Some Fun in the Sun

I'm off on a jaunt to a far-away destination: The Maldives. I guess that I need to brush up on my geography, because I didn't realize that I was heading half-way around the world. I'm loaded down with sunscreen, sarongs (because you know, I didn't have enough time to really hit the gym), and enough meds to open a pharmacy in the Indian Ocean. See you next week!

The Best Bars, Bar None

Last week I posted about drinks tables...today, bars. And believe it or not, I'm really not a big drinker (I swear!) I think that the reason I tend to write about bars, bar carts, drinks trays, and the like is because all add a welcoming, hospitable note to one's home.

The bar featured above is a parchment bar with matching ebonized and suede stools that was part of last week's Interiors auction at Christie's. If you had the space for it, this would be pretty close to perfect. The parchment is reminiscent of 1920s and 30s cocktail culture-so swanky. And of course if you had a bar like this in your home, you might have to rethink your house cocktail. I'd serve Manhattans, Gimlets, and of course Champers. I'd save the PBR, Boone's Farm, and wine coolers for the patio.


Back in 1929, House & Garden made their thoughts on Prohibition known by including a section on home bars in House and Garden Book of Color Schemes. "Since drinking has become a personal matter and assumed a secretive air, the private bar has sprung into existence." (The editors also believed Americans started to embrace color once Prohibition was passed- an interesting thought.) This Modernist bar, above, was designed by Magasin du Printemps. The bottle niches were backed in illuminated ground glass panels.


So if I had the space for a home bar, I'd probably have a mural painted around the bar area a la Bemelmans Bar. Oh sure you could get all serious and forgo the mural, but there's something about whimsy (tasteful whimsy, mind you) that just seems to go hand in hand with merriment of the liquid kind.


This mural from the 500 Club in London c. 1929 is another idea. Some of you might recognize the man in the middle as Brian Howard with Mrs. Plunket Greene next to him. These two figures were part of London's Bright Young People during the Jazz Age. These people knew how to drink...amongst other things.


And I think I'd have to go with these bar stools from Penny Long. Certainly not vulgar, but not quite proper either.

Bottoms up!

Tobacco Road

I admit that I don't know all of the whys and wherefores of chintz, but I do feel it's my civic duty to correct the misguided belief that all chintz is floral. Chintz can take the guise of florals, Chinoiserie prints, stripes, or a myriad of other patterns. Truth be told, I'm not so crazy about floral chintz, but that's simply because I'm not really a floral print person. But there is one chintz that makes me giddy as a schoolgirl: tobacco leaf print glazed cotton.

When I was young, we had a sofa in our library that was covered in a tobacco leaf chintz. My mother can't remember from which fabric house it came, but let me just say that it was mighty fine. The background was a clear, vibrant yellow against which the blues, purples, and gold of the tobacco leaf played their roles. Sure it was quite traditional- after all, the print is based on Chinese export tobacco leaf porcelain- but it also had Style with a capital "S". The only problem was that the fabric was a bit too delicate for a high traffic piece of furniture. Two daughters and a Springer Spaniel were a bit too much for the tobacco leaf. It started to look a little shabby a little too quickly, but you know, shabby is not so difficult to pull off.

I was reminded of this fabric when I came across an old photo of the late designer Stephen Mallory's Rhinebeck, NY house. How disappointing that the photo is in black and white (see below), but just imagine the impact the fabric must have had when used on not just the sofa and armchairs but on the walls as well. I bet it was truly stunning in person. Oh, and it looks as though the upholstered pieces were quilted, something which seems to be making a comeback today.

And then my friend Barry recently wrote about a unit in our high rise building that had been decorated in the late 1960s by the same designer who worked on my childhood home, decorator David Byers III. I'm wondering how many homes in Atlanta got the tobacco leaf chintz treatment as he used it not only on our sofa but also on a sofa and some chairs in the aforementioned condo. (The photos are at top and below.)

Unfortunately, I'm not sure if this particular print is still in production. I do know that Carleton Varney has a tobacco leaf print, but it doesn't have the rich yellow background like the one that I adore. If I could find the fabric (and if I had an extra room lying around), I'd cover everything- walls, windows, and upholstered pieces- in the stuff. Now that would really be smoking.



