Blog | Cristopher Worthland Interiors

Forever Hicks

Posted September 17, 2014. Filed in Classic Chic, Classic Contemporary, Classical Moderne, David Hicks

Forty-nine years ago, in 1965, David Hicks decorated this apartment for an undisclosed client, referred to as “Lady X”, comprising two floors running the length of two 1830’s houses overlooking Hyde Park in London. In 2003 his son, Ashley Hicks, was alerted to its preserved state and was encouraged to view it when he was working on his book David Hicks: Designer. What he discovered was short of a David Hicks museum, frozen in time.

The apartment may very well be the only David Hicks time capsule left in existence. Since 1965 its owner has changed not a thing. The rambling apartment consists of a lower floor of mostly formal rooms and an upper floor that showcases Hicks’ streamlined Modernism and penchant for color. The apartment was considered one of his best at the time of its completion and remains a testament to his ingenuity, vitality and timeless style.

The Classical white-on-white paneled drawing room, above, exudes a formal elegance, one that Ashley Hicks refers to as slightly pompous and “grown-up” given the demands of the boiseries. A disciplined arrangement of fine antiques includes a pair of chairs by Thomas Hope covered in a David Hicks fabric floating upon a sculpted tone-on-tone David Hicks geometric “Cogolin” rug with deep loden hued draped tables flanking the sofa, hinting that Hicks has left his mark.

David Hicks conceived a lobby upstairs as a transitional space from the lower, more formal level, to the modern suite of rooms of the second floor. The walls were distempered in orange and framed with dark brown braid. The carpet is Hicks’ “Celtic” design and runs through the living room and study beyond.

The walls of the upstairs study, above two photos, are paneled with a white wainscot and covered with purple felt divided by narrow gold fillet on white frames. A perspex collage by artist Peter Struycken hangs between curtains of red suede cloth with castellated pelmets edged with braid. A pair of daybeds that must have certainly inspired John Saladino’s own furniture collection were designed by Hicks and his assistant at the time, Billy McCarty.

Hicks originally envisioned bright yellow walls for the upstairs living room but a subtle off-white won out in the end. Yet, Hicks found opportunities to introduce yellow, and variations thereof, with abstract art work by Jeremy Moon, Gunther Uecker and John Hoyland, and with moleskin upholstery on the Italian sofa and chairs. Though you can’t tell from this photo, the windows are framed at either end with off-white wool curtains edged in shiny black plastic braid. Imagine that, plastic! Today most of us cringe at the mention of plastic, but in his day this was a revolutionary new material to be manipulated.

The original 1830’s staircase is papered with Cole & Son’s “Vase” pattern, Hicks’ first wallpaper adapted from a fragment of 17th-century Portuguese damask – which first hung in the staircase hall of his country home, Britwell, in Oxfordshire, in a rich ultramarine blue.

Ironically, due to poor water pressure, the shower in this bathroom has never been used. Hicks applied panels of black braid to plaster walls to simulate Classical panels.

The lacquered yellow guest bathroom, framed in black braid and accented with a table and screen covered in a striped fabric, also remains unused to this day.

As unconventional this arrangement of contrasts must have seemed in 1965 the high-low mix of Classical proportions, streamlined Modernism and daring utilization of radical materials, makes the house that David Hicks conjured for “Lady X” a testament to lasting style and taste in an age of fast trends.

Material for this post based on an article written by Ashley Hicks in the March, 2003, issue of The World of Interiors. Photography by Barbara Donninelli.

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Swangrove at Badminton House

Posted September 16, 2014. Filed in English Country House Style, English Country Houses, Hunt Country Style, Robert Kime

In the last chapter of three posts featuring the houses of Badminton in Gloucestershire, England, we visit Swangrove, the Duke of Beaufort’s hunting lodge on the Badminton estate. Several years ago the Duke commissioned the venerable Robert Kime to revamp and refresh the neglected “hovel”, as the Duke referred to it, into a respite of comfortable elegance.

When the Duke, née David Somerset, called upon Robert Kime he had something “pubbish” in mind, the ubiquitous hunt country-style associated with grand English country estate hunting lodges and the likes of those who, like Ralph Lauren, conjure fantastical imitations of the privileged country set. But Kime would have nothing to do with the Duke’s fantasy, something he considered an anathema and which, in the end, the Duke knew full well.

