Petrus, Thunderstorms and Pipe Tobacco

Call me a kleptomaniac, but I can never quite bring myself to leave a cork [correctly presented to diners by a smart sommelier] on the dining table after I leave a restaurant. Likewise, even when I open up the cellars of Ultraloft for a splash of Petrus on a Tuesday evening, the noble cork will be salvaged.

From restaurant table to pocket, or from home cellar to hand, corks of all designs and pedigrees invariably end up in vases or crystal platters scattered around Ultraloft. Who needs dried flowers smelling of moon harvested orchids and Indonesian ylang ylang when you can apply a fine mist of 'Thunderstorm' or 'Pipe Tobacco' from Demeter to said bottle-stoppers? This is home fragrance done right.

Objet d' Bubble Wrap

Everyone loves bubble-wrap. Design Trawler in particular, loves bubble-wrap. Not only is it a signal for the imminent arrival of a new and exquisite objet; meticulously crafted from unbelievably rare and fine materials [Han Dynasty warrior heads, 3D printed forms of unimaginable detail type stuff]... but, also it has an opiate 'popability' that, alongside raising a paddle at Phillips, is the human equivalent to catnip.

It was in the atelier of the masters of glass where I picked up this platter by Rony Plesl for BOMMA. Cast using a specialist moulding technique, the server suspends in time the playful form of those joyous little pillows. It's brilliant simplicity is both iconic and poetic; infinitely fragile and yet reassuringly permanent.

Why I Listed My Home on AirBNB

"Are you crazy?!", "YOUR apartment?", "Aren't you worried?", These are the typical reactions I've had when I mention that I listed Ultraloft on the vacation rentals website AirBNB. Or to be more accurate, the study which has a generous sofabed, reclaimed neon signs and a digital shark. And to be fair, I was asking myself the same questions after I hit the 'list your space' button... But I'm pleased that I did.

The reason I listed Ultraloft on AirBNB was born somewhat out of my recent visit to the Grand Apartment Budapest; a living tribute to a pair of amazing jetset octogenarians, and part challenge to myself. AirBNB takes care of the damages threat, providing $1m of cover for all hosts, I'd only be offering up the spare room; mostly to single travellers; mostly when I'm in the country; and in the apartment, and quite frankly I have a lot of cool stuff that others might want to see [that, or they just need somewhere to stay for the night that has an ounce more character than a Travelodge]...

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Perucchetti Pop

Hovering, quite literally, in a style between Jeff the balloon dog, [named after king of contemporary pop, Jeff Koons], and Mauro Perucchetti's vibrant, translucent resin sculptures, is this gorgeous red balloon.

A store fitting from the window of Sir Terrance's Marylebone hangout that, in a rare move for any shop, was offered for sale ex-display to keen eyed collectors. A perfect and poetic addition to Ultraloft's first plinth, the gigantic perspex balloon floats above it's Koonsian companion in a display of poignant and equally iconic three dimensional imagery; a subtle nod to Design Trawler's favourite childhood novel.

Pole Position - Yas Viceroy Abu Dhabi

Imagine the scene. Flavio Briatore, the larger than life Italian Formula 1 supremo touches down in Abu Dhabi to discuss the possibility bringing the billion dollar super-sport to the Middle East. We'll build you a track Signore Briatore, the developers say; the best in the world! Very generous, but where will I park my 200ft yacht? We all know that Monaco has a delightful marina hugging it's F1 track, and I need to host glamorous parties too.

Not a problem for the visionaries of Abu Dhabi - We'll build the track on it's own island, and have it snake around a marina capable of hosting the largest super-yachts in the world, so that all of your friends can bring their sleek motor yachts too. All well and good, but Abu Dhabi is a fair voyage away from Monaco, and my shargreen sun loungers might melt in this heat...

