interior paint colors: 2007-08-12

Bibliophile Extraordinaire

Ok, I swear this is my last post that has anything to do with Vogue but I couldn't help but mention an interesting article and video on Men's Vogue about bibliophile extraordinaire, Sophie Dahl, pictured above. About the only thing Sophie and I have in common is a love of books and now, a love of first editions. Sophie is a model and the grand-daughter of the famous children's author Roald Dahl. You might have heard of one of his books, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory! Why couldn't have born into a famous family like that?! Anyway, you can read about her love of books and also watch her visit Bauman Rare Books in New York on the Men's Vogue website.

As an avid book collector, I also wanted to mention a great new website that I just discovered, First Edition Points. Before I buy any vintage or out of print book, I do extensive research online and this website has made that research so much easier! Even if I can't afford to buy a first edition, I like to know what one looks like. You never know when you might run across one in a flea market or thrift shop. I also like to know so I don't get fooled into buying a misrepresented or Book Club edition on eBay!

So the next time you are about to buy an old book, you might want to check out a first edition. It won't turn you into a model but it might turn you into a bibliophile extraordinaire!

Since I mentioned yesterday that American Vogue has been boring me lately, I thought I would take a moment to extol the virtues of another baby in the Vogue family, Men's Vogue.

I absolutely adore this magazine! Slim Aarons once said that he made a career out of "photographing attractive people doing attractive things in attractive places." Well, I would describe Men's Vogue as attractive, intelligent, artistic, interesting, adventurous men doing attractive, intelligent, artistic, interesting, adventurous things in attractive, intelligent, artistic, interesting, adventurous places.

Men's Vogue is devoted to covering the best in the arts, design, politics, food, wine, clothes, collecting and culture. It's intelligent and thoughtful and should appeal to women as much as it does men. I know I find myself learning something new every time I read it!

I was also excited to come across an article about the new gallery Friedman Benda that is set to open next month since I have a friend who is about to start working there. Pictured above are owners Marc Benda and Barry Friedman with Ron Arad's Oh-Void 1 chair. The gallery will be showing cutting edge things in architectural furniture and Chinese avant-guard art. Quite a combination if you ask me. According to Benda, there is no difference between something on a canvas and something sitting on the floor and that someone like Ron Arad deserves to be exhibited beside all major sculptures. Their first show will be a new collection by 90-year old Ettore Sottsass.

Men's Vogue gives me hope that there are still attractive, intelligent, artistic, interesting and adventurous men out there and so I read it in case I finally meet one of them. That way, we'll have something interesting to talk about!

Una solucion para tus cintas

Las cintas es uno de los materiales más utilizados en scrapbooking y también en la terminación de labores. Hace poco adquirí unos metros de cinta gros grain ( la que algo más gruesa al tacto y con rayitas en su textura ) para decorar mis tarjetas y albunes de scrap.
El caso es que la cosa se desbordó cuando quise guardarlas. Hasta ahora lo había hecho en uno de botes de cristal de los modelos de Ikea.

Rafia en el grande y cintas varias en los pequeños. Pero, a pesar de que las más estrechas las tenía en los cartones de plástico de los hilos..... aquello no tenía remedio..... era meter la mano en el bote y estirar de la cinta en cuestión hasta que salía completa.

..........Ya tenía bien ordenaditas las otras cintas, tipo lana en aquellas paletas que os mostré hace tiempo.

Pero en mi cabeza sólo había un grito "¡ Una solución quiero!"( estilo anuncio de detergente)

Entoces recordé , de esos ratos que paso buscando alternativas en otras habitaciónes de scrap, algo que podía tener a la vista , fácil para coger cada cinta , verlas agrupadas en colores y además barato para el bolsillo.
Simplemente anudadas en una percha.

Estuve un rato desliando la maraña e incorporando las nuevas .

Así luce de vistosa mi percha detrás de la puerta, en mi habitación de costura y ...... taller creativo.

Si te ha servido la idea , ponla en marcha y disfruta de tu imaginación.

So, I received my new September 2007 issue of Vogue yesterday, and I have to say, it was a big fat five pound disappointment. It's become a bit too formulaic in the past few years for my taste but there were two bright spots.

A small blurb and photo, shown above, from Lulu de Kwiatkowski's book of collages, Lulu from AMMO Books, which is composed of family photographs, Marche aux Puces treasures, and her own journal musings. The real inspiration she says came from a tumultuous romance with the man with whom is she now engaged!

