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 conditions of life, and men camped in their castles much as they did in their tents, it was natural that decorations should be portable, and that the naked walls of […]
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 Sensuous Delight of Place
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 quote is from an essay by Angela Smith in a remarkable book titled The Modernist Party. Edited by Kate McLoughlin, the collection of literary explorations surveys the dinner party through […]
Transitory Spaces
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 memory of yesterday’s intoxicating evening has left no rest to my senses…Sweet and incomparable Joséphine, I draw from your lips, from your heart, a flame which consumes me…A thousand kisses, […]
Rewriting the Myth of Pandora
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 woes from which mankind suffers”—may not be accurate according to some scholars. The quote, from Frances E. Sabin’s book Classical Myths That Live Today, goes on to say, “Another version […]
Reading Dante in Milan
“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 with two café tables, perfect for reading Dante all afternoon. Only a few decades earlier, the waistcoat and watch fob dangling from its pocket would have been out of place, […]
Through the Looking Glass into Devon
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 hotel,” thought Timothy Oulton, “without whimsy and curiosities?” With Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland as his inspiration, the designer set out to transform the interiors of the Glazebrook House Hotel into […]
Narratives That Illuminate Design
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 your mind today by presenting my choices for narratives that illuminate design. What has prompted this quest? Two intelligently written books in Rizzoli’s holiday catalog—both of which were published earlier […]
Decorating Hampton Court Palace
The premise of this article and the next one I’ll post here on The Diary of an Improvateur (next week) began with a rather capricious question: how would it feel to decorate Hampton Court Palace, a jewel in the Tudor King’s built crown, in a way that if the luminaries in Henry VIII’s court were alive […]
The Peacock Room à la Whistler
The most recognizable painting by artist James Abbott McNeill Whistler might lead you to believe he was as Puritan as his upbringing. The fact he could render such a realistic homage to piety in Arrangement in Grey and Black No. 1 (Portrait of the Artist’s Mother)—better known as Whistler’s Mother—does seem to further the illusion […]
A Room with a View x 2
When I saw the expressive twin spaces Justin Shaulis created as one of American Standard’s 2015 DXV Design Panel participants, I knew I had to feature him for two reasons: the sensual storytelling he achieved within the spaces he designed and the novel he chose as his inspiration, A Room with a View by E.M. Forster, […]