Category Archives: . REGULAR FEATURES

Design Diary: Palmer Weiss Is a New Traditionalist

Finally, I present you with a San Francisco home designed by Palmer Weiss, featured in Traditional Home‘s TRADhome this month. She is one of the magazine’s 10 New Traditionalists.  Starting with the colored door, all the way in and up to the nursery, the interiors are superb. Enjoy the photos and be sure to click through to the actual story in the new digital issue of TRADhome.


E X T E R I O R

The home’s color-drenched front door is inspired by designer Miles Redd’s blue front door that was once featured in Domino. “A lot of people walk by saying they love it,” says the homeowner.

L I V I N G R O O M


The living room sofa is upholstered in punchy green linen velvet. The glazed raffia coffee table is the Harrison Van-Horn ‘East West.’

The statement piece over the mantel is Carvers’ Guild ‘Entwined Dolphins Mirror’ in hand-laid gold leaf. Weiss says, “I like that it wasn’t the usual star burst design.” She always goes with convex when it hangs high enough to cut off people’s heads since it’s “bad feng shui.” The ikat-covered Oly Studio ‘Sophie’ armchair adds a bit of global patterning.

Initially the homeowner thought that silk curtains might be “too grown up,” but loved the idea once Weiss dressed them down with a cotton ticking lining. A pair of vintage lamps mirror the symmetry of the maize-colored silk drapes.

Weiss topped the pair of curvy turquoise lamps, purchased from Flessas Antiques in New York City, with custom brown silk lampshades.

D I N I N G R O O M

The dining room ceiling is based on the homeowner’s Meissen ‘Ming Dragon’ china. Following a base coat, a decorative painter used 15 coats of glaze. Weiss says, “You can literally see yourself in it.”

The wall color, a custom pale blue, was pulled from the sky of their Massimo Vitali beach photograph. (The couple has a number of fine modern photographs; the husband’s mother is a board member of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.)

The dining table is vintage 1950s Paul McCobb and the chairs, which are covered in dark blue mohair on the front and stamped lizard on the back, are Baker ‘St. Germain’ chairs from the Thomas Pheasant Collection. They experimented with a number of fancy Murano chandeliers, but finally settled on a simple and inexpensive brass one from Circa Lighting.

Weiss designed curvy banquettes to flank the entryway of the dining room. They’re on wheels to make it easy to roll one up to the table for extra seating. The Indian rug in the dining room is Irving and Fine through the Todd Alexander Romano showroom.

K I T C H E N

Mixing high and low, Weiss upholstered West Elm bar stools with Muriel Brandolini ‘Chartreuse 2’ that she had laminated for easy clean up. The acid green wall color is Fine Paints of Europe #S2040-G80Y, which continues into the family room, below.

F A M I L Y R O O M

The neutral colored sofa is piped in coral, a color that references the ceiling of the adjoining dining room. The chairs are upholstered in Schumacher ‘Saint Tropez’ in ‘Java,’ a durable outdoor fabric.

H A L L

A persimmon demi-lune chest in the mudroom is flanked by Jonathan Adler ‘Chippendale’ side chairs in white lacquer, upholstered with a Palm Beach, ’70s style floral. The rug is from West Elm ‘Zig Zag.’

M E D I A R O O M

The denim-colored tone-on-tone media room is where the husband hangs out. Weiss worked with him to outfit it with comfortable and durable furnishings. The overstuffed sofas are upholstered in Schumacher ‘Cotton Club Velvet’ in ‘Midnight Blue.’

The Lucite and chrome table, which Weiss sourced on 1st Dibs, was a bit of a hard sell, but the rounded corners (safe for kids!) helped convince him. The shades are China Seas “Gorrival Fretwork’ in ‘French Blue.’

P O W D E R R O O M

The powder room is papered in large-scale Katie Ridder ‘Leaf’ wallpaper in cream and chocolate. The ivory mirror is World’s Away ‘Rococo.’

The Roman shade is Cowtan & Tout ‘Tiffany’ silk in mauve with a Samuel & Sons trim.

M A S T E R B E D R O O M

The bed in the master suite is made in luxuious white Leontine linens monogrammed in apple green, picking up on the color of the tufted Oly Studio ‘Jonathan’ bench upholstered in Holly Hunt ‘Stingray’ leather in ‘Irish Sea.’ Weiss designed the headboard, upholstered in blue mohair with nail head detailing. The loveseat is covered with Donghia ‘Suzani’ in ‘Blue Bliss.” Christopher Spitzmiller porcelain lamps top the bedside tables.