The second bright spot was a profile of Luke and Julie Janklow's Greenwich Village home by Plum Sykes. The article itself is a total puff piece and what would you expect considering that Mr. Janklow's father's company, Janklow & Nesbit is Plum's literary agency. But the photos are the show-stopper. From the white marbled 60-foot drawing room with it's pieces by Jansen, Karl Springer, and Vladimir Kagan pictured above to the hand painted Gracie wallpaper in Mrs. Janklow's office.

I have to say it's pretty spectacular and mostly self-decorated. I love the juxtaposition of the modern desk and chair against the chinoiserie wallpaper.

The mercury-mirrored wall in the dining room below is illuminated by a Danish candelabra and antique gold sconces.

I wish there had been larger photos of the garden designed by Miranda Brooks. There are a few small ones in the montage below, as well as, a photo of Mrs. Janklow's Perspex and glass dressing room/closet. The inspiration for which came from Joan Crawford's in the movie Mommie Dearest and the Christian Louboutin store on Gansevoort Street. I'm assuming though, she meant the store on Horatio Street since there is no store on Gansevoort Street.

I love the mix of modern and antique furnishings but then again I would expect nothing less from this fashionable yet literary couple. Too bad the rest of the magazine wasn't as interesting as their home.

Photos by François Halard

Charlotte Moss' Aspen home which is the subject of her latest book, Winter House, recently sold for $8,500.000. Interestingly, the house was purchased by a Dallas couple, Carl and Peggy Sewell whose own beautiful home has been featured more than once in Southern Accents. The real estate listing for Winter House states the asking price was at a major price reduction and the house was being sold unfurnished. It is a six bedroom house with a large basement that appears to be a self contained "house within a house" as it has its own kitchen, living room, and bedrooms far away from the main level.

There is a great virtual tour that you can take, here. Not only that, but you can save the virtual tour to a zip file which converts the tour to still photographs, which then can be studied in great detail if you so desire. Much of the virtual tour shows views of bedrooms and the basement that were not shown in Winter House. If you are a fan of Charlotte's and the book Winter House, I would advise you to take a look at the virtual tour as soon as possible, because I can't imagine the site will contain this listing much longer since the house has sold.

Here, you can find an interview Charlotte did about happier times spent in Winter House. It does appear, though, that there will be future happy times for Charlotte. The Aspen Times, while reporting the sale of Winter House by Charlotte Moss and her husband, Barry Friedberg, also reports that a few weeks prior to the sale, a Barry Friedberg of New York, bought a Red Mountain ranch for a tidy $16,250,000. Below, are a few stills taken from the real estate listing for Winter House:

I have been dying to go to see Philip Johnson's Glass House in New Canaan, Connecticut since it opened again but it's already sold out for 2007! So I was very excited to see to see that Grace Booney of Design Sponge had gone on a tour for House & Garden online. Now, I can live vicariously through her until I can hopefully visit next year!

There were so many photos, I had to stop myself from posting them all so please visit the H&G site for more. I think most people assume that The Glass House is just a glass house but in reality it encompasses so much more than just that one building. Originally, just the house and guesthouse sat on 5 acres, while it now includes 47 acres of land and 14 structures!

The interiors are filled with what are now considered classic Mies van der Rohe Barcelona furniture of simple lines so as not to compete with the views of the surrounding landscape.

Johnson also found ingenious ways to display his priceless art in a house with no walls!

The only "room" in The Glass House with walls is the bathroom in the center, which is funny to me because my firm actually builds a lot of bathrooms with showers that have glass walls to the outside.

The Brick House below was used as a guest house for those who apparently wanted a bit more privacy.

I love the interior decoration of the Brick House and the chairs that remind me of unzipped sleeping bags by designer Gaetano Pesce.

What appears from the outside to be a bomb shelter, is in fact the entrance to the Painting Gallery. Johnson was an avid collector of modern art and was the first Director of Architecture at the Museum of Modern Art in New York.

"In his gallery, he installed large hanging panels that could be rotated to reveal new paintings behind them, allowing guests to view a few specific pieces at a time."

Philip Johnson is almost unrecognizable in the Andy Warhol portrait below without his trademark glasses!

After seeing photos of The Glass House, I am even more excited to visit it in person! It's so disappointing though that it's sold out for the rest of the year. I was thinking maybe I should splurge for the $500 Patron Tour. Too bad my birthday's not for another eight months! That would have been a very chic present!

Last week, in a small post about bathrooms, I included a few photos of the fabulous white bathroom of David Jimenez that was included in a profile of his Kansas City home in the August issue of House Beautiful magazine. Soon after, I received a comment on my blog from David's friend Zim Loy, an editor at Kansas City Spaces magazine, which led to a message from David and an offer for more photos and information. That is the power of the internet my friends!

