Do you know your Louis? If not, this wall at the Louvre's Musee des Arts Decoratifs might help. Talk about reference library!
We have a long holiday weekend (in reverence of Martin Luther King) and the weather here in DC is decidely cozy: Cold and rainy. One of my favorite past-times is taking an evening walk. Everything looks so beautiful in the dark and you catch private glimpses into houses (nothing voyeuristic, I just want to see the house!). While in Paris one evening , we caught a glimpse into this cozy retreat in St. Germaine. I love the very rustic interior (those old beams!) paired with the very refined exterior of the building (that balcony and carved head!).
Long stretches of cold weather like we're having help me realize why people have decorated the interiors of their homes with flower images for centuries: reminders of warmer weather! This exuberant wallpaper panel is all you need: I feel warmer already! It is paired with 18th century painted furniture which bears more of the same fruit. Hopefully this will help warm you!
In the heart of Antwerp lies a 16th century warehouse which now bears the Vervoordt stamp. Not Axel, but his son Boris.
The former coffee warehouse, from 1577, was one of many in Antwerp owned by the family. In 1995 Boris moved in and slowly took over, floor by floor, turning it into his private home. A feature which most caught my eye, the staircase from a 1970s renovation, is a pre-cast concrete structure with chunky wood treads seen in the top photo and through the dining room above. While I don't think the staircase would meet code here in the US, I would be tempted to try. This is a seriously sexy stair.
Boris, while having his own eye, is still very much his father's son: see his living room above