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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