A New Tent Obsession

I love high rise living. I have a doorman; someone is always around to sign for packages; there's a fantastic view out of my windows; and being up high means I have fewer bugs. However, I just learned about something that has made me want to chuck living up high and buy a house with a yard. Why? Because I'm dying to own a tent from Boutique Tents.

Owner Anne Girault started Boutique Tents after being commissioned to design cabanas for a Tara Guerard event. With her background as an interior designer, Girault mines fashion, travel, and textiles for inspiration. Each tent is made to order, and while there are nine different valances from which to choose, Girault welcomes custom design requests. Can't you see one of these tents by a pool or out on your patio? Wouldn't you feel chic lounging or dining in your very own bespoke tent? I know I would.

(For more information, contact Anne Girault at (843) 345-5049 or info@boutiquetents.net)




This tent was designed for an Indian wedding in Charleston. The scalloped trim of the valance and the stenciled design of the ceiling within the tent were inspired by motifs in the wedding correspondence. (Event planner was Blue Moon Event; image courtesy of A. Bryan Photo.)




A tent with tassel trim that now lives sans tassels in a downtown Charleston garden.




The Madeline tent would look smashing as a poolside changing room or cabana. Anne calls this her homage to Palm Beach style.


Love this tent that was used at a wedding.




An entrance tent that led to a lounge tent that led to the dining tent and on to the dancing tent! (Photo by Liz Banfield; event by Tara Guerard)


A tent for a dog. Do you think I should get one for Alfie?

(Image at top: a sketch for a custom tent by Anne)

My Dream Terrace

A while back I posted an image of a Manhattan rooftop garden that I found so captivating (that image is featured above). Included in a chapter in Tiffany Table Settings, the terrace seems so evocative of chic 1960s New York- at least it does to me. Well, the terrace that I fancy has turned up again, this time in America's Small Houses: The Personal Homes of Designers and Collectors (1964), and I've learned that said terrace belonged to antiquarian Churchill J. Brazelton.

The first thing that caught my eye was the charming wrought iron furniture and those classical statues and busts that stood guard over the garden. But I think my favorite part of the garden is the small pavilion with a small, marble topped table and striped curtains. If only my balcony were large enough for this!


Brazelton's terrace by day, minus the beautiful Tiffany accoutrements. I wish someone still made that iron swan cocktail table.


A white marble Venus de Medici statue held court within a brick fountain. The trellis provided privacy for the garden.


I wish that I knew what color the striped curtains were; "America's Small Houses" did mention that the outdoor furniture cushions were all in "gay colors".

While I was preparing this post, I came across this image below of an outdoor tent- so chic- on Virgil McDowell's website. Those crenellated edges of the tent top...perfection!



(Image #1- Tiffany Table Settings; #2-4 from America's Small Houses - The Personal Homes of Designers and Collectors; image #5 courtesy of Virgil McDowell)

Cabana Chic

While I'm on the subject of balconies... I mean terraces, I thought I'd post these photos of two cabanas installed at Trina Turk's New York store. Turk commissioned talented designer Joel Woodard to create cabanas (also known as changing tents) based on some frames that were featured in the Tony Duquette book.

Woodard tweaked the tents and made them taller than your run of the mill cabana. He used fabrics from Turk's new fabric line at Schumacher. The exterior fabric is "Peacock" in the color pool, and the interior is lined in "Zebra" in the Bamboo colorway.

How great would it be to have one of these by your pool, on your terrace, in your dressing room. I'm convinced that the tents' height will make one look slimmer, especially in a bikini!

Deadline Decorating

Am I the only person who decorates her home's interiors first and deals with the outdoor part later? For the past three weeks, I've sequestered myself inside in order to meet a few deadlines, and the entire time I kept looking out the window at my poor, neglected balcony. Wouldn't my grotto chairs look a lot nicer with a chic outdoor fabric? (They came with Naugahyde. Who the heck puts cheap vinyl on elegant grotto chairs??) How about a tablecloth for my bistro table? And trellis- that would be awfully nice.

It's really crazy that I live in Atlanta and don't have a balcony dressed to the nines. After all, it never gets too cold here, so one can entertain outdoors about nine months out of the year. I'm turning over a new leaf, though. What I realized is that the promise of a party is what forces you to get your house- and balcony- whipped into shape. Like I said a few weeks ago, I'm having a party for my sister in August (I will continue to mention this because once something is in print, you can't go back on it.) I've also mentioned it to many of her friends as a kind of save the date thing, although to me it's a "You better get your act together and finish what you've started... or else."

I've pulled lots of photos as inspiration for my sadly neglected balcony. Can I get it together in two months? Well, do I have any choice?


I've been taken with this balcony since I first saw the photo over ten years ago. The wrought iron furniture, the sculpture, those oversized hurricanes... perfection. I think I have my work cut out for me.


"Supper on a Romantic Terrace". First, can I call my high-rise balcony a terrace? It sounds much nicer. Anyway, truth be told, I wouldn't add those butterflies to my tablesetting because I just don't go to that much trouble in my decorating. However, I would add white lights to my boxwoods (that I have yet to buy), and if I had plain patio chairs I would consider painting them in faux-marbre.


I'd nix the wooden fence- for some reason, it looks a little Trader Vic's to me. But I do love those chairs and the black and white tablecloth with pink napkins. Perhaps I've found the color scheme for my party?


Obviously, this ballroom is far grander than my outdoor space, but isn't all of that treillage just beautiful?? Elsie de Wolfe designed this space for Bessie Marbury.


Awnings are always right for a balcony, and I do like those graphic stripes.

Two months and counting...the pressure is on.

Image at top: Technically, the old Garden Lounge at Hampshire House wasn't outdoors, but Dorothy Draper's handiwork could certainly work on a patio or balcony.

(Image 1: In the Pink: Dorothy Draper--America's Most Fabulous Decorator. Images 2 & 3: Tiffany Table Settings. Image 4: HOUSE AND GARDEN'S NEW COMPLETE GUIDE TO INTERIOR DECORATION: FIFTH EDITION. Image 5:Manhattan Style. Image 6:House & Garden's Complete Guide to Interior Decoration