Best Wishes, EEE, from Magnaverde!

January 19, 2010UncategorizedblogsMrs. Blandings

I figure since Emily & Mr. EEE spent their honeymoon amid tropical breezes, when it’s time for their first long weekend out of town, they’ll want a change of scenery. And pace. What could be better for that than a stay at Minnesota’s Naniboujou Lodge, a secluded Art Deco gem hidden away on the shores of Lake Superior? Pine-scented breezes, sparkling blue skies, clean & cold water surround the historic lodge itself, opened as an exclusive private club a scant three months before the market crash of 1929. Inside, the décor is unlike anything I’ve ever seen before: a jazzy cocktail of Native American ornament mixed with the rustic architecture of the great camps of the Adirondacks, all garnished with a brilliant (& woozy) 1920s palette. I don’t know what was in the illicit hooch that the designers of this place were drinking—illicit because the country was officially “dry” at the time–but it must have mighty powerful stuff, because someone clearly conjured up the Great Spirit of Sonia Delaunay.

So, what’s to do at Naniboujou? Well, let’s talk about golf. If Emily & her new husband love a challenging 18-hole course, well, they’re out of luck. There’s no golf course. Tennis? Forget it. Pool? Nope. Cute toddlers squealing with delight at big-headed cartoon characters from the movies & TV? Wrong place. In fact, the rooms don’t even have TVs–or phones, so there’s no internet. When the Ramey family that’s run Naniboujou Lodge for twenty years calls the place a getaway, they mean AWAY. But you can eat in the beautiful dining room, you can talk, you can walk in the woods, you can sit on the shore & watch the line where the sky meets the water, then you can go back to your room and, um…nap. Basically, a stay at Naniboujou is as close to time travel as you’ll ever get–a vacation as our well-off grandparents might have known it eighty years ago–which is exactly why I like it. I hope the happy couple will like it, too.

P.S. I’m hoping someone else will give the happy couple a cool Art Deco travel bar, with room for a few bottles, chunky crystal cocktail glasses & some sterling silver olive picks, because they’ll need it. The place is still dry. How authentic can you get?

Now

January 14, 2010UncategorizedDesignersMrs. Blandings

I received an email from Charlotte Moss today letting me know that her organization has made a generous contribution for aid in Haiti; she is encouraging the blog community to get on board. If we can’t donate ten thousand dollars we can donate something – and spread the word.

You can see Moss’s post on her site here. You can give directly to UNICEF here. Even easier, you can text 90999 with the word “Haiti” to donate ten dollars to the American Red Cross; the charge will appear on your phone bill. Right now. You’re sitting right there. It will hardly take a minute.

Swing Shift

January 13, 2010UncategorizedProductMrs. Blandings

Henry Wilson, of yesterday’s post and the wonderful walls, has a day job; he’s an interiors photographer.

And then at night, sometimes until three in the morning he cuts stencils and paints.

“All my wallpapers here have been stencilled on the kitchen table with my own hand. I have petit-pointed the cushions, acid washed the windows and patterned the roman blinds – and everything has been informed and inspired by my intense bond with what I have seen in India.”

While his mother had worried that all this energy wasn’t exactly lucrative (mothers are that way) a little commercial venture came along.

Wilson designed a collection of wallpaper for Osborne & Little that was released last year. You can find the complete Sariskar collection here.

This last pattern is in honor of Penelope, who comforted me about the loss of my faucet with tales of product lost and images of her peafowl. It worked.

Images of Wilson’s photographs of his home appeared in World of Interiors, December, 2009. Last three images via Osborne & Little.

A Carnival for the Eyes

January 12, 2010UncategorizedDesigners, ProductMrs. Blandings

“What’s the matter?” “Oh, nothing, really, I just can’t find the picture of those snake sconces. I feel like I just saw them. Somewhere. Didn’t I show it to you?”

“Yes, but it wasn’t in those books; it was upstairs.” No, no it wasn’t, but I didn’t want to say that, so I just didn’t lift my eyes from the book and mumbled a reply. But Mr. Blandings was right. It was upstairs and I am publishing his triumph on the internet as he said, “I hate to be so excited, but I’m not right very often.”

This is the home, and the snake sconces, of Henry Wilson. Henry Wilson is quite an ordinary name for a quite extraordinary man. Wilson, who lives in London, is a photographer and artist who has a great love of India. Before I was on my snake hunt, the needlepoint pillows in this room captured my heart. Wilson designed and stitched them. Petit point. I can see five on the sofas and if you stitch you know what an incredible amount of time and care has been spent here. (If you click on the images, you can see them bigger.)

Ah. And he has stenciled the walls as well. In nearly every room are fantastic designs.

For fun, you know. Because he likes it.

I’ve been kicking around the idea of re-doing my tiny powder room again. Wilson’s is dreamy with its silver leaf walls and stenciling. That he did himself. Really, if I hadn’t found my soul mate, music would be swelling.

“Having stepped over the threshold of my small Victorian terraced house in Chelsea [my editor] summed up my surroundings fairly swiftly: ‘obsessive’. For once in my all-too-slow-witted life, I came back in a flash: ‘No, Rupert – focused.’ But, of course, I know it is obsessive. I’d go further: it’s compulsive and without an iota of intellect – it’s instinctive.”

Oh, Mr. Wilson, I would like to meet you.

All images World of Interiors, December 2009; photography by Henry Wilson. The title of the post is taken from the text and describes how Mr. Wilson sees India.

Snow Day 3 of 3

January 11, 2010UncategorizedMusings from the Dream HouseMrs. Blandings

As predicted, three snow days. And, no, the boys did not want to stay in on Friday and read or even play Wii for the third day. It was so cold. Too cold to go out certainly. Until their grandfather called and offered to take them to lunch when I realized that, yes, lovely, an outing might do them good.

And, once they were gone, my getting out seemed less daunting and I did some memo sample and Christmas gift returning. Doing so allowed me to tear myself from on-line shopping which had unearthed these snake sconces. Mr. Blandings and his grandfather used to hunt snakes in Colorado when Mr. B was a boy so they seemed fitting flanking the old gentleman’s portrait. The tails can be maneuvered which is particularly delightful. However, the same investment might be better spent on an entire session of braces for the middle or even a car for the eldest. They remain at 1st dibs if you have a spot and a pocketbook for them.

So, I donned my coat and hat. No, no I didn’t. I never wear a hat. If I looked like this in a hat, I would.

However, after a good bit of running around a particularly stylish friend called and said “Ihavetogetout – howaboutamovie?” Her husband thought it such a good idea he offered to drive us.

Speaking of snakes, we went to see An Education. It is the perfect combination of scintillating script, wonderful acting and divine sets. I don’t care for sets that become the star of the show. I like movie sets, but ultimately I’m there for the story. It matters. This one hits every note just right.

Surely to goodness today I will actually get something done.

All images of An Education via Sony Classics.