Category Archives: See how others live

See how others live and let them know what YOU think!

Christian Lacroix sells his Paris apartment

Posted on February 3, 2009 | Leave a comment

Look at these wonderful shots of Fashion Designer Lacroix’s wonderful Paris apartment…
Obviously, the decor is stunning. Understated, charming, eclectic and a tad bohemian; I love it.

Great taste Mr Lacroix!

Great taste Mr Lacroix!

The apartment, or actually more or less house, is located in the very plush (and shamelessly gay) Marais district of the French Capital. Whoever is able to dish up the surprisingly modest €2,000,000 will be rubbing elbows with supermodels, photgraphers, designers and thespians from the world over. Also, the Marais has a huge Gay population making this the obvious choice for Mr Lacroix to buy back when.

With approximately 200m2 (2250 square feet) the apartment is not huge for such a high profile figure.
It also looks quite modest, yet so incredibly tasteful it hurts. It is making me just a bit jealous to be honest. It has a patio where we don’t even have a balcony .

Outside and view from sitting room towards patio

Outside and view from sitting room towards patio

The apartment is part of a late-17th-century building near the historic Place des Vosges and the Picasso Museum. It has an upper floor with sitting room, kitchen and general living areas designed around a small patio of roughly 18m2 (200 square feet) and a lower floor with four bedrooms and bathrooms.

There’s also a mezzanine room now used as a library. The ceilings of the living floor are 13 feet high which allows for a very roomy and dramatic ambience. Throughout the place one can find many classic original details, including gilded moldings in the master bedrooms and French doors. The bathrooms and kitchen have been recently renovated. Mr. Lacroix has moved to another apartment just a few steps away in the same fabulous Marais district.

Leave a comment

Posted in Homes of the rich and famous, See how others live

Tagged , , , , , ,

Selling your house, photography faux pas

Posted on January 29, 2009 | 1 comment

When selling your house there are several things you can do to speed up the process. Everybody is familiair with the decluttering and depersonalize tips; making sure family photographs are stored away and clutter is removed from surfaces to give the house the appearance of a model house or hotel instead of someones home.

Also, obviously the photographs you take of your house and rooms to put in ads or presentations have to look appealing and inviting.
Hopefully I am not telling you anything new. Yet imagine my repetitive surprise when going online, to find numerous house ads looking like an absolute disaster.

Let me show you a few examples.

This house is located north of the Netherlands’ capital Amsterdam. It is situated on a little dead end street and has views over fields to the back of the house, and no direct neighbours in the front. Amsterdam is within a modest car rides reach and it is immaculate condition with recently painted walls and a large and architecturaly designed garden bordering a small creek. The design of the house is reminiscent of the much favoured style sed in the30’s of the 20th century. An easy sell you’d think. Yet, photographs really say so much. Look at these.

Is that the realtor's car?

Is that the realtor's car?

Seriously… move that car when you take a picture! How hard can it be? I immediately see a realtor that is more interested in money than in his clients’ best interest. Also, why would you leave the curtains shut when you have such a nice bay window as a unique feature? Mind you, they have views here! It’s not like the curtains mask a view of a maximum security prison or nuclear plant.

Or what about this one?

Is it a closet? No, it's a bedroom

Is it a closet? No, it's a bedroom

Nothing wrong with small bedrooms, especially if the rest of the house is good. But couldn’t whoever took this picture take just one step further to actually take a picture of the room and not the side post of a bed that obvisouly shows what the room is too small for?

Or this, another gem of a selling picture.

Please honey, can we buy the house with the urine coloured stain on the toilets radiator?

Please honey, can we buy the house with the urine coloured stain on the toilets radiator?

Loving the casually draped off-whitish towel over the radiator. And those two hair brushes in the window sill just ooze charm and character. Not to mention the lovely brown stain on the radiator.
As these images make me foam at the mouth almost, your voyeuristic host is taking a small break to gather himself.

1 Comment

Posted in See how others live

Tagged , , , , ,

Landmark buildings; The Dakota

Posted on January 26, 2009 | 3 comments

The Dakota building is best known for a dark and sombre episode in pop history. It was here where John Lennon lived with his wife Yoko Ono, and it was in front of this building where Lennon was shot. But the building has played parts in many illustrous stories.

The Dakota around 1880

The Dakota around 1880

The building was erected in 1884 when the upper west side was still just marshland with farms. Real Estate king Edward Severin Clark wanted to target the extremely well-to-do New Yorkers and planned the most luxurious and extravagant building New York had ever seen. He hired architect Henry J. Hardenbergh to design his vision for him.
Before the building was finished, all apartments, each with at least 12 rooms, were sold. It was, and still is, one of the most prestigious places in the city. Over the years, famous people that resided in the building were Lauren Bacall, Judy Garland, Rosemary Clooney, Leonard Bernstein, Rudolf Nureyev, Boris Karloff and the Lennons to name a few. Yoko Ono still calls it home. There was a rumour that Tom Cruise was going to buy there too, but these were in fact rumours and not true.

Long before the Lennons bought their apartment, or rather, apartments as they bought several, the buiding was used as filming location for the intense adaptation of Ira Levins novel Rosemary’s baby. In the movie from 1968, the building was portrayed as  The ‘Bramford’, the brooding Gothic building where newlyweds Rosemary and Guy Woodhouse (played by Mia Farrow and John Cassavetes) set up home.

Farrow and Cassavetes at the entrance gate

Farrow and Cassavetes at the entrance gate

John  Lennon was not the first murder victim of the Dakota. In 1978 Oscar winning actor Gig Young first shot his wife to death, before shooting himself. Ironically, he won an oscar for his role in They Shoot Horses, Don’t They in 1970. A year after Ruth Gordon picked up an Oscar for her performance as the Woodhouse’s neighbour in Rosemary’s Baby.

Still today an apartment in the Dakota is something only the immensely rich can afford. This 6,5 room apartment (half of an original) is on the market for a mind blowing $7.500.000…..

for sale for $7.500.000

for sale for $7.500.000

You do get your money’s worth obviously as Central Park is just across the street. The apartment itself is not too big though. The kitchen could even be referred to as small-ish. And I always wonder why Americans often don’t have separate toilets. Here you have to go through either the master bedroom, or the library which will likely end up being used as 2nd bedroom.

And I am not sure if Yoko Ono as a neighbour is a selling feature.

3 Comments

Posted in Famous buildings and movie locations, Homes of the rich and famous, See how others live

Tagged , , , ,

Celebrity living: Whose living room is this?

Posted on January 21, 2009 | Leave a comment

A multiple choice question on the website of the Los Angeles Times.

Whose living room is this?

Elle Wood's?

Elle Woods?

I thought it was Elle Woods’ actually, I mean, it is her style right?

What, like it's hard?

What, like it's hard?

The options to choose from however don’t list Elle as one of the possible owner of this Strawberry-Shortcake-on-acid-bonanza of a living room. One can choose between Mary Matalin & James Carville, Goldie Hawn & Kurt Russel or Joan Collins (wonder why they don’t mention her hubby in the line-up.. She didn’t get divorced AGAIN did she?)

When saving the picture on my PC the answer was actually revealed as the name it was saved as was also the name of option #1…Mary Matalin and James Carville….. I hear you thinking: And they are….?
Well, she was sort of an advisor to George W. Bush and editor in chief of a conservative magazine.
That’s a pretty gay house for such conservatism Mary!

I do like their sense of style, but it’s a bit tooooo pink for my likin’…..

Leave a comment

Posted in Homes of the rich and famous, Quizes and trivia, See how others live

Tagged , , , ,