Monthly Archives: February 2015

A Man and His Houses, Part III

Posted February 27, 2015. Filed in Palladian-Style, Pleasure Pavilions, Villas, Villas & Villa Style, Wright Ludington

“October Hill” was collector and art patron Wright Ludington’s third and final home in Montecito. After moving to California in 1915 to attend the Tatcher School in Ojai he would make Montecito, California, his home, eventually inheriting his father’s Spanish-Colonial-style villa in 1926 at the age of 27, which he renamed Val Verde (see A […]

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A Man and His Houses, Part II

Posted February 26, 2015. Filed in Craig Wright, David Hicks, Leonard Stanley, Palladian-Style, Pleasure Pavilions, The Classicists, Villas & Villa Style, Wright Ludington

For many years I was under the impression that Wright Ludington’s villas Hesperides and October Hill were one and the same. I actually discovered Ludington’s final Montecito residence, October Hill, first in a 1983 issue of House & Garden. It wasn’t until I happened upon posts written years later by The Blue Remembered Hills on […]

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A Man and His Houses, Part I

Posted February 24, 2015. Filed in Spanish-Colonial Revival, Wright Ludington

Wright Saltus Ludington moved from Pennsylvania to California in 1915 to attend the all-male Thatcher School in Ojai, shortly followed by his father, Charles H. Ludington – a corporate lawyer, investment banker and editor of The Saturday Evening Post – in 1924. It was in nearby Montecitio that the elder Ludington purchased the Spanish-Colonial estate […]

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HOLLYWOOD AT HOME

Posted February 18, 2015. Filed in Holllywood Regency, Hollywood at Home

MARY PICKFORD and DOUGLAS FAIRBANKS JR. – The couple at their Beverly Hills home, Pickfair, in the 1920’s. Growing up in California I enjoyed the proximity, excitement and glamour surrounding the Academy Awards. For many years Architectural Digest took us inside the homes of our favorite actors past and present, and I always looked forward […]

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Elsa Schiaparelli at 22 Rue de Berri

Posted February 16, 2015. Filed in Boho Chic, Elsa Schiaparelli, French Eclecticism, Jansen, Jean-Michel Frank, Maison Jansen

In 1937 Elsa Schiaparelli moved into 22, rue de Berri in Paris’ 8th arrondissement, the third residence she would collaborate on decorating with Jean-Michel Frank, the father of the modern interior, as well as with the formidable firm Jansen. Less moderne and spare than her previous homes at rue Barbet-de-Jouy and the boulevard Saint-Germain (See […]

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In Search of Lost Time

Posted February 12, 2015. Filed in Chateaux, French Eclecticism, Jacques Grange, Le Goût Rothschild, Pierre Bergé, Yves Saint Laurent

Yesterday I was in the mood to leave winter behind for somewhere exotic and my journey took to me to Yves Saint Laurent and Pierre Bergé’s Russian folly, a reproduction of a dacha, on the their property at Château Gabriel on the coast of Deauville in Normandy, France. (See Russian Reverie). After pouring over articles […]

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Russian Reverie

Posted February 11, 2015. Filed in Follies & Pavilions, Jacques Grange, Orientalism, Pierre Bergé, Russian Style, Yves Saint Laurent

With all the news of record snowfall and plummeting temperatures across the Eastern board an exotic getaway sounds very enticing. And what could be more exotic than the late Yves Saint Laurent and Pierre Bergé’s Russian folly at Château Gabriel overlooking the coast of Deauville in France? Granted, the weather on the coast of Normandy this […]

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My Favoriet Rooms

Posted February 10, 2015. Filed in Juan Montoya, Moderne, My Favorite Rooms

I have always dreamed of having an apartment in Paris that captures the curiosity of a collector and artist … a cabinet d’amateur!  It wouldn’t have to be large, but the perfect dwelling would possess the spirit of my favorite era, the 1920’s. It needn’t be grand at all, either. Character and atmosphere are all […]

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Classic + Modern Mix

Posted February 9, 2015. Filed in American Chic, Arthur Smith, Coastal Chic, David Hicks, Haynes Roberts, Jacques Grange, James Huniford, Jean-Louis Deniot, Jed Johnson, Markham Roberts, Michele Bönan, Stephen Sills, Steven Gambrel, Steven Volpe, Vicente Wolf

One of my favorite approaches to decorating a room is mixing classic and modern design elements. Modern paintings, or perhaps a gleaming Claude Lalanne chair, in a predominantly traditional room adds verve and prevents the room from becoming staid. Conversely, a predominantly contemporary, or even modern, space is heightened by an occasional classic flourish – […]

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Spotlight on Benjamin Vandiver

Posted February 4, 2015. Filed in American Chic

There has been a lot of noise lately surrounding the rising star that is Benjamin Vandiver of Nashville, Tennessee. A self-taught designer who originates from Kentucky, he traded playing the piano as a career for interior decoration when he was asked by singer-songwriter Jessie Baylin to transform the mid-century modern Nashville home she shares with […]

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Atelier Florence Lopez, Then and Now

Posted February 2, 2015. Filed in Florence Lopez, Modernism, Uncategorized

  While writing a recent post titled Collected Cool I discovered the stylistic beginnings of antiques dealer and interior designer Florence Lopez in the September, 1995, issue of The World of Interiors. Featured was her new apartment in an artist’s studio in the Saint-Germain-des Prés, Paris. Bold and gutsy, yet a tad romantic, this studio […]

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