Je regrette

An early 18th century walnut dressing table mirror with shaped cross grain moulded border and gilded leaf work edging above a stepped shaped base of three short and one long drawer; on ball feet


Should not have let you go. If only you had come up after the inlaid table you were meant to sit upon. Then it would have been a fait accompli instead of this nagging regret.



---------

Now playing: John Waite - Missing You

Putting my money where my mouth is

Without even knowing the man, this is what I would have done for Gerard Butler.


An Arts and Crafts oak centre table, circa 1900, with lotus capped square legs joined by stretchers.



A three seat version of Hickory Chair's Knole Sofa. The"updated finials" would most certainly need to be covered in the Mulberry slubbed velvet.


Mulberry's Foxslub Velvet in Berry, as he seemingly likes red.




A Victorian mahogany long stool, circa 1860, with bobbin-turned legs and stretchers. The squab cushion replaced with a horsehair covered pad seat.





Antique leather covered armchairs.







If only for its relevance, a rare and unusual early 19th Century Scottish laburnum armchair. The drop in seat would be done in a dark green horsehair.







A Gothic Revival oak side table, cica 1880, with pierced frieze, on square legs.


----------------
Now playing: Kate Bush - Wuthering Heights
via FoxyTunes

Masterclass

Charlie Rose in conversation with Jeffrey Bilhuber





Jeffrey Bilhuber's Design Basics

----------------
Now playing: Enigma - The Rivers of Belief (The Returning Silence)
via FoxyTunes

I am lucky...

A GEORGE I BLACK JAPANNED CHEST
EARLY 18TH CENTURY
With two short and three long graduated drawers, the drawer fronts decorated with raised Chinoiserie designs, the stand with a frieze drawer, the castors later


to have clients who trust me enough to just go with the flow.

It very well may be jousting at windmills...

But it just might be possible to produce a glazed finish at will.

Well, only that in the dark days of food shortages my mother was relieved to find two sacks of rice in the back of her store cupboard. It made a lot of puddings (I doubt if she could buy the ingredients for curry) but it was originally intended for reglazing her chintz curtains. Now there's a thought..

Yes, indeed Rose C'est La Vie, now there is a thought.

A thought now heightened by the fact many of the fabric houses are discontinuing some of their best chintzes. While it is relatively easy to have fabric printed in small runs (20-50 meters) it is impossible to have it glaze finished. Unless of course one is prepared to order 250 meter runs, and foot the cost of screens and strikes. One day, but not just yet.




In the meanwhile Belgian rice starch, superior to other types, seemingly gives the highest quality finish on natural fibers.

The degree of sheen is entirely dependent on the concentration of starch and the pressing of the cloth.

----------------
Now playing: Bill Withers - Grandma's Hands
via FoxyTunes

Rehab

These two chairs are a prime example of what is known around here as the Lilie Road look. Which is always used in the pejorative as it represents a... for the lack of a better word... style that is completely lacking in substance.




Chairs like these are toshed out by the hundreds. They are either so crudely made or so far gone they are not worth restoring properly. Instead, they get a slap of cheap emulsion and a shoddy re-cover in calico or linen and presto... shabby masquerading as chic.





The chairs are first primed with a liquid sand solution, allowed to dry, and then repainted by dry brushing on two different shades of white. The recessed areas are roughly painted with a red oxide colour to approximate exposed bole, the base used in water gilding. The areas in high relief are then sanded back to expose some of the grey and some of the raw wood. Three coats of wax in two different shades are then applied.


To combat the expanse of Belgian linen that is the sofa in this particular project, a raspberry cotton/viscose strié velvet was chosen for the squabs and backs.




As there was no support under the padding, new wooden insets needed to be installed prior to the upholstery work being done. Had these chairs been of a superior quality I would have advised that the seats be re-caned as they would have been originally.


No silk purse these, but not quite the sow's ears they were either. Now, I can happily stand by them.



----------------
Now playing: Amy Winehouse - Rehab
via FoxyTunes

The lost language of crones

Those humble and honest objects that WASPy old dears pressed into service with great aplomb.



Terracotta pots and saucers instead of cachepot.



Wicker baskets, used for everything from bread to wastepaper.




A colourful 19th century American hooked rug with a geometric design.


A cushion faced with a floral needlepoint panel.


