Shipwrecked Submarine; aka Den

I don't know what it is, but media rooms and submarines seem to go together. Here's one from New Zealand, sent to me by Paul and featured in stuff.co.nz.

In the rusting interior of the submarine, which appears to have beached on a deserted island, Eyre has all the creature comforts reclining chairs, a three-metre big-screen TV and a top-notch surround-sound system.

Customwood has been sprayed with concrete and painted to resemble rusting steel beams, while plastic sheets have been melted to give the impression of bent steel ripped apart when the submarine hit an island. Speakers emit sonar and ocean sounds throughout the 12-metre by 5.5m room.

There's also a video tour!

Poseidon Undersea Resort

Need a last minute summer vacation? Have a couple tens of thousands of spare dollars lying around?


Poseidon Undersea Resort is the world's first seafloor resort. The luxury resort is accessible by elevator, and you sleep 40 feet below surface. They'll even teach you to pilot one of their 3 passenger submaries and "explore the abyss."


So the decor is a bit disappointing compared to what it could be, but there's a lot of potential. Too bad it isn't steampunk.

Thanks to Mr. Jon McDougal for pointing this out.

Metro Stop or Submarine?

Brass Goggles recently featured this picture by anesterik of the Paris Metro stop nearest the Musée des Arts + Metiers. According to Philomena, the recently redesigned stop was made with the fullest intention to look like the interior of a Verne-esque submersible.

I have no idea how it is done, but I think the riveted brass walls would be a warm and interesting interior treatment for a dramatic room -- perhaps a dining room, or on a smaller scale in a powder room.

Octopodes!

In my house, there has been discussion -- quickly squashed by the linguistically inclined -- as to the plural of the word octopus. Although other pluralizations are common, we think "octopodes" is a pretty great word.

stuffed octopus

How, you may ask, do octopodes related to steampunk? I can think of two steampunk references to octopodes. The first, Verne's 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, the second the Air Kracken -- monsters of the sky, celebrated on March 17th. I'm sure you could come up with more, right?


Reader Caitlyn recently sent me a link to this lovely octopus lamp, and since I missed Air Kracken day a couple months back, I took that as enough excuse for this post.

Gentlemen & Octopus Pillow

Here's the trick with octopodes in the home: there's lots of them out there, but very few have that steampunk flair. You may be able to get away with some of the brighter colors in a bathroom or a kid's room, but I'm not sure I'd put a bright purple or orange octopus in my public rooms. (Unless you really, really, liked it.) Nothing too cute, and the scarier the better.

Black Octopus Pillow

Or perhaps just a foot and a half long giant squid or a 7 inch octopus?

Adam Wallacavage Chandeliers

Malfeasances posted these lovely chandeliers shaped like octopodes* on the LJ steamfashion community.

The artist is Adam Wallacavage. His site has even more of the chandeliers, and is worth a look-see since many have fantastic shadows and peculiar settings.




The green one is very 20,000 Leagues, although I could do without the pink room.

His work will be on exhibit at the Jonathan Levine gallery in NYC in May. (More pictures from the gallery.)

*(It's properly octopodes, not octopi, or so says my linguist husband when the local 5 year old asked him recently)

Get the Look: 20,000 Leagues

I'm going to finish out the Jules Verne Week Extravaganza with some ideas on how to get that Victorian future submarine look.

First, my favorite stores for nautical inspired decor are The Brass Binnacle and Newport Nautical Decor. For submarine specific things, check out The Submarine Store.

Ebay, which differs from day to day, often offers scale models of the Nautilus, or plans for making them (would be great framed!) or other surprising things (last week they had a piece of plastic seaweed off of the original DisneyWorld ride).

I've also put together a kaboodle list of things with a submarine or 20,000 feel to them -- highlights of this are a model giant squid and rusty iron floor tiles.

20,000 Leagues Inspired House by saracarl

Three Ring's Nautilus Offices -- an update

I wrote a while ago about the Splendiferous Nautilus Office at 3 Ring Design, what you may not realize is that Because We Can has done a number of follow up posts (with pictures!) since that original popular post.

Some of the new additions to the offices are quite spiffy:

Door Signs

Arches with Medallions

Inlaid Tables

More desks

You can also go read all of Because We Can's blog posts on the Three Rings Office (there are 10 with lots of pictures and schematics).

Index for the Jules Verne Week Extravaganza.

Tom Scherman's Apartment

So you think you'd like a Nautilus inspired home? I'm sorry to disappoint, but someone has already beat you to it.


