Decorating Guides

6 Collections Show True Passion

At a recent interview with Anderson Cooper, Olympian swimmer Michael Phelps revealed that he retains his eight gold awards in the Beijing Olympics in his mother’s makeup case. Having a promising Olympic run (or make this swim) ahead of him, Phelps will need more trendy — and protected — screen choices for the medals he’ll likely win in the London Olympics. He can take a couple of design cues from the collectors’ screens under: From automobiles to Legos to watches (showing a serious enthusiasm for horology), these homeowners know how to flaunt their precious collections in style.

Peter Kunz Architektur

Architect Peter Kunz built these concrete garage showrooms to get a client in Switzerland. Clearly crazy about his automobiles, the client desired a spacious location to store, fix and admire his collection. The outcome is five concrete blocks which are half-buried to the Herdern mountains; the fifth cube is the entrance, using a sliding gate inside.

Peter Kunz Architektur

Here is a peek inside of the lavish car garage. The voids between the walls are the”shop windows” for every car.

Peter Kunz Architektur

Decorating the dividers’ glass faces are inscriptions (top of glass) by the artist Oliver Kühn on the association between the automobile and man.

Tracy Murdock Allied ASID

Interior designer Tracy Murdock made this wall to house her client’s miniature alcohol jar collection from across the world — accumulated over the course of 20 years.

Tracy Murdock Allied ASID

Fluorescent lighting tubes place each segment aglow. Murdock utilized acrylic shelving components to give the bottles a floating appearance and glass doors to keep out dust and fingerprints.

As we can see from this modern boys’ bedroom, a passion for collecting items usually starts at a young age.

Neslihan Pekcan/Pebbledesign

Lego-theme toys, throw pillows, floor cushions, drawers, decals and rugs fill an whole room — truly a homage to Lego.

Schwartz and Architecture

Principal architect Neil Schwartz custom built this shelving unit to its aquatic parts of his client, a curator for the Steinhart Aquarium in San Francisco’s California Academy of Sciences.

Schwartz turned what used to be a room filled with breakable curios and jars to the heart of the house. He built the glass shelving and wall unit to display his client’s collection in design.

“My client’s kids could go into the room without breaking anything. And the workplace allows my client to learn what’s going on in the adjacent media room so that the family always feels connected to each other somehow,” says Schwartz.

Schwartz and Architecture

Here’s a closer look at the unit, made of tempered glass and wood shelving. Light coming in from a little window at the workplace illuminates the whole room and the surrounding region.

Don F. Wong

A serious collector of Coca-Cola memorabilia turned his Minneapolis, Minnesota, cabin’s garage into a 50’s-style diner devoted to all things — and we mean everything — Coca-Cola.

studiozimmer

Some people have wine cellars, and a few people have watch rooms. Interior designer Alexandra Zimmer’s client, a watch collector, desired a room devoted to his view collection. Each piece is saved facing external and protected beneath a glass door. Packaging and spare parts are all saved in the room as well to raise the watches’ resale value.

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