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Grand Apartment Budapest

I'll admit, I wasn't quite sure how to position this article on Design Trawler's recent visit to Budapest. I decided to check in to the curiously named Helen & Frank apartment in an ornate mansion block overlooking the 19th Century theatre of comedy; in search of a whimsically cluttered stage-set in which to draw parallels against Wes Anderson's Grand Budapest Hotel; which took home the Oscar for best production design in this year's awards.

What I found however was far richer than any staged theatre set. The apartment is filled with the collections of Dr Frank and Helen Ternovszky; avid adventurers and collectors who moved from the Hungarian capital to LA in the golden age of Sintata, where a transatlantic Lufthansa flight was something worth photographing. Indeed, the apartment is peppered with photographs of Frank and Helen's jet setter life; playing lawn tennis at the country club, sailing with friends, trips to the great pyramids, black tie galas and skiing in glamorous resorts. It's all very Slim Aarons, and the Budapest home which they kept is a museum of their global travels and life well lived.

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Welcome Winter Blues

While summer a distant memory, anything to make the cold, grey and miserable mornings that little but brighter is very welcome. Short of jumping abroad on a Mustang to the Med [always a welcome antidote to winter blues], Design Trawler has found an inexpensive alternative if you can't fly south for the winter.

The scent of Volcano from Capri Blue is quite remarkable. Imagine sitting on an alfresco terrace of your Portofino hideout overlooking the harbour. The scent of vibrant greens and sweet citrus blowing in the warm air. Volcano has red berry, pomegranate, grapefruit and lime in its punchy signature that only Aqua di Parma's Blu Mediterraneo range comes close to replicating. Absolutely intoxicating.

Steam and Sprezzatura - The Lelit PS21

Luigi Borelli strolls out of his flagship store on Napoli's Via Filangieri. An expertly cut shirt in his shopping bag. Returning home [via the Gran Caffè Cimmino], it's Sunday and Luigi's maid has the day off.

Where any other man would despair at the prospect of having to iron a shirt themselves, Luigi, like Design Trawler pulls off the task with a sprezzatura that's uniquely Italian. For the same commercial, high-performance, high-pressure boiler engineering used to deliver Luigi's espresso is also used to deliver his pristine cotton twill.

The Lelit PS21 steam generator is made entirely in Brescia by a firm that manufacturers only steam irons... and espresso machines. It features a polished steel steam chamber and solid cast iron that may well double as a free weight. Creases stand no chance under the titanic flattening plate; and that's before calling upon the mighty steam reserves. Like a performance roadster, this is a machine designed to be driven by owners, and not domestics. Maids need not apply.

Breakfast of Champions... Sort Of

What can I say. Design Trawler writes about a reindeer blanket and President Obama goes out and buys the same one. Mam Sam Miso Mugs spotted in Warsaw, make an appearance at London Design Week months later. And now, a casual reference to my breakfast cereal of choice, the fictitious Cartier Crunch, has British fashion designer Anya Hindmarch designing couture cornflakes.

Available in limited edition from Waitrose; cleaner was not impressed; summarily binning my carton of Fashion Flakes, lost forever to the Perigot Frisbee. And herein lies the problem. Fashion is fickle, but design ensures. Had Tony the Tiger teamed up with Norman Foster to create Foster-ies, or Sir Terrance to create Conran Flakes, I'm sure said cereal box would have had a less perilous end.

London Design Week - Best of the West

Last year it was Prince Carl Philip and the Swedish Ambassador who invited Design Trawler around to take a look at some fine Scandinavian design. Not to be outdone, this year the honour fell to Finland to issue an invitation to it's ambassadorial residence [on the world's most expensive street, Kensington Palace Gardens], to Design Trawler and Finnish designer Klaus Haapaniemi; to present a selection of intricate folklore inspired lighting silks and ceramics... and kimono clad friends.

And the best of London Design Festival's high-end contemporary design didn't stop there. Exhibitions that included Illona Gaynor's neon coat of arms at the Design Museum, through to Sonya Winner's bold and lustrous rugs, Mallett's dizzying commissions and Tom Dixon's rich use of brass and velvet would be suitably at home in many a drawing room of the £122m houses on this Billionaires Row. Norway, the challenge has been set for 2015. As for the matter of Ferrero Rocher's presented in little towers, find out what was on the menu at the Residence of the Finnish Ambassador on Facebook...