In the master bedroom, a photograph from Sze Tsung Leong’s ‘Yangtze River’ hangs above the World’s Away Crosby entertainment console, a limed oak cabinet with geometric, mirrored detail. The walls are covered in pale blue grass cloth. The blue agate lamp is from Belvedere Antiques in New York City.

The adjoining study boasts custom cabinetry and an Eames Management Chair in white leather. The neutral Roman shade is edged in tealtape, notched at the corners, and the silver carpet is from Stark.

For the dressing room hallway of the master suite, Weiss wanted, “Just a little moment there.” They went with inexpensive lanterns from a Moroccan import place that cast lacy shadows on the walls and ceiling. A Hickory Chair bench upholstered in a deep yellow and edged with teal sits in front of a niche hung with a framed section of hand-painted wallpaper.

N U R S E R Y

The nursery won’t need de-babyfying. Formal red drapes and valance are sophisticated but not to. An existing armchair and ottoman was redonein Peter Dunham ‘Kashmir Paisley’ linen. The checked wall-to-wall carpet works well for kids—it’s soft and stain-resistant.

Weiss chose ‘Wood Owl’ wall decals from Etsy rather than artwork in case of an earthquake. The crib is the ‘Cabine’ by Netto Collection.

G U E S T R O O M

The guest room was pulled together on a budget. Weiss swapped the chrome hardware on the bedside tables with gold and re-purposed an old headboard in inexpensive orange velvet. The toile slipper chair is a nod to the wife’s preppy East Coast roots. The draperies are Kravet ‘Pelago’ in ‘Haze.’

Palmer Weiss

Interior photography by Matthew Millman 

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Filed under . REGULAR FEATURES, Design Diary, Rooms

Montage: 45 Colorful Doors, Inside and Out

Photos of doors painted in cheery colors have been accumulating on my hard drive for a while, though lately they’ve seemed to increase in popularity. In addition to a mad rush of them on Pinterest, especially of the neon variety, several of the projects I’ve written about have included painted doors. There’s the Boston loft by Duncan Hughes, with the cerulean blue sliding barn door, the San Francisco home I wrote about in TRADhome, designed by Palmer Weiss (though that particular photo was not included), and designer Lisa Kreiling’s own townhouse I wrote about for Boston Home, soon to be published. Lisa told me that black doors were pretty much the starting point in her design.

Elle Interior Sweden – Photographer Pia Ulli
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Marie Claire Maison   |  Elle Interior Norway
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Southern Living
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Blue Print in Dallas via Knight Moves   |  Jenny Komenda Interiors
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Ana Williamson Architect
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Feldman Architecture
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Designer Elke Dante
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Coburn Architecture
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via Weekend Retreats by Susanna Salk
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Bronwyn McCarthy Huffar  – Photographer Jamie Salomon   |   Martha Stewart
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Designer Miles Redd
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Anna Williamson Architect   |   via Houzz

Designer Courtnay Daniels Haden in Elle Decor   |   Joe Serrins Architecture Studio
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Designer J.D. Bell
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Tamara Kaye-Honey in House Beautiful
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Architect Pedro Gadanho
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Design Sponge   |   Nathan Gibson Judd Architecture

Hus & Hem Fiona Winzar Architecture

Quarto Sala Architecture & Interiors
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Photographer Adriano Bacchella   |   Envelope Architecture + Design
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Photographer Melanie Acevedo   |   Marie Claire Maison
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Door by TENKO
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via Kyle Bunting Rugs
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Photographer Lucas Allen   |   Lauren Liess, Pure Style

Lori Andrews Interiors
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Photographer Angus Fergusson
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Photographer Adriano Bacchella
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Marie Claire Maison
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Moises Esquenazi
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Flickr-back_garage   |   Milk Magazine
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Domino
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Patrice Beavan Cowans Interiors   |   Photographer Patrick Johnson
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Elke Dante
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Filed under . REGULAR FEATURES, Montage, Rooms

Design Diary: Moroccon-Inspired Patio

Today I had planned a post on the  Traditional Home digital issue of TRADhome, which launched on Friday. However, I don’t have the photos I need since my laptop is in the shop. So I dug into the archives of my old machine. This is based on a piece I wrote for Boston Globe Magazine, “Kind of Blue.” It’s about how a tiny patio in Boston, was transformed with the help of Brian Feehan, a director and choreographer, from a blah backyard into an entertaining oasis, inspired by Majorelle Garden* in Morocco, which the homeowner had recently visited.

