Color: Blue

October 31, 2013

Egg is a delightful and quirky clothing shop in London whose early 20th century tiled walls are a divine shade of blue.Slideshow

Blue is not a color I think of often. The only shade of it I wear is navy and I never use it in decorating.  Recently, however, I have seen some inspirational blues in powder baths,  delicious dark and slightly mysterious shades in dining rooms  and as accents in other spaces. My new interest in blue started during a recent visit to one of my favorite shops in London, Egg. The shop is housed in an old dairy and the walls are clad in the original blue tiles from the early 20th century. With this image in mind, I started looking for other inspiring blue spaces, especially baths.

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Until Next Week: Wallpaper in the Bath

November 30, 2012

Water and fish; very bathroom worthy. Notice the soft taupe upon which the fish swim. (Designed by David Scott Interiors, wallpaper by de Gournay)Slideshow

Next Wednesday we will be launching a new and improved format for my design journal. Reconsidered. Redesigned. Reengineered. There are many exciting new features that I very much look forward to sharing. We’re busily working away so I thought I would post an entry that garnered so many comments when I first posted it almost a year ago. It appears that wallpaper has once again gained popularity, especially in small rooms where it makes a real impact. See for yourself—and see you next week!

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Books: Steven Gambrel: Time and Place

November 30, 2012

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Steven Gambrel, friend and influential interior designer, is trained as an architect and brings a skilled eye for architectural details and a deliberate approach to composition in every room he creates. His interiors are stunning and feature his signature mix of modern and traditional, expertly layered with texture, color, objects and anything that captivates his eye. He finds beauty in old things, from weathered painted doors to hardware, and repurposes them in unexpected places for that remarkable added patina. His new book, STEVEN GAMBREL: TIME AND PLACE demonstrates his commitment  to authenticity, his passion for salvage yards, and his keen eye for proportion and scale.

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Maison de Verre (House of Glass) Paris

November 29, 2012
The elegant Annie Dalsace who collaborated with the architect to create this wonderful early 20th century masterpiece.

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This industrial looking wheel controls the ventilating system. Its' handsome silhouette is enhanced against the glass blocks that form the exterior of the house.

During our trip to Paris we were fortunate to visit Maison de Verre, a former 18th century townhouse turned into a modern dwelling by Pierre Chareau in 1928. There was no precedent for how he created this house considering that Chareau could not touch the top floor of the existing building. An “old lady” was living there who could not be moved. So he left the top floor intact and replaced the exterior of the lower levels with translucent glass bricks, completely re-imagined the interior space, installed remotely controlled swiveling windows, and divided the interior with perforated metal screens that either rotate or slide. There are no plastered walls in this amazing glass box.

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