Category Archives: Mark Hampton

Winter Gardens

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 Men’s Room

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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American Chic

What is American Chic? For me, it has always been about effortless style. The kind of style that doesn’t shout “Look at me!” A style that is crisp and classic, balanced, often times understated yet always sophisticated, subtle and artfully layered, unfettered by excessive decor and, above all else, timeless. A style that honors the […]

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Traditional American Comfort

When I think of American traditions and our ideas of comfort I cannot separate those ideals from those of our country’s forefathers, the British. Invariably, English style decor figures into the dreamscape of our collective imagination when we design and build our traditional edifices, whether they be Georgian-style manors, British Colonial-style plantations, Regency-style townhouses or […]

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A Taste for Tuscany

Posted November 4, 2013. Filed in Mark Hampton, Tuscan Style

If I were to show you an illustration of a villa (above) and a photo of that villa (below), with no previous knowledge of its location or who designed and built it, would you be able to suggest where it is, who designed it, and from what era it originates? Though the taste for Tuscany […]

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Under The Tuscan Sun

From the Etruscans’ who left behind many roads that are still traveled today, to the expansive power of the Roman Empire and the Medici family, who financed  much of the Renaissance, Tuscany is rich in history, romantic ancient villages, rustic farmhouses and elegant villas, distinctive regional cuisine, and soft rolling hills for as far and […]

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