* Majorelle Garden was designed by the painter Jacques Majorelle in 1924 and revived by fashion designer Yves Saint-Laurent and his partner, Pierre Berge, in 1980.

I N S P I R A T I O N

When Feehan first learned he was to create the hot garden splendor of Majorelle from an old brick patio in Boston, his first thought was, “Where the heck am I going to fit a 20-foot reflecting pool?”

B E F O R E

Feehan managed to incorporate similar architectural elements, as well as a water feature. The first order of business was to paint the preppy green lattice with flat black paint, so it would recede. (They didn’t want to remove it since it hides the air conditioner condenser.)

A F T E R

The gorgeous cobalt blue glass mosaic tile panel is actually an 8-foot-tall fountain. Water runs down the surface in uneven rivulets (the tiles are different thicknesses), and lights shine upwards to make it glisten. Look carefully—mirror panels are installed on either side of the trellis on which the fountain is mounted.

Feehan hung three horizontal strips of wood painted a deep cobalt blue around the perimeter of the space. They add color and emphasize the length of the patio. Also, the homeowner hangs votives and flower pots from them. Antique Chinese doors echo the lacy Moroccan scrollwork found at Majorelle.

The long table is great for dinner parties, but when she’s not entertaining, the homeowner can easily remove and store the top to reveal a much smaller, round table. The ottomans serve as extra seating during parties, and side tables otherwise.

Other than the fountain, the fixes aren’t extravagant or over-involved. That just may be more inspiring than Marrakesh.

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Filed under . REGULAR FEATURES, Design Diary, Flowers & Gardens, Food & Entertaining

ARTmonday: My Visit to MoMA

Last weekend my husband and I took a jaunt to New York City. The excuse was a fundraiser for Castle Hill, an arts center on the Cape, but we also caught up with old friends and spent the afternoon at MoMA. We hadn’t been in quite a while, and were exhilarated at every turn. Here are 30 highlights. While you’re at it, look back at MoMA in a Minute, which never fails to mesmerize.

Andrew Wyeth, Christina’s World, 1948

Paul Gauguin, Washerwomen, 1888

Pierre Bonnard, The Breakfast Room, 1930-31

Amadeo Modigliani, Reclining Nude, c. 1919

Vincent van Gogh, The Starry Night, 1889

Henri Matisse, The Red Studio, 1911

Henri Rousseau, The Dream, 1910

Gustav Klimt, Hope, II, 1907-087

Pablo Picasso, Three Musicians, 1921

Pablo Picasso, The Studio, winter 1927-28

Henri Matisse, The Moroccans, late 1915 and fall 1916

Pablo Picasso, Seated Bather, 1930

Mark Rothko, No. 10, 1959

Robert Rauschenberg, Bed, 1955

Jackson Pollack, One: Number 31, 1950, 1950

Meret Oppenheim, Object, 1936

Ellsworth Kelly, Running on White, 1959

Lyubov Popova, Painterly Architectonic, 1917

Hannah Wilke, Ponder-r-rosa 4, White Plains, Yellow Rocks, 1975

Constantin Brancusi
The Cock, 1924    |  Mlle Pogany, 1913

Jasper Johns, Target with Four Faces,1955

Piet Mondrian, Broadway Boogie Woogie, 1942-43

Josef Albers, Homage to the Square: Two Whites Between Two Yellows, 1958

Tom Wesselmann, Great American Nude, 2, 1961

Richard Hamilton, Pin-up, 1961

John McCracken, The Absolutely Naked Fragrance, 1967
Donald Judd, Untitled, 1968

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Filed under . REGULAR FEATURES, Art, Art Monday

Style Muse: Audrey Hepburn and Fawn

A photograph reflective of the lovely spring weather. This is Audrey Hepburn with the fawn she starred with in Green Mansions, 1959. Pippin,  became her pet, slept in the family’s bathtub, and often accompanied Audrey around town. Really. There are two stunning black & white photos of Audrey and Pippin here. I sorta want one now.

Photographed by Bob Willoughby

via Kanako Yamaguchi on Pinterest
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Filed under . REGULAR FEATURES, Beauty, Style Muse