The Legendary Duarte Pinto Coelho

I'm sure that many of you have heard of the late Portuguese interior designer Duarte Pinto Coelho. I'll be honest- I never had until I bought the June issue of Spanish AD. And I'm sorry, too, that this article was the first that I've read about Coelho because by the looks of these photos, I have really missed out on a lot!

Coelho died last year, and the contents of both his Madrid and Trujillo homes were auctioned off earlier this summer at Christie's. The photos featured here were taken at Coelho's Madrid home. I wish that I could tell you more about the article, but unfortunately I don't speak a lick of Spanish. But really, you don't need text to accompany these gorgeous photos. The home's beauty speaks for itself.



































All photos from Spanish AD, June 2011, Manolo Yllera photographer.

Thanks for the Inspiration, Fabrizio Rollo

I can't seem to get this photo out of mind as I find it so striking-and that goes for both the fashionably clad subjects and the decor around them. I found this photo on the blog of Brazilian based Fabrizio Rollo, the man seated in the middle. Fabrizio is currently the director of House Beautiful Brasil, though in the past he has held editorial positions at Casa Vogue and Vogue Brasil. Not only is he a natty dresser (Google his name to see what I mean; Fabrizio has a stellar wardrobe!), but he also has an eye for interior design. Even if you can't read Portuguese, it's worth visiting his blog as the images are really beautiful. The photographs transcend the language barrier...just like the one above.

What especially caught my eye was that beautiful tapestry. If it looks familiar, that's because it once graced the dining room of Yves Saint Laurent's Rue de Babylone home. The c. 1720 Gobelins tapestry, titled The King Borne by Two Moors, was purchased by Fabrizio's friend at the YSL auction at Christie's. And now it hangs in his friend's Paris apartment where the photo at top was taken. I think it's worth noting that the tapestry depicts the Dutch colony of Brazil, the (now) country that Fabrizio calls home.

I have to admit that I've never been a big fan of tapestries. That's sacrilege, I know. Still, you don't see them very often in American interiors as they're perhaps too grand for our more casual homes. Also, I've always thought the colors were a bit drab, though I realize the more monotone nature of many tapestries is due to fading and possible limitations in the number of colors used. But then I saw the Gobelins tapestry above and it completely changed my mind. The colors in this one are so vibrant, and they are made even more so thanks to the red sofa beneath it. Even the tapestry's subject, so exotic for the time, is something I find to be charming.

Perhaps someday you just might find a tapestry in my home. Will it be as grand as the YSL one? Maybe not. But in the meantime, I'll just have to live vicariously through Fabrizio.



The Gobelins tapestry as it appeared in Yves Saint Laurent's dining room.





Designer Jacques Grange has rotated this 1930s looking tapestry throughout his Paris home.




The Paris apartment of Madame Cuttoli, c. 1937. Cuttoli revitalized the Aubusson workshops during the 1930s by inviting artists like Lurcat, Matisse, Derain, and Dufy to design tapestries. In this photo, the two floor to ceiling tapestries that flank the fireplace were by Lurcat.




Here, a Beauvais tapestry, "Le Voyage du Prince".




Alidad furnished this Parisian living room with an Aubusson Louis XV tapestry.




Image at top courtesy of Fabrizio Rollo; #2 from The Yves Saint Laurent-Pierre Berge Collection: The Sale of the Century; #3 from The French Touch: Decoration and Design in the Most Beautiful Homes of France; #4 from Jacques Grange: Interiors; #5 from The Decorative Thirties; #6 from Les Reussites De La Decoration Francaise: 1950-1960; #7 courtesy of Alidad.

Cane and T-Abel

How could that photo above not capture one's attention, what with the Lichtenstein and the shocking red walls and bed. There's a lot going there ("there" being the New York bedroom of designer Arthur Smith, c. 1982), but what really made me sit up and take notice were the Bielecky Brothers side tables. This photo served as a (cruel) reminder that I have yet to get the Bielecky Brothers side table that I so covet. In fact, one of their cane wrapped tables would look perfect in my study with its Albert Hadley for Hinson "Trixie" wallpaper, its gray sisal carpet, and my black lacquered Parsons console. I like to think of the room as looking very Van Day Truex meets Albert Hadley with a dash of Jennifer Boles thrown in. At least, that's what I think.

