Add Castle Howard

The Guardian has just added the baroque Castle Howard in Yorkshire, designed by English playwright and architect Sir John Vanbrugh, to their list of the most Beautiful Buildings of Britain. I must say that I have to agree with this choice! It’s really a stunning place and has been owned by the same family for many generations.  Howard says they’ve been in the house through good times and bad times and that he will stay there until he “shuffles off to his mortal coil”.  He also says they “struggle on” which was picked up by commenters, but the narrator says that the struggle is to keep it in the family, and they’ve been working on repairing the house since a fire in 1940!The house is the first country house to have a dome added to it, rather like St. Paul’s Cathedral in London with its whispering gallery. Take a look at this wonderful little Guardian video, here.

Weekend Update: No. 211 & What I Found

Whew! Glad that weekend’s behind me now.  We had more than 24 hours of non-stop rain with the coming, arrival and leaving of Hurricane Irene, but I am pleased to report that both Connor and I made it through the storm unscathed. He was helped along by a Benadryl or two, and I, by a couple of cocktails. My 110-year old farmhouse made it unscathed as well. Luckily, we never lost power and had no damage at all. However, by Sunday morning, I was gasping to leave the house and have a chat with someone who could actually answer my questions, so I met pal Julie for a boozy brunch at what’s rapidly becoming my new favourite restaurant, City Cafe, conveniently located just around the corner from McLain-Wiesand. After that, I hit up the Book Thing with DC pal, Ellen {aka I Love Lime Green}, and a friend of hers. It was great to have more actual people to talk to again! Although the power was still out at Book Thing, we soldiered through, and for my efforts, I came across a near-mint copy of this book: I can’t WAIT to begin reading this. It looks like it’s going to be a great biography and it’s filled with great pictures of her life in the States and abroad.

  At a ball in 1905. With Cecil Beaton and Oliver Messel in Cannes in 1931.

The preface to this book is by Diana Vreeland and even that is worth reading!

I popped into a little junk shop after the Book Thing, and came away with this gorgeous little silver bowl, English from 1920, according to the marks. I love the detailing around the edge. Look for it and some more great pieces on my Etsy shop this week!

Hope your weekend was a little calmer than mine!

And the Winner Is…

Connor was surely resting up all day for the arduous task of picking a name from the nearly 80 people who either left a comment, or sent an e-mail to me hoping to win Mark Hampton’s “On Decorating”.

With his pink pig (the version with the arms still attached and the orange stitches on his side, not Army, the pig with no arms and nothing left in his head) by his side, he suggested that Random.org might be the place to pick a number. Off we went, and came up with this: In my calculations, since Connor can’t count, the winner is Kerry, who blogs at Good Taste-Good Tasting, even though she thought I was actually shrieking at someone at the Book Thing. Kerry… drop me an e-mail here, and let me know your mailing address!

Congratulations to Kerry for winning Mark Hampton’s “On Decorating” and thanks so much to everyone who took the time to leave a comment.

On Your Mark!

I had a lovely lunch with Toad, of To The Manner Born, and his charming step-daughter, or his bonus daughter, as he calls her! We went to Petit Louis, one of Baltimore’s best restaurants and had a brilliant time over a delicious meal.On Sunday, I swung by The Book Thing, and only managed to get one book before I got chucked out for bad behaviour. (I had yelled at some eejit for driving down the little one-way street BT’s on, the wrong way, and she came into the place and started freaking out on me! We both got thrown out, but I actually left.) However, the book that I did pick up was a good one. A true design classic!It’s Mark Hampton’s 1989 book of essays from House & Garden, “On Decorating”.  There are essays that cover a three-year period, plus nine essays written especially for the book. One of the things I like best about this book are the beautiful water-colour illustrations done by Mark Hampton, along with his beautiful calligraphic handwriting for the captions. Just leave me a comment and let me know if you’re interested in winning a copy of “On Decorating” and Connor will pick a winner on Friday. (US residents only… so sorry!)

John Rosselli in Elle Decor On-Line

There’s a fabulous piece about the even more fabulous John Rosselli and his thoughts on collections and collecting in Elle Decor on-line. Click here to read it.I had the chance to meet Mr. Rosselli last fall when I was in NYC and attend a party for Alexa Hampton’s new book at the showroom. The showrooms are filled to the brim with the most excellent specimen of each piece – the very best blue and white china, the most beautiful antiques, simply the tops of everything. 

Take a few minutes and read about this fascinating and charming man and his thoughts on collecting. There are some excellent suggestions! Here.

Architect Barbie’s Dream House Finalists

The AIA received nearly 30 submissions for the AIA Barbie® Dream House™ Design Competition. The AIA and its panel of jurors have selected their finalists, with input from Mattel’s own team of Barbie® experts. Now it’s your turn to help select the winning design. While the submissions/winning design will not be produced by Mattel, it’s still a fun way to play and engage with Barbie® I Can Be™... Architect regardless of your age. I know that there was a lot of controversy when Mattel created the Architect Barbie, so what do you think of the competition? You can check out details here and vote for your favourite house.

Patrick Sutton Home

About a month or so ago, I had lunch with Patrick Sutton, a Baltimore-based decorator who is getting a lot of press on the national and international stage. He’d just returned from Copenhagen where he’d attended the Design Leadership Summit. We had a fascinating conversation which ranged from design in Baltimore to upcoming trends. You can read a recap of the Summit, including quotes from Patrick, here on All The Best.