This was the apartment of Tom Scherman. According to Vulcania Submarine:

Tom was the premier NAUTILUS modeler and one of the movie’s greatest fans. As the story goes, he was “the kid hanging around Disneyland’s LEAGUES exhibit”, who got recognized for his passionate dedication to the movie and his amazing skill as a craftsman. That initial recognition led to a lifelong career that ultimately took Disney’s 20,000 Leagues into areas the movie’s producers never imagined.

Isn't it great?

(Thanks to Peachy Carnehan and the folks over on the Steampunk Forum for pointing this one out.)

Index for the Jules Verne Week Extravaganza.

The Interior of the Nautilus

Captain Nemo's Bedroom

The mythology of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea was enhanced by Disney's 1954 movie, and then expanded by 20,000 Leagues rides at the various Disney properties. The one at Disney World is gone, but created such strong fans that there is more than one website dedicated to it.

Captain Nemo's Bathroom

For steampunk home decor, however, we're interested in the interior of the Nautilus, ideally in high quality pictures. For our purposes Les Mystères du Nautilus at Disneyland Paris is the best bet.

Dave, the proprietor of the 20kride.com site, has more pictures than you can imagine, and a handful show the industrial Victorian grand future that we all enjoy.

Map of Vulcania

Salon

There are more and larger pictures on the original site. Also worth a look are the pictures of the Mysterious Island attraction at DisneySea Tokyo and pictures of the 20,000 Leagues exhibit at DisneyLand.

Giant Squid Model! (stay tuned -- later in the week I'm going to tell you where to find one of your own!)

Index for the Jules Verne Week Extravaganza.

Casa Battló

Casa Battló is an Art Nouveau masterpiece in Barcelona, Spain designed by Antoni Gaudi. I stumbled across it while searching flickr for pictures of the Jules Verne House. Flickr member jennyfrisco has a great set of pictures of the house (better than any others I could find online), and describes the first on this way:

"The exterior suggests a fish skeleton, and the whole house has a nautical theme, having been built right in the era when Jules Verne's 20000 leagues under the sea was in great circulation."

I didn't find any other references to 20,000 Leagues in any other descriptions or histories of the house, so I don't know how accurate it is, but keep 20,000 Leagues in mind as you look at these pictures and you'll probably agree with her.


Doesn't this look like the interior of a submarine?

Bedroom Door

Loft Hallway

Another Flickr user, europe_trip2007, describes the house like this:
"Smooth white walls broken only by large, tortoiseshell-like windows. Wrought brass railings, stained lightly by age. Rich lacquered wood doorways in-laid with stained glass that changes colour depending on which side of the door you're standing on...

The white tortoise windows are meant to be like windows you'd find in an underwater house, the likes imagined by Jules Verne and other science fiction authors. The orange glass and brass railing sort of remind one of coral...? At least it did that for me. "





The Casa Battló website has detailed pictures of each room of the house. The Gaudi Gallery has many more pictures. The best article on the house is found in Architecture Week.

Index for the Jules Verne Week Extravaganza.

The Jules Verne House

In France, in the town of Amiens in Picardy, is the home of Jules Verne. This house was occupied by Verne from 1882-1900.

The Winter Garden

I love the checkboard flooring in the winter garden.

Office and Writing Desk

Verne's office has great, rich green wallpaper and curtains. The furniture is pretty great too -- daybed, 2 part desk, globe and lamp.

The above photos are all part of this set. The one below is from this site. Both have many more, so go check it out.

The science fiction mural and the top of the observation tower are recent additions by François Schuiten.

You can also see 360 degree tours of rooms in the house on this website.

Index for the Jules Verne Week Extravaganza.

A Birthday Extravaganza: Jules Verne and 20,000 Leagues

It's my birthday!

To celebrate, I'm kicking off a week of Jules Verne and 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea themed Steampunk Home posts! (My gift to you.)

I've got houses and rooms galore inspired by Verne's 20,000 Leagues (and the ensuing Disney movie and ride), shopping lists of things to build or buy to get that 20,000 Leagues look, and some links to other resources to inspire you.

To go along with our visual feast, here is the whole book, online.

What's that? What could you do to help celebrate? Why don't you drop a short note in the comments to this post -- tell me where you're reading from, perhaps -- to make me feel all warm and fuzzy.

Jules Verne Extravaganza Posts (so far):
The Jules Verne House
Casa Battló
Interior of the Nautilus
Tom Scherman's Apartment
Three Ring's Nautilus Offices -- an update
Submarine Playroom
Get the Look