According to Adam Lewis' Billy Baldwin: The Great American Decorator, we have Billy Baldwin and Van Day Truex to thank for the Bielecky Brothers' iconic cane wrapped chair, a design that was inspired by a Jean-Michel Frank piece. The two men commissioned Bielecky Brothers to make the chairs for use in various Tiffany & Co. salons, although I would venture to say that most of us probably associate the cane wrapped pieces with Baldwin's glossy chocolate brown studio apartment. Since that first chair, the line has evolved into cane wrapped tables, bookcases, and chests. One could say that these are investment pieces as they don't come cheap. But what's important to note is that they wear like iron. Atlanta designer Stan Topol has Bielecky Brothers' chairs and tables that are 30+ years old and they look good as new. You would think that he bought them yesterday!

I'm hoping that my table will look that good thirty years from now. I just need to get my hands on one first.



Van Day Truex used Bielecky Brothers chairs in his last apartment.




Mrs. Harding Lawrence (Mary Wells Lawrence) incorporated the chairs into this table setting for the book The New Tiffany Table Settings.




Angelo Donghia was an ardent fan of the line. Here, in his New York town house, he used two different styles of the Bielecky cane table.




I could have shown the Bielecky Brothers pieces in Billy Baldwin's Manhattan apartment, but I've featured those photos so many times before that I wanted to show something different. Here, in the games room of the S.I. Newhouse Jr. townhouse, Baldwin used both the chairs and the game table.




In this New York Social Diary photo of Adam Lewis' beautiful New York apartment, you can see that he too has the classic Bielecky Brothers' chairs. Fitting for the author of books on Van Day Truex and Billy Baldwin! Seeing that I admire all three men greatly (that is including Lewis), it's fitting that I want a cane wrapped piece too.




Stan Topol has Bielecky Brothers galore in his Atlanta office that recently appeared in the May issue of House Beautiful.

Top photo from House & Garden, January 1982; photo #2 from Van Day Truex: The Man Who Defined Twentieth-Century Taste and Style by Adam Lewis; #3 from The New Tiffany Table Settings; #4 from New York Interior Design, 1935-1985, Vol. 2: Masters of Modernism by Judith Gura; #5 from Billy Baldwin: The Great American Decorator; #6 from New York Social Diary, Jeff Hirsch photographer; #7 from House Beautiful, May 2011, Thomas Loof photographer.

Everything Happens at Cocktails!

Steven Stolman is a man after my own heart. It's not solely because of his immense charm, although I am a sucker for that kind of thing. And yes, he is the walking embodiment of preppy chic, something which I find to be pretty darn cool. But what has really made me his biggest fan is the fact that Steven is the king of the hors d'oeuvre.

There's no pretense to his style of entertaining, nor is there any attempt at being fancy and showy. Rather, Steven embraces that down to earth, old-fashioned way of entertaining that is to me really quite chic. We're talking hors d'oeuvres and appetizers such as deviled eggs, Lil' Smokies, and dips made from, shall we say, humble ingredients. Seriously, have you ever met anybody who doesn't like a good cocktail frank?

Steven and I got on an email roll recently sharing hors d'oeuvres recipes and entertaining tips. (I've decided that I have a long way to go before I can rattle dip recipes off the top of my head like Steven does.) While we were planning this post, Steven was named President of Scalamandre. He's perfect for this position. Scalamandre has such a glorious heritage, something which a person like Steven gets and respects. I'm really excited to see what's in store for the venerable fabric house.

But getting back to cocktail franks- Steven emailed to me his thoughts on entertaining. He did such a nice job with the text that I simply copied and pasted it below. And the title of this post? That too is courtesy of Steven. Because you know, if you serve really tasty food and plenty of booze, everything really can happen at cocktails!