Swangrove was built by Bath architect William Killigrew around 1703 utilizing local stone incorporating gables, castellations and pepper pots, the result a charming gem of a folly. Like many lodges of the landed gentry it continued the tradition of providing a delightful destination in which to end a day’s outing.

The drawing room exudes a mellow atmosphere and patina. The paneling is painted two shades of grey as a foil for the grouped sepia mezzotints in gilded frames, which are from Claude Lorraine’s Liber Veritatis. The windows are hung with Robert Kime’s muted “French Linen” print. Most of the furniture came from Badminton House, including the set of 18th-century wheelback chairs upholstered in Kime’s copy of an old chintz found at the house called “Mayflower”, reproduced here in linen. All of the other fabrics – tickings, Provençal ikats, druggets, and linen damasks – came from Kime’s antique stock.

A basin set into a marble niche off the drawing room designed by John Harvey is fed by a system of ropes and pulleys, originally intended for washing hands after dining – and currently one place, it seems, one can grab a glass of sherry!

The dining room is dominated by a huge table and a set of fourteen chairs – some original, some made to match in the Kime workshops – covered in washed white antique linen. The beamed ceiling and plain fireplace are reminders that this room was once part of an estate of worker’s quarters.

Windows on both sides of the inky blue top-floor belvedere enables spectators to monitor the sport in progress. The painted paneling, with grey faux marbling surrounded by bands of painted birds and chinoiserie in soft gold, dates from the 18th-century. Covering the table is a Persian carpet from the 18th-century, from the offices at Badminton.

Kime configured the daybed in his workshops and covered it in tickings and ikats from his antique stock.

In a bedroom the four-poster bed is hung with red-and-white Vichy checks and lined in white damask. The chairs are covered in antique French tea towels.

Though Swangrove is only seldom inhabited as a place of repose and to entertain it would suit me just fine as a permanent place of residence – wouldn’t you agree?

Material for this post from the March, 2003, issue of The World of Interiors, with photography by Fritz von der Schulenburg.

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The Cottage at Badminton

Posted September 4, 2014. Filed in Colefax & Fowler, English Country House Style, English Country Houses, Hunt Country Style, Tom Parr, Uncategorized

Today’s post is a continuation of the story of the Somerset’s at Badminton, their ancestral home in the countryside of Gloucestershire, England. In Badminton Revisited we dropped in on David Somerset, the Duke of Beaufort, and the current duchess, at the grand and imposing Badminton House, built in the reign of Charles II and later enlarged, in part, by William Kent seventy years later. But before David Somerset succeeded to dukedom around 1984 he and his late wife, Lady Caroline, resided at The Cottage at Badminton.

The Cottage, also known as The Dower House, was considered by many of their friends at that time the quintessential English country house, as opposed to a palace such as Badminton House. During their years spent at the Cottage Lady Caroline called on the advice of Tom Parr of Colefax and Fowler to assist with the decoration of its rooms. It has been said that Lady Caroline’s own style and taste were very much admired and imitated, and that the decoration of the Cottage was a convivial collaboration between the two.

The welcoming front hall defines English country house style, with its array of sporting gear strewn about: walking sticks, hunting caps, raincoats, cloaks and chaps. Beautiful and ample Imari bowls are set on a table to catch odds and ends, and a silver fox hints at good luck for the next hunt.

Tom Parr introduced the red-and-white scheme for the dining room (above three photos) with red lacquer walls, and linen slipcovers initialed in red needlepoint by Lady Caroline cover the chairs. In the photo above, tea caddy lamps flank John Wootton’s painting of a stallion in a frame by William Kent.

Smoke from the fire burning summer and winter had given the cozy library walls a rich parchment color. The green curtains were based on those created by Nancy Lancaster and John Fowler for Ditchley. In the window stands Lady Caroline, who is speaking to one of her spaniels.

The blue-and-white sitting room has a decidedly Colefax and Fowler allure, with it prettily painted shield-back chairs, covered with a small rep French pattern, a stylized floral Portuguese rug over sisal, and botanical watercolors.

The Men’s Room is appropriately clubby and informal, its walls hung with pictures from a book illustrated by Claude Lorrain.

