Please Join Me in New York

Next week, I'm heading to New York, where Donghia and Hearst Design Group will be hosting my New York book launch.  The event will take place on Thursday, November 21st from 6-8pm at the Donghia Showroom (D&D Building).  I would really love to see all of you New Yorkers with whom I correspond.

Kindly RSVP to donghia@cjandco.com.  I hope to see you next week!

A Very Caspari Holiday

Last week, Caspari hosted a book signing for me at their lovely Charlottesville flagship store. I really enjoyed meeting everybody, including a very nice mother and daughter who drove in from Richmond to see me.

Walking through the Caspari store is like being a kid in a candy shop. Everywhere you look, there are charming vignettes filled with all kinds of stylish goods, from tabletop and home accessories to fashion, books, and gourmet food. In addition to featuring the full range of Caspari's paper goods, the store also sells such lines as Kim Seybert, Juliska, Alberto Pinto, and more. Believe me, after you see how well Caspari's paper napkins and plates go with Juliska flatware and Alberto Pinto china, you will likely be inspired to incorporate paper into your table settings.

The shop has just recently been decked out for the holidays, so there is plenty of inspiration for holiday entertaining and decorating. My favorite collection in the entire store? Hands down, Caspari's Wild Christmas collection, which features leopards and zebras wearing wreaths around their necks. How appropriate that the store's display of Wild Christmas was being watched over by some very stylish leopard dummy boards.
    

All photos taken by Jennifer Boles for The Peak of Chic

Time to Get Planting

I recently received a lovely gift of two Amaryllis bulbs, which will bloom great big red blooms come December. That is, if I make haste and plant the bulbs in their pots right away! In fact, these bulbs were a much appreciated gift as I was recently thinking that I needed to get my act together and start planting Amaryllis, Paperwhite, and Hyacinth bulbs in anticipation of the holidays, when the more blooms there are inside a house, the more festive the house appears.

I gathered up photos which show interiors that were made homey by pots of blooming flowers. I love the big burst of color that an Amaryllis provides, while I appreciate Paperwhites for their delicate little blooms and their elegant fragrance. (Not everybody likes the fragrance of Paperwhites, though; my parents think that they smell like an electrical fire.) And Hyacinths! What can I say? Their sweet fragrance instantly puts me in a good mood.

So, that's it for now. I'm off to do a little potting. Once your Amaryllis and Paperwhites start to bloom, send me photos.  I would love to see them. 

PS- As much as I love a fancy cachepot, I think that these particular blooms look best in plain terracotta pots or baskets.

The three photos above came from A Tiffany Christmas by John Loring. Don't they put you in the mood for Christmas?

Sister Parish had Paperwhites in her entry hall...

...and Hyacinths in her living room.

There were quite a few pots of Amaryllis in this photograph of Greentree, the Whitney's Long Island estate that was decorated by Parish-Hadley.

Amaryllis also dotted this Parish-Hadley designed Manhattan dining room, which was inspired by Liselund in Denmark.

A solo burst of crimson in the club room at 44 Berkeley Square, Mayfair, which was decorated by John Fowler.

A blue and white bowl of Paperwhites in a blue and white room by Colefax and Fowler.

Amaryllis, Paperwhites, and Hyacinths graced three different Mario Buatta-decorated homes, above.

They also appeared in homes designed by another great, Keith Irvine.

Curtain Call

While I was in Greensboro, North Carolina a few weeks ago, I visited The Pink Door, a charming antiques and home accessories shop. There was a lot there that caught my eye, but what really struck my fancy were the rather elaborate and, yes, traditional curtains that hung from each window.

One room had curtains that were made of oyster-colored silk which had been fashioned into swags, tails, bows, rosettes, and ruffles. (You can see one of the curtains above.)  While I realize that for many people, this type of curtain has gone with the wind, I find it utterly charming.  These curtains were different from what we typically see today, something which probably heightened their allure for me.  They were proper, dressy, and a little fancy- basically, the antithesis of what people seem to want these days.  But more than anything, these curtains represent a bygone era in design that I miss terribly.  They spoke of the good old days of decorating.

Now, I don't think that this blog post is going to cause anyone to run out and ditch their plain curtain panels for swags and tails, but I do wish that people would start to reconsider certain elements of formal, traditional curtains.  Tailored swags, rosettes, pinked edges, and a few bows here and there don't have to look terribly fussy, especially when crafted of solid-colored fabrics.  Deeda Blair had swagged and bow-bedecked curtains in her home in Washington D.C.  And who can forget those magnificent curtains that John Fowler designed for the Bruces' set at Albany?  In fact, The Pink Door curtains kind of remind me of the Bruces' curtains, though on a much smaller scale.

Well, even if this blog post falls on deaf ears, I say kudos to The Pink Door for being such a stylish, chic shop, all within the confines of some very swish curtains.

Deeda Blair's curtains, which are so feminine and elegant.

The famous John Fowler curtains in the Bruces' drawing room, Albany.

A John Fowler curtain sketch.

Pretty curtains, designed by John Fowler, in Jill Chandos-Pole's bedroom at Radburne.

Mario Buatta is also adept at designing some very pretty curtains.



Top photo by Jennifer Boles for The Peak of Chic; Fowler photos from John Fowler: Prince of Decorators by Martin Wood; Buatta photo from Mario Buatta by Mario Buatta and Emily Evans Eerdmans.

For Will

My friend, Will Merrill, and I were recently discussing some of the more photographed designers of the 1970s. One name that Will mentioned was Charles Dear, a designer who, though not well-known today, was once featured in shelter magazines on a rather frequent basis. I recognized the name for I have seen Dear's work from time to time in some of my old magazines and books, but I know little about him. In fact, I tried to do some online research before posting this, but very little information can be gleaned.

Yesterday, as blogger panic disorder set in while I was trying to figure out what the heck to write for this post, I picked up a January 1971 issue of House Beautiful, and lo and behold, Charles Dear's Southampton home was featured. The house, which won the American Institute of Interior Designers' 1970 Eastern Region Award, was referred to as a "miniature French manor" by the magazine. The home's interior is peppered with popular design elements of the '70s, including Mexican tile floors, sliding glass doors, bold pattern and splashes of lime green. But if you look past the bright colors and bold prints, you'll find an interesting mix of antiques and modern furnishings, including now-classic Bielecky Brothers cane chairs in the dining room, a John Vesey leather and steel chair in one of the bedrooms, and a Triennale floor lamp by Arredoluce in the living room.  Actually, there is quite a bit that's classic about these interiors.

So, Will, this post is for you and anyone else who was a fan of Charles Dear's work.

The living room, above, had layers of pattern, most prominently seen in that rug.  To the right of the sofa, above, was a Triennale lamp that got cut out of the photo scan.

In the guest room, you can see the John Vesey leather chair to the left.

Dear, who was an avid gardener, chose floral prints for his bedroom.

The dining room was a rather simple affair, appropriate for the house's casual feel. The Bielecky Brothers cane chairs are classics.

The kitchen with yet another Bielecky Brothers cane chair.

All photos from House Beautiful, January 1971.