Monthly Archives: July 2014

Throwback Thursday: Rubén de Saavedra

Posted July 31, 2014. Filed in Classic Chic, Classic Contemporary, Rubén de Saavedra

Rubén de Saavedra, a Spanish interior designer, hit his mark in the 1970’s, often gracing the pages of Architectural Digest. With bravado he transformed traditional rooms into theatrical stages for modern living – a look that today brings to mind the work of Kelly Wearstler and Jean-Louis Deniot. Merging contemporary and classic design with shots […]

Permalink         Comments (0)        

Hail Stephen!

Posted July 29, 2014. Filed in Classic Chic, Neoclassical, Romantic Classical Style, Stephen Sills

Stephen Sills, that is – the classically-inspired interior designer with an American point of view. Sir Sills is the decorator’s decorator, the one that can’t be copied with any success. Have you ever tried to copy a Rothko or a Pollack? I have, with disastrous results. Yes, it’s true, be yourself. It’s your only fate. […]

Permalink         Comments (2)        

The Tempo of Gold

Posted July 28, 2014. Filed in Classical Moderne, Luxe Moderne, The Maximalists

The work of maximalist French interior designer Jean-Louis Deniot is easy to spot: luxurious, classically-inspired modern rooms for living in the 21st-century, where strong silhouettes and bold statements are juxtaposed within a soothing envelope of gray and gold mineral tones, stone, ivory and parchment. For a glamorous flat in London Deniot punctuated coolly elegant rooms […]

Permalink         Comments (0)        

Favorite Vintage Ads Friday: Atelier Martex

Posted July 25, 2014. Filed in Favorite Vintage Ads

Ranking high among my favorite “vintage” ads from the 1980’s are the ad campaigns produced by Atelier Martex. This one features the introduction of a new bedding line named “Simply Violets” released in 1983. If I knew who directed the design of these room settings I would certainly hail their talents. They excelled at creating […]

Permalink         Comments (1)        

Throwback Thursday: William Gaylord

Posted July 24, 2014. Filed in American Chic, Classic Contemporary, The California Look, William Gaylord

Today’s Throwback Thursday post features a long-standing favorite designer of mine from the 1970’s, William Gaylord. His style defined the clean, crisp, classic and contemporary aesthetic of California design at the time, a style that would usher in a new American chic with the advent of the California Look, made popular by Michael Taylor. For […]

Permalink         Comments (0)        

Nouveau Classique

Posted July 22, 2014. Filed in Boho Chic, French Eclecticism, Haute Boheme, Pierre Passebon, The Collectors

When Florence Grinda, Director of Development of European Affairs at Sotheby’s, went looking for a  new Paris pied-a-terre she called upon her longtime friend Pierre Passebon, the famous antiquaire and art collector, who has collaborated on several of his own residences with interior designer Jacques Grange. Passebon found the apartment close to the Esplanade des […]

Permalink         Comments (2)        

A Man and His Castle: Château du Champ de Bataille

Posted July 21, 2014. Filed in Chateaux, French Country Houses, Jacques Garcia

Fresh off the presses is Spanish interior designer Jacques Garcia’s second monograph, Jacques Garcia: Twenty Years of Passion, featuring his beloved Château du Champ de Bataille, a 17th-century estate in Normandy. Garcia purchased the property twenty years ago, then in derelict state, and has worked tirelessly since restoring and furnishing every glorious inch to sublime delight. Four-hundred […]

Permalink         Comments (1)        

Favorite Vintage Ads Friday: J. Robert Scott

Posted July 18, 2014. Filed in Art Deco, Classic Contemporary, Sally Sirkin Lewis, The California Look

I have retained a rather large lot of “vintage” issues of Architectural Digest that dates back to the 1970’s but it appears that there were not many ads taken out by J. Robert Scott until the later 1980’s, a company who usually exclusively advertised in the Los Angeles based magazine. I use the word “vintage” […]

Permalink         Comments (0)        

Throwback Thursday: Mario Buatta Kips Bay Showhouse Room

Posted July 17, 2014. Filed in Anglo-American Style, English Country House Style, Mario Buatta, Uncategorized

For this Thursday’s throwback room we revisit a cozy retreat decorated by Mario Buatta for the Kips Bay Showhouse sometime in the 1970’s. In a glance we recognize his trademarks – an abundance of floral chintz, painted furniture, slipper chairs and chinoiserie. But, what of the bows, you ask? They’re there, above, painted on to […]

Permalink         Comments (0)        

The Wrightsman Rooms

Posted July 16, 2014. Filed in Henri Samuel, Maison Jansen, Vincent Fourcade

“Palm Beach Fable”: that was the headline for an article written by Rosamond Bernier for the May, 1984, issue of House & Garden, featuring the famous but never-before-published rooms of Mr. and Mrs. Charles W. Wrightsman. In the same month of the following year the property would be sold and its contents put on the […]

Permalink         Comments (6)        

Château Pouy-sur-Vannes

Posted July 15, 2014. Filed in Chateaux, Juan Pablo Molyneux

Maximalist interior decorator Juan Pablo Molyneux recently transformed a château in Pouy-sur-Vannes, about two hours outside Paris, for himself as an intimate respite from his harried schedule in Paris, where he lives in a 17th-century hôtel particulier. The 40,000 square foot château may not be most anyone’s idea of intimate, but Molyneux succeeded in orchestrating […]

Permalink         Comments (0)        

BAROQUE FANTASIA IN PEBBLE BEACH

Posted July 14, 2014. Filed in Juan Pablo Molyneux, Neo-Baroque, Spanish-Colonial Revival

In the latest issue of Architectural Digest Chilean-born interior designer Juan Pablo Molyneux conjured an exuberant confection of blue-and-white for the dining room of an old friend and client who purchased a 1920’s Spanish-Colonial-style villa sited on a dramatic bluff overlooking the Pacific Ocean in tony Pebble Beach, California. This isn’t the first time we’ve […]

Permalink         Comments (2)