Garrow Kedigian

Time wasn't on my side yesterday so I wasn't able to prepare a post for today.  I do want to encourage you to visit New York Social Diary over the weekend and read the interview with designer Garrow Kedigian.  Garrow's room at this year's Kips Bay was one of my favorites, and now his Manhattan apartment has become another favorite of mine. Truly, his home makes me want to banish all color in my home and embrace a neutral color scheme.  And for those of you who know me, that's really saying something!

(Image at top: Garrow's room for Kips Bay. Image from his website.)

A Fun Evening with the Skirted Round Table

A few evenings ago I had the opportunity to chat with three of my favorite bloggers- Joni, Linda, and Megan- for broadcast on their fantastic blog The Skirted Round Table. We had more fun talking about blogging, paint colors, and House Beautiful. Be sure to visit their website to listen to the podcast. And thanks to them for letting me be a part of the conversation!

The Private World of Yves Saint Laurent and Pierre Bergé

It's my favorite time of year...the time when all of the fabulous design books are released! One of the books that I can't stop raving out (and one that I'm sure my friends wish I would stop crowing about) is The Private World of Yves Saint Laurent and Pierre Berge by Robert Murphy with photographs by Ivan Terestchenko. Now, I realize that some of you might be thinking "Yet another book on Yves Saint Laurent?", but trust me, if you're a fan of YSL, you will want this book for your library.


Focusing on the homes and collections of YSL and Pierre Bergé, the book features the eight residences that they had between them, including Rue de Babylone and Avenue de Breteuil (YSL residences), Rue Bonaparte (Bergé), and the pair's homes in Deauville, Tangier, and Marrakech.  Some of the interiors are quite opulent in that European kind of way, while others reflect the exoticism of their locales.  But the real appeal of this book is the photographs by Terestchenko.  The photos make you feel as though you are actually in the homes, perhaps as a guest of the late designer and his partner.  Thank goodness Terestchenko was able to capture the interiors before they were disassembled for auction.


Unfortunately, I'm only able to show you a few photos from the book, so treat this post as a sneak peek.  I think that when you get your copies, you'll agree that this is a book with which you will be enchanted.  And if a little of that YSL flair rubs off on us, all the better.


Saint Laurent's sunny bedroom in Marrakech.


The library at Bergé's Rue Bonaparte home, designed by the homeowner and Francois-Joseph Graf. This room is one of the most pared down in the residence.


The entrance hall in Marrakech.

(All photos by Ivan Terestchenko, courtesy of Vendome Press)

I Survived the Party

Remember my frantic decorating in anticipation of the party I was hosting for my sister? Well, said party took place a few weeks ago, and it seemed a good time was had by all...including the hostess. (And believe it or not, my good time was had without any wine. You have to stay sharp while hostessing.) Before the party, there was the mad rush to get my powder room finished. My poor sister made that valance the week of the party. She's refusing to come home for Christmas unless I promise that I won't cook up another project for her.

Now I must admit that I had some anxiety before the party because my dining room really isn't finished yet. I don't yet have a rug in there because I'm looking for the perfect rug. There is one wall that is completely bare and will be until I find the perfect piece of art. So, while I'm waiting for perfection, the dining room remains a bit incomplete. I started to wonder what the guests would think about the bare floor, the bare wall. But then I thought about Dorothy Draper and what she might say about my dilemma. I feel confident that she would have said to get over the will to be dreary and have the party. And you know what? Once the guests were in place and the room was bathed in candlelight, I don't think anyone really noticed the bare spots!

When I entertain, I don't have a theme per se. This time, however, I chose a color theme for the party: fuchsia with hints of silver, black, and white. I covered the dining table in a hot pink tablecloth which was inspired by those gorgeous fuchsia table linens that Mathilde Agostinelli had in her Jacques Grange designed dining room. I stuck with silver trays for a dash of glimmer, and pink and white ikat votives added another punch of pink. Oh, and I went with bright pink hydrangeas for tight little arrangements in the center of the table.


That's me shortly before the party wringing my hands over the bare floor.




I hired Cafe Lapin to cater the party. Mattie Hines, the proprietor who also happens to be a major design devotee like the rest of us, did a fabulous job helping me come up with a menu which included:

Ham and Gruyère Biscuits
Fig, Prosciutto, and Arugula Crepes
Asparagus on Puffed Pastry
Parmesan Shortbread Stars with Caramelized Onion Marmalade
Chicken Satay
Billionaire's Bacon


You know we like our bacon here in the South. The sugared bacon on skewers were a hit.



