Tag Archives: Designers

Kansas City Rock Star

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I’m not sure how I missed this. A couple of weeks ago the New York Social Diary interviewed Thomas Britt. I don’t know if you ever read the Social Diary; I’m sure I got started after being referred by another blogger. They profile interior designers about twice a month. The funny thing is, their interviews always sound a bit Sasha Baron Cohenesque.

A little Biedermeier, a little tortoise shell, some turquoise. Fabulous.

Thomas Britt is a designer of the old school. Which is not to imply that he is stuffy, he’s not. But he is not afraid of the formal-to-over-the-top interior.

A tented room always appeals – as does the snappy black and white stripped ribbon trim.

His apartment in New York is just as it should be. Filled with beautiful antiques, classic styling and a confident use of color, the home announces that a style maven lives here.

The blue satin upholstery reminds me of the Paley’s brown satin in their drawing room by Parish Hadley.

A style maven who admits to being at Studio 54 in the day. Almost nightly.

These birds, I love.

Wonderful style. Gracious nature. Witty sense of humor. Hmmm…might he be from Kansas City?

This room was inspired by the Royal Pavilion at Brighton; it feels like one of the ivory pagodas all grown up.
Parchment covers most of the books. Quite charming to own a set of Encyclopedia Britannica.

Don’t miss the floors.

Wouldn’t you know. One of the things that is so telling in this profile is that the interviewer asks him a question concerning money and he replies that he was not raised to talk of such things. In some ways, Kansas City doesn’t change.


Nervous throughout much of the interview, he’s particularly concerned that the photographer will go upstairs. Not allowed. Too much of a mess.
This is my kind of guy.

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Mariette Himes Gomez

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I know we are all pouring over Domino. Fresh, young, hip, exciting. I love it because it’s bright and cheerful and exciting.
There’s another magazine. I don’t think you’re reading it. It’s old, staid, and, I’ll say it, out of touch. Unfortunately, this doyenne of the design tomes carries the work of a few designers you would love.

Mariette Himes Gomez is one of the best. Gomez opened her own shop in 1975; her interiors are classic and sophisticated and still, remarkably fresh.


Her rooms are balanced and focused. I struggle with furniture placement and have studied her rooms memorizing each detail.

Clean and crisp they give you room to breathe. While these rooms are super stars, they allow their owners to be the focus of the attention.


They don’t over power.

And while many of Gomez’s interiors are neutral, she uses color with aplomb.

Deep and rich with an enviable attention to detail.

No fool, Gomez is a business woman, too. She designs two lines of furniture. One, Private Collection is available through her web site and her store, The Shop, in New York.


The other is a collection with Hickory Chair.


I love this ottoman; Gomez uses this egg shaped work horse in many of her projects. It’s so much more interesting that a rectangle, graceful and chic.

Next time you are standing in the grocery store line, pick it up. Every now and then there is a treasure.

post-script: StyleCourt reminded me that Gomez has published a book, “Rooms; Creating Luxurious, Livable Spaces” and a new book coming out soon, “Houses Inside and Out.”
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Office Chair is in Good Company

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I approved the cutting for office chair’s reupholstery yesterday. Even when things are in stock, it all just seems to take too long. I guess if it takes you months to choose a fabric you shouldn’t be too impatient when your fabric house takes ten days to ship.

In the meantime, while working on another post, I started coming across all these great rooms that have that soft aqua and sharp red. I can’t believe it took me so long to see the light.

This image and the one top, Courtney Haas’s home by Joe Nye, House Beautiful, Oct. 07.

The upholstery on this day bed is spot on what I am after for office chair. I was almost bummed when I saw it here; I wanted to be the first on my block.


Elle Decor, Oct. 07.
As it turns out, this combo has been around a while. Here it is used in “Dior’s favorite room.” I love the way the architectural elements are highlighted in the different colors.

From Southern Accents on Color, Frances MacDougall.
Many of these rooms have gold accents, which might have been my sub-conscience’s inspiration for the nail head trim.

Alexandra Champalimaud’s kitchen, Rooms to Inspire, Annie Kelly.

Admit it, you want that sink. Well, I do. I always imagine these folks finding things behind a gas station or something and saying, “We found it on the way back from Santa Fe and just tossed it in the trunk.”

Decor, Fall/Winter 07.

These are the kind of details that always surprise me in their wrong rightness. Were there ever tassels on each notch? And the red ones, were they added later? But it doesn’t matter. In fact, it’s better. It all works so beautifully.

From Farrow and Ball: The Art of Color

This Farrow and Ball paper is so classic and lovely. Those rooster watercolors make me want to get out my paints.

Miles Redd in Rooms to Inspire, Annie Kelly.