Steven wrote:
Having miraculously reached middle age, I have resigned myself to certain absolutes. No matter how hard I work, God does not want me to have granite countertops or stainless steel appliances. Indeed, by the time I could afford them, Formica and Harvest Gold will have become chic again. So, for the foreseeable future, it's gonna be a white kitchen for me. And I don't mean modern, museum quality white. I mean 1970s "only seen by the help" white. In my Palm Beach apartment, I have the same stove that Samantha Stevens of "Bewitched" slaved over- sadly without the magical results. It's the kind of kitchen that caused Diana Vreeland to shriek "My god, I'm SNOWBLIND!" White on white on white- with the added allure of fluorescent lighting.

The result of having a rather retro culinary laboratory has caused me to be enamored by retro foods. I have a huge collection of 1950s-70s charity cookbooks- the kind with plastic spiral bindings and cutesy names like "Nothin' Says Lovin" or "Just Desserts" as published by the Garden Club of Sewickley and the like. And then there are my treasures- an original "I Hate to Cook Book" by Peg Bracken (genius) and the enigmatic "Some Favorite Southern Recipes of the Duchess of Windsor" (useless except for the recipe for popovers that you know she never made- or ate for that matter.) My own repertoire has aped these classics- resulting in the reputation for being a pretty good homestyle cook. Thankfully, I come from a family that has always loved to entertain- from my grandparents' command performance Friday night dinners to my mom's impeccable dinner parties to my own gatherings in Palm Beach and now, after a 15 year hiatus, New York.

When the good folks at Scalamandre asked me to join the company as president, I immediately knew that I would have to ramp up my entertaining activities. The house of Scalamandre is the epitome of gracious living, and welcoming friends and business associates into one's home is the ultimate expression of that ethic. Once again, my surroundings would dictate my entertaining style. While spacious, I live in a studio apartment in what feels like the biggest apartment building on Earth. Built in the early 1960s by the legendary Rudin family, it's a behemoth of white brick, now totally enveloped in scaffolding as part of a multi-year exterior facade overhaul. Needless to say, I love it. But entertaining in a studio has its limitations. The last thing I want to do is go to bed amid the lingering odors of Cassoulet Toulousiene, one of my standbys. So for the duration, it's cocktails at my place followed by a restaurant dinner in the neighborhood. I have a fantastic, enormous 1970s sectional sofa plucked from a thrift shop, a stunning glass topped Fontana Arte coffee table on loan from by buddies at Van den Akker Antiques and another thrift shop find- a classic Mies van der Rohe "Brno" chair. It's kinda like the set of a television talk show, but it seems to be working. This format demands stationary hors d'oeuvre- so my gameplan involves bowls of nuts, olives and pepperoni, a big hunk of cheese with a knife stabbed into it Excalibur-style and one terrific retro cocktail spread- either with crackers or celery sticks. This array always looks fresh and not picked at, packs a lot of punch into a small space and seems to keep people coming back for more. It's also mercifully free of hummus.

JANE'S CHEESE

1 bunch of scallions
1 pkg. real bacon bits (essential- nothing else works)
1 pkg. shredded cheddar cheese
1 cup mayonnaise
Generous dash of Worcestershire Sauce
A few grinds of black pepper

In the bowl of a food processor fitted with the steel blade, chop scallions and bacon until they resemble wet, green sand. Add cheese and pulse a few more times. Turn out into a bowl and mix in mayonnaise and the rest of the ingredients. Chill before serving- and whatever you do, do not tell people what's in it. Most will guess "chicken salad." I have no clue why. This spread has 2 lives- serve it cold with crackers or spread it on toast rounds and broil until puffed and lightly browned.

MATER'S MESS (courtesy Polly Fawcett, Boston's extraordinary interior designer)

1 small onion
2 hard boiled eggs
1/2 cup green pimento-stuffed olives
1/2 pkg. shredded cheddar cheese
1 8 oz. pkg. cream cheese

In the bowl of a food processor fitted with the steel blade, combine onion, olives and eggs. Pulse until lightly combined. Add cheese and continue to pulse, being very careful not to over-process. Turn out into a bowl and blend in cream cheese. Serve with Triscuits to be authentically North Shore Boston or with celery sticks or spread on cucumber slices if you're avoiding carbs. UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES ADD ANY OTHER INGREDIENTS OR VARY FROM THE METHOD (trust me, I've tried.)

