Category: Interior Design

Though you may think the category interior design doesn’t belong on a blog featuring creative writing, I beg to differ. What would a film be without a movie set?

I challenge you to find a story that doesn’t need a setting! I feel fortunate to be immersed in the interior design industry because my exposure to beautiful interiors gives me a backdrop in which to place the characters I enjoy writing about. In A Room with a View x 2, it was E.M. Forster’s novel hinted at in the title of the post, his characters Lucy Honeychurch and George Emerson the inspiration for Justin Shaulis’ bathroom vignettes he designed for the American Standard DXV Design Panel in 2015. When I saw the beautiful settings, I knew they would make a perfect pairing of design and literature for my diary.

In my escapade Reading Dante in Milan, I place Percy Bysshe Shelley in a sunny spot on a banquette a new restaurant in Milan, Le Vrai designed by Karine Lewkowicz, for a leisurely lunch and an afternoon of reading Dante! I think the famous poet would have enjoyed the heck out of the experience!

I had very little work to do to decide who would be the perfect historical figure to fit within Garrow Kedigian’s space in the 2016 Kips Bay Decorator Show House because he had chosen for me. His Napoléon’s Lounge was a stunning room with chalk tromp l’oeil architectural elements that knocked me out. I presented the new General of the French army and his soon-to-be wife Josephine through Evangeline Bruce’s Napoléon & Joséphine: An Improbable Marriage.

“The Funeral of Shelley” by Louis Édouard Fournier (1889); pictured in the centre are, from left, Trelawny, Hunt, and Byron.

Books Creative Writing Interior Design

Leigh Hunt Avid Decorator

This essay about the decorating exploits of Leigh Hunt is included in my most recent book The Modern Salonnière. The 34 other essays in the…

A portrait of Louis XV in the Salon de Mercury at Versailles

DesignLabs Historical Design Interior Design

The Fabric of Design

Saxon Henry January 30, 2018 decorating history demi-monde Edith Wharton France French aristocracy grand residences House of Bourbon Louis XIV Louis XV Louis XVI Royal Courtiers royal palaces Versailles

In their introduction to The Decoration of Houses, Edith Wharton and Ogden Codman, Jr., write, “In the middle ages, when warfare and brigandage shaped the…

Cultural Explorations Interior Design Literature

The Sensuous Delight of Place

Saxon Henry July 10, 2017 American poets dead poets society design narratives England Ezra Pound famous writers Ford Madox Ford Gertrude Stein keeping diaries literary design encounters London Lost Generation memoirs novelists Paris salonniere summer reading list Virginia Woolf writing desks

Like Katherine Mansfield’s enigmatic stories, the book Place by Tara Bernerd feels like “a thread with a subtly woven texture embracing ecstatic feeling, sensuous delight.” The…

Reception at Malmaison in 1802 François Flameng

Books Historical Design Interior Design

Transitory Spaces

Saxon Henry July 6, 2016 books of letters classical antiquity decorating history design industry leaders Empire Style fine antiques France grand residences historic castles libraries lighting literary design encounters Marie-Louise of Austria memoirs monarchs Napoleon nobility Paris Royal Courtiers royal palaces Versailles

The beginning of one of Napoléon Bonaparte’s earliest letters to Joséphine de Beauharnais simply oozes sensuality: “Seven in the morning. I awaken full of you…the…

Historical Design Interior Design Mythology

Rewriting the Myth of Pandora

Saxon Henry June 29, 2016 antiques shopping in Europe classical antiquity design industry leaders design narratives fine antiques Greek deities High Point Market literary design encounters New York City Rome

I’ve always been fascinated by the myth of Pandora because the most widely accepted explanation of this parable—that feminine curiosity “is responsible for all the…

Books DesignLabs Interior Design

Reading Dante in Milan

Saxon Henry March 15, 2016 architectural storytelling British poets Dante Alighieri dead poets society design industry leaders famous writers Italy lighting literary design encounters Medieval Times poetry The Literary Adventurer

“I’d like that sunny table near the windows under the beautiful mirror,” he says to the hostess at Le Vrai, pointing to the niche set…

The Mad Hatter as seen through a magnifying glass

Interior Design Literature Travel

Through the Looking Glass into Devon

Saxon Henry January 5, 2016 design industry leaders design narratives famous writers libraries literary design encounters novelists

Through the Looking Glass Into Devon “‘What is the use of a book,’ thought Alice, ‘without pictures or conversations?’” “What is the use of a…

Three children painted in the Elizabethan style.

Books Garden Design Interior Design

Narratives That Illuminate Design

Saxon Henry December 9, 2015 antiques shopping in Europe authenticity Beinecke Library British poets Chinoiserie decorating history design industry leaders Edith Wharton Empire Style fashion influences interiors France French aristocracy grand residences historic castles House of Tudor Italy libraries lighting London monarchs Napoleon New York City nonfiction writers novelists Paris Parma Regency Era Renaissance Royal Courtiers royal palaces Tudor Era Venice Washington DC Yale University

Narratives That Illuminate Design If you believe that design-centric coffee table books contain nothing more than visual surveys of portfolios, I am out to change…