The heart of the Cottage is the stables and gardens, which together influence the atmosphere of the cottage’s interiors. Ceremonial harnesses for driving horses flank the stable clock.

David and Caroline collaborated with the doyen of English garden designers, Russell Page, so that everything turns on to the gardens, which were designed as rooms leading into one another.

The Duke of Beaufort is considered the most distinguished expert in England on fox hunting. In a scene of the sporting life behind Badminton House huntsman Brian Gupwell stands among the hounds bred for their special pale coats.

In the final chapter on Badminton we will visit, or revisit, as the case may apply, Swangrove, the Duke of Beaufort’s hunting lodge on the Badminton estate.

This post was based on an article written by Alan Pryce-Jones for the February, 1983, issue of House & Garden, with photography by Horst. The photo of the dining room in full view is from Colefax & Fowler: The Best in English Interior Decoration.

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Badminton House Revisited

Posted September 2, 2014. Filed in Colefax & Fowler, English Country House Style, English Country Houses, Tom Parr

Badminton House, the Duke of Beaufort’s home in Gloucestershire, England, as photographed by by J. Fennell for The English Country House by James Peill.

Badminton House, the Duke of Beaufort’s home in Gloucestershire, England, as photographed by James Fennell for The English Country House by James Peill.

As a follow-up to the last post, Design Focus on Vivien Greenoch, I want to share more of the grandeur that is Badminton House, and the commission that Greenoch and her senior, the legendary Tom Parr, received in 1984 when the Somersets moved from Badminton Cottage to Badminton House as David Somerset succeeded the Duke of Beaufort.

Badminton House is one of the most revered of England’s country houses, seated in the beautiful rolling hills of Gloucestershire. Through its evolution since the 17th-century it has seen England’s greatest architects create and add to its magnificent glory – Francis Smith of Warwick, James Gibbs, William Kent and Jeffry Wyatville. The Duke and late Duchess, together with Parr and Greenoch, established a continuation of quintessential English country house style, with room after room giving the impression they had always been just as they appear.

The Great Hall at Badminton House, the Duke of Beaufort’s home in Gloucestershire, England, as photographed by Derry Moore.

Photography by Derry Moore

The Great Hall retains its 18th-century appearance with original elaborate plasterwork by Francis Smith, large scale equestrian paintings by John Wootton and mahogany furniture attributed to William Kent. And if the name hasn’t given it away, it is here in the Great Hall at Badminton that the game by the same name was invented in the 19th-century.

Off the Great Hall is an octagonal anteroom, the Waiting Room, which was decorated in the rococo style by Thomas Paty in 1750. The mid-eighteenth-century hall chairs bare the Somerset portcullis crest.

One passes from the Waiting Room through the Oak Room, a comfortable space whose walls are hung with sporting and landscape pictures, into the Great Dining Room, above. Designed by Francis Smith, Grinling Gibbons created the carvings over the chimneypiece, and the walls are hung with ducal family portraits between Corinthian pilasters. Usually the Georgian dining chairs are covered with monogrammed loose white linen covers.

Next in the enfilade of rooms comes the Family Dining Room which combines formal and informal elements, featuring the same monogrammed loose linen covers for the chairs since the Somerset’s days at Badminton Cottage (post to follow on the cottage). Early family portraits hang over walls hung with mid-19th-century wallpaper designed by Thomas Willement.

Off the Family Dining Room is the Library, one of a handful of rooms that epitomizes Colefax and Fowler’s taste for grand and humble gestures. When Tom Parr and Vivien Greenoch were asked to refresh Badminton’s interiors the intention was not to reinvent them, but to enhance them. This room was created in the early 19th-century when Wyatville moved the bookcases from the Grand Drawing Room and is used today by the family as their main sitting room. A comfortable mix of formal and informal, thirty years later the rooms appears virtually the same. Only upon close inspection with older photos can you recognize that Colefax and Fowler’s discontinued “Bailey Rose” chintz has been replaced with Bennison’s “Rope Vine”, due to years of wear.

A view of the opposite end of the library reveals a painting of Badminton by Canaletto on the far end. The Chinese Chippendale chairs surrounding the games table are by John Linnell.

The last room at Badminton, The Great Room, is also the largest. Allan Ramsay’s state portrait of Queen Charlotte, wife of George II, hangs above a George IV giltwood sofa attributed to Morel and Seddon.

