Goethehaus circa 1755

Exploring Frankfurt with Goethe

I am returning to Frankfurt am Main next week to attend Heimtextil for the second time, an experience I truly enjoyed last year for the…

View More Exploring Frankfurt with Goethe
Hotel Russell by Tara Bernerd

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…

View More The Sensuous Delight of Place
Chambre Bleu painting

A Backward Glance on rue de Varenne

The narrow sidewalks push their black iron batons up out of the ground to protect the buildings hemming them; the rain turns the cobblestones to…

View More A Backward Glance on rue de Varenne
Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald before This Side of Paradise

This Side of Paradise

I looked forward to meeting Michael Berman during the Spring 2016 High Point Market when he was there to debut his Califolio collection for Theodore…

View More This Side of Paradise
In the mood for chess in The Thomas Crown Affair

How to Set a Mood

The 1968 version of The Thomas Crown Affair starring Steve McQueen and Faye Dunaway is a mercurial mélange of masculine and feminine charisma in equal…

View More How to Set a Mood
Bertie Pelham visits Edith Crawley’s London Flat.

I Met Virginia Woolf in This Room

Who else is relieved that Lady Edith Crawley, played by Laura Carmichael, is finally finding happiness on Downton Abbey? Having binged on all of the…

View More I Met Virginia Woolf in This Room
Bernardaud produces the Marie-Antoinette pattern of porcelain

Dining with History

A month from Sunday, I’ll be winging my way to Paris to attend Maison & Objet, and I’m thrilled to say I’ve been invited to…

View More Dining with History
Adventurer Collection living room setting by Timothy Oulton

Timothy Oulton Design Adventurer

“As the momentous words ‘England is now, therefore, in a state of war with Germany’ came somberly over the radio, Major James Bigglesworth, D.S.O., better…

View More Timothy Oulton Design Adventurer