David Byers III used tobacco leaf chintz in the Plaza Towers unit of Mrs. Robert R. Snodgrass. The print stands up well to the other yellows and acid greens used in the home. The photo at the top is the Music Room/Library, while the one directly above is Mrs. Snodgrass' Sitting Room.



The late Stephen Mallory covered walls, sofa, and chairs in the chintz. It was not completely crazy...but it almost was.


Carleton Varney's version of Tobacco Leaf


And of course, Mottahedeh's Tobacco Leaf china is a classic.

(Photos of the Snodgrass apartment from Landmark Homes of Georgia 1733-1983; Mallory photo from New York Interior Design, 1935-1985, Vol. 1: Inventors of Tradition)

Dixie Carter, R.I.P.

What sparked your interest in design? Perhaps it wasn't a "what" but a "who". For me, I credit Dorothy Draper and her how-to guides. Who wouldn't want to become a decorator (or a design hanger-on) after reading those. There was also my parents' decorator. He was an old-school decorator who talked about his opera pumps and who reminisced about dancing with Wallis Warfield as a young man in Baltimore. But there was also a bit of popular culture that helped to stoke my fascination with interior design, and that would be my all-time favorite TV show "Designing Women". When I learned yesterday that Dixie Carter, a.k.a. Julia Sugarbaker, had died, well, I felt like I lost a mentor.


Oh sure, even back then I knew that Sugarbaker Design was not your typical design firm. First, and let's be honest here, their offices were really not well-decorated. Editing was, perhaps, not part of the Sugarbaker lexicon. It was a mish-mash of "stuff", but the offices really weren't about antiques, bolts of fabrics, and random accessories. It was about the cast of characters. Of course, Julia Sugarbaker was the character many of us wanted to emulate. She could cut people off at the knees with her biting words, all delivered with that honeyed Southern accent (thanks to Carter's upbringing in Memphis) and a smile. Remember how she made mincemeat of Ray Don Simpson? It was something to aspire to, but something I've never been able to do. I just can't think on my feet that quickly.



Then there was Suzanne, Delta Burke's man eating femme fatale. Oh yes, I wanted to be her too. In fact, to this day I still never leave the house without eyeliner on both the top and bottom lids. Suzanne taught me to do that; she had that dark hair and those bright blue eyes just like me, and that combination looks great with heavily (or in my case somewhat heavily) made up eyes. I mean, you just can't go out without your face on because if you do, you might miss your chance at meeting your own Dash Goff...or a really wealthy old man ready to kick the bucket.




Mary Jo was not one of my favorite characters. Yes, Annie Potts' character was cute as a button, but who wants to be that? There just wasn't a lot of glamour there, but perhaps that's because she always wore those really low-heeled pumps. She was a little nerdy, a little awkward...and that's something that when it comes down to it most of us can identify with.



And Charlene? Well, we all have our blonde moments no matter what color our hair is. She was brassy, just slightly rough around the edges, and had a heart of gold. I never quite got the whole Elvis fascination, but I share her nostalgia for the WWII era.




So in honor of the late Dixie Carter and Julia Sugarbaker, I'm including one of Julia's most famous speeches- The Night The Lights Went Out in Georgia. Click the arrow above to see why we all admired her. And now I'm gonna go fluff up my hair, paint my nails red, put on a jewel toned silk blouse replete with shoulder pads, and go knock someone down to size.

Give Peas a Chance

When my sister and I were quite young, we used to drive my mother crazy. Every time she served us peas, we would literally count them to make sure she had doled out equal portions to each of us. God forbid if one of us got one more than the other, because there would be hell to pay. What was crazy, though, is that I wouldn't eat the peas. Wouldn't even touch them because I never liked the way they tasted. To this day, I avoid peas unless it's La Grenouille's Spring Pea Soup. Now those peas taste truly delicious. Oh, and I do like Barefoot Contessa's Pasta, Pesto, and Peas too.

But non-edible peas are a different matter. I love porcelain fruits and vegetables, something which many find to be twee. I'm taken with linens embroidered with Mother Nature's bounty. And fabric printed with a vegetarian motif positively catches my eye. So in honor of Spring, let's celebrate the pea.


Michael Devine sells these charming 10" porcelain peas.


I'm also taken with these porcelain peas and beans by Lorraine Taylor and Nicky Smart.