On the other side of the dining room, I set up a dessert table with macaroons in pink, brown, and cream (had they made black macaroons that would have been perfect!) and a tray of petits fours.






I kept with the color theme on the dessert table by using fuchsia cocktail napkins and pink butter mints. Yes, I realize that the mints were a rather old school touch, but they looked good on the table.


I made tiny arrangements of dark purple calla lilies and white fancy tulips. I love nothing more than a floral arrangement that looks black and white- so graphic.



And I couldn't neglect the balcony. The fuchsia lanterns looked great for all of five minutes, but then a thunderstorm hit and the wind ripped them down. And to think that my poor father was up on a ladder for half an hour before the party in the sweltering heat hanging the darn things!

What about the bar you say? I set that up in the living room, as seen in the top two photos. It's not easy trying to make room for the liquor, the wine, the beer, the mixers, and all of the other accoutrements. The lack of space on the bar, though, did not seem to deter anyone from partaking in the libations. One thing that really came in handy was my Dash and Albert outdoor rug (full disclosure: a number of bloggers were given the opportunity to select a small rug of their choosing from the Dash & Albert website). I was trying to figure out where to use it when I realized that it would be perfect under the temporary bar. It protected the hardwood floor from spills, which meant one less thing for this harried hostess to worry about!

So when is the next party? I'm thinking Christmas. And hopefully I will have a rug and some art by that time!

(To contact Mattie at Cafe Lapin, the telephone number is (404) 812-9171. I highly recommend them!)

The Office Where Love Bloomed

Fess up. How many of you were Judith Krantz fans back in the 80s? There was that summer before my junior year in high school when I read the Brontë Sisters by day...and Judith Krantz by night. Let me tell you- you can get quite an education from Princess Daisy and Scruples, although I don't think it was the kind of education that my parents envisioned for me. When my father expressed his dismay over my choice of literature, I told him that at least I wasn't reading Jackie Collins. Now her stuff was really trashy. Or so I've heard.

I'm guessing that Judith's romance writing days are over as I haven't heard about her in a while. But back twenty years ago, she was huge. A 1992 House & Garden article featured Krantz's California home office, or what she called her workroom. And whether you like her type of fiction or not, I think her work space will be of interest to bloggers and writers. After all, don't the words flow a little more freely in a space that is both inspiring and comforting?

First, she made sure that her workroom looked out onto a garden because it comforted her to know that the outdoors were not far from her desk. She also noted that she didn't think she could write in a high rise. I can write in my high rise condo, but I get what she's saying. You do get a little stir crazy while writing with your head in the clouds.



Krantz said that other than her computer, you'd never know that this room was her office. The walls were covered in a Provençal print, and there were needlepoint rugs on the floor. Krantz accessorized her room with her collection of framed needlework as well as ivory jars and boxes. She surrounded herself with things that would serve as "food for my fidgets." Any of you who write can relate to this; how many times do you get up to rearrange bookshelves or tableaux while you're trying to crank out a post or an article?



While the room is a bit frou for me, what I do like is that it looks nothing like an office, and that's a breath of fresh air. I don't have the luxury of space, so I don't want to devote an entire room to a utilitarian looking office. Instead, it has to do double duty as a living space. But the beauty of being a writer or blogger is that you don't need much more than books, a laptop, a sharp mind, and an attractive workroom to get the creative juices flowing. Oh, and an active imagination with which to dream up the trials and tribulations of Princess Daisy and that evil half brother of hers Ram!



(All images from House & Garden, Aug 1992)

And The After

Yesterday I showed you the before photos of my guest bathroom. It was an ugly mess, I admit. I decided to challenge myself to see if I could do a few cosmetic things to make the bathroom look better without having to embark on a redo.

I chose to paint my walls a dark shade of navy blue in order to create a jewel box-like effect. I figured dark walls might draw people's eyes away from the ugly bits. The walls are now Benjamin Moore Soot in semi-gloss, and the trim and door are painted Ben Moore's Gentleman's Gray in high-gloss. (A hopeful name...do you think it will send any gentlemen my way?) After I stripped the walls of the bad wallpaper, I found that my walls were not in great shape. I blamed previous workmen, but I'm starting to believe that I'm the culprit. A set of early 18th c. prints were hung to hide the wall's flaws.


Soot on the left and Gentleman's Gray on the right

What made things easy was that I chose to treat my guest bathroom as a powder room instead. I didn't have to worry about the shower as no one would be using it. (That's the beauty of living in a building with guest suites; you can put guests there rather than having them stay with you.) So, I chose to hide the shower behind some greek key curtains in navy and cream from Pottery Barn.