I loved David’s Kansas City home when I first saw it and I'm very excited that he agreed to be properly interviewed and profiled on my blog. His bathroom garnered so much admiration that I could only imagine how great the reaction will be to his entire house!

I first want to start at the end and work back. The reason I was struck by your home and originally wanted to profile it was that your aesthetic reminded me so much of the aesthetic of Ron Marvin, who's apartment was obsessed over by everyone when it was featured on Apartment Therapy's Smallest Coolest Contest earlier this year. You both lived in San Francisco and worked in visual merchandising for The Gap and Pottery Barn and are obsessed with lamps! I swear you two were separated at birth!

I was curious if you know Ron and if your sense of style was inherent to you from the beginning or if it's something you picked up after working at these retailers?
Ron is a great friend of mine and we've know each other for many years. I am so proud of him and the success he has achieved. You're right, in many ways we were separated at birth. I think we are inspired by similar things and it shows in our aesthetics.

My sense of design was not influenced by Pottery Barn or Restoration Hardware, it actually happened in reverse. My career at Pottery Barn started in a serendipitous way. I had a friend over for dinner, who at the time, was a buyer at Pottery Barn. He saw my house and felt that my design sense was a good fit with the new direction the company was taking- this was in 1996. I resigned from the GAP after eleven years and started the job without a formal background in visual merchandising for home stores. I relied on my intuition and brought to Pottery Barn the things that I have always enjoyed creating in my own spaces at home- rooms that are warm, inviting, layered and that look collected.

Now, back to the beginning. A lot of creative types either know from the very beginning that they want a career in say fashion, art or design, or they resist that urge altogether and go to work in finance or law until they can't take it any more and feel that they have to pursue their true passion. Which was it for you?
My career has developed in a more organic way than most. I started as a sales associate at the GAP in 1985 and worked my way up the ranks. After becoming a store manager, I realized that there were two things that I loved about my job. One was training and developing people (I get such a great feeling from mentoring someone and then watching them succeed). The second thing I enjoyed was visual merchandising. I wasn't sure why but it just came naturally to me. I shifted my career at the GAP from management to visual merchandising and piloted the company's first Regional Visual Merchandising program. After that, it was clear to me that I wanted to pursue a career in store presentation and design.

I know from your bio that you grew up in New York City, how do you think that affected your sense of style?
Ever since I was old enough to move my parent’s living room furniture around in the Bronx, I have been passionate about interiors. My first real apartment was in Hoboken, NJ and I shared it with a good friend that was a dancer. I loved going to thrift stores back then and schlepping pieces back home on the PATH train. I didn't have a lot of money to spend but the smartest looking bedroom in the house was mine.

You shop a lot at thrift stores, flea markets and estate sales. I think your home is a testament to what can be done without spending millions of dollars and decorating with things you love. Now that your house is "complete", do you still find yourself bringing things home?
I've always had a need to set-up my spaces pretty quickly in order to feel grounded. As a result, it’s always a hectic pace when I move into a new home. No rest until the place is completely pulled together. The great thing is that once I am finished, then it's really all about enjoying the house and sharing it with friends. I still love shopping thrift stores and flea markets, the difference is that I don't feel the pressure about the missing side table or credenza. Now, I get to calmly pick up pieces along the way that speak to me and that add more layers to the house.

I love your entire home but I especially love your dressing room. It reminds me of a gentleman's club or the shop of a bespoke tailor. I don't think a lot of people would think to put a pedestal table in the middle of the room and create such a special place. What inspired you to do that?
A good friend in Kansas City has a beautiful dark wood paneled dressing room with a matching island in the center of the room where he places his suitcase when he packs for trips. I loved the function and the idea of having a table that grounded the room. I found the double pedestal table at a thrift store and thought that the lines of the table were a perfect match for the antique armoires I had purchased as closets. I painted it shiny black and put it on top of a black rug in the center of the room. It's brought a whole new dimension to pulling out the suitcase and getting ready for a trip.

I know you have amassed a huge CD collection. Ever hear of an iPod? I’m teasing but they are great for making playlists. What are you listening to now?
I have more than 2,000 CD's. I enjoy all genres but am a little old school about how I purchase new music- I prefer buying CD's over downloading them. I love going to the store, hitting the listening stations and becoming familiar with new artists. These days I can't get enough of Amy Winehouse's "Back to Black". She reminds me of a cross between Dinah Washington and Etta James. Her previous CD called "Frank" is great as well. I also like Brandi Carlile's "The Story", Pink Martini's latest "Hey Eugene" and have recently been listening to some old stuff like Jimmy Scott, Aretha and Tony Bennett. Great choices! I LOVE Amy Winehouse and Pink Martini!

