Town & Country Style

The May issue of Town & Country just came in the mail today, and I had to thumb through for a quick review of its content.  A piece was highlighted in the Fashion and Style section about one of my favorite designers (and I have many!), Charlotte Moss.  Call me a design groupie, but I get as much pleasure from admiring the work of others and as I do my own.  I have admired Charlotte Moss since the 1980s when I first saw her home featured in House and Garden, then some good friends gave me her first book, A Passion for Detail, for my birthday.  Over the years I have continued to receive her books as gifts, and even obtained her autograph at a trade show in Chicago a few years ago; it's on the inside cover of one of her books.  I visited her shop in NY when she still had it a few years ago; what a delight it was.  She describes her personal style as "Tailored and classic, layered with vintage pieces."  I love the way she relates pattern and motif and color and texture.  You almost see method to her sense of taking color and then bending it through the introduction of a palette that culminates in a beautiful relationship, yet it always occurs so naturally.  She has an unabashed style for which she never apologizes!

Majolica of the 18th and 19th Centuries

I started collecting majolica, a pottery particular to the 18th and 19th centuries, right out of college in the late 70s.  I still love it today, although I have curbed my acquisitions because I think collections can be too much of a good thing.  In my meanderings, I came across an old sales catalog from the late 1800s of a long-defunct pottery in Phoenixville, PA.  This was one of the few potteries that created majolica in the US in the 19th century, whereas England and some European countries precluded these efforts here.  This sales catalog is spectacular; I have taken the images (by the way, these have been hand colored!) and recreated each using a giclee process, which is a high resolution digital imaging process, and have printed each on archival quality water color paper.  The resolution is so keen, you would think each to be an original water color rendering.  I've included these in my shop on Etsy.

Grosgrain Style

I have been on a grosgrain kick for several years now; it is an affordable way to embellish pillows and window treatments, and because of its stability, alot can be accomplished using it.  For example, I can embroider a Greek key design on a wide piece of grosgrain using an embroidery machine and run it down the leading edge of window treatment panels.  I also can gather the grosgrain as I round the corner of a pillow leaving the remainder flat like a flange for affordability.  Then, as synchronicity would have it, I found John Loecke's Grosgrain Style, a how-to guide for rugs, curtains, linens, and such.  Grosgrain is French for "course texture"--a trim that has always held an iconic place in fashion in its simplicity!

A Passion for Blue and White

The current issue of House Beautiful gives a delightful nod to the varied hues of blue.  Polls indicate it is the favored color of most.  I am unable to pass by blue myself, whether for a wall color or a design accessory or blue hydrangeas from the garden in summer.  In the meantime, what with winter lingering for a bit longer, I pulled out Carolyne Roehm's book, A Passion for Blue and White, to garner some inspiration.  Blue is soothing in its purity, by injecting a bit of yellow into it, or knocking it down to a grayed, muted tone.  Got my eye on Sherwin-Williams Comfort Gray and Oyster Bay . . .

Loving Frank

Fellow designer and colleague Joelle Mintz Snavely lent me this novel about Frank Lloyd Wright; he was thought of as an arrogant scoundrel, but what a gifted one he was at that!  This is a great read, and if you admired his work, you will enjoy the book.  This past year was the 50th anniversary of his work at the Guggenheim in NYC; wish I could have been in the city at the time.  Joelle, you were there, right?  I need to get your book back to you! 

Rooms to Remember

I have known of designer Suzanne Tucker through publications of her work and because she at one point worked with the renowned California designer Michael Taylor; remember his 'California Look' of the 1980s?  Now, she has published an exquisite book of her work.  Her work spans a life rich in the studies of art history to interior architecture; she is an expert in antiques and the decorative arts.  I concur with her insight when she says, "I believe that a beautiful home is intrinsic to gracious living. I also believe that there are many 'right' kinds of beauty and graciousness.  Design to me is about flexibility, options, and context."

Ode to Queen Anne Architecture

Some friends of ours recently acquired an historic home built in 1896.  Some of its decorative detailing includes brick, stucco and half-timbering.  Only 5 percent of Queen Anne houses have decorative half-timbering in gables or upper-story walls.  This subtype occurs principally in the northeastern US and shares certain features with the early Tudor house.  Upon walking in the front door, the entrance/foyer is amazingly open, and the entire first floor is surpisingly visible from one room to the other; this is evidence of architectural evolution of the time.

Update on John Saladino's Villa

Someone asked me where she could buy this fabulous book, Villa by John Saladino.  I've included a link.  The book also includes a beautiful DVD.  I've been looking at the book everyday since the holidays.  Enjoy!

John Saladino's Villa

Happy New Year Everyone! I am currently teaching a section of Introduction to Interior Design at Cuyahoga Community College and am using the beautiful book published by John Saladino, Villa, to introduce interior design elements and principles. What a lovely set of illustrations. The book was a gift given to me at Christmas.