Way to Go Joe!

No photos in this post, other than the cute picture above, because I don't want to spoil the surprise, but check out Joe Nye's Beverly Hills apartment in the August issue of House Beautiful. It's a great example of how to fit a lot of beautiful "stuff" into a small space.

My sister and I were lucky enough to visit Joe's apartment a few years ago, and it's just as charming in person as it is in the magazine. I couldn't hold a conversation with Joe because all I wanted to do was look around his place, study it, and take it all in. He has a great book collection. (When you see the photos, note how he has numerous copies of the same book; Joe likes multiples so that he can take one to the office or a job site. Very clever.) He's got furniture by Frances Elkins, Syrie Maugham, and Billy Haines. And accessories like you can't believe. That man could set ten different types of table settings- and that would only cover half of what he has!

Anyway, enough babbling, but I do think it's a home that you'll pore over, just as I did!

A Rare Opportunity

Frederick P. Victoria & Son is having its first warehouse sale, but don't think for a minute that the wares being offered are less than stellar. Most of the sale is made up of F.P. Victoria's models that remain from their former 55th St. location. These are models with pedigrees....


The Paley night table


A folding table that F.P. Victoria made for Jansen


The Mellon book table




A rope chair that was a favorite of both Michael Taylor and Robert Metzger.

Even better, you don't have to be in New York to take advantage of the sale. To see the sale inventory, visit their website.

(Image at top is a reproduction of an 18th c. Venetian armchair)

Count The Colors

To me, rooms bathed in a riot of color require closer inspection. Why? Because I admire the designer or homeowner who adroitly mixes four, five, and six colors in one room. And I'm not talking quiet, subdued colors but rather bold, gutsy shades. I can handle two or three strong colors in my rooms, but I'm not skilled enough to go beyond that. I'm afraid that the effect would be quite comical.

In the right hands, though, an array of color can be a symphony rather than a cacophony.

(That image at the top is a color palette recommended by Color Hunter; it matches the colors in the room photo that I uploaded to the site.)


Let's see... we've got blues, browns, oranges, and fuchsia in this room by Jonathan Berger. Oh, and touches of green too.


Pinks, blues, orange, reds, greens in the Newport home of Tracey Roberts and Paul Haigney.


Red! Yellow! Green and Lilac! The exclamation points are necessary in describing a room like this one in Paris. Not for me, but fitting for someone with a colorful personality.


This home in Athens is an enfilade of pure, deep color.

So why have I been thinking of bold color today? I'm captivated by this watercolor which captured the flamboyance of Thomas Hope's boudoir at Deepdene.


According to Country Life, there were four different shades of red and a green marble fireplace with columns capped by gilt-bronze capitals. Don't you wonder what it must have been like to have seen this room in person?

(Berger photo from House Beautiful, July 09, Francesco Lagnese photographer. Newport home featured in Weekend Retreats by Susanna Salk. Paris and Athens homes photographed by Massimo Listri. Hope drawing featured in Nov 07 issue of Country Life.)

Harrison Howard Has Been Hard at Work

My favorite painter of Chinoiserie scenes, Harrison Howard, has just updated his site with new works including one of my favorites, "The Architect", which is seen above. Harrison's paintings and prints are like instant mood lifters to me. How can one not be charmed by scenes with books, curtains, trellis, pagodas, butterflies, and coral? Not to mention those hard working figures who are busy painting, arranging curtains, and crab baiting. And I thought blogging kept me busy!

I've included a sampling of Harrison's work, but do visit his website to see more Chinoiserie scenes.


"The Two Gardeners"


"Bibliophile"


"The Dowry"


"Crab Baiting"


"Arranging Drapery"

Return of the Brass Bed?

Over the weekend, I found a January 1954 House Beautiful article that touted the "Return of the Brass Bed". The first thing that came to my mind were those shiny brass Victorian beds. But then the article showed a few examples that made me realize that brass beds can actually be quite fetching. Personally, I prefer brass that's hand rubbed rather than polished. And clean lines appeal to me more than curves and swirls. Maybe it is time for the return of the brass bed. Although, if all brass beds were as good looking as these, then there would be no "return" per se because they wouldn't have gone out of style in the first place.

(Bed at top was designed by Paul McCobb, while the brass campaign bed was Baker)


Baker Brass Headboard from Pamela Lerner Antiques (looks similar to that featured in House Beautiful)


Jacques Adnet bed. Leather and brass over steel frame. Available from Pascal Boyer Gallery. For those who can only handle a touch of brass.


Nickel and brass campaign bed by Maison Jansen, available through Wright Now


Acid Etched Brass Headboard by Mastercraft, from Assemblage Ltd.

