My Idea of Real Comfort Is...

I recently found a fun 1980 House & Garden article in which top designers were asked to define comfort. Not surprisingly, most designers linked comfort to comfortable seating, including Billy Baldwin, whose Nantucket bed-sitting room, seen above, exemplified the designer's notion that comfort is "a first-class upholstered chair and everything within easy reach."

Designer Robert Lewis, with whom I'm not familiar, also believed comfort involved a well-upholstered chair, but comfort was atmospheric, too: "Wonderful fabric, herbs, flowers, good music- a place to unwind."

For Michael Taylor, comfort was "a seating arrangement that really works."  One such successful arrangement can be seen here, on Taylor's own terrace.  The wicker furniture was also designed by Taylor.

I agree wholeheartedly with William Hodgins' thoughts on comfort: "A casual stuffed sofa and a good mystery book."  I could easily relax- and read mystery novels- in this room designed by Hodgins.

No surprise that Denning and Fourcade showed rather elaborate upholstered chairs to illustrate comfort.  For Denning, it was "a chair where you can slump, put your feet up and make a telephone call," while Fourcade called for "a chair that you can sink into so that it completely enfolds you."

"Easy-to-move extra chairs that make your furniture arrangement flexible," said designer John Dickinson.  Such an important design consideration, and one that Dickinson acknowledged in his San Francisco home, above.

For Mario Buatta, comfort was linked with scent.  "A good piece of furniture, with pillows to rest your feet on- and a wonderful fragrance in the air."  In this photo of Buatta's home, you will find Freesia, potpourri, and pomander balls on the table next to the fireplace.

For Bob Patino, comfort was a soak in a "large deep tub full of hot water."

And finally, for Sister Parish, comfort meant "a room where one can relax and have tea with friends," something which, by the looks of it, she could do easily in her bedroom.


All photos from House & Garden, February 1980.

Breakfast Tray Chic

Thank you to the Scully & Scully catalogue for reminding me that the world hasn't completely gone to hell in hand basket. Its numerous pages filled with photos of folding bridge tables, hardboard place mats, wooden breakfast bed trays (similar to the one above), and other traditional niceties always bring me comfort, for they make me realize that some people in this world continue to appreciate such things.

Speaking of breakfast bed trays, there was a time when the morning meal often required its own set of dining accoutrements, including china and linen made especially for use on a breakfast tray or a small breakfast table.  If you read any of the 1930s and 1940s-era design magazines, you'll find numerous articles written for the bride, advising her of the household inventory she would need to run her home efficiently and entertain properly.  Along with luncheon china and luncheon linen, dinner china and dinner linen, and tea sets and tea linen, breakfast china, referred to as "luxuries" in a 1936 House & Garden article, was often recommended for one's "breakfast repertory".  Needless to say, brides were encouraged to own a lot of china and linen.  (Don't even get me started on the recommendations for bed and bath linen.  The lists for these were endless!)

Although not a bride, I, too, have breakfast china (Porthault's Trèfles pattern), a large breakfast tray, and a set of breakfast tray linen, which consists of one mat and two napkins.  I wish that I could say I use these daily, but instead, it's more like a Sunday occurrence.  If only my life were leisurely- and if I had staff- then perhaps my weekday breakfast repertory would be far more luxurious than it currently is. 

Singer and actress Julie London, photographed in bed with her breakfast tray by Slim Aarons.

Truman Capote's Porthault breakfast set, sold at Bonhams in 2006.

Mario Buatta created this dining-in-bed vignette for Tiffany.

Wooden breakfast bed tray from Scully & Scully

Another Slim Aarons' breakfast-in-bed photo, this one of Mrs. Saunderson of Montecito.

Brooke Astor's breakfast china by Hammersley & Co., sold at Sotheby's in 2012.

Vintage Madeira pink breakfast set from D'Anjou Linens

 An elegant bed vignette, courtesy of Tiffany & Co.

A 1940 Léron linen ad, which shows their charming "Bouquet" table linen.  The linen was available in luncheon sets, tea sets, and breakfast sets. 

Winterthur's Chinese Parlor

Of the many images that I have filed away in my head, two images in particular have made the greatest impressions on me: those of the Chinese Parlor at Winterthur. Specifically, detail photos of the Chinese Parlor's magnificent Chinese paper mingling with damask furnishings.