In order to hide the vanity, I whipped up a tailored skirt using Stitch Witchery. I went with a pale blue cotton/linen fabric from Lewis and Sheron, and hot glued some tape trim at the top. It's kind of a pain when you need to get underneath the sink as you have to flip the bottom of the skirt up over the sink, but hey, I'm not down there very often.


Lighting became a bit of a problem, especially as the dark walls made everything, well, dark. I put two column lamps on the vanity to help with lighting and to help distract from the medicine cabinet behind. I had to go with off-white shades, something which I normally don't use, in order to maximize the light. That said, I like to use only the lamps for lighting in there to keep things a little moody, a little dramatic. The medicine cabinet actually came in handy- it gave me a place to shove the lamp cords.

I really got stumped about what to do with the hideous fluorescent light fixture above the mirror. With the help of my sister the artist, we came up with a wooden valance to hide said fixture. The design was inspired by a bedspread from a 1940s bedroom. The nice thing is that you can still use that light, but it's been toned down considerably.





Now maybe I'm kidding myself, but I do think that with the dark colors, the pattern, and the lamps, you don't notice the bad stuff quite as much as before. I think that there is enough there to catch one's eye, perhaps even preventing them from paying attention to the vanity or the mirrored thingamajig. And I was amazed at how little I actually spent on the whole thing. My goal had been to create a temporary fix for the guest bathroom to buy me about a year until I was ready to forge ahead with a renovation. Now, I'm actually liking the powder room and may not even bother with redoing it. If only someone could help me come up with a solution for the french fry lamp in my ceiling.

The Before...

Late last summer as I moved into my condo, I had big plans for a major overhaul of the place. After all, much of it hadn't been touched since 1968. (Had the building been built in the 1920s or 30s, I wouldn't dare think of redoing anything. Alas, it wasn't, and late 1960s decor just doesn't do it for me.) I started with things like having the popcorn ceilings scraped (such a mess), staining the parquet floors ebony, and having the walls painted and papered. Oh, and having the pea green shag carpet in my bedroom AND bathroom promptly removed (yes, it even went around the toilet- Yuck!). What really bothered me, though, were the 1960s bathrooms. My guest bathroom had the worst toilet you've ever seen. It sat about a foot and a half off of the ground, and it had the original plastic toilet seat, which, by the way, had a cigarette burn mark in it. I care not to think about how that happened.

I was trying to decide how I wanted to renovate the bathroom when the economic hell broke loose, and then I lost the nerve to do anything. On top of that, I was tired of having workmen in my home. So, I left it alone for a while, nasty toilet and all. But a few months ago, I realized that it really wasn't necessary to rip everything out and start anew. I could tart the room up and try to disguise some of the questionable decorating choices that were made forty years ago. So let me give you a lay of the land...

This is the way the bathroom looked when I first visited the condo over a year ago. I guess I should clarify something- somebody did make a few upgrades to the bathroom at some point. So it was a blend of 1968 and 1998.


I know what you're looking at. It's the nasty toilet with the discolored toilet seat. The vanity with the chic woodgrain laminate doors is original. Note how the counter top extended all the way over to the shower door. The ceramic tile floor and shower walls are a later addition, as is the green tiled shower floor and the cheapo sliding glass door. See the handle bars all over the place? There was no way you could slip and fall because no matter where you were, there was always a handle to grab.


The walls were papered in a red vinyl wallpaper that was trying to be marbleized. I stripped the paper off of the walls myself, which just about caused me to lose my mind, not to mention my back and arms. You should have seen the pastel paper that was behind the top layer. The weirdest thing about the bathroom is that mirrored medicine cabinet that extends across the entire wall. The doors slide back and forth. Also, in typical 1968 fashion, there is a commercial fixture over the mirror. There had been a big, long plastic box that fit over the bulbs, but I sent that packing.


The vanity has Kohler fixtures which aren't the worst things I've ever seen, but they're far from great looking. Here, you can see the nice, new, and CLEAN Kohler toilet that I had installed. I had to have my contractor cut off that ledge that extended over the toilet; otherwise, no toilet would have fit because of the height issue.

My dilemma was that if I ripped out that light fixture, the mirror had to go to. And if the mirror went, so did the medicine cabinet. I wasn't upset about that prospect. But if I ripped out the vanity, then walls would have to be redone, and I would have to put in a new floor. At that point, I might as well have renovated everything, which defeated the purpose of my project. So, I left the vanity, the mirror, the shower, the floor, the medicine cabinet, and that awful light intact. Tomorrow, I'll show you the after pictures.

