Superheroes, astronauts, spies…interior designers.
Few things influence our notions of ‘what we want to be when we grow up’ more than movies. Although many of us cease pursuing these ambitions after our birthday candles reach double figures, the inspiration these films ignited is not so easily put out.
So for those of us that have wild fantasies about Edna Mole’s house from The Incredibles, your inner-interior-design-child will be ecstatic to learn that this list of favourite movie-inventions are no longer a figment of fantasy.
Thanks to childish imagination and adult know-how, we are now, after years of patience and successful superhero careers, able to live the interior design dream.
Source: Screenshot
Giant Lava Lamp – Shark Tale
Shark Tale, the one where Will Smith is a fish, making a living washing whales and dancing to ‘car wash’ while Robert De Niro rules the ocean as a burly mafia shark-Don. Shark Tale?
If you’ve seen it you will, without a doubt, remember the lava lamp.
In his seriously swanky underwater penthouse, the protagonist Oscar (Smith) has a lava lamp in his front room the size of a small lighthouse. It’s mesmerising. Most importantly, it’s enough to impress his sexy co-star-fish, Angelina Jolie, (the underwater equivalent of Jessica Rabbit) and it must have also made an impression on just about every pre-teen in the 00’s.
Far from leaving these magnificent interior dreams to sleep with the fishes—the dead ones—alongside other questionable retro design features, like carpeted bathrooms and abrasive floor-to-ceiling geometric prints, this one has proved its longevity.
Here’s the much-anticipated news: although the details are unclear, a consultant engineer group have been spotted with a picture of what they are claiming is the ‘World’s Largest Lava Lamp’. Are there words to describe this level of excitement? I think not.
It’s construction is already underway in Dubai. After a glance at the project visualisation, Shark Tale fans will, I’m sure, be struck by just how much it resemblance Oscar’s lamp. Please let this be a sign that Dreamworks’ is exerting influence over design in some of the world’s most elite interiors.
Source: Screenshot
The Glass Elevator – Charlie and The Chocolate Factory
Since their genius paperback inception in 1964, every single invention in Willy Wonka’s factory has made an appearance on our wish lists.
In fact, pretty much all the films based on the works of Roald Dahl have some interior quirk or magnificent invention that we desperately want. The obvious exception to this rule being, of course, ‘the chokey’ from Matilda – the most terrifying concept ever to appear in a PG movie.
After some research into how we might make Wonka’s world our own, it seems that trained squirrels are hard to come by, but if you want to stretch your limbs out to spindly Mike Teavee proportions, there are people who can make that happen.
But why walk on limbs at all, oompa loompa size or otherwise, when you can simply whizz through the room in a glass elevator.
These luxurious, gliding glass cases of delight are far from unattainable. Unfortunately, the chances of finding one that offers views of big rock candy mountains or candy floss covered sheep are, frankly, slim.
Real-life luxury lift manufacturers Premier Platforms Lifts have brought to light some of London’s secret gems in the form of elevators. Did you know those inside The Royal Festival Hall will sing to you? These ‘singing lifts’ do, perhaps, go some way towards making up for the lack of musical chocolatiers.
Source: Screenshot
Computerised Wardrobe – Clueless
Forgive this one for being painfully obvious, but it would be sinful to not include it on this list. Fantastically primitive as technology from 1995 seems, Clueless’ wardrobe concept is timeless.
With money to burn and more skirt-blazer coordinates than the Queen herself, leading lady Cher Horowitz can afford to let her computerised closet select her outfit for her. After browsing a digital catalogue of all her clothes on a bulky PC, Cher collates an outfit and waits for computer approval.
If – and only if – the computer approved, the wardrobe rails swing round, rotating like some glamorous airport conveyor belt until the chosen clothes appear.
There have been hundreds of attempts to recreate this masterpiece, with varying degrees of success and technical prowess. Today, our smartphones can dictate over the vast majority of decisions made on any given day, so it falls to apps to bring Cher’s reality to life.
Without a shadow of doubt, one of the finest examples of this is The Dynamic Metalprogetti Closet. It’s a thing of wonder. Using a synced up phone or tablet to identify your desired garments, the circuit of hangers whizz round and bring said items to the front – almost exactly what we see in Clueless!