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The Fine Art Postcard - Bird in Space

It was in 2003 that I visited the seminal Art Deco exhibition at London's Victoria and Albert museum. I visited for the streamline race cars and polished steel toasters, but stood for a lifetime when I first saw Bird in Space. A golden stroke of such purity and form, I stood and gazed at the marvel by Constantin Brancusi for perhaps 10 minutes, but it might as well have been ten years.

Never before had I been transfixed by something in such a way; and still am! Clearly I head good taste - Not only did Bird in Space set legal precedent what what can rightfully be called art, but also set the record for the most expensive sculpture in history at the time [$27.5m in case you'd like to make an anonymous donation to the Design Trawler Brancusi fund] .

Sadly, my chances of owning Constantin's masterpiece anytime soon don't look too likely. While I've often considered commissioning a robbery replica, for now, I have decided to frame a simple gift-shop postcard of the masterpiece from the Peggy Guggenheim collection in Venice. It's not the original sculpture, but it is an authorised and official likeness. The framed 'Fine Art Postcard' series henceforth begins.

Hipsters, Handlebars, and Heineken

Contrary to popular belief, London Design Week isn't all Krug and canapes. Well, in the West-end it probably is, but ever the intrepid explorer, Design Trawler also headed out East during this year's Festival. Lured by the promise of container bars, the ever popular Tent and Superbrands exhibitions, a special Tokyo Design Week show-within-a-show and, of course a veritable petting zoo of hipster beards, handlebar moustaches and inflatable animals; Design Trawler documented it all.

Heineken kicked things off with it's pop up City Lounge project. A specially designed container bar with futuristic seating pods and specially designed barware. With a long history of limited edition bottles [because Design Trawler loves a limited edition bottle #1 #2 #3] and a TV campaign based on Design Trawler himself, full marks go to the Dutch brewer for keeping the bar high when the Veuve runs dry. Check out photos from London's East-end below or on Facebook.

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Design Trawler Nominated for Best Luxury Blog

Kicking off Design Trawler's coverage of London Design Week [champagne buckets and espresso machines standing by], legendary Italian design house Missoni has nominated Design Trawler as one of eight websites in the category of Best Luxury Blog!

Delightful stuff as I approach article number 250 well in to four years of trawling [that, or perhaps the Milanese maison just has a penchant for red loafers and private jets ;-] As one of the only non-commercial blogs written by a chap, and also because Design Trawler has a shiny new Facebook Page, please vote for Design Trawler in the AMARA Interior Design Awards. Grazie a tutti!

George the Champagne Monkey

Now that Ultraloft holds a fair few bottles of the good stuff, it is only sensible that Robert's Bar puts in place adequate security to keep check on the Wine Room. Any good doorman gorilla understands the need to balance looking smart, with appropriate levels of foreboding menace.

Enter George the Champagne Monkey. A Canadian cousin of Jeff the Balloon Dog from Toronto, George sits atop of the cellars and monitors the comings and goings of Ultraloft's precious fizz. As for foreboding menace, Jeff Koons famously dropped his suit against the likes of George after a court ruled that the balloon form was part of the public domain. Not bad for a blue ceramic monkey... you have been warned!

Design Trawler Central Campus

It was always only a matter of time before Design Trawler would require its own iconic headquarters. Sure, Ultraloft is a spectacular man cave in the making, but there is only so much Marc Newson designed Dom Pérignon; only so many plumen light bulbs, that one residence can accommodate.

Introducing the Design Trawler Campus. This scale model of the sprawling architectural vision features a cascade of geometric modules that'd put the Dame Hadid to shame. At its north point, a Turning Torso inspired tower [of acacia drink coasters by Lou Henry for Nambé] overlooks the suspiciously table-centrepiece-like structure by Sia. Perfect for landing petit-fours helicopters on.