Design Public

Every so often I receive these big tempting catalogs called “Neiman Marcus: The Book.” As an added bonus, there is often a copy of INCIRCLE entree*. The only times I ever yearn to be rich are when the Hartsfield-Jackson security line for serfs like me is endless and I long for my own jet, and when I flip through entree.

This photo was taken by Kevin Garrett, who scouted out the best places to stay in South Africa for the magazine. It is the lobby of The Saxon Boutique Hotel in South Africa. I love the way the baskets are composed, and the color and texture they give to the wall; texture tells the whole story in this room.  It seems very Vicente Wolf, whether it be something that would inspire him or something he would design. 17-hour flight in coach or not, I have been dreaming of going to this place ever since I read his article.

In fact, I couldn’t help but thing of  the Kelly Wearstler Santa Monica Viceroy Hollywood Regency version of adding texture to a wall with “native” round objects.  She keeps her color palette neutral (albeit what I call “Wearstler-crisp”) as well:

photo one by Kevin Garrett for Neiman Marcus INCIRCLE entree

photo two from KWID.com

*I can’t for the life of me figure out how to put the little thingee over the second “e” in entree. I can’t for the life of me remember what the thingee is called. Is it a tilde? I took Latin and Spanish, not French!  And “Intro to BASIC” instead of “Intro to HTML” or “Typing for Dummies”.

To continue the previous post, I found a few more examples of indigo and lime, including this Tricia Guild table arrangement from her book Flower Sense…

…and fashions from Aprils issue of Bazaar…

I was perusing the photos I’d marked as “faves” in flickr last night and came across this one from flickr member patia.  The color combination was fresh and at once familiar, so I started to flip through all of my sticky note-laden magazines to find more examples of deep indigo blue and bright lime green.  I thought I’d share them with you:

from House Beautiful (I love the unexpectected use of indigo grasscloth in a few of these):

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Today I want to address a ubiquitous decorating look.  Let me put it into context.  When my parents bought a small cottage on Cape Cod, it came with the furniture the former owners were not interested in keeping.   One piece was an apricot ceramic seahorse that served as the base of a glass top table.  I said “Mom, that is so Florida rented condo decor!”

AYE! CAPTAIN!  You MUST have one of these to watch over…the remote…

So I’m in Florida this week to be a bridesmaid for the tenth time.  I’m the worst bridesmaid ever; I’m not sure why people keep asking me to take part in their big days - I would not advise it.   Anyway, when we rented this place, my friend tried to ask for one that looked nice, and the managers were excited to tell us that it had JUST been updated.  I guess Florida Rental Condo decor has not changed since the 1970’s.

First of all, tables topped in window glass are NOT SAFE!  Just ask Pat*, who somehow managed to impale his bum and slice open on his foot on this hot mess: (more…)

I have a ridiculous amount of beautiful design books, and I realize that I don’t pull them down often enough. I’m making a conscious effort to keep the coffee table real estate in rotation, so that I can pick up a different book every few days and enjoy it all over again. I was enjoying my favorite Barragan book so much that I decided I had to share some images with you (the subtitle is Armando Salas Portugal Photographs of the Architecture of Luis Barragan)*.     The collaboration between architect and photographer featured in this book is as good as it gets. Luis and Armando worked together for forty years.

As I studied the images, I immediately thought of Donald Judd, Martha Schwartz, and Ed Bye, just to name a few. Barragan’s mastery of use of materials whether for commentary, contrast, practicality or as ruled by site remains unrivaled by anyone practicing today (IMHO!). As someone with training in landscape architecture, I don’t know that I’ve ever seen someone with such astute mastery of outdoor spaces - the way he responds to the context and immediate site, frames views, considers scale and contrasts with color continues to blow my mind. Anyway, here are is a smattering of some of my favorite photographs of Barragan’s work, taken by Armando Salas Portugal:

I should also add, well, you know on design shows how they will put a stencil of a leaf on something or hang a bay leaf wreath and then say “yeah, we’re really CONNECTING THE INDOORS TO THE OUTDOORS!”? It’s become an embarrassing bad cliche. However, Barragan is one of the best examples of a designer who understands architecture, interiors and landscape, and how to balance and maximize these relationships in his site planning. If you want to see true connection among these elements, look to Barragan’s work.

