Italians look to kitchens that look like the ones shown by Acquario-Ceramiche as something to be emulated? Is this Italian style?

This house is a Candle in the Wind

This photograph of Marilyn Monroe was taken about a month before she died. Allen Grant took the photo for Life magazine and in it she's kicking back in her Brentwood home. On the surface she looks like she doesn't have a care in the world. I think that's what made her an actress.



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The home Marilyn Monroe lived in at the end of her life was on 5th Helena Drive in Brentwood. 12305 5th Helena Drive to be exact. How do I know? Someone sent me the listing for the house. Here's the link. It's on the market for three and a half million dollars and compared to the listing I wrote about earlier this week, that's a bargain. According to the listing agent, it's a four bedroom, three bath 1929 hacienda on one of the most desirable streets in Brentwood. I don't know enough about LA real estate to judge that so maybe somebody from LA will chime in.

The room where Marilyn's sitting in the photo above is in the photos that follow. Anybody want to guess which one?

It's a lovely home. Really. I like the scale of the rooms and how bright everything seems. It needs some work on the furnishings department but maybe not. I think the lack of really fine furnishings in it adds to the relaxed air it gives off.

It's a curious thing now that I think about it. Would you ever buy a home that once belonged to a now dead movie star? Would Candle in the Wind take on a whole new significance?