“We’re not IKEA” Ikandi Interiors designer Linda Holmes deadpans of the handmade refrigerated champagne and wine bar cabinet her company retails at £14,500 (HK$178,486/144,979RMB) for the basic version.
Extravagant yet minimalist, this princely home for fine vintages looks like a classic French influenced, low key piece of furniture in gold leaf and high gloss until you caress the whisper quiet electronic pad that causes the cabinet front to open and spilt to reveal a refrigerator for wines and champagnes, two pull-out side panels for glasses and two pull-out serving ledges, all lit in cool blue sci-fi neon.
“We ship to customers hailing from China, Japan India, the US and the UAE who are united by their love of the WOW factor and a taste for the unexpected,” Holmes explains.
“We like to think of the cabinet as our little visual joke. The sheer delight our clientèle takes in possessing such a unique item is very charming.” Available in16 finishes – “Lead is the unisex colour rising through the ranks” Holmes says – the cabinet is hand crafted in Portugal by those agile wits at Jetclass (who adore fusing high traditional with sleek modern) and takes around eight weeks from start to finish in all its 240 inch tall and 2220 inch wide glory.
The most recent version was for a customer in Shanghai who went for all the bells and whistles in black lacquer and exquisite beading. “Customising added three weeks and another £4,000 to the cost” Holmes almost shrugs. “The shelves were in crystal glass and the customer had their initials intertwined with their partner’s in gold lame on the interior. Quite intoxicating.”
And that’s before you even pop that bottle of vintage Dom Pérignon and pour slowly into your pair of John Calleija quartz and diamond bubbly goblets.
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