Bright, purposeful handiwork pieces: hooked rugs, needlepoint (in all its mutations), patchwork quilts, etc.
Both the cushion and the hooked rug are from Sybil Colefax & John Fowler Antiques.



Tole ware, whether decorated or plain, fashioned into absolutely anything useful.



----------------
Now playing: Richard Wagner - Die Walküre
via FoxyTunes

The clouds are so low

Jean Dupas (1882-1964)
The History of Navigation Mural, 1934
Made for the SS Normandie
Verre eglomise panels manufactured by Charles Champigneulle






The Metropolitan Museum of Art










Jean Dupas (1882-1964) and Jean Dunand (1877-1942)
Chariot of Aurora, 1935
Gold leaf and lacquer on plaster




Carnegie Museum



Jean Théodore Dupas (1882-1964)




----------------
Now playing: Rod McKuen - Jean
via FoxyTunes

In no need of chintz to distract the eye

A Diego Giacometti table sits comfortably with Georgian pieces.



In a guest room, a pair of chairs from the Edward James sale in their original Severini fabric.


The house which was used for What's wrong in this picture? appeared in the June issue of The World of Interiors. In fact it is Woolbeding House, a restored pile dating from the 1720s in West Sussex, home to the late cultural benefactor, Simon Sainsbury.

I was so taken with the individual pieces (and there are some incredible pieces ranging from Chippendale to Giacometti) I failed to take in the whole. The comments left by Mamacita and Hello Gorgeous gave me pause for thought. It never occurred to me that the room itself would not be well received. After all, it does have that typically English country house look which is usually so popular.

In spite of its fine architecture, it is not a pretty house or rather it has not been prettily done. Though, it does appear comfortable and inviting; which, from a cultural perspective especially, has always taken precedence. There is, however, an uncommon sense of connoisseurship in the understated English Georgian furniture and British pictures that is atypical of the English country house look.


Simon Sainsbury built the collection to furnish and complement Woolbeding House, which was leased from the National Trust. It was this and his personal taste that formed the nature of the collection.


----------------
Now playing: Christopher Cross - Sailing
via FoxyTunes

It is all connected

Mondrian's close friend, Maude van Loon, describes the painter's studio:

The front door was nothing special; just a wooden door. Between the front door and the studio there was a little vestibule and a dark corridor. Then you went through his door and suddenly there was a marvelous white studio with a colour plane here and there. It was like stepping into paradise….



Mondrian’s Paris studio, restored to colour ( Berlin, 1995)
Frans Postma and Cees Boekraad, with the assistance of Hans de Herder, RKD
National Gallery of Art





Piet Mondrian's Composition II in Red, Blue, and Yellow, 1930




Yves Saint Laurent's Mondrian day dress, autumn 1965
The Metropolitan Museum of Art





Architects Titina Ammanati and Giampiero Vitelli's Mobile Totale living unit, 1965
Phillips de Pury



See?



----------------
Now playing: Stereo MC's - Connected
via FoxyTunes

Appetising

A kitchen dating from the late 1960s that is perfect in its simplicity. No bells and whistles needed, or desired.




The drawing room. Again, perfect in its simplicity. This would also work incredibly well in a transitional space, say in a large hallway or on a particularly wide landing.



Gentleman's Relish
World of Interiors, June 2009
Photographs by Antony Crolla

----------------
Now playing: k.d. lang - Simple
via FoxyTunes

The opposite of hate

Love.















The house of Chrisian Astuguevieille as it appeared in Maison Francaise. Highly individual and impossible to mindlessly imitate.


----------------
Now playing: Lighthouse Family - Lost In Space
via FoxyTunes

Just enough old lady to be interesting

Todd Romano, damn near perfect. It must be that Texas thing.
Via New York Social Diary

----------------
Now playing: Grace Jones - I'm Not Perfect
via FoxyTunes

Meanwhile, back in Paris

A conscious, and unfortunately laboured, attempt to incorporate disparate elements for a fantasy in Paris's 9th arrondissement . La fantaisie l'Empier, l'esprit retour d'Afrique et les pastiches neo-classiques. Photographed by Joel Laiter, for Elle Decoration, January/February 2002 (France).



----------------
Now playing: Amanda Lear - Fantasy
via FoxyTunes