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I’ve been thinking about the relationship between interior design and fashion design for awhile now. I think my very favorite example is this:

For those of you too young to remember, this is from The Carol Burnett Show spoof skit, “Went with the Wind.” When Michael Kors references Scarlett O’Hara, Carol and curtains on Project Runway, this is what he’s talking about. God I miss that show. It was HILARIOUS!

Lately I look around at fashion and interior design and the trends are interchangable. Right now, exotic textiles seem to have spread from beds to bodies. It’s hard to know which design field started it first. Oscar de la Renta, who has home furnishing and fashion designs seems to be leading the suzani and ikat fads over to fashion:

For zebra, who knows? It’s been a staple at Dior for years:

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I was reading my Domino, and for the third time, I noticed how familiar two of the images in this mod inspiration board looked. I whipped open the 1964 House and Garden issue I have had sitting by the scanner for months, and sure enough, I had these two images marked for scanning and sharing as Vintage Inspiration: The Cover (hey, it’s got that log stack thing going on):

The pictures that looked so familiar:

I usually let those posts sit and sit, because I don’t feel anyone will “beat me” to the images. However, someone over at Domino obviously shares my passion for vintage home design magazines! Here are some more great images from the issue I’ve been meaning to share with you for awhile. A “blur the lines between inside and out” Miami pad:

A feature on modern houses. This one was in New Canaan, designed by architect Hugh Smallen, who lived here with his family. I wonder if the house still exists. Perhaps my pal Tom knows:I was also loving this feature on needlepoint rugs. The paisley one screams Pucci to me, while the one you can barely see on the right looks like the grandfather of a present-day Jonathan Adler design:This storage hiding solution reminded me of the feature in the same issue of Domino about Rashida Jones’ studio apartment:Finally, I chuckled as this feature reminded me of my favorite line of The Graduate:Domino photos from the February 2008 issue, and Paul Costello respectively.

Remember the other day when I was raving about the vintage wallpaper in the eating nook of a Metropolitan Home kitchen? As I continued on my magazine recycling purge, I found some more. This dining room, designed by Bunny Williams and featured in O: Oprah at Home magazine features a large framed piece of vintage wallpaper as well.

I turned to eBay, sure I would find something inspiring to share with you, but there is so much ugly listed under “vintage wallpaper” that I could not go on looking past a few pages of it. Then I got enraged by all of the “Panton Eames Era”keyword spamming and quit. Finding vintage wallpaper fit for a modern room is tough! the only one I found at all fun was this one:

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Lately I’ve been a bit bored with design, in the sense that I’ve felt oversaturated with it. I read too many design blogs, I receive too many design magazines, I have too many gorgeous design books. At least that’s how I was feeling before the holidays. Now that we are into boring January and I’m laid up with a headcold, I’ve been able to peruse all my glossies at my leisure without guilt, enjoying and studying the beautiful spaces (BTW, I stopped counting at 6 hand or foot sculptures and countless Suzanis - in fact, it became a challenge to find an issue without a suzani in it).

Sometimes a space just jumps out at you as just right. Although everyone and their brother seems to have a Saarinen tulip table and these wonderful chairs from DWR, this eating area is just right. I love the colors, the funky, unique, vintage-looking light fixture , and the amazing framed piece of vintage wallpaper framed from floor-to ceiling. How great to pull up a crazy modern paisley upholstered bench up to the round table. They shot is styled to casual-looking perfection. Bravo and thanks to Metropolitan Home, photographer John Ellis and Interior Designer Sasha Emerson!
photograph from Metropolitan Home Dec 07, photographed by John Ellis.

My friend’s next-door-neighbor has been working hard on his house for quite some time now, but he can’t seem to pick an exterior color. The look below is the result. I think it’s starting to look pretty good, and that maybe he should just give up on deciding on just one and patchwork the whole house.