A recent batch of Mater's Mess as prepared by Steven.




Backwards Deviled Eggs and Australian Cheddar served Excalibur style.





"Typical cocktail party spread at my Palm Beach apartment.
Tea sandwiches, Swedish meatballs or Lil' Smokies steamed in beer and a great old 1950s cocktail spread that has to included cheese, bacon, olives, hard boiled eggs... sometimes all of the above!"




A Christmas Day Paella dinner at Steven's Palm Beach apartment.





His Palm Beach apartment at the ready for guests.




Just a few of Steven's favorite cookbooks.







All photos courtesy of Steven Stolman.

Blue and White with Oscar de la Renta

As much as I love blue and white (and I do, I promise), I feel as though there is blue and white...and then there is blue and white! What I mean, I suppose, is that there is classic blue and white, proper blue and white, and tailored blue and white. But what's really rare is blue and white with some sizzle. Forget about this kind of blue and white being cool; rather, it's positively on fire. The look incorporates bold blues and even bolder prints, and everything is thrown together with complete insouciance. Then again, is the look really achieved in such a carefree manner? That I don't know. But, what I do know is that Oscar de la Renta has given us some of the hottest blue and white rooms ever. Unfortunately, I can only find a scant three photos to prove my point. But, based on what I have found, I'd say that he really has a way with blue and white.




A 1969 photo of Francoise and Oscar de la Renta's Manhattan apartment.



A Porthault clad table in de la Renta's dining room c. 1971. Horst, photographer.

Image at top: A c. 1980s photo of de la Renta at his Casa de Campo home.

Up, Up, and Away

I'm really taken with those antique and vintage balloon back side chairs. I know that the term "balloon back" is used to describe a few different styles of wooden chairs with bulbous, or balloon, shaped backs, but the ones that I like are those with back splats that resemble balloons. The design of these chairs was originally inspired by the Montgolfier brothers and their invention, the hot air balloon. Their 1783 manned balloon flight captured the imagination of the French people. Balloon mania found its way into chairs, chandeliers, toiles, and even clocks.

Balloon back chairs have a certain novelty aspect to them, one which I find to be charming. The flip side, though, is that you shouldn't add other novelty pieces to the room or the result might be too flighty (!) The same goes for the use of the iconic Ballon de Gonesse toile, a print that is really a classic. I'm not a huge fan of toile, but if I were to use it, I would leave the room's other accents rather plain and maybe even a little masculine. I guess the bottom line is that in decorating, one balloon is better than a bunch.


Image at top: Look closely in the mirror's reflection and you'll see a table surrounded by balloon chairs. Design by Melvin Dwork.




Not only do you have balloon back chairs in this Mallory-Tillis room but a balloon chandelier as well. I probably wouldn't go this far with the balloon theme, but the room does look kind of cute.




A set of four French balloon back side chairs, c. 1950, from James Sansum Fine and Decorative Art. I think they're really quite elegant.




I don't think that these are technically balloon back chairs. However, I'm slipping this shot in here because it's a chance for us to discuss that little closet bar. I love that.



Le Ballon de Gonesse, a c. 1784 toile; from the collection of Musee de la Toile.




It may be difficult to see, but the headboard fabric as well as the wallpaper (or is it fabric?) on the side wall is a balloon themed toile.




A c. 1950 French balloon table lamp from David Duncan Antiques. It might be a little off-topic, but I think it's a fun piece.


Dwork photo from House & Garden, October 1967. Mallory-Tillis photo from House & Garden's Complete Guide to Interior Decoration, 6th Edition, 1960; closet bar photo from Les Reussites De La Decoration Francaise: 1950-1960; toile bedroom photo from The Finest Rooms in France.