Dress Your Candlesticks

About a year ago, I purchased some kaarskoker candle sleeves for a pair of little brass candlestick lamps that I inherited from my parents. The lamps, which I absolutely love, are very traditional, so I wanted to freshen them up with something a little bold and a little colorful- hence the kaarskoker. I became an instant convert and told anyone who would listen about these fabulous sleeves.

The whole concept behind kaarskoker was pretty genius. Designer April Pride Allison was frustrated that she was only able to source white candle sleeves for her clients' lighting. Following the old adage that necessity is the mother of all invention, April started her kaarskoker line to fill a void in the marketplace. The sleeves come in an array of colors and patterns, many of which were inspired by Owen Jones' Grammar of Ornament. They are a great and affordable way to perk up sconces or chandeliers.

Well, kaarskoker was chugging along and garnering national press (as well as a lot of fans) when April decided to expand her line. She recently designed the kaarskoker candlestick. Available in silver or brass tones, the candlestick is a blend of Bauhaus design and English antique candlesticks (not surprising as April has her Masters in Decorative Arts), and it's made to work with the line of candle sleeves.

April sent me a pair of candlesticks as well as some new sleeves to play with. What's great is that you can customize your kaarskoker candlesticks with sleeves that coordinate with a tablesetting, a room, a paint color. The sleeves come in two different lengths, so you can keep the candlestick fully extended for the tall sleeves, while you can unscrew and remove a portion of the stick to accommodate the smaller sleeves. (My explanation may not be so great, so visit the website for further details.) You can create a whole wardrobe for your candlesticks. I haven't had that much fun mixing and matching colors and pattern since outfitting my Barbie dolls a hundred years ago!

The candlesticks and sleeves are available to purchase on the kaarskoker website as well as at various Nordstroms and boutiques. Wouldn't these candlesticks be great for Fall or holiday entertaining?

(April is offering Peak of Chic readers 20% off their online orders. Enter PEAKCHIC at checkout to apply the discount.)

Made in the Shade

I'm finally getting around to having curtains made for my condo. And as many of you may know, curtains can be knock your socks off expensive- not just the labor mind you, but the cost for all of that fabric. The whole thing can take your breath away, and not in a good way.

Seeing that I have floor to ceiling windows throughout my home, I've been trying to find some affordable options for a few of my rooms. I'm a bit bored with what some of the catalogues have to offer, so I was excited to find out about The Shade Store. They offer blinds, shades, and what I've been looking for- panels. The panels are available in six different styles, including pinch pleat and goblet, as well as various options for borders. There are also seems to a range of fabrics available such as silk dupioni, cotton, linen, wool flannel (which I'm interested in), and cashmina. (Robert Allen fabric is also available.) The best part is that the panels ship in 10 days. And, there seems to be a lot of options for both contemporary and traditional interiors.

I haven't ordered from them before, but I'm seriously considering doing so. In the meantime, I'm spending a lot of time playing around with what my panels might look like.

How about a tailored pleat:



In Dahlia Gardens in Rosewood



See what it looks like at top. Other options include:


A grommet panel made of wool flannel in azure with sheers made of Sheers Positive


My contemporary side likes these wood grain roller shades made by Chilewich for The Shade Store.


Tulip Shades in silk dupioni in Vellore


Roman Shades in wool sateen in sand with a border.

Mirella Spinella Textiles

Don't you laugh when you see a real estate listing that describes a home as having "old world charm"? There must be something about those three words that is catnip to most of America, because it's unbelievable how many listings use that phrase. And usually, there isn't a shred of old world or charm to the house.

Just what is old world charm? I think people have different ideas about it, but for me, I know it when I see it. But, old world, even when done well, doesn't really do it for me. My style is far too American. However, I think I've found something that has changed my mind.

Mirella Spinella is a textile designer who has lived and worked in Venice for close to thirty years. Her fabrics, most of which are handprinted silk velvet, evoke the history and "old wordliness" of Spinella's city. In addition to yardage, many of her fabrics are used to make pillows, tablecloths, curtains, and other decorative items.

Spinella recently branched out into custom-dyed linen, which might be a little more me than the silk velvet. Regardless of the fabric though, her old world designs just might have charmed me.

(More information, visit Spinella's website. Sue Fisher King in San Francisco does carry many of Spinella's pillows and hangings, including the new linen line.)

Suleyman II


Peacock


Palmette


Giotto


Elephant


Deco 4


Deco 2