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.

One of Hampton Court Palace's Eavesdroppers

Cultural Explorations Garden Design Interior Design

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:…

Whistler gilded the walnut latticework forming the shelves.

Art Cultural Explorations Interior Design

The Peacock Room à la Whistler

Saxon Henry July 23, 2015 architectural storytelling books of letters British poets Chinoiserie decorating history design narratives England fine porcelain France grand residences Great Britain Greek deities Groundbreakers Henry VIII House of Tudor literary design encounters London monarchs painters Paris Rococo Style salonniere The Literary Adventurer Tudor Era Washington DC

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…

DXV Design Panel detail by Justin Shaulis

Books Interior Design Literature

A Room with a View x 2

Saxon Henry June 28, 2015 actors and actresses architectural storytelling cathedrals to explore design industry leaders design narratives Emotionality of Architecture England famous writers fine porcelain Florence Great Britain Italy novelists popular movies set decoration summer reading list

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…

Books Interior Design

The Old Familiar Faces

Saxon Henry April 13, 2015 actors and actresses books of letters British poets dead poets society decorating history design narratives famous writers keeping diaries literary design encounters London New York City novelists poetry salonniere Shakespeare The Literary Adventurer

…I have been laughing, I have been carousing, Drinking late, sitting late, with my bosom cronies, All, all are gone, the old familiar faces… These…

Settenani pendants by Karman Lighting illuminate a contrary Snow White.

Books Interior Design

Snow White Meets Settenani

Saxon Henry February 1, 2015 authenticity design industry leaders design narratives Italy lighting literary design encounters

“Oh, mirror, mirror on the wall, am I most beautiful of all?” Snow White’s mother, the envious Queen, would ask her looking glass each evening,…

Books Interior Design Philanthropy

Ally Coulter and the Opulent Salon

Saxon Henry November 29, 2014 authenticity Baroque Era decorating history design industry leaders design narratives fine antiques France French aristocracy grand residences Italy literary design encounters Louis XIV Madame de Sevigne Marie-Louise of Austria Marquise de Rambouillet New York City nobility nonfiction writers Paris Parma poetry Rome Royal Courtiers royal palaces salonniere Versailles

Ally Coulter’s grand salon on the first floor of the Holiday House NYC took my breath away the minute I entered the room. It was…

Bernhardt's Marquesa dresser on Saxon Henry's blog.

Books Furniture Design Interior Design

Harmony and Proportion

Saxon Henry October 15, 2014 American furniture manufacturers decorating history design industry leaders design narratives Edith Wharton High Point Market nonfiction writers novelists set decoration

Love of beauty is taste…the creation of beauty is art. -Emerson I’ve been a fan of Alexandra Stoddard since I came across the designer’s book Living…

The chapter of “Staircases: the Architecture of Ascent” covering 1600-1800 is titled “A Theatre of Power” and illustrated with this sumptuous image of Jean-Léon Gérôme’s “Reception of the Grand Condé at Versailles” [1878], courtesy of The Vendome Press and Musée d’Orsay/Hervé Lewandowski.

Architecture Books Interior Design

Summer Reading with Carmen Natschke

Saxon Henry August 3, 2014 architectural storytelling decorating history design industry leaders France grand residences Italy London painters Paris philosophers summer reading list Versailles

For those of you who think Carmen Natschke, of The Decorating Diva fame, is merely a glamorous gadabout holding court in the design stratosphere, there…

Books Interior Design Philanthropy

Kips Bay Show House

Saxon Henry July 14, 2014 classical antiquity design industry leaders design narratives famous writers grand residences literary design encounters New York City nonfiction writers philosophers Washington DC

“The house is one of the greatest powers of integration for the thoughts, memories and dreams of mankind,” wrote Gaston Bachelard in The Poetics of…