Fire and Ice
By Robert Frost
The library (above) at Kenwood House, designed by Robert Adam.
As the old adage goes, opposites attract. The theme of today’s post is “Fire and Ice”, the contradiction of fiery red paired with cooling blue. It is a daring combination used with skill and aplomb by the wittiest and most self-assured of interior designers. It is a combination that creates rooms of supreme elegance and an almost regal self-confidence. The following interiors combine this alluring contradiction between extroverted red and introverted blue, a winning recipe for spaces at once expressive and quiet. They capture quite eloquently The Art of the Room!
Madeleine Castaing’s country house, Lèves, near Chartres.
Amanda Burden’s (Babe Paley’s daughter) colorful apartment in the Dakota. Photographed by Horst for Vogue’s Book of Houses, Gardens, People, 1966.
Albert Hadley’s New York apartment, from Albert Hadley: The Story of America’s Preeminent Interior Designer by Adam Lewis.
A dining room in a London townhouse designed by John Stefanidis.
A bedroom in a London townhouse decorated by John Stefanidis.
The entry in Yves and Michelle Halard’s home in Provence photographed by their son, François.
Miles Redd’s early New York apartment.
A sitting room designed by Miles Redd.
The living room in interior designer Robert Couturier’s New York apartment.
A living room in a Brooklyn townhouse decorated by Miles Redd. Photography by Frederic Lagrange.
The drawing room in Andrea Anson’s Manhattan townhouse. Photography by Pieter Estersohn.
A bedroom designed by Paula Caravelli. Photography by Simon Upton.
A bedroom in a Houston mansion decorated by Miles Redd. Photography by Thomas Loof.
Jean-Phillipe Demeyer’s Rooigem House in Belgium.
A living room in a residence in San Francisco designed by Thomas Britt. Photography by Roger Davies.