Category Archives: Rooms

Montage: 35 Bell Jars (or Cloches If You’re French)

Anything can be art under glass. I first heard this from stylist Kara Butterfield, who displayed rocks in and under tumblers on her mantle in Boston. She told me,  “If you put anything in a glass, or behind glass it celebrates it, gives it meaning, like a picture in a frame.”  Others seem to be catching on. Bell jars, or cloches, seem to be on every console and coffee table, containing anything from fawn figurines to succulents or matchbox cars to brass nails. J. Crew has even been showcasing shoes under them. Here’s a look at 35 examples which includes live plants, dead insects, and inanimate objects from the ordinary to intricate.

Prop stylist Dietlind Wolf

Greige Design

 Lindsey Adelman

Jessica Helgerson

Gennine’s Art Blog

Carrier & Co.

Good boutique in Boston

Better Homes & Gardens   |   Apartment Therapy

Country Living    |   Young House Love

Stylist Heather Nette King for Dulux

Stylist Heather Nette King

Traditional Home

Stylist Heather Nette King • Photographer Mike Baker

Elizabeth Martin Design   |   via Chocolate Creative

Anthropologie   |   SoSo Sculpture Series from Ginat, Etsy

Ampers & Vintage   |  home of designer Sarah Illenberger via Aesthete Curator

J. Crew, Midtown Manhattan   |   Better Homes & Gardens

La Patisserie des Reves   |   home of  jewelry designer Stine A. Johansen

Green Wedding Shoes

stylist Heather Nette King  •  Photographer Mike Baker

Emma’s Design Blog   |   Stylist Graham Moss

David Stark Sketchbook

David Stark Wood Shop pop-up at Haus Interior

Prop stylist Dietlind Wolf  •  Photographer Sabrina Rothe

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Filed under . REGULAR FEATURES, Home Accessories, Montage, Rooms

Montage: 50 Tubs with a View

As winter eases and summer slowly (too slowly) comes forth, one of the things I look forward to is taking baths again. Our condo in Boston has an oversize (too big) shower, but the only tub is a standard one (too small) in the boys’ bathroom. My favorite room at our place on the Cape may be our wonderful, sky blue glass mosaic tile walled bathroom with its deep bathtub (just right). While there isn’t an over-the-top view (we saved the distant ocean vista for the bedroom), it is bordered by two large windows looking out to the woods, including a couple of birch trees, which I love.

The tubs in this post are unreal. A lot of them are part of resorts, but not all. They look out over woods, oceans, mountains, fields, and city skylines. Some are even outdoors. They’re all heavenly.

Beyond Bath by Claudia Danelon

L.A. real estate via Zillow

Singita Sweni Lodge, Kurger National Park, South Africa

M. Design Interiors   |   Photographer Greg Cox

Amangiri Canyon Point, Grand Canyon

Australian real estate via Desire to Inspire

Ritz-Carlton Hotel Istanbul

Moris Moreno Photography

Japanese rooftop via Apartment Therapy

Stephen Sills and James Huniford, Architectural Digest

Tongabezi Lodge, Zambia

Teak bath, The Water Monopoly   |   XTEN Architecture

Elsa’s Kopje Safari Camp, Meru National Park, Kenya

Takiyu Collection by Kaesch

Southern Ocean Lodge Kangaroo Island, Australia

Marie Claire Maison

Donna Karan’s house – Photographer Richard Powers

The Standard Hotel, New York City

Lundberg Design

Mandarin Oriental Hotel Tokyo

Shelton, Mindel & Assoc.Elle Decor

Nicki Bongiorno, Spaces Kennebunkport

Real estate in the Hamptons

Interiormagasinet Norway   |    James R. Salomon Photography

The Bowery Hotel, New York City

Peninsula Hotel Hong Kong

Walker Warner Architects
James Cavagnari + Erin Quiros,  Architectural Digest

New York Times T Magazine

Jade Mountain St. Lucia Hotel

Peter Silling & Assoc.Schloss Velden Hotel, Austria – Architectural Digest

Yuma Art Tub 180, Blu Bleu

Mandarin Oriental New York

Banyan Tree Bangkok Hotel

Antoine Predock Architect

Kaesch

Jade Jagger

Jeff Andrews Design

Kahn Design – Architectural Digest   |   Saffire Freycinet Resort, Australia

Grace Bay, Turks & Caicos via Homes Away

Kaldewei

Andara Resort Phuket

Six Senses Laamu, Maldives  |   Song Saa Private Island Resort, Cambodia

Egg Tub, Rexa Design

GASS Architecture Design Studio

from the StyleCarrot archives:   18 Pure White Tubs

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Baths  |  Electric Showers  | Shower Doors

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Filed under . REGULAR FEATURES, Montage, Rooms

Design Diary: Mick Jagger + L’Wren Scott’s Paris Pied-a-Terre

Fashion designer L’Wren Scott seems the perfect match for Mick Jagger. Despite their rock’-n-roll vibe, their Paris pied-a-terre on the Left Bank, featured in this month’s Vogue, is luxuriously glamorous, though not over the top. Pale herringbone floors covered with Oriental rugs, high ceilings and windows hung with solid color silk taffetta drapery, furniture with simple lines, crystal chandeliers and elegant artwork. And she designed it herself.

Photography by François Halard.

Scott, all legs and long hair, in the paneled drawing room under an Andy Warhol print of John Giorno in the 1963 film Sleep.

The low, curved sofa in the drawing room is covered in cream bouclé tweed from the forties that  “has the air of a vintage Balenciaga suit.” She found it  in a store on the Rue de Lille. She tells Vogue, “Once you’ve been here, you get to know there’s this U-shaped trail of antiques places to look at along the Rue de Beaune, up the Rue de Lille and the Rue des Saints-Pères.”

The entrance hall. Warhol’s Mao print (1972) hangs above a Tristan Auer bench that Scott had upholstered in her own silk-velvet fabric. A L’Wren Scott bag in coral crocodile is perched there, and a Persian lacquered vase found at a Paris flea market stands beside it.

The kitchen is small, but the custom Christophe Delcourt dining table, surrounded by gray lacquered chairs, seats fourteen.

On the dining room mantle, a collection of mirrors are displayed among silver candlesticks and Gabriel Jagger’s painting of his sister Georgia.

The guest room. Painting by Francesco Clemente. Curtains throughout were dyed by the same silk manufacturers Scott uses to create her taffeta evening dresses.

A watercolor of rose petals in concentric circles by Jade Jagger hangs over a dresser by André Arbus.

At the far end of the drawing room is a c. 1930s table by André Arbus. On it rests a rare medieval wooden carving of Saint Martin on a horse, rescued, Scott told Vogue, from Jagger’s château in the Loire. “The piece was sitting there in a niche above the chapel door, and someone had painted him blue. So I took him down and sent him to a restorer recommended by the Louvre.” Damien Hirst’s “Dots” hangs in the background.

A Warhol portrait of a young Mick Jagger hangs in her study, which is stacked with fashion-history and art books.

In the library, a pair of feathered masquerade masks sits among fashion monographs.

Jewelry and other treasures in the bathroom.

The Art Deco bathroom is by Lalique, made in 1926 for a house in Paris. Jagger purchased the ensemble at auction in the seventies and packed it away in the country.  There were glass doors patterned with fountains of bubbles, floor and wall tiles, a mirrored bathtub and cabinets, and a plaque of tiles depicting leaping koi.

A rose colored hallway hung with multiple gilded mirrors.

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Filed under . REGULAR FEATURES, Design Diary, Rooms

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