This is my kind of pea...a brooch by Jean Schlumberger


And this vintage Schiaparelli brooch is pretty tasty too.


These pea pod napkins from Williams Sonoma are cute, although I would prefer if they were plain white linen.

But the best use of peas has to be this dress designed by Givenchy. Perfection!





(Photo at top: Pasta, Pesto, & Peas from Barefoot Contessa Parties!, James Merrell photographer. Givenchy photo from Le style Givenchy)

White Webb and Donghia...A Match Made in Heaven

If I were to list the must-have pieces of furniture that every home should have, drinks tables would rank near the top. And note I said "tables", not "table". After all, you really should have some type of table near every armchair and sofa. Is there not anything more annoying than having a glass of wine or iced tea in your hand and then realizing that you're going to have to sit there and hold it because there are no tables close at hand?

The only downside to this, of course, is that all of those little tables scattered around can lend a bit of a cluttered look to a room. This is why I'm a fan of White Webb's Clearly Classic line of occasional tables. First, they're made of lucite which means that they don't add a lot of visual heft to a room. You can have all of that function without having to worry about how to incorporate the form into your room. The other thing that captivates me are the tables' architectural shapes. They're exotic yes, but thanks to the lucite, it's exotic-light. These tables will work in any interior.

I've written about Clearly Classic before, but the reason the line is on my mind again is because the tables are now available at Donghia showrooms across the country. Creative Director Chuck Chewning has been breathing new life into Donghia while still staying true to the vision of its namesake, so I think it's only fitting that Matthew White and Frank Webb have partnered with the firm. (By the way, I think it's time for an Angelo Donghia revival. Just my two cents.) And in honor of the new partnership, Matthew and Frank have designed the Arc Table (seen above), a piece inspired by the classic Roman arch.

So, which one will it be? The Arc? Akbar? Maybe Pasha? I'll take one of each. That way, my guests will never be table-less again.


Akbar table


Two different sizes of the Alexander


The Alexander in situ


Tangiers table


Pasha table


Ming table


Many of you probably remember White Webb's room from Kips Bay a few years back.


Hadrian table

(All photographs courtesy of White Webb)

My Initial Thought

Some people have the best initials. Take Wallis Windsor, for example. Double W's look fantastic when engraved on flatware or embroidered on linen. Heck, just one W looks terrific. M is good, as is T. I think I'm taken with these letters because they're symmetrical. You can flip them on their vertical axis, and they still look the same. J is asymmetrical, something which I admit drives me a tad crazy. Same with a B. But if you have one initial that is symmetrical, like an H, then you can use that letter as the starting point for an interesting monogram. That one symmetrical letter can be the foundation upon which you build your cypher. On my stationery, seen above, I tried to achieve balance with one long B to the right and a smaller J and E to the left. And if you throw a box around anything, it's like instant symmetry.


See what I mean? Old Wallis had great initials. Those interlocking W's were perfect for this appliqued bed linen.


Edward's E was pretty nifty too. Of course, being able to add a crown to your monogram always helps.


Givenchy has monogrammed cotton slipcovers in his dining room at Clos Fiorentina. If you didn't know that this was Givenchy's monogram, it might be a little tough to decipher the letters. Still, it's rather striking, don't you think?


Also at Clos Fiorentina- the "Walter" guest bedroom named after friend Walter Lees. See, there's that W again. Looks fabulous.


And yet again, W rears it's pretty little head in this room decorated by Jonathan Adler.



Todd Romano's monogram is quite clever (seen here on a matchbook). The T bisects a wide R, resulting in a cypher that is tight and symmetrical.


But, after seeing these chairs that were auctioned off by Christies last week, I take back everything I said about B's. According to An Aesthete's Lament, these beauties belonged to Bunny Mellon.

(Windsor photos from The Duke & Duchess Of Windsor: Public Collections; Private Collections (2 volume set).; Givenchy images from Le Style Givenchy; Adler photo from Rooms to Inspire in the City: Stylish Interiors for Urban Living by Annie Kelly, Tim Street-Porter photographer, Rizzoli 2010.)

