Montage: 45 Striped Rooms

Years ago, one summer weekend when I opted to stay in the City over the Hamptons, I got really ambitious, and painted my little bathroom on East 87th Street with soft green and white stripes. Well, it was already white, so I only painted the green. Only? I measured, taped, painted, painted again, waited for it to dry, and peeled. Done before the boyfriend arrived back on Sunday night. I don’t remember what he thought, I guess it was fine, but I remember that someone else described it as looking like a candy store. I suppose, depending on what you keep in your medicine chest that could be accurate…

Photos: House & Home; Better Homes & Gardens; photographer Graham Atkins-Hughes; Skona Hem; VT Wonen; Pappas Miron; Skona Hem; Shelton, Mindel & Associates; unidentified; Alwill Architecture; unidentified; Amanda Nisbet; Country Living; Boundary Hotel in London; Commune Design; Amanda Nisbet; Lonny Magazine; Jenna Lyons in Living Etc.; M. Design; Mary McDonald in Domino; Eric Roseff; Domino; Kishani Perera; Frank Roop; unidentified; Elle Décor; Nathalie Vingot Mei; unidentified; Byblos  Art Hotel Villa Amista; Burnham Design; Eric Roseff; Julie Richard; Meg Braff; photographer François Halard; photographer Carolyn Barber; Re-Nest; unidentified; Wendy Blount; Terrat Elms; Markham Roberts; Apartment Therapy; Isolee; Forms of Design; Southern Living, Angie Hranowsky.

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Filed under . REGULAR FEATURES, Montage, Rooms

ARTmonday: Slim Aarons

While working on a “Palm Beach Primer” for The Inside Source last week, I spotted a photo by Slim Aarons above a  yellow ikat breakfast banqette in a room designed by San Francisco based interior designer Palmer Weiss, who was kind enough to identify it for me. His images are timeless, yet retro groovy. (See if you can spot who must surely be the prototype for Chuck Bass.)

Aarons, who was born in 1916, chronicled “the good life” of the upper classes of the ’50s, ’60s and ’70s. He approached society portraits, both formal and candid, with the eye of a photojournalist.  His career was built on what he called, “photographing attractive people doing attractive things in attractive places.”

Room designed by Palmer Weiss.

Poolside Gossip
A desert house in Palm Springs designed by Richard Neutra for Edgar Kaufman. Lita Baron approaches Nelda Linsk, right, wife of art dealer Joseph Linsk, who is talking to a friend, Helen Dzo Dzo, 1970.

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Family Snapper
Babe Paley by the pool. Her husband, William Paley, is snapping the photographer at their cottage in Round Hill, Jamaica.
Staley Wise Gallery, NYC

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American socialite and Woolworth heiress Barbara Hutton, the world’s richest woman, reclining by the Lido in Venice, 1958.
Staley Wise Gallery, NYC

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Sundowners
Two bikini-clad holiday makers enjoy a glass of wine outside the Carlton Hotel, Cannes, 1958.

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Rex Reed
Actor and film critic Rex Reed relaxes in a wicker chair on Great Harbour Cay in the Bahamas, 1973.

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Jacqueline Kennedy at an “April in Paris” ball, c. 1959
Staley Wise Gallery, NYC

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Capote at Home
Author Truman Capote relaxes with a book and a cigarette in his cluttered apartment, Brooklyn Heights, New York, c. 1958.

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Guinness Family
Hon. Desmond Guiness in his recently acquired home Lixlip Castle, Co. Kildare, Ireland with his children Marina and Patrick. Holiday Magazine, 1963.

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Beauty and the Beast
Lady Daphne Cameron on a tiger skin rug in the trophy room at socialite Laddie Sanford’s home in Palm Beach, Florida, c. 1959.

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Mara Lane At The Sands
Austrian actress Mara Lane lounging by the pool in a red and white striped bathing costume at the Sands Hotel, Las Vegas, 1954.

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Penthouse Pool
Young women by the Canellopoulos penthouse pool, Athens, July 1961.

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Monocled Miss
Renata Boeck enjoying breakfast in bed at the Regency Hotel in New York, 1964.

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Donald Lease
Mr. and Mrs. Donald Lease with their Rolls Royce and two pet dogs outside their home in Palm Beach, Florida, April, 1968.

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Have A Topping Time
Socialite Alice Topping relaxing at a poolside in Palm Beach, 1959.

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Gloria Schiff
Gloria Schiff, the twin sister of Consuelo Crespi, with her pet dog and pet birds at Lyford Cay in the Bahamas, 1963.

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Lord Lichfield
British photographer Lord Lichfield holding a Hasselblad camera. On his arm is Marina Lante della Rovere, to the left is Ines Torlonia, and reclining is Signoria Gancia, Porto Ercole, Italy, c. 1970.

