Home Work

January 10, 2014UncategorizedMusings from the Dream HouseMrs. Blandings

2013 was a year of transition. I’ve made some changes and I’m not sure how much I will share about them here, but I have bought a new house. Moved, in fact. And this new space, my new space, has made me think about home in a different way yet again.

After several years of blogging, going through magazines and hunting on-line had become something that seemed like homework. Homework has a negative connotation, I think. Not something you do from a joy of learning, but as assignment. Work to please someone else. Often with little sense of personal passion.

But now those activities are, again, a joy. I linger over favorite books seeing familiar rooms in a different way. I flip through magazines and, as I used to, tear wildly, unconcerned with sharp edges and the keeping of attribution. (Though giving credit where credit is due is still important to me.) And the magazines, which I had begun to keep as library, I recycle when they’ve given me what they have to offer. If there was something I missed, I trust that it will come back to me eventually on a different page.

My last house was shot for Spaces and as soon as I am a little more settled I will post those images. In the meantime, I’m taking pictures of the painting and arranging I’m doing here. I think I’ll post them, in all their unprofessional, fuzzy, iPhone glory. Probably irregularly. And you can weigh in, if you like. But I will tell you that I care less for others’ opinions than I used to, so don’t be offended if I smile politely and nod and do what I was thinking anyway. This is how I choose to begin.

Straight Aero

November 3, 2013Uncategorizeddesign books, DesignersMrs. Blandings

Recently, three very different people have spoken to me of
passion. A professor, a designer and a
curator each used the word and evoked the emotion though none referred to the
physical, instead to writing, to home and to art.

Not one of the three is flamboyant. When they speak with their hands they keep
them close to their frames; they do not spread wide and flail about. While each of them wears color, it is usually
of cooler hues. Sometimes richer – rust, bittersweet, mocha, but I cannot
remember any of them in red.

These three remind me of my friend, Thomas O’Brien, whom I
met six years ago. He has inspired me and
taught me, made me laugh and made me lunch.
He, too, has spoken to me of passion and with passion about his work and
his homes and his life.

Aero, his shop in Soho in New York is one of these passions
and its spirit and its evolution is at the core of Thomas’s latest book. While it is the heart of the story, I fear
the title may cause someone to think, “It’s about a store.”

It is not about a store, but rather the curing of an
aesthetic. Through the text, beautifully
rendered by Lisa Light who has translated Thomas’s philosophy into print, you can
follow him finding his way to a very thoughtful life.

If you don’t read design books, which you should as there is
always more to learn about the pictures, you will enjoy this for the
images: Thomas’s first apartment in New
York, Aero’s first location and pictures of his friend’s, Laura Resen’s, homes
which offer a perspective on his influence in more transferable environments.

Aero: Beginning to Now is a very good book in a very good book season. You can find it here.

Out and About – Pear Tree

October 2, 2013UncategorizedAntique DealersMrs. Blandings

Sending out a quick heads up that Pear Tree in Crestwood has received their new shipment.

They always have beautiful things, but there are several painted pieces that caught my eye.

And pretty mirrors and sconces to finish out that almost-finished space before the holidays.

I’d recommend that you hurry.

Pear Tree Design & Antiques

313 E. 55th St.

Kansas City, MO

816-333-2100

www.peartreeantiqueskc.com

You Should Love Where You Live

September 19, 2013UncategorizedAntique Dealers, design booksMrs. Blandings

Love Where You Live: At Home in the Country arrived about the time I was getting my house ready to be shot for Spaces Kansas City. While I loved the book at first sight, I was momentarily distracted by an uncontrollable mania to “finish up” some things around here.

Then, earlier this week, I received a lovely email from an old friend that, while completely unrelated, served as a mental nudge to revisit Joan Osofsky’s book. If you stop here to visit very often you know that I have an affinity for people who have emotional attachments to things.

Not things like BMWs and the recognizable jewel of the moment, but old things. Sometimes rusty things. Often not very expensive things.

So Osofsky, who owns Hammertown Barn, a handful of lifestyle stores in Hudson Valley and the Berkshires, struck a chord with her book of her customers’ homes which echo her aesthetic of cozy sophistication.

Her own houses open and close the book and it was the later (the last) that drew a sharp intake of breath and elicited the thought, “I want to live just like that.”

You can find Love Where You Live here and more about Osofsky and her shop and philosophy here.

All images courtesy of Rizzoli New York; photography John Gruen.

Tile and the World Tiles with You

September 17, 2013UncategorizedProductMrs. Blandings

Putting off painting a dresser last Sunday I lingered long over the New York Time’s T Magazine. I was enchanted that a “rogue cowlick” is considered stylish as my youngest is ensured to be haute with no effort at all. Enchanted, too, by the piece on Andre Dubreuil and his family’s chateau. A man who displays his porcelain around his bathtub because it “looks nice there” is a man after my heart.

But it is the tile, too, that is so engaging. So lively and cheerful and chatty. It steps right up and sticks out its hand and says “Hello!” rather than fading into the background and being, well, background. And white (bread.)

And as my new tag line is “If Someone Can Do It, I Can Do It” I’m wondering how difficult it would be to tile….something. An as yet undetermined something that needs some waking up. Some pep. Which could be me, I suppose, as I spent hours putting off the simple task of painting a dresser. Heaven knows I have parts that could use some clever covering up.

Do read the piece on Dubreuil here if you missed the New York Times on Sunday. Image, top, photography Martin Morrell; production Gay Gassmann. Center is, of course, Tom Scheerer again from his book Tom Scheerer Decorates; photography Francesco Lagnese. The image, last, is Michael S. Smith from his book Elements of Style, which originally appeared in Elle Decor; photography Henry Bourne.