There is something so appealing to me in the chalkiness of the blue and the richness of the red.

Elizabeth Locke’s entry, House and Garden, Oct. 97.

We’ve been here before; this whole setting makes me swoon.

Kenleigh and Michael Larock’s Connecticut farmhouse, publication unknown.

Um, yes, I did notice the yellow. I’m not sure, but the fabric on the chair might be a particularly yummy velvet by Etienne. This is a bedroom-turned-dressing-room. Lucky girl.

Michel Arnaud’s 1996 photo of Marie Gersh and her son, HG, 1996.

See how she’s shoved aside that red velvet pillow to have a tickle contest with her son just before she jets off to the ballet? Bother the peanut butter and jelly on his face, she knows all is well because she has him – and the fabulous striped curtains with the lovely robins egg blue chairs. Heaven.
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Yikes! Stripes!

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I picked up this little number from Brilliant Asylum last week. Brilliant (and she is, you should drop in) was focusing on the art of Scott Ingram, but I couldn’t get over the striped chairs. The room itself is the work of designer Suzanne Kasler and I couldn’t help but wonder if her inspiration for the chairs came from John Fowler’s sitting room for Pauline de Rothchild.

I have always admired this room. The stripes on the settee and chair are iconic; it’s hard to forget this room once you’ve seen it. White parquet floors, fur rugs, and oh, those curtains. Perhaps the bows and pinking sheered edges are not for you, but you must admire their owner. Women of great style take chances. I’ve looked at this picture a hundred times and just today focused on those crazy chairs with the sphinx heads and the hoofed feet.

Fowler called his look “humble elegance” and I think this is often the appeal of stripes. While they often take on an uptown air they are rarely uppity.

Stripes on the settee, again, this time designer John Oetgen, House Beautiful, Aug. ’07.

Horizontal stripes on the curtains are still comfortable with vertical stripes on the walls in the same home.

While I love stripes in a formal setting, they are so happy to hang at the beach or in the country. Jack Fhillip’s Vero Beach bedroom is a symphony of stripes, all subtle. The chair and shade share the same stripe, but sheets, blanket and dust ruffle are all slightly different, though the same shade of blue and white. Don’t miss the blue and white striped ribbon running horizontally along the hem of the bed skirt.

While this image isn’t technically vintage, I’ve definitely had it around a while. Here Waldo Fernandez uses three different stripes, again of the same color family, in his Hamptons home. This look may seem a bit “Pottery Barn” now, but at the time I thought it was off the charts. Actually, I still do. (Mr. Fernandez visited the antique shop where I work a few months ago and he is lovely. And not just because he antiques in Kansas City.)


No, no pattern. None. Then, bam, big, bold striped lamp shades. Colleen Bashaw designed this room in Congress Hall, a hotel in Cape May, NJ from HG Aug. ’03. I’m a sucker for black wicker – oh, and yellow- but these shades are an unexpected twist.

“Humbled elegance.” A lofty goal indeed.

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Intaglio You’re It!

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You might remember this cover from Southern Accents. Jackye Lanham used this stunning collection of intaglios in the master bedroom of an Atlanta home published in the January ’06 issue. When I see things like this, sometimes I think, “Oh, I like those, maybe I’ll get some.” Then I start doing a little research.

Tiberian Intaglio #17 ” Mars and Venus”

From what I understand, intaglios were originally used as seals to identify property. Seems to me if you had property to identify in ancient Rome, you were probably doing ok. They are often made of precious stones or ivory or some such yummy substance. I think a lot of what we see now are casts of the originals.

I love the way they are often framed en masse; many in a frame and, again, often a series of frames on a wall.
That being said, they are quite dear. You don’t just “get some.”

A collection of (12) Painted and 23Kt
parcel gilt frames having ten Intaglios in each frame; Tiberian Design

And while I like the idea of staggering these up my staircase, it seems unlikely that it will happen any time soon.

 A collection of (12) Painted and 23Kt
parcel gilt frames having a single seal in each frame; Tiberian Design

Tiberian Intaglio #54 ” The combat between
Idas and Apollo “
However. What if we twist things around a bit? Instead of framing something precious and unique, what about something common. I’d love to use my ever-growing collection of shells in just this manner. Each frame with the same type, but varying size of shell. The same paper background as Ms. Lantham used, or perhaps different colors for each.
What about marbles? Fabulous.
Mr. Gambrel did something similar with eggs.

As The Peak of Chic pointed out recently, framing is not an inexpensive project in itself. But I think it might be telling to take something you have jars and jars of and mass them together on a wall.

Go ahead, mark your property.
All intaglios available on 1st Dibs at time of post.  Images labeled Tiberian Designs can be found here.
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