You've said that your library is your favorite place in the house, what are you reading now?
I enjoy the library because the room is clubby, warm and the speakers are the bassiest in the house. It's usually the room that most dinner parties or get-togethers end up in. It's been a little while since I made time to read a book in the library but my last favorite was Happy Times by Lee Radziwill. It's a photographic journal by Jackie O's younger sister. An easy read that's heartfelt and features beautiful photos. Another great choice! I consider Happy Times a classic!

You recently joined Hallmark and will be unveiling a new look in their stores soon. How did that come about and what do you plan to do? I shop at a tiny little Hallmark on 59th Street in NYC that seems like a lost cause, will it get an update too?
I am part of a team that is repositioning the retail brand. It's an exciting time at Hallmark and it reminds me of the energy that I experienced when Banana Republic, Pottery Barn and Restoration Hardware were going through big changes. We have a new store design aesthetic that is slowly rolling out to many of our stores. It's hard to say whether or not the store in your neighborhood will get the new look and feel but what I am positive about, is that you will see new products in all of our stores with a point of view that is a lot fresher. Check out the new Sound Cards next time you go by the store. I think you'll love them. I'm more of a Shoe Box Card girl myself but I might check them out!

You are on the board of the Kansas City chapter of DIFFA, Design Industries Foundation Fighting AIDS. How important is it to you to give back?
It's wonderful to be a part of an organization that does so much for the community. 90 percent of all of the proceeds from each of our events remains in our city. This means that we are able to help people in need locally in Kansas City. We are a working board which means that we roll up our sleeves and produce each one of our events through our own creativity, passion and drive. It's also been a wonderful way to meet so many talented people here in Kansas City. It feels great to contribute creatively to a cause that matters so much.

I think we can all agree that David Jimenez is a very talented man and maybe if we're lucky, someday he'll move to New York like his friend Ron Marvin and become an official interior designer. Until then, I will look for his handiwork at my local Hallmark store. Who knows, he may even talk me into buying one of their new Sound Cards!

Photos by Tim Cargill courtesy of David Jimenez and Landon Collis for Kansas City Spaces

The Windsor Smith Home Collection

Windsor Smith, a young interior designer from California, is hot, hot, hot right now. Today, she expands her dominance as she officially launches her own furniture line, the eponymous Windsor Smith Home Collection. This launching is just the beginning for Windsor as more pieces will be added in a timely manner. Additionally, Kravet will be rolling out Windsor's own fabric designs in 2008. It doesn't get an hotter than this in the design business. Windsor's furniture collection is fun and youthful, yet it takes a cue from classic designs. She credits her love of color from growing up colorlessly in Kansas and describes her furniture as "a new spin on elegant classics."

In this except from Elle Decor magazine, Windsor talks of her inspirations: "I like to create libraries where men with names like Howard, Bing and Spencer sat in cashmere sweaters and contemplated the 13th hole on the Bel-air golf course. I am drawn to a simple but elegant time when the women were so legendary that surnames weren't necessary.... Slim, Babe, Coco...", Smith says as she twists a sterling pen on the palest aqua velvet ribbon that once belonged to the Duchess of Windsor.

The fabric options for her furniture include linens in fun colors like lavender. Domino readers will be familiar with many of the pieces in the collection as they were shown in her own Californian home featured in the August issue. Below are a few of my favorite pieces from the new collection. Note: while I find the pieces very accessible for a vibrant, busy house with lots of children and dogs, be sure to include a major breadwinner in this picture. These pieces do not come cheap!

The Brittany Secretary, $12,000.

Chloe Sofa, while shown in this vibrant pink, the website says it is not available in this fabric. Strange.

Slipcovered wing chair with monogram.

Moroccan inspired ottoman.

Gwen curved arm sofa.

Medici arm chair.

Directoire chair shown in leather.

In Windsor's own home, you can see the Directoire chair, two benches from her line, and the large Brittany secretary.

Another picture from Windsor's house, shows the large double sided slipcovered sofas from her collection. In front is the Moroccan upholstered ottoman.

In a client's beach house, Windsor uses her slipcovered sofa. I love the detail pleating on the edge.

In the kitchen, a gorgeous aqua floor.

Casual living room with gorgeous hand painted wallpaper pieces. Windsor uses the same hand painted wallpaper in her own dining room. Note the painted wood floor, perfect for a beach house.