The Man Who Launched A Thousand Floors

Perhaps not a thousand, but many floors have been inspired by David Adler. The late architect treated the ground with just as much care and attention as he did the walls, ceilings, and exteriors. Most of Adler's projects included floors adorned with a star motif, one of Adler's favorites, but harlequin patterns and metal inlay also figured prominently in his work. Seventy some odd years later and Adler's floors still capture our imagination.


Adler often incorporated five, six, and eight point stars into his floors. The living room of the Winslow house, Pebble Beach, CA, featured a pine floor with a walnut star inlay.


Most of Adler's stars were more stylized like this one in marble, which was inlaid into the terrazzo floor of the Clow residence, Lake Forest, IL.


Miles Redd painted an eight-point star on his kitchen floor, an homage to the late, great Adler. (Image courtesy of New York Social Diary)


A harlequin patterned marble floor in the gallery of the Clark house, Hillsborough, CA.


The master bathroom in the Atlanta home of Chad Holman and Keith Traxler features a harlequin patterned marble floor. Holman had been inspired by a similar floor that he saw in an Adler designed house in Chicago. (Photo courtesy of David Christensen photographer/Atlanta Homes & Lifestyles, October 2008)


A metal inlaid, ebonized floor in the Adler designed home of Mrs. Kersey Coates Reed.


Mrs. Kersey Coates Reed's house was certainly not lacking in glamour. The women's dressing room featured yet another metal inlaid floor.


The floor in Miles Redd's living room is reminiscent of that in the Reed house. (Photo from New York Social Diary)

Image at top: The porch of the Furness house, Middleburg, VA, featured a stenciled floor. Someone should be daring enough and replicate this floor in their home.

(All Adler images from David Adler, Architect: The Elements of Style)

Tête à Tête with Charlotte Moss

I'd like to thank Charlotte Moss for including The Peak of Chic in her July 4th edition of Tête à Tête. Joni, Ronda, and I all shared our thoughts on summer reading, summer style, and summer entertaining. As I won't be taking a summer vacation this year, I'll just have to live vicariously through Ronda and Joni.

And little Alfie was even featured, which certainly makes his mama proud.

To read Charlotte's feature, click here.

Eduardo Garza

For those of you who have lived in Atlanta for a while, you might remember a store named Geode which sold, well, geodes. I remember walking by Geode as a child (it was, interestingly enough, located at a mall) and being mesmerized by the displays of colorful crystals and minerals. They were so shiny, so mysterious, and so flashy. OK, so the insides of the geodes were flashy; the exteriors, not so much.

Perhaps it's this early childhood fascination with quartz and stones that explains why the stuff is like catnip to me. And perhaps it's why I was excited to be introduced to the work of Eduardo Garza. Eduardo creates sculptural pieces made from not only stones and minerals- my favorite- but also wood, eggs, and shells. (Van Day Truex always said that in design, Mother Nature is our best teacher, and Eduardo's work is testament to this.) His pieces, all hand made and sold as signed, limited editions, have caught the eye of both Bergdorf Goodman and Harrods, where his work is featured in the vignettes seen at top. In addition to being sold through both department stores, Eduardo's pieces are also available through his website.

If you're not familiar with his work, let me show you...


Citrine mounted on a gold leaf base. Far more luxe than the geodes of my childhood.


For those taken with purple, there is Amethyst mounted on a gold leaf base.


Rock Crystal on a gold base.


Fuschia stone encrusted lucite box


Fossilized wooden coasters with silver and gold leafed edging


Not all of Eduardo's work incorporates stones and wood. This handmade mask is dipped in gold.



The ostrich egg piece at top is perched on a gold leaf and malachite base with a finial handmade by Eduardo. A certain designer with the initials "AH" (and a man who is also my idol) used this piece on his designer table at the Lenox Hill Neighborhood House Gala. The smaller egg at bottom is an ostrich egg dipped in gold.



Eduardo also works with anodized aluminum. I think the island coaster series is fun. The coral tray is a different take on the classic ocean motif.

If Only American History Class Had Focused on This

When I started my blog almost three years ago, I intended to write a great deal about design history. One reason was because I've long had an interest in it, but I also have always found inspiration in these rooms of the past. If you study the details, sometimes you might just get a few ideas for your own home. I was recently studying the American period rooms in the American Wing at the Met (all online if you'd like to take a look), and I was struck by how modern many of the colors and furnishings are. Actually, perhaps I shouldn't say it's modern because the rooms' details are historically accurate. Rather, they still seem to appeal to these modern eyes.


The Hewlett Room, c. 1740-60, Woodbury, Long Island. What immediately strikes me is the intense, gorgeous blue walls. It looks a lot like the blues being used by designers today. The blue paint color plus the orangey, coral shade of the china cabinet reminds me of that Kendall Wilkinson showhouse room from a few years back (see below). The other detail that I might keep in mind for future use? The nailshead trim on the baby's crib. Wouldn't that scroll design look great on a screen?