The Great Drawing room was conceived by Wyatville with a Garter-themed plasterwork ceiling and a neoclassical Italian chimneypiece designed by James Byres in 1773.

Wyatville also designed the Great Staircase at the heart of the house, which is lined with family portraits.

The Great Staircase is visible beyond the Ionic columns in an upstairs gallery.

The late Duchess of Beaufort’s famous blue bedroom also epitomizes Colefax and Fowler’s penchant for mixing elegant and simple elements. The bed is still hung with Colefax and Fowler’s “Hops” in blue.

The exuberant and exotic Chinese Bedroom lined with hand-painted 18th-century Chinese export wallpaper features copies of Chinese furniture by William and John Linnell, the originals now residing at the Victoria and Albert Museum.

The east front overlooks a formal garden designed by Russell Page.

I hope you enjoyed this additional coverage of Badminton House. In the next post we will retrace the Somersets days at Badminton Cottage, decorated by Tom Parr.

Photos of Badminton House, unless otherwise stated, are by James Fennel for The English Country House by James Peill and for the March issue of British House and Garden.

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Design Focus on Vivien Greenock

Posted September 1, 2014. Filed in Colefax & Fowler, English Country House Style, English Country Houses, Uncategorized

You may recognize some of the rooms featured in today’s post but most probably, like myself, until now you didn’t know the name of the designer behind the look. The name of the designer in question is Vivien Greenoch. Vivien worked at Colefax and Fowler for twenty-seven years until 2000, at which juncture she broke off on her own. Today she runs her eponymous business from a second floor office above Soane on London’s tony Pimlico Road. In the spirit of her predecessors, Nancy Lancaster and Sybil Colefax, Vivien is also a decorator to London’s socialites, powerbrokers and tastemakers. But, almost unheard of in our day and time, Vivien didn’t rise to her A-list status by promoting her pedigree but by remaining private and under the radar. After learning the business as a junior assistant at Colefax and Fowler she eventually earned her stripes as assistant to the legendary Tom Parr. The rest, you could say, is quiet history.

As we peruse the photographs I have culled for this post you will recognize the Colefax and Fowler influence in Vivien’s work – rooms washed in sorbet shades of pale peach and buttery yellow accented with blue, prettily painted furniture, and her favorite Colefax and Fowler fabrics. But you will also notice a restraint that sometimes verges on the masculine. Greenoch’s decorative lexicon, which combines the classical country house look with contemporary elements, continues the legacy and tradition of English country house style, and the romantic ideal it implies, producing rooms that are at once comfortable and practical.

At Gateley Hall, Greenoch’s country house in Norfolk (top photo), she has used her expertise as an interior designer to restore the once neglected eighteenth-century house and decorate it in a quintessential English style with restraint and elegance.

Photography by Simon Upton for British House and Garden, July 2014.

In the entrance hall, which doubles as a dining room, eighteenth-century chairs surround a large circular table and a collection of Delftware is framed by the plasterwork above the chimneypiece.

Vivien Greenoch-Gateley Hall-Norfolk-H&G July 2014

Photography by Simon Upton for British House and Garden, July 2014.

The stairway showcases a collection of family portraits in pure English country house style.

Photography by Simon Upton for British House and Garden, July 2014.

In the main bedroom the curtains and bed canopy are in a Colfax & Fowler discontinued fabric.

Badminton House-Library-Vivien Greenoch-H&G-March 2014-James Fennell

Photography by James Fennell for British House and Garden, March 2014.

The Duke and Duchess of Beaufort called upon Tom Parr and Greenoch, his assistant, in 1984 to help preserve their ancestral estate, Badminton House. Used by the family as their main sitting area, the decor of the classically proportioned library combines formal and informal elements with fabrics and colors that bring the gardens outside the windows indoors. The bookcases originally stood in the Great Drawing Room but were moved to this room in the early 19th-century.

Badminton House-Vivien Greenock-British HG March 2014-James Fennell

Photography by James Fennell for British House and Garden, March 2014.

The famous blue bedroom used by the previous Duchess of Beaufort is hung with several pastel portraits. The fabric used for the bed is “Hops” by Colefax and Fowler.

Kensington Townhouse-Vivien Greenock-British HG-Grant Scott

Photography by Grant Scott for British House and Garden.

