Old world luxury home design, Clive Christian

Clive Christian is probably more well known for being the company that sells the world's most expensive bottle of perfume.

They also have a reputation for high end cabinetry based home interiors.

Most of their designs are based off of old world designs but done with a modern cabinetry layout scheme.

Something of note with most of their designs is that they incorporate three elements. Crystal chandeliers, lots of wood molding and mirrors. When you break that down these are relatively inexpensive materials available at any big box home improvement store.

Crown molding either stained or painted to match the walls is a fairly easy project even a beginner could tackle. Basic cabinets could benefit from added crown or base moldings stained to match. Front molding and finials are also readily available and could be added to the front of cabinet bases or open shelving. Crystal chandeliers can frequently be found at garage sales, flea markets and house fixture reuse stores. Walls can benefit from frames made of molding that are mounted to the wall. When doing so on a painted wall, painting the frames to match makes them look built in. The bedroom pictured could be mimicked using a love seat and two wardrobes. A used hotel furniture warehouse would be an idea source for a pair of matching wardrobes or armoires. The heavy use of mirrors is another features that is relatively easy to recreate. Standard unframed mirrors from a big box home improvement store could be installed on the wall and framed out with the finish moldings to blend into the wall.

The Victorian indoor pool, Sutro Baths San Francisco

The Sutro Baths were officially opened in 1896. Adolph Sutro, mayor of San Francisco created the project that was the largest indoor baths at that time.

The baths had seven pools, all but one fed with ocean salt water of varying temperatures. The building was styled similar to a large conservatory with intricate iron framework and hundreds of thousands of panes of crystal glass.

Sutro was a populist and wanted his facility to be accessible to all. Entrance included use of a suit, locker and of the amenities on site. The building had 500
changing booths.

The decor was ornate Victorian with Grecian influences. The building held a large population of palm trees, ferns and other plants.

The baths also had a theater, multiple restaurants, automata displays, mummies and many other strange and exotic items on display.

The baths were a marvel at their time. Recreating them today would be a monumental and expensive
task. This makes their creation in the late 1890's even more amazing.

Find out more about the Sutro Baths at these websites.
Historysmith.com
Western Neighborhoods Project
SutroBaths.com
1897 Edison Mfg. film of the baths

Crosley reproduction radios and phones

You might have seen some of Crosley's retro turntables at national retailers. Crosley has a much larger line of reproduction audio and telephone products.

All of their items have current technology inside including USB connections, CD recorders, XM radio depending on the model.

Items range from Victorian to 50's in style so finding items to fit your decor should be easy. Their products make more design sense when your trying to finish a room with a historical design or other decor where modern items just do not work.

The line of phones will work on any system that provides a normal phone jack. So VoIP with a router hooked into your home wiring or other systems that provide a normal land line connection at the end should work with their phones. With an adapter you could even use these phones with free services like Skype. Find out more and see more products at the Crosley website.