Kendall Wilkinson's showhouse room is somewhat similar in color scheme to that of the Hewlett Room.


The Alexandria Ballroom, 1793, Alexandria, Virginia. Again, it's all about that beautiful blue. Still so chic today, and doesn't it look like a color that Steven Gambrel would use?


A bright blue Greenwich living room by Steven Gambrel.


The Haverhill Room, c. 1805, Haverhill, Massachusetts. On first glance, it would be easy to dismiss this room as too old, too early American, and too fancy. But look closely. The trim on the bed curtains would look fantastic on curtains or pillows.




Samuel & Sons "Macadamia" trim looks similar


Samuel Hart Room, c. 1680, Ipswich, Massachusetts. To some, the focal point of this room might be the oak timbers. To me, it's the bed. (Interesting to see the somewhat diminutive scale of this bed; people were smaller back then.) I would use more feminine fabric and trim, but the lines of the bed curtains are still appropriate for today.


David Hicks designed a similar bed centuries later, though obviously the fabrics and the proportions were far different.

(Images of period rooms courtesy of the Met's website; Wilkinson room from her website; Gambrel room via his website; Hicks room from David Hicks: Designer)

Chinese Scenic Paper

As of late, some of the most popular handpainted wallpapers seem to be those bird, flower, and tree prints by de Gournay (see above) and Gracie. Certainly they are lovely, easy to live with, and quite elegant too. And if someone wanted to make a donation of this paper to my home, I would not refuse. However, what I wish to see more of is the colorful, exuberant scenic Chinese paper that once adorned some of America's finest homes.



Of course Winterthur's Chinese Parlor is one of the most famous rooms in America. The Chinese paper was painted between 1775 and 1800 is known as "Pastimes and Leisure Scenes of Chinese Life" because it depicts scenes of Chinese people strolling through gardens and studying. Henry Francis Du Pont obtained the paper from designer Nancy McClelland in 1928. Because the paper panels were 12 feet long, Du Pont had to create a room tall enough to accommodate the paper's length.


A detail of the Chinese Parlor's paper.


Henry Davis Sleeper purchased this scenic paper in the early 20th century for his summer home Beauport. In what is called The China Trade Room, the paper depicts both the rice and the porcelain trades. The paper dates back to late 18th century when it was originally imported from China by the Philadelphia banker Robert Morris, although Morris never used the panels. The paper remained crated until it was discovered in the early 1900s.


Even Billy Baldwin had an appreciation for this paper in this 1950s era room that he designed.

What I've also noticed is that gloriously unrestrained architectural details and valances seem to go hand in hand with this colorful Chinese paper. There is often fretwork molding, pagoda pediments over doorways and windows, and scrolled pelmets that decorate these Chinese themed rooms. Unfortunately, papering an entire room in scenic wallpaper can be rather expensive, and some people might be apprehensive about having that much color and pattern on one's walls. However, what about framing a panel or two to hang on the walls? At the very least, I might be tempted to copy some of those wonderful valances for my windows.


(Image at top courtesy of de Gournay. Chinese Parlor photo #1 from Winterthur's flickr photostream; Chinese Parlor photo #2 from HOUSE AND GARDEN'S NEW COMPLETE GUIDE TO INTERIOR DECORATION: FIFTH EDITION). Beauport photo from their website. Billy Baldwin photo from House & Garden's Complete Guide to Interior Decoration.)

Living with Louis

Decorating with luxury good logos is something that divides people into two camps. To some, it's quite chic, while to others it's nothing short of declassé. For the record, I tend to avoid logos in my rooms, but I also think that if surrounding yourself with "LV"s makes you happy, then by all means knock yourself out.


A few Hermès boxes tucked discreetly into a bookshelf provide a nice pop of rich orange. And for the record, I'm guilty of this decorating virtue or vice, depending on which side of the fence you're on.


Those trays painted to resemble the Hermès logo appeared in homes quite often over the last few years. (Available at Donna Parker Habitat Limited)

And of course we can't forget about Louis.


The market for vintage Vuitton trunks and suitcases is always hot, especially when decorators like Miles Redd incorporate them into interiors.


And let's not forget Vuitton leather wrapped lamps. (From Jon Vaccari Antiques)

But something the other day gave me pause....


Louis Vuitton bedecked dressing room doors courtesy of Nicky Haslam. Now let me just say that I'm a fan of both Haslam's interiors and his acerbic tongue. He really tells it like it is, and that's pretty refreshing. I'm just not sure that I could face living with Louis' initials on a daily basis. Now if those doors were covered with Hermès leather (no logo mind you, just plain leather), that would be divine.

(Image of Haslam doors from Sheer Opulence)