Wednesday 5 December 2007

And the winner is...

Now, as for the decorator...hmm. Tricky.
Trickier than I thought it would be.
The choices were endless. Mr Albert Hadley would be my first choice. And ultimately, I would hope to grow into the type of person who should hire him. However, at this point in our lives, I have neither the desire nor the inclination to edit out all that is superfluous. So, I shall have to wait until I am that person.

Well, here are my choices and why.

Past:
My first choice would have been Monsieur Henri Samuel, but as I grew up in a house that he had helped with, I felt that would be cheating. So I finally decided on the legendary Mr George Stacey, "who was not meant to be an employee in someone else's decorating firm", to quote Mark Hampton.

Present:
Mrs Ertegun of Mica Ertegun




Year-round Porch Room in Chessy Rayner's Southampton House (MAC II)

Although she eschews trends, believing “that the basic taste never changes,” Mrs Ertegün keeps an eye on innovations in the field. She finds that new products can shape her vision on projects — “a million things in a million different ways”— and she suggests that technological advances “have made it possible to create almost anything imaginable.” Other sources of inspiration are the projects that take her abroad. “It’s nice to go to another country and adapt a client’s tastes to yours and yours to theirs.”
I don't think it would be smooth sailing, but the combination would be dynamic and we certainly would respect each another.

My other choice would be Miss Rose Tarlow






Miss Tarlow is driven not only by her sharp eye but also by her sense that homes are deeply personal. Rooms “may be perfectly designed,” she writes in , The Private House, “yet if they fail to reflect the personalities of the people who live in them, the very essence of intimacy is missing, and this absence is disturbingly visible.” Tarlow, guided first and foremost by her own keen sensibility, is wary of trends. “Everything goes in cycles,” she says, “and so it is with interiors.” What haven’t we seen yet in design? “Something new.”

The only area I can for see us clashing on is a lack of bold pattern. Other than that, I think living in a house done by her would be bliss.

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Now playing: M People - Colour My Life
via FoxyTunes

14 comments:

Mrs. Blandings said...

Wonderful choices. Rose might be fun to work with - she was so amusing poking fun at herself with the tongue on the pottery thing. I like people who can admit they made a bit of a fool of themselves.

An Aesthete's Lament said...

Actually, Mrs Ertegün had nothing to do with the porch room at Chessy Rayner's house ... that was entirely her late business partner Chessy Rayner's doing. It is one of my favorite rooms in the world ... and it was amazingly comfortable and sunny and spirit-lifting.

An Aesthete's Lament said...

My DEAD choice would be Jean-Michel Frank, but ONLY if he copied his villa for the Patenôtre family in Nice for me ... the sitting room was wonderful, with buttontufted Victorian-style chairs in shades of pink and deep fringe, a brown-flecked wool fitted carpet, masses of sunlight, Giacometti lamps, and vibrant green-and-white awning-stripe curtains that ran from floor to ceiling ... so unlike the beige-and-tan stuff people seem to go so loony over ... my LIVING choice would be Russell Bush, a NYC decorator of discreet profile and luxurious taste. Or Mrs Ertegün; her house at Bodrum is bliss.

An Aesthete's Lament said...

Oh, Lord, I just remember how much I dream about the Spanish decorator Isabel López-Quesada ... oh her work just sends me over the moon ...

HOBAC said...

Mitchell - not an easy task is it?
I didn't think the year round porch had the hand of Mrs Ertegun.
Sounds as if Mr Bush and I might get along quite nicely.
''I'm a camouflage decorator,'' he says, modestly allowing that he has a passion for transforming the disreputable into the deluxe. ''Not everybody wants to blow out the walls and start over from scratch,'' he adds, plainly puzzled by the notion of bulldozer decorating. ''There's nothing wrong with working with what's already there and making it better.''
And this is certainly one of my maxims ''My job is not to impose my taste,'' but to make the client's wishes sing.
Quotes for the New York Times.

HOBAC said...

Mrs B - I like her restrained layering - I tend to over do. I would insist on pattern and colour, though. All those light, plain fabrics are just not us.

An Aesthete's Lament said...

I wrote that article for the Times :)

HOBAC said...

I know ;-]

The Peak of Chic said...

It's nice to see another George Stacey fan. Dead one would be Van Day Truex, who wasn't solely a decorator. And I think Ruby Ross Wood too. Living is Albert Hadley- I know it's an expected answer, but I admire him immensely.

The Peak of Chic said...

And by the way, I for one would like to know more about your childhood home. I think it would make for an interesting post. I'm also curious how growing up in an Henri Samuel designed home might have influenced your style.

HOBAC said...

PoC - Like your choices. Even though Mr Hadley may be an obvious choice, not everyone should have him. I know he would take one look at all our things and just think 'no way! I'm not doing the House of Usher". Ha.

Cote de Texas said...

Hi - yes - tell us about your house, now THAT sounds interesting. Of the three you named, I would go with Tarlow, god she is talented - her book is like a bible. I would go with Saladino though, I just love his perfect mix of pieces, his proportions. He's like a God to me, even more that Hadley - kill me I know, I'm sorry. Dead ? G. Bennison. or S. Boudin

HOBAC said...

Hi CdT - Heretic! Ha! Bennison would be an interesting choice.

Pigtown-Design said...

Living: Nina Campbell... I've pretty much loved everything I've seen by her.

Dead: Billy Baldwin... His rooms are timeless. I remember one in the Governor's mansion which was chocolate and white. Stays with me these many years on.