The ABCs of Entertaining

And just who is that elegant woman, above? She is Genevieve Antoine Dariaux, former directrice of Nina Ricci. Let me first say that Dariaux is the type of woman that many of us would like to emulate when we become women of a certain age. Her hair was impeccable, the maquillage tasteful, the jewelry quite chic, and that dress...sublime. Of course I'm sure it helped to have that Nina Ricci connection.

So who better to write about elegance than Dariaux? In fact, her first book- titled what else, Elegance- was a primer on how to dress appropriately for every occasion. But it's her 1965 follow-up book,Entertaining With Elegance, that I'm taken with. In it, Dariaux advises the reader on how to entertain with grace and refinement, something which the author seemed to do with aplomb. Her tips are organized alphabetically, so if you need help with ashtrays, punch, place cards, and kissing (not the romantic type, mind you, but rather the purely social variety), you'll know exactly where to look.

So far, I've made it through the D's, so I thought I'd post some of Dariaux's nuggets of wisdom. Unfortunately there are no photos in the book, so I'm improvising with some that I've found in other books. And keep in mind that the book was written 45 years ago- you'll especially need to remember this when you read about preparing dinner for your husband!

(For a more modern approach to entertaining, be sure to check out Joe Nye's forthcoming book Flair: Exquisite Invitations, Lush Flowers, and Gorgeous Table Settings which I'll review soon.)



MAC II included chic sterling cigarette holders and ashtrays on this table.

Ashtrays:

In the living room they should be big but shallow, stable, plentiful, and emptied when they are full.

Standing ashtrays are not at all chic.

On the dining table, they should be small, pretty (preferably of crystal or silver) and there should be one for every place setting.



Let's see, Andy Warhol designed this birthday table for a child who was 1,2,3...6 years old.

Birthdays:

While you would not consider placing on a child's birthday cake anything but the number of candles representing his exact age, the question is more delicate with guests of honor who may not be very anxious to reveal how old they are. This is the system I have adopted:

For children: one candle for every year
For myself: the exact number of years.
For my husband: the same as for myself.
For adults in general: twenty-one candles, if you wish to be very tactful.
For a pretty woman: the most flattering number I can think of.
For somebody over eighty: it all depends. Beyond a certain age, coquetry consists of proudly claiming the maximum years of age- so that it is all the more marvelous, I suppose, to appear so young!

Elsa Peretti managed to make director's chairs look chic

Chairs:

Very few folding chairs are equally suitable for indoor and outdoor use, and if you do a great deal of patio entertaining, it would be advisable also to invest in a set of folding canvas desk chairs, Hollywood-director style, which take up very little storage room. A clever friend of mine has adapted this folding X-model for indoor use in her English-style interior by staining the wooden frames a dark mahogany shade and covering the seat and back with black leatherette, affixed by rows of gilt-headed upholsterer's nails.


If you really want to be naughty, you could tell your guests that the evening's dress code is casual...and you can wear this vintage hostess gown. You'd look great, but your guests would really be steamed.

Clothes:

A hostess should never try to be more elegantly and expensively attired than her guests.

Whenever you entertain, you should inform your guests very precisely as to the kind of dress you yourself intend to wear. I know of nothing more irritating than the hostess who says, "Wear whatever you feel like--" which always makes me want to reply, "All right, I'll come in my nightgown!"




The moral of the story is...do as Mrs. Arthur Hornblow, Jr. and set up an elegant TV Dinner for Two and your husband will think you're the best wife ever.

Dinners for Two:

Why shouldn't a woman feel as if she were giving a dinner party for her husband every evening? ...It seems to me very worthwhile going to a bit of trouble in order to give your husband the impression that every time he comes home in the evening, he is going to a party.

When your little stage setting is ready, you should give a thought to your own appearance and arrange to greet your dinner guest (even though he is in this case your own husband) smiling and fresh, with your hair neatly arranged, wearing a pretty fresh house dress.




A drinks table done right.

Drinks:

At cocktail time: Whisky (Scotch and bourbon), vodka, fruit juice and one of the fortified aperitif wines such as Dubonnet and dry sherry, or a sparkling wine such as champagne.

In the evening: Whisky, fruit juice or soft drinks, and a drink such as gin and tonic in which the spirits are very much diluted in a non-alcoholic mixer, or a sparkling wine.

(Images 2 and 4 from The New Tiffany Table Settings; Images 3 and 6 from Tiffany Table Settings)