Tag Archives: design books

At Loose Ends

April 14, 2009Uncategorizeddesign booksMrs. Blandings

I have an itch to paint. I just finished painting the playroom and while I started in December (it’s complicated, more later) I just don’t want to put the brushes away. A floor would be fun. Or a ceiling. Did you notice that this one is blue?

Pottery? Yep, these were sprayed black which would be easy as pie.

A headboard for the poor, neglected third child? This would offer a chance to use the jigsaw as well. Bonus.

Stair risers as I’ve never been able to settle on a runner?

Speaking of easy, I’m such a pushover for black and white and nearly any other color.

The inspiration for the playroom project was Albert Hadley’s Trixie wallpaper through Hinson. I had it sent from the Chicago showroom so I asked them to throw in the fabric just in case. It’s been living on my desk for a while. Trixie likes it here. Right here in the office where I can see her. Maybe I should put away the brushes and pull out the staple gun.

All images from Rooms to Inspire in the Country by Annie Kelly. Photography by Tim Street-Porter. From top, Ellen Ward and Chuck Scarborough’s Connecticut home, Carol Bokuniewicz and John Smallwood’s home, also Connecticut (I can never write Connecticut without thinking of the nightclub employee in the movie Holiday Inn.) Final two images, Steven Gambrel in Sag Harbor.

Rooms to Inspire in the Country

March 5, 2009Uncategorizeddesign booksMrs. Blandings

Blogging is funny sport. Sometimes I have a plan. Sometimes I have a plan for the whole week and I scan and download and save. And, sometimes, it’s a jumbly mess and it comes or it doesn’t and well, you get what you get.

I’m not implying the planning is better; it just sometimes happens.

When I fell hopelessly and madly in love with Bruce Burstert’s work I wanted to lay it all out within one week so it would be uninterrupted.

And then yesterday, arriving home from carpool, the boys spied the envelope sandwiched between the door and the storm. “Hooray!” from one and groans from the others as they all assumed the youngest’s birthday bounty continued.

But no. It was for me. A peek inside the up-coming release of Rooms to Inspire in the Country by Annie Kelly and Tim Street-Porter. It may seem like I buy design books willy-nilly, but I do not. I have to see that we will develop a long term relationship, that I will return again and again to the pages. It was a happy coincidence that I had recently been inspired by Bruce’s country house. He would be quite at home here in this new book and I think you would, too.

The subtitle of the book is “The Infinite Possibilities of American House Design.” Indeed. Think I’ve given it all away? Not even close. Plan ahead and reserve a copy today.

Images from top, which is also the cover, the Connecticut home of Dana and Fritz Rohn, Juan Montoya in the Hudson River Valley, Michael Trapp in Connecticut, Henry Davis Sleeper in Massachusetts, Kelly and Street-Porter in Connecticut and Steven Gambrel in Sag Harbor.

Four for You, One for Me

April 21, 2008Uncategorizeddesign books, Vintage DesignMrs. Blandings

Saturday is Kansas City’s Dining by Design. A while ago, the most charming gentleman called me and asked if I could do a table. I was thrilled! I was flattered! I was chairing something else the same night. Darn. But, I would be happy to make a donation to their silent auction.

But what to get for the party guests who, presumably, have everything? A chic and sophisticated crowd, I needed to put some thought into what to donate. Nearly anything I would want to pass along would not be fitting for this soiree.

Also, icky to just pick up something new. Think, think, think. Ah ha! Vintage design books. Some folks will have their own collection, but the hunting and gathering does sometimes stand in the way of what one wants and what one has the time to find.

So, off to Spivey’s, a most wonderful spot that carries rare, out of date, and, ok, used books. Also, a fine selection of maps and vintage and antique prints. You could stay and hunt for hours if you had the time. There is always at least one dog there and sometimes more, which is just plain right. If I ever own my own business, I’m taking my dog to work.

Up the stairs, down the hall past military and U.S. history is architecture, city planning and interior design. The interior design books are actually in a closet with the door removed. I’ve never been, not once, when I didn’t walk away with something very good.

One time, many years ago, I stumbled across Mark Hampton’s On Decorating. First Edition. Signed. If not the Honus Wagner card of design books, certainly in the top ten.

For Dining by Design I picked up Colefax and Fowler, The Best in English Interior Design, House and Garden’s Complete Guide to Interior Decoration, Inspirational Interiors by Roger Banks-Pye of Colefax and Fowler and House and Garden’s Best in Decoration. I also acquired AD’s Designers’ Own Homes, published in 1984. There is room in the nifty tote that goes with, but, well, it has this house of Hadley’s and I’m not sure I can part with it. I guess you’ll have to stop in to find out just how altruistic I am.

p.p.s.

November 20, 2007Uncategorizeddesign booksMrs. Blandings

I used an image from Farrow and Ball’s, The Art of Color in my post yesterday. Joni has already posted on this book, but if you are composing any kind of wish list, this book should be on it. The rooms, and the photography, are inspirational. This is one of my favorite layouts.

The book includes images of most of the house, but I’m captivated by this series of rooms. This historic Richmond, Virgina home was decorated by Sallie Giordano and her mother Leta Austin Foster. They used different patterns of Mauny paper in the dining room and breakfast room.

I mean, this shouldn’t work, right? The scale is almost the same, it seems like you’d have to choose one fabulous print or the other. But you would be wrong. Maybe it’s the flip/flop of the background color of the paper and the trim color. I don’t know, but I can’t get enough. Of course, the architecture and the mouldings don’t hurt.

I have hardly ever seen a green, black and white room I didn’t like. The yellow china, the home owner’s grandmother’s, doesn’t hurt either. Seems the perfect setting for a little pumpkin pie.