Found for Henry Francis du Pont by Nancy McClelland, the parlor's superb Chinese paper needs no decorative assistance, but when photographed partnered with that yellow damask, camelback sofa, seen above, or those vivacious green damask curtains, below, the paper appears to brim with color and vibrancy.  And to the series I can now add a third image, which I recently found in American Elegance: Classic and Contemporary Menus from Celebrated Hosts and Hostesses: a table set for an imagined "Before the Theater" dinner, which was conceived by Mario Buatta.  Placed in the Chinese Parlor with a green damask sofa and chair providing seating, the setting seems to blur the line between decoration and reality.  It's as if this elegant dinner is but one of the paper's myriad scenes, playing out as Chinese figures merrily go about their business in the background.

By the way, if you're wondering why some photos show yellow damask while others capture green versions, it has to do with the seasons.  The room's curtains and slipcovers are changed out seasonally, with some seasons ushering in yellow damask or silk taffeta, while other seasons are heralded by the color green.

Image #1: House & Garden, October 2002, Simon Watson photographer; #2: House & Garden's Complete Guide to Interior Decoration, 1960; #3: American Elegance.

The Sister Parish Connection

The first thing that one typically does after buying a home is to furnish and decorate it to one's liking.  That might mean a fresh coat of paint, discarding curtains, or ripping out carpet.  But what if Sister Parish had once decorated your new home or, even better, lived there?  Would you strip away all of those Sister Parish touches?  I wouldn't, because any Sister Parish leftovers would make me love my new home even more.  However, not everybody feels as I do.  Take the Manhattan apartment seen here.  Located at 960 Fifth Avenue, this is the maisonette in which Parish once lived.  By 1990, when these photographs were published, the apartment had a new owner, who hired Keith Irvine of Irvine & Fleming to decorate it.  Assisted by Richard Keith Langham, Irvine set out to take the apartment "in a different direction" from the one Parish had taken, which, according to Irvine, had made the home feel like "a Yankee vision of a London house."  The homeowner concurred, deeming Parish's décor "country and gardeny... It took me four months to get her presence out of the apartment."  Well, each to his own.  I would have been thrilled to have had Parish's presence in my home, but that's just me.

Nevertheless, Irvine's work on this apartment is worth discussing.  The dining room's Directoire wallpaper, which is one of my favorite Brunschwig & Fils papers, is quite handsome, as is the living room's yellow striped wallpaper from Clarence House.  Look closely at those curtains.  I realize that today's preference is for clean-lined window treatments, but we can learn a lot about craftsmanship and technique from the curtains seen here.  And take note of the mirror above the living room sofa.  This was one of the few remnants of the apartment's Sister Parish décor.  Installed by Parish, the mirror remained in the new design scheme, although Irvine added a Clarence House wallpaper border to the edges.

Of course, time marches on and so does this apartment's décor.  You'll recall that not too long ago, Mario Buatta decorated this maisonette for a later owner, Patricia Altschul, who sold the apartment about two years ago.  I haven't seen nor heard about the apartment's current décor.  Have you?

The Living Room

The Dining Room

All photos from House & Garden, September 1990; Michael Mundy photographer.

Dining with Mario

There seemed to be a lot of enthusiasm for last week's post on tablesettings, so if you'll indulge me, I've got one more for you. But the twist is that all of these photos feature "tableware at its finest in innovative settings by Interior Designer Mario Buatta"- to quote the November 1977 House Beautiful article from which these photos came.

This post seems especially timely, too, considering that Mario's work for Hilary and Wilbur Ross is featured in the July issue of Architectural Digest. Have you seen the article yet? All I can say is thank heaven for Mario Buatta!

And when you look at the photos below, I think you'll see plenty of the ol' Mario Magic.  Other than the quality of the photos (they were taken in 1977, after all), everything still looks fresh today.

In the photo above and at top: Interlude china and Castle Garden crystal by Lenox and Reed & Barton's classic Francis I flatware were set on a cloth made from China Seas' Ball fabric. (I don't think this print is in their current line-up.) The best part of this setting, though, has to be that beautiful bevy of blue and white porcelain.

This "English Country" table is set with Gorham's Minaret china and Chantilly sterling flatware and President crystal by Gorham. The grass green napkins are by Vera, while the cloth is Madeleine chintz from Clarence House. I wonder if the lettuce tureen and earthenware rabbit were part of Mario's collection. I also find the library setting very cozy.

The sweet ribbon print fabric is Brunschwig & Fils' Cecily Ribbon and the china is Indian Tree by Aynsley. The crystal is Eileen by Waterford and the flatware is French Empire.

A more subdued setting thanks to the neutral tones of Dragon Sorrell china by Royal Worcester and a tablecloth by Fabrications. The flatware is Grand Majesty by Oneida.


All photos from House Beautiful, November 1977; Feliciano photographer.

