Monthly Archives: May 2014

Posh Pool Pavilions

Posted May 30, 2014. Filed in Pools & Pavilions

There is something particularly romantic and magical about pavilions. They illicit dreams of a well-lived life – a place to entertain, indulge fantasies, seek solace, and rejuvenate. They can be quite elaborate by design, imitating classical temples, Orientalist tents, Palladian villas, Venetian palazzi, Adirondack camps, modernist villas, and all manner of American architecture. The very […]

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Liquid Assets

Posted May 29, 2014. Filed in Pools

With June but days away vacation time is on everyone’s mind. And with rising temperatures the cooling physical and visceral qualities of water are casting their spell over us with the promise of relaxation and rejuvenation. For those of us fortunate to possess our very own private water escape in the form of a swimming […]

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Great Outdoor Rooms: Verandas and Loggias

Posted May 28, 2014. Filed in Jeffrey Bilhuber, Michael Taylor, Miles Redd, Outdoor Rooms, Steven Gambrel

  Today’s post follows Loggia Living: My Top Three Picks. For the leading photo I’ve re-posted a loggia decorated by the late Antony Childs simply because it’s irresistibly chic. The other two loggias on my top three list – one designed by Jeffrey Bilhuber and another by Michael S. Smith – clearly conjures a common […]

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Loggia Living: My Top Three Picks

Posted May 27, 2014. Filed in Antony Childs, Jeffrey Bilhuber, Michael S. Smith, Outdoor Rooms

Today’s post is the second in a series of posts on outdoor rooms, the first of which was Great Outdoor Rooms: Plein-Air Living.  My original intention was to jump right in by sharing photos of all my favorite verandas and loggias but, in the process, took pause to consider three of my all-time favorite outdoor […]

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Great Outdoor Rooms: Plein-Air Living

Posted May 22, 2014. Filed in Fisher-Wiseman, François Catroux, Hubert de Givenchy, John Saladino, John Stefanidis, Michael S. Smith, Outdoor Rooms, Steven Gambrel

Summertime has nearly arrived and there’s no better time than now to put the finishing touches on your outdoor living spaces. As a native Californian living in Houston I miss my home state’s indoor-outdoor quality of living – to be able to throw open the windows and doors and blur the lines between inside and […]

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Golden Age Ambiance

Posted May 19, 2014. Filed in Belgian-Dutch Style, Old World Style

Dominique Desimpel is not a name you hear every day, but should. Desimple is a rather private and reclusive tile dealer and collector who lives in Damme, Belgium –  a short distance from the realized fairytale that is Bruges. “Just one look”, as Linda Ronstadt crooned many moons ago, had me hook, line and sinker.  Deep […]

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Past Perfect

Posted May 14, 2014. Filed in American Chic, Classic Chic, Eclectic Tradition, Jeffrey Bilhuber, Richard Lowell Neas

When I first laid eyes upon Jeffrey’s Bilhuber’s guest room/study in his then new Manhattan apartment a few years back I immediately sensed familiarity, but I couldn’t place it. Had I seen this room before, in a previous incarnation, or did it remind me of another room, its impression floating somewhere in my memory? Recently […]

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Wabi-Sabi at the Greenwich Hotel

Posted May 12, 2014. Filed in Axel Vervoordt, Elemental Design

Belgian interior designer and antiquarian, Axel Vervoortd, recently cast his imitable style over a three-bedroom penthouse suite in New York’s Greenwich Hotel, owned by Robert De Niro and Ira Drukier. One-part Japanese farmhouse and another part aged stone château, the newly conceived aerie over Manhattan introduces an unexpected aesthetic in the city that never sleeps: […]

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Rustic Urban Glamour: Duncan House

Posted May 7, 2014. Filed in Ken Fulk, Organic Modern

As a child of The Brady Bunch era, growing up in northern California, I was personally familiar with its penchant for redwood clad homes, having grown up in one. My father designed and built ours on the California ranch house model, made popular by architect Cliff May. It had banks of floor-to-ceiling undressed windows to […]

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Enduring Saladino Style: Vintage Kips Bay

Posted May 6, 2014. Filed in Classic Chic, John Saladino, Minimal Traditional, Romantic Classical Style

In practice, Decorator Showhouses are intended to introduce new ideas, trends, and technology by interior designers and decorators to potential clients and end-users of home furnishings products. Showhouses also offer the designer an opportunity to step outside the box and create a room, or rooms, for an imaginary client where the sky’s the limit. This […]

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