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Filed under . REGULAR FEATURES, Art, Art Monday

Fine Print: Suzanne Kasler Inspired Interiors

Cover Photo: Simon Watson

Another beautiful book that has been sitting on my shelf since early winter is Suzanne Kasler: Inspired Interiors (Rizzoli, 2009). Suzanne is an Atlanta-based designer who made the coveted House Beautiful “Top 100 Designers” list back in 2005, and has been going strong ever since, having been published in Elle Decor, House Beautiful, Southern Accents, Veranda, Traditional Home, and Architectural Digest. (The links click through to her stories, so take a peek.)  Here are images from her book, which was published by Rizzloli  in November, along with caption info and commentary.

Photo: Gia Trovan for Southern Accents

White walls set off deliberate touches of blue in this entryway that also doubles as a dining area. Hard to tell here, but the chandelier is adorned with seashells, the rooms only truly beach-y touch. The collection of blue glass is vintage. I love the turquoise bench upholstery; wonder if it’s velvet?

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Photo: Erica George Dines Photography

This is the living room of Suzanne’s own beach house. Everything – the walls, ceiling, and floor – is painted in Benjamin Moore’s White Dove. (That’s the color in my house too!)  The French flea market chairs are upholstered in indestructible orange and aqua ultrasuede. The fireplace surround is made of poured stone embedded with seashells. The coral sconces are beach-y but still sophisticated.

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Photo: Erica George Dines Photographay

Another room in Suzanne’s beach house. The artworks are vintage batick prints she found at a flea market, framed in bamboo and hung in a tight grid. The pillow colors echo colors found in the prints. The limestone and iron coffee table and the floor lamps provide strong but simple shapes in black and white. The little round table is a kitschy seashell covered piece from a local shop.

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Photo: Gia Trovan for Southern Accents

The floors and fireplace wall in this beach house are painted a cool, slean white, while the rest of the deocr is done in various shades of soothing blue. The walls in the sitting room beyond are sky blue; the slipcover on the chair is almost a French blue; the rug is striped in other blues. The blue balls are iridescent blown glass. The painting is by Dusty Griffith. Overall, a very watery space.

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Photo: William Waldron

You might not realize it, but there is a lot of white in this living room. The round acrylic tables are by Nancy Corzine (whose new book I wrote about yesterday). The stools are Russian, found in Paris and uphostered in two different fabrics to create a striped effect. These stools inspired the Anastasia bench in Suzanne’s furniture line for Hickory Chair.

•  •  •

Photo: Erica George Dines Photography

I love the mix of greens and turquoise in this room, whose colors are rich without being heavy. The swirly chairs wor well mixed with the simpler Louix XVI-style ones.

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Photo: Tria Giovan

The peony pink color of the accent wall in this dining room is Glidden Checkberry. Kasler points out that this color has depth – you can see many different shades it in – red and pink and ochre and white. The Louis XVI -style chairs are upholstered in raffia with nail heads. I love the interlocking swirls on the front face of the console, which echo the curves of the chandelier and sconces . And the peonies, so luscious.

•  •  •

Photo: Erica George Dines Photography

An elegant bedroom in neutral tones with a rosy hue.

All photographs courtesy of  Suzanne Kasler: Inspired Interiors, Rizzoli, 2009

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CARROT CURRENCY:    bedroom furniture chest of drawers

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Deal Alert: Sample Sale in Fort Point

This Saturday afternoon, March 20th 12pm to 4pm at a Fort Point venue called THE LOFT (319 A St., 3rd floor),  Boston boutique owners are gathering to unload items at excellent prices.

Boutiques include some of Boston’s best: Stil, Habit, Portobello Road, Velvet Fly, Flock, and French Dressing. Other vendors, such as Bryce Sin Care (organic and paraben-free), ICU-In Paris (gorgeous, on-trend jewelry) and Fabricadabra (a-mazing ikat pillows – I have three) will also be offering up their wares.

The only catch? It’ll cost you: $15 in advance, $20 at door. But ticket price includes 2 specialty cocktails and a gift bag. Click here to buy tix.

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Shop Alert: Shoo Woo Opens In Copley

Boston’s Copley Place has a new shoe shop, shoeWoo. It’s a chain (this seems to be the company’s sixth outpost) that carries affordable lines that include Nine West, Joan & David, AK Anne Klein, and Rachel Roy. While the interior looks like a sumptuous shoe salon, the merch seems more fitting to the not quite as fancy Shops at the Prudential. Though, I suppose it’s not all Jimmy Choo, Tiffany, and Louis Vuitton at Copley Place; that’s where I shop J. Crew. I haven’t actually checked out shoeWood yet, but next time I need a mall fix I’ll definitely wander in.

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Filed under . REGULAR FEATURES, Fashion, Shopping