Get Cozy with Mario Buatta

I've had Mario Buatta on the brain lately, and I've been thinking about his apartment as it appeared in the 1970s. There is something very comforting to me about these photos. Maybe it's Buatta's choice of colors, the combination of fabrics and prints, the cozy seating arrangements, or the plenitude of collections. Perhaps it's a combination of all of the above. Whatever the secret formula was, these interiors make me want to crawl into the photos and curl up with a good book in that sunny yellow living room or that rich red bedroom. Can you imagine a better way to relax at the end of the day than to retire in that luxurious canopied bed?




Various shots of Buatta's living room with its glazed yellow walls.




The bedroom with its "Beaujolais" colored walls.

All images from The New York Times Book of Interior Design and Decoration by Norma Skurka.

Say What?

It dawned on me over the holidays that I'm partial to stationery, cocktail napkins, and other "stuff" that have quotations or phrases emblazoned on them. It might be a gentle reminder to "Don't Forget", or perhaps something cheeky like "We Don't Care How You Do It Up North!" (The latter was printed on paper cocktail napkins that I once had.) I've always admired the needlepoint pillows with witty sayings on them that Mario Buatta seems to be able to find. (Where, oh where, do you find these, Mario?) And then there is the needlepoint pillow that a disgruntled girlfriend once gave to famed Hollywood producer Robert Evans that read "He knows where you've been sleeping." That took guts, no?

I decided to take a quick tour around my home and snap some photos of the notepads, napkins, and matchbooks which feature quotes. And no, no "He knows where you've been sleeping" pillows around here.

My friend Louise seems to be a fan of quotations too. She owns monkey notecards printed with this quote by Edna Woolman Chase- " Fashion can be bought. Style one must possess." Chase certainly had a point. Louise was kind enough to give me one which I display on my bookshelves.




Another gift from Louise were these matchbooks with the immortal words of Cicero (the quotation had to be shortened because of the size of the matchbook)- "A room without books is a body without soul." Truer words were never spoken.








Didn't we all go crazy for Charlotte Moss' fabulous notepads and cocktail napkins that celebrated the spirited words of Diana Vreeland, Tony Duquette, and other style icons? I would argue that it takes a cup of strong coffee to get out of bed in the mornings, but what do I know. Why argue with Diana?


And for the grand finale:

Yes, an actual piece of paper from Albert Hadley's famous "Don't Forget" notepads. To me, this is the equivalent of owning a vial of Elvis' sweat. It was stuck in a copy of "Decoration" that was once part of the Parish-Hadley library. I found it late one night around midnight, and I was positively dying to call somebody, anybody. How many people, though, want to receive a call in the middle of the night saying "Oh my Lord, I just found some of that Albert Hadley "Don't Forget" notepaper!"

All photos taken by Jennifer Boles, copyright The Peak of Chic.

Back to the Blue and White

For some, the difference between right and wrong is as simple as black and white. For others, there are many shades of gray. Some of us live in red states, while others in blue ones. But regardless of where we live and how we see things, I think it's safe to say that there is something that most of us would agree on. Blue and white is always right in decoration.

(The image at top is a foyer that was designed by William Machado. The effect of the blue and white paper not to mention the blue ceiling is crisp and clean and not too sweet.)



I've always loved this photo. There's my favorite Pierre Frey fabric on the headboard. And look at that gorgeous blue and white Porthault linen. But the main reason I love this shot? It was designed by Mario Buatta, one of the masters of the blue and white color scheme (just one of his many design talents!)



Carolyne Roehm is no johnny come lately to blue and white. She was using it long before her recent book came out. Here, in her Southampton house, there is a wonderful blue and white Portuguese table placed in front of the blue and white tiled fireplace and wall. The blue and white quilted fabric with trim completes the breezy look.




Hmmm, quite an exuberant use of blue and white. You've got the Manuel Canovas porcelain print on the walls and curtains; blue and white plaid on the chairs and window shades; blue dining chairs; blue china; and blue and white lattice rug. Oh, and it appears that the top of the white chest is blue, too.



Mallory-Tillis designed this soothing room in the late 1950s. In a weird way, I'm kind of taken with that blue floor. I'm not so crazy about the arched panels over the windows, but I do like the blue-backed bookshelves and white dust-jacketed books. And that marbleized blue shelf is rather wild.


(Machado photo from The New York Times Book of Interior Design and Decoration; Buatta photo from The New Tiffany Table Settings; Roehm photo from The Tiffany Gourmet Cookbook; exuberant blue photo from House & Garden's Complete Guide to Interior Decoration; House & Garden's Complete Guide to Interior Decoration)