The double drawing room on the first floor of a Kensington townhouse in London exemplifies the Colefax and Fowler style with walls painted in colors favored by John Fowler.

Photography by Grant Scott for British House and Garden.

A homely vignette in the same drawing room of the Kensington townhouse.

Photography by Grant Scott for British House and Garden.

Another drawing room in the Kensington townhouse is richly decorative and deeply comfortable.

Photography by Christopher Simon Sykes.

The Manhattan living room of W magazine founder John Fairchild and his wife Jill reflects the 1980’s taste for richly appointed rooms in the English style.

Photography by Christopher Simon Sykes.

The Fairchild’s library epitomizes what many British aficionados of English country house style refer to as “Mayfair country house style”, country house style decor suited to the city, made popular by private club mastermind Mark Birley, founder of the exclusive London nightclub Annabel’s.

Photography by Christopher Simon Sykes.

Vivien dressed the bed, walls and curtains of the Fairchild’s London bedroom in Colefax and Fowler’s “Brompton Stock”.

A sitting room in a cottage utilizes one small floral rep pattern with exotic appeal on a white ground that feels light and fresh.

A sprightly fresh floral cotton was used in a drawing room where comfortability is king.

Photography by François Halard for Vogue.

When Oscar and Annette de la Renta could not agree on a stylistic direction for their master bedroom suite Oscar handed it over to his wife because it’s her favorite room in the house. With Vivien, the duo created a richly appointed and layered suite of rooms free of prettily patterned chintz and feminine contrivances. The sitting area more resembles a library in a fine Georgian London townhouse a la Mark Birley than a Colonial period country house in Connecticut.

Photography by François Halard for Vogue.

Vivien’s grand stroke is this ornate chintzy four-poster bed with a decorative pelmet that would look right at home in an English stately.

Hopefully we will see more of Vivien Greenoch in the months and years to come. Her superlative English country house style is tempered by an eye that understands restraint and elegance. More, please!

Photographs not noted are from Vivien Greenoch’s on-line portfolio HERE.

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Favorite Vintage Ads Friday: Collier Campbell for Martex

Posted August 29, 2014. Filed in Favorite Vintage Ads, John Saladino

Today’s favorite vintage ad was produced in 1983 by Atelier Martex in collaboration with Collier Campbell to introduce their new bedding line, Kashmir. Martex employed interior designers and decorators, with never a mention of their names, to create imagined rooms layered with atmosphere to entice buyers into their secret world. They are some of the best ads I have seen since. Can you identify who created this particular room vignette?

I had always liked this room setting very much, but it was years later that the room struck me as familiar. When I pulled this particular campaign for today’s post I was immediately struck by two things: the hand-painted scenic grisaille paper covering the folding screen and the taupe painted walls with dentil moldings. Still uncertain? Take a look at the next photo!

Look familiar? This is the living room of John Saladino’s one time residence in Connecticut. Several features of the Martex ad can be traced to this room, including the room itself: the Zuber covered folding screen, the “Saladino” glass lamp inspired by chemists beakers, a large scale garden urn set into the niche, and the antique cane-sided chair in the foreground. Without reservation, the bed featured in the ad is clearly placed where the facing “Tuscan Sofa” by Saladino appears above. The sofa was simply swapped for the bed, and Saladino worked his magic to create an inviting bedroom vignette by adding a writing desk and bedside table, art, and personal mementos and collections. To prevent the space from feeling static Saladino added a glass waterfall table at the foot of the bed, a modern bedside reading lamp, and a brushed metal container for the palm. The result is a bedroom that looks and feels convincingly authentic, giving the viewer the sensation of being a voyeur.

More recently the Zuber grisaille papered screens showed up in Saladino’s master bedroom at Villa di Lemma, his residence in Montecito, California.

The ad campaign by Atelier Martex featured in today’s post is the second of several more to come. Ironically, I love everything in Saladino’s imagined bedroom retreat except the bedding! I hope you look forward to future posts featuring Atelier Martex as much as I do.

John Saladino’s Connecticut living room photographed by Keith Scott Morton. The photo of his bedroom was photographed by Antoine Bootz.