Patrick has a great store in Baltimore’s new Harbour East neighbourhood, an area that magically appeared while I was living abroad, and which used to be filled with run-down warehouses and docks. It’s now filled with wonderful shops and fabulous restaurants. Patrick’s shop is stocked with gorgeous things and it was such fun to have a quiet wander around looking at everything.

beautiful settings

incredible artwork and furniture

stellar objets d’art scattered throughout the shop

brilliant orange ribbons decorating slate grey boxes

comfortable chairs perfect for lazy afternoons

elegant chairs with graceful lines

tasteful trinkets tossed about

I think that Patrick’s shop is one of my new favourite places! I hope that you will take a few moments to look at Patrick’s website and his work. He’s an incredible talent. Just click on the image above.

Carolyne Roehm Yard Sale!

The style- and taste-maker Carolyne Roehm is having an actual, honest-to-goodness yard sale at her home in Connecticut next weekend, July 9 & 10. Here’s what she has to say about it:

Having just had a "milestone birthday" and embracing some of the ideas from the book--titled "The Happiness Project" by Gretchen Rubin, I decided to do more than clear a shelf or a closet. In my usual obsessive way I tackled barns and attics, my studio and the basement. Whilst I am not quite going zen in style (far from it), I am attempting to "declutter".

This will not be the organized, "pretty" tag sale like the one I wrote about in Veranda Magazine a few years ago, but just your classic old fashioned yard sale. With a mix of things from garden hoses to some of my beloved ribbons and silk flowers (it has been hard for me to give up some of those, but this is an exercise in editing), there is a bit of everything.

If you are around the northwest corner of Connecticut, please stop by.

If I wasn’t about a six hour drive, and didn’t already have plans, I’d be there in a heart-beat. You?

Books on Sunday

After taking a break for a few weeks, I finally made my way back to the Book Thing today. It was as if some books were there just waiting for my arrival, and I found a couple of scores within the first five minutes of my arrival.

First up is The French Touch: Decoration and Design in the Most Beautiful Homes of France, by Daphné de Saint Sauveur. The title initially caught my attention, but then when I looked at the cover, there was something very familiar about it. Hmmmm… I wonder what it could be?  Well, once I read about the house on the cover, I found that it was Manuel Canovas’ flat in Paris, exuberantly papered in his Bienaimee print of peonies in a ginger jar. I had found a few yards of this at a flea market a few years ago and used it to make this wall-hanging, which I threw up on the wall of the new house to semi-disguise a wall that hasn’t yet been painted.  It’s a gorgeous print, but I’d find walls and furniture with that print a bit overwhelming. 

Another great book I found is The Sisters, The Lives and Times of the Fabulous Cushing Sisters, by David Grafton. Sort of tied into that book is this one…The First Four Hundred, Mrs. Astor’s New York in the Gilded Age, by Jerry Patterson. That book looks to have mini biographies of each of the 400.  I also found House Beautiful’s Weekend Homes, which I am hoping will give me some ideas for how my garden at the new house. I was given a lovely gift certificate (thanks K+N) to a garden center, and while I have some ideas, I need firmer ones before I go on a buying spree! Next up is Chippy Irvine’s Town House, which might provide some useful suggestions on space planning in a “smaller” house. While this book dates from the late 1980’s, it’s always fun to read through books like this, and learn from the masters. 

Connor seems to be settling into the new house, although there were some fireworks the other evening. He knew exactly where to head… to the shelf below my “desk” in the kitchen, which in reality is a six-foot long commercial steel kitchen counter! I am already hunting for the drugs to give him on July 4th!

Billy Baldwin’s Autobiography

As much as a criticize some of the One King’s Lane Tag Sales, I have purchased a number of things from them, and have always been very pleased with my purchases. A few weeks ago, during David Duncan’s Tag Sale on OKL, I spotted a book I’ve been searching for – the autobiography of Billy Baldwin!  I have a signed copy of BB Remembers and BB Decorates, but this is one that I’d been missing from my collection. I also have Adam Lewis’s beautiful book on Billy Baldwin that was published last year.I had some credits at OKL, so I took the plunge and bought Billy Baldwin – An Autobiography. Instead of working on the house, I’ve been reading it every second I have a chance. The most fun thing about this book is that it talks at length about his early life in Baltimore, and many of the names and places and even some of the events are familiar to me. The house that I just bought is about three or four blocks from the house where Billy Baldwin spent his early years. I will have to walk Connor over there as a pilgrimage.

I can’t wait to finish the book, as it’s been excellent thus far.

Gilt-y Treasures

I’ve been loving the look of gilded furniture pieces lately.  I like the warm look that gilt imparts and on the right piece, it’s just so elegant and classic.

I love Di Overton’s Ghost Furniture pieces, with a twist on a theme, such as this old frame repurposed as a chalkboard with an elaborate gilt chair as chalk holder, or this teapot with a gilded finial and feet. I love this chaise longue. The gold in the silk really highlights the gilded wood. It just makes me want to sit next to an open window, with the breeze blowing in and read a great book. Here’s another great piece that’s similar. Of course, if I had a place like Castle Howard, there would be room for lots of these lovlies! And maybe a lush boudoir like this! I might swap out the mirrored bed side dresser for this gilded goodie though! For some guilty pleasures and more gilt-y treasures, check out Furnish UK’s on=line interior design magazine, where I found a lot of these images.

What are your gilt-y treasures?