Monthly Archives: January 2016

Winter Gardens

Posted January 29, 2016. Filed in Axel Vervoordt, Belgian-Dutch Style, Belle Époque, Bunny Williams, Carolyne Roehm, Chateaux, Elsie de Wolfe, Garden R ooms, Gilded Age, Haynes Roberts, Henri Samuel, Interior Illustrations, Jacques Grange, Jean-Louis Deniot, Jeffrey Bilhuber, Lorenzo Castillo, Madeleine Castaing, Mario Buatta, Mark Hampton, Michael S. Smith, Miles Redd, Parish-Hadley, Pierre Bergé, Renzo Mongiardino, Richard Keith Langham, Robert Shapiro, Studio Peregalli, Valentino, Yves Saint Laurent

L’esprit du jardin d’hiver is in the air, a quest for a life-affirming sanctuary in colder climes. Russian royalty dedicated palaces to Winter, as with the sixteen-hundred room Winter Palace of the Romanov’s in St. Petersberg. Emperor Nikolai I decreed that Russian artist Eduard Gau create watercolor renderings of the Winter Palace’s interior, the Russian Empire’s […]

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The Despont Difference

Posted January 22, 2016. Filed in 1920's-1930's Style, Classical Moderne, Clubby, The Aesthetes, The Collectors, Thierry Despont

Architect and decorator Thierry Despont is finally getting his due. Or, perhaps, it’s just a case of a passionate aesthete doing his life’s work happily without much fanfare. Whatever the case, I have long admired his work but remain dismayed by lack of accessibility to his near-forty year ouvre. Even his own website has little […]

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The Men’s Room

Posted January 21, 2016. Filed in Clubby, Mark Hampton, Mens Rooms, Ralph Lauren, Thomas O'Brien, Veere Greeney

Long ago, before the Man Cave, there was the private gentlemen’s club. In the 17th-century the British male aristocracy formed private clubs in which to meet their peers to discuss business and pleasure, make connections, drink, relax, read … and, yes, escape their wives and family obligations. As the middle class became more affluent they, […]

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The Enchanting World of Las Tejas

Posted January 7, 2016. Filed in John Saladino, Mediterranean Style, Palladian-Style

Greetings, and Happy New Year to each of you! I have been away from writing for The Art of the Room for some time, I realize. And I apologize for not providing explanation in my last post. But, you see, at the time I had no real inkling I would step away for as long […]

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