Amen

Mr Kieth Irvine

It is Mr. Irvine’s opinion that decorating right now has no sauce whatsoever, the expression of a culture that’s afraid to commit. Take, for example, he said, “the modern habit of propping pictures against the wall. It’s A, sort of pretentious and B, tentative.”

He continued: “And that applies to color; they’re scared of it too. Most of the rooms today end up looking like some set piece from Crate & Barrel. I don’t mean to knock Crate & Barrel, because it’s a great resource, but you don’t have to emulate their showroom.”

An English Country Stylist, Unrepentant, New York Times

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The other Karl

Karl Kemp



The World of Biedermeier by Karl Kemp

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Let's talk dado rails

David Hicks via The Peak of Chic

Imagine if David Hicks had painted the wall section beneath the dado rail the same colour as the section above. Dreadful, no? And yet, this is something I have been seeing lately, rooms done with bright white dado rails. Either remove the dado rail or limit the dominant colour to the area above. Unless of course, one likes the idea of having one's room wearing a white belt. No? I didn't think so.

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If it isn't on Amazon...

or ebay, it must be on You Tube.

Mr. Carleton Varney on the Duchess of Windsor, change, and memories.










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That which we call a Rose...

Rose Cumming. A name and a style to conjure with.

En route to England in 1917, where she was to be married, she found herself stranded in New York due to travel restrictions precipitated by the Great War. In need of something to do and possibly an income, she sought advice from her friend Frank Crowninshield, the editor of Vanity Fair, who asked if she wanted to be a decorator. Perhaps I would, but first tell me what it is, she replied.

Twelve years later, she would not only know what a decorator was, she would be the personification of the very word.

...It requires primarily that one be an expert in color, design, period, and the placement of furniture. Most of us have added some knowledge of architecture to our equipment as decorators, so that being conversant with the laws of proportion, line, et cetera, we can intelligently interpret the original design of the architect. A decorator should, in addition, be blessed with a sixth sense -- a kind of artistic alchemy which endows the articles of furniture with that elusive quality of livableness which transforms houses...No amount of training or schooling, I believe, can teach you this. Either you have flair or you don't...
A Door Always Open by Rose Cumming,
The Finest Rooms by America's Great Decorators

Rose Cumming's ugly room, her reaction against the preconception of prettiness in decorating. Absolutely perfect.



Seventeenth-century Corsican rugs help to balance the room. The painting over the mantle is by Jean Baptiste Oudry, from his black period. Which I suspect is in fact a romanticisation of a particularly dark painting that may have been just in need of a good clean.



John Audubon's seldom seen prints from the Quadruped Edition (1845-1848) hang above the sofa.

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Mr and Mrs

Vache Paysage, 2006.


Hippopotame II (bar)
Bronze, iron, copper and wood.


Rhinocrétaire
François-Xavier Lalanne.


Grand Sphinx, 1999.


Banbiloba, 2005.


Pomme de Ben, h: 48 x w: 36.2 x d: 33.5 in.


Les Grandes Berces, 2000.


Gingko Guéridon II, 2007.


Banc Crocodile, 2005.
Claude Lalanne.
All images from JGM. Galerie

The husband and wife team of François-Xavier and Claude Lalanne have been creating some of the 20Th Century's most original furnitures for over forty years. They are the personification of what the decorative arts can and should be. His pieces are monumental, allegorical, yet lighthearted. Hers are organic, poetic, and dream like.
François-Xavier Lalanne's credo, The supreme art is the art of living.

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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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