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Throwback Thursday: Charles Sévigny

Posted August 28, 2014. Filed in Charles Sévigny, Mediterranean Style

The other day I grabbed a stack of old, not yet vintage, Architectural Digests from the shelves and rediscovered this beautiful villa designed by American born Parisian interior designer Charles Sévigny. It was featured in the July/August issue of 1973 and, though I purchased this magazine from a dealer only years ago, I am struck at how relevant his rooms remain today.

Charles Sévigny was designer to the beau monde of the international jet set, decorating houses for Hubert de Givenchy and Yves Vidal, who later became his partner in life and in business. Trained as an architect in America, Sévigny moved to Paris in 1948 to run an American interior design magazine and subsequently won commissions to redesign all the American ambassadors’ homes in Europe. This led to a commission in 1950 to design the first boutique in Paris for Knoll furniture. Through a series of introductions his partner, Yves Vidal, was appointed as President of Knoll’s office in France and, together, he and Charles contributed to the expansion of Knoll.

For the Marbella, Spain, vacation house of Baron Hubert von Pantz and his American wife, Terry, Sévigny created relaxed and open spaces utilizing both Spanish and American design elements. Built by American architect Robert Mosher, the villa exemplifies the Andalusian aesthetic with white plaster walls and local tiles for the floors. Instead of curtains, which Sévigny deplored, grill-work window panels were devised to cut down on glare, adding an Orientalist note. The overall affect is relaxed and chic with a touch of earthiness.

The gallery, featured in the top two photos, served as an outdoor sitting room, situated between the patio and the living room. Aside from an overabundance of interior foliage a Sévigny room holds up. The architecture of the room itself is nicely proportioned and pleasing to the eye. Imagining it empty it holds great potential. But it’s not often a furnished room from 1973 can hold up like this one does. Its success lies in Sévigny’s architectural style, influenced by his years spent at architecture school. While most of the lines are straight they don’t appear rigid or angular, lending his rooms a sense of harmony, serenity and proportion. And his use of natural materials – cotton, leather, wood, tile and natural fibers – lends warmth. The lines are simple and the overall affect is restful.

Sévigny succeeded in balancing modern and rustic elements by distributing them throughout the grand salon – the modernist furniture with pillows covered in colorful local textiles; Saarinen tulip side tables resting on a grid-patterned floor Sévigny devised using wood beams to break up the monotony of tile from room-to-room; a modernist painting hanging above an antique Spanish chest; a red lacquer piano juxtaposing a pair of earthen Roman columns.

The simply appointed dining room benefits from a dynamic blue-and-white geometric patterned rug. The silvered chandelier and antique Spanish plates introduce Andalusian tradition while the dining chairs and plastic and chrome console table provide American modern contrast.

The pergola is wonderfully atmospheric, possessing an exotic allure. It so nearly perfect I would have trouble changing a thing. There is a place to sit and converse, with a table to place your drink … there is a commodious lounge to rest upon … and pillows piled on the floor to stretch out with … and tables at which to dine placed underneath trees strung with shimmering lanterns. Outdoor rooms don’t get much better than this!

I hope you enjoyed discovering – or rediscovering – one of my favorite designers from the “nearly vintage” 1970’s. For purists, vintage is defined as anything fifty years or older.

Architectural Digest, July/August, 1973. Photography by Jacques Primois

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Favorite Vintage Ads Friday: Patterson, Flynn & Martin

Posted August 22, 2014. Filed in Favorite Vintage Ads

Today’s Favorite Friday Vintage Ad features this eclectic and richly appointed room with a resist-dyed canvas floor cloth by Maya for Patterson, Flynn & Martin, shown in “China Gardens with Ribbons”, which was published in Architectural Digest in 1977. Like many of my favorite ads from that era, curated rooms settings like this one are seldom, if ever, seen today. Starck is one of the few who still feature their rugs, carpets and textiles in room settings decorated by designers. Usually the company would credit the designer at the bottom of the page, or in the margin. This advertisement didn’t. If you know who did, please share it with us in the comment section. If I had to guess I would to say it was Robert Metzer, who combined modern and traditional elements in a gutsy fashion with a flair for the dramatic. Though not my favorite of rooms, the inky serpentine design of the rug is rather arresting, and the room’s decor – from the painting and leather-bound books to the golden finish of the double doors – enhances the warmth of its autumnal palette.

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Throwback Thursday: John Siddeley

Posted August 21, 2014. Filed in Classic Contemporary

Every once in awhile I encounter rooms I’ve never seen before or a designer whose work I’m not familiar with. But this is very rare, as I’ve been consuming interior design and decoration since I was about the age of thirteen. The bookcase in my study is chock-a-block with shelter magazines dating back to the 1970’s – House & Garden, Architectural Digest, House Beautiful, The World of Interiors, and Maison & Jardin, as well as more recent publications, such as Veranda. And then there are the many books on architecture, design, decoration and art scattered throughout the house – categorized into bookcases, piled on tables and stacked on the floor, always at the ready. So it surprised me to encounter the name of John Siddeley. Does it ring familiar for you? I can’t recall ever coming across the name or the man’s work … until I purchased an out-of-print book titled Interior Views: Design at Its Best by Erica Brown, published in 1980. I had never heard of it either, which surprised me as I have scoured vintage book stores for years collecting as I went along. I still get that thrill of discovering a book on design that I did when I just began collecting them.

Interior Views: Design at Its Best presents a collection of up-and-coming and august interior designers and decorators at a turning point in interior design, the late 1970’s. The rules were being broken and reinterpreted and interior design as a career was taking off. John Siddeley was an established interior designer who had worked on the Swedish Embassy, the design of the Harlequin Suite at the Dorchester Hotel and the Park Lane Hotel in Picadilly. In 1971 he succeeded his father as the third Baron Kenilworth. His own London flat, featured in the book, expressed a lighter, leaner and more eclectic approach to interior design, one that was coming into vogue.

His living room, in the top photo, expressed his belief that “comfort brings with it relaxation, and that’s what home is all about” and his penchant for mixing, what he called, “ancient and modern”, old and new. The result is an eclectic mix of English and French antiques with modern masters set within a neutral envelope of warm white – a color he recommended to anyone who couldn’t afford to fully realize their dreams and aspirations at one go. White also allows disparate elements to coexist more comfortably. For his flat Siddeley chose a handsome grid-pattern carpet throughout to unify the rooms – which is repeated in the waffle pattern of the bath towels used to cover the pair of Mies van der Rohe chairs. What makes this room, in particular, intriguing is the non-chalance of piles of books on the floor and a painting leaning against a brass pedestal. These personal caprices give the space life and a feeling of evolution, much like an artist’s atelier.

Siddeley had the walls and ceiling of the entrance hall covered in gray men’s suiting, which he hung, salon style, with framed engravings and prints.

The bedroom combines two of my favorite styles: the clean lines of a neutral contemporary bed contrasting the elegant curves of an ebonized klismos-style Regency side chair. The ivory-veneered four poster bed, with its stylized pediment headboard, was Siddeley’s own design.

For his bathroom he covered the walls and ceiling with a brown-and-cream small rep pattern, popular at the time, to make the small bathroom appear larger. The Victorian wicker chair feels right out of an episode of The Mary Tyler Moore Show or Rhoada!

In his 50’s Siddeley moved to New York, where he worked for McMillen Inc., and as a food editor for the Paris edition of Vogue magazine, as well as contributor to Gallery, House and Garden and Interiors magazines. Sadly, John Siddeley passed away of a heart attack at the age of 57 in December of 1981. So much potential shattered by a life cut short. Hopefully, in the future, I will encounter more of Baron Kenilworth’s eye for style.

Interior Views: Design at Its Best by Erica Brown, 1980. Photography by Michael Dunne.

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The Last Swan’s Song: Villar Perosa

Posted August 19, 2014. Filed in Italian Villas, Maison Jansen, Marella Agnelli, Stéphane Boudin

For decades people, like myself – who love beautiful houses – have mused about the interior lives at Villar Perosa, the late Gianni Agnelli’s family legacy in the hills of Piedmonte, Italy, overseen today by its chatelaine, Gianni’s widow, Marella – the last of the living “swans”, the affectionate name Truman Capote gave his gaggle of beautiful, wealthy, and powerful ladies who lunched often at La Côte Basque in New York City in the 1950’s. Only a scant few photos of the villa’s interiors have surfaced in the years since Gianni inherited the estate in 1940 and married Marella in 1953. Careful to tread lightly with a centuries-old family estate Marella brought in Stephane Boudin to refresh some of its interiors and add a note of le style Jansen. Though grand, the estate served as a retreat for the Agnelli’s only during the months of September and October. The first space they approached was the piano nobile’s Baroque gallery (in the photo above) covered with exuberant stuccowork framing 18th-century Chinese export wallpaper and garlands that extend and intersect across a groin-vaulted ceiling. To this the duo added a confection of pastel colored silks and velvets to the gallery’s chairs and settees, colors that Marella likened to macarons.

Now, for the first time since Horst P. Horst photographed Donna Marella Agnelli at Villa Perosa in 1967, the September issue of Architectural Digest features a glimpse into the storied rooms of the Agnelli clan’s famous rococo hunting lodge in the foothills of the Italian Alps in anticipation of Marella’s forthcoming book Marella Agnelli: The Last Swan, due out in October.

Marella Agnelli photographed by Horst in the piano nobile's main salon with a sofa designed by Stephane Boudin and panels of antique Chinese wallpaper.

Marella Agnelli photographed in 1967 by Horst in the piano nobile’s main salon with a sofa designed by Stephane Boudin and panels of antique Chinese wallpaper.

In another salon an 18th-century landscape by V. A. Cignaroli surmounts a sofa, while the easel holds a painting of the Marchioness of Prie, a former owner of the villa.

Majolica plaques ornament the walls of one of the villa’s dining rooms.

For more than three decades, her husband, Gianni Agnelli, slept in this grand room on the piano nobile. The 18th-century bed is curtained with embroidered fabric of the same period.

Adjacent to the original 1730s house, attributed to architect Filippo Juvarra, is the vine-covered children’s wing, constructed in the 1920s.

For the full story and more photos of Villar Perosa’s interiors visit Architectural Digest online here.

Photography for the September issue of Architectural Digest by Oberto Gili. Photo of Donna Marella Agnelli by Horst P. Horst featured in Horst Interiors by Barbara Plumb, 1993.

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A Blue-And-White Delight

Posted August 18, 2014. Filed in Carolyne Roehm, Textiles, Tropical Style

Do you recall Quadrille’s stylish ad campaigns from the 1970’s and 1980’s? I don’t think there was a single one that didn’t captivate me. Aside from loving almost every pattern and colorway they design there was something personal and special about the vignettes they created for their print ads. Recently I introduced a feature on my blog titled Favorite Vintage Ads Friday, where each week I post one of my favorite ads from primarily the 1970’s and ’80’s. Revisiting the dynamic room settings they created for their ads made me wonder why they no longer publish them, so I visited their website to see if they still embrace the same magic that imbued those favorite ads of mine from decades past. From their website’s cover photo I think you will agree that the magic is still alive. In this tropical-inspired room designer Carolyne Roehm used Quadrille Bromonte Reverse on the sofa and China Seas Aqua IV for the slipper chairs against a Windsor blue background accented with exuberant plaster-white-painted furniture and a Chinoiserie-style mirror. It’s fresh, elegant and playful – a perfect setting for relaxing or high-style entertaining. Quadrille remains a favorite inspiration, year after year, decade after decade.

Visit Quadrille to experience all of their associated lines and Carolyne Roehm to read her online blog and view her elegant creations.

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Favorite Vintage Ads Friday: McGuire Furniture Stinson Beach

Posted August 15, 2014. Filed in Favorite Vintage Ads, McGuire

Our week’s vacation in Stinson Beach is coming to an end, and I couldn’t think of a more appropriate ad campaign than this McGuire Furniture advertisement set at Elinor and John McGuire’s Stinson Beach retreat in 1992 – four years after the completion of their Joseph Esherick built cedar clad pavilion with interiors by Andrew Delfino. The setting selected to showcase a rattan dining suite was the enclosed interior courtyard that serves as an entrance from Seadrift Road in the tony gated enclave, Seadrift. Surrounded on four sides by cedar clad walls, to protect the space from gusts of wind and the sand it brings along, an oculus was punched into the center, creating the feeling of an overhead dome opening to the heavens. The spacious courtyard has a dramatic impact, hinting at what’s lies within. To see more of the McGuire’s Stinson Beach house go here.

Note: Today’s feature was intended to post last week. Due to lack of Internet connectivity I was presented with a real dilemma: a vacation without social media. Imagine that?!

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