Beguiling

December 3, 2010Uncategorizeddesign booksMrs. Blandings

I’m a flirt. I always have been. I like a little playful banter that makes any hum-drum here or there feel like skipping through the park.

There was a time when I practiced the art in white shirt, plaid skirt. Now, the sideways glance coupled with a rapier sharp repartee turns any obligation into a bit of a tour de force. (OK, it’s true, I did not always choose my sparring partner based on wit; that came later.)

And why not? Now, it’s harmless. Genteel grown-up fun as long as boundaries are very carefully observed.

So will I keep driving by White Wall’s house? Happen to be up at school just as he is leaving basketball practice? Call and hang up when he answers the phone? (There are those of us who remember being able to do this before technology became such a narc.)

Can I let color be the sauce upon the noodles? The curry on the rice? We’ll see, but I have certainly altered my route to pep club and the grocery store and my best friend’s house. Just to catch a glimpse of him walking out the door.

All images Farrow & Ball, Living with Colour by Ros Byam Shaw (which contains lots – lots – of great images with color on the walls as well); photography by Jan Baldwin.

Italian Love Story

November 29, 2010UncategorizedAntique DealersMrs. Blandings

Maybe it’s the approaching holiday, when everything glittery, sparkly and jingley seems oh-so-smart, but these Chiavari chairs fairly leapt from the pages of Elle Decor and World of Interiors this month. (Next month. What to call it when December comes mid-November?)

Long past are the days I held infants aloft (they spit up, you know, nearly always when you are holding them just over your face) but these chairs are irresistible. So sleek and sexy they make me want to perch just on the edge, looking mysterious with kohl-lined lids, vodka-soda adding nary a notch to my nipped waist, swinging a foot shod in a very high heel with a questionable ankle strap. Black.

Just baroque enough to muck up your mod, just mod enough to perk up your provenance. They are a fantasy for me, but could be reality for you. Still at Joanna’s. 750 for the pair. (You can give her a ring at 816-753-7606. Nothing in it for me; I just think all great chairs need a good home.) Glamourous and bargain aren’t usually drinking buddies, but sometimes the holidays provide a magical mix.

Image, top, Elle Decor, December 2010/January 2011 (a stunningly good issue), photography by William Waldron. Next, World of Interiors, December 2010, photography by Eric Boman.

Your Finest Room

November 24, 2010UncategorizedDesignersMrs. Blandings

While I was talking with Thomas Jayne last week I mentioned that I had a room that I thought could have made the list. He nodded, good naturedly, and said, “Yes, we actually have a spot on the website where people can post their finest rooms.” It could be, of course, a room of your own, or you can post an interior that inspires you.

I sent a picture of my old dining room. I’m kidding. I did send a picture of Todd Romano’s apartment; if posted, I am quite looking forward to Jayne’s note.

You can send your own selection here.

Punctuation

November 23, 2010UncategorizedDesigners, Vintage DesignMrs. Blandings

Thomas Jayne is blogging for Interior Design magazine and one of his posts contains a couple of pictures of Albert Hadley’s sitting room, which appears as the last project in the book. Like a spoonful of shaved ice at the end of a meal, it leaves one with a refreshing feeling of satisfaction – a sense that talent and restraint can be as significant as budget.

Jayne has received a lot of positive feedback on the inclusion of this room and it is endearing to note that Hadley did not think the room should be a part of the project. “I asked him,” recalls Jayne, “and he said he did not think it was worthy. I asked if we could shoot it anyway, then he could look at the pictures and decide. When I showed him the proofs he relented, but he still didn’t think it should be included.”

The Finest Rooms in America

November 22, 2010Uncategorizeddesign books, DesignersMrs. Blandings

I was in New York last week and was delighted that I was able to talk with Thomas Jayne about his new book, The Finest Rooms in America.

Many of you may have The Finest Rooms by America’s Great Decorators published in 1965. While several of the selections in the vintage book have a very similar feel, Jayne’s do not. As Jayne said, “It was a microcosm of New York decorating. Today there is not a clear group [of decorators], not a single shared aesthetic. Not everyone wants a French room.”

He notes that his book is a completely subjective compilation. Once he’d conceived the project he sat down to make a list of the thirty rooms he would like to see in the book. He had it in short measure. He then went back to fill in the gaps, “like the big, flouncy chintz room. It needed that.” He was able to secure nearly every room on his wish list.

There are not “new” projects in the book, though there were a few that were new to me. In addition, many of my favorite rooms do appear on the pages and I did not have them in printed form before, like the Brody House by Billy Haines and the Menil house by Charles James. I told Jayne that Suzanne Trocme’s Influential Interiors was, yes, influential to me. Perhaps a retread to others, Trocme’s book introduced me to many names in design history.

This is part of the value of Jayne’s book as well, to see a clear perspective, a distinct point of view, in what will last; it is a bonus to have them all in one lovely place.

For a schedule of book signings click here.

All images from The Finest Rooms in America courtesy of Monacelli Press. From top, Monticello photographed by Paul Rocheleau; Hadley’s sitting room by Kerri McCaffety; Mary Cooper House, McCaffety; Oceanfront House, Scott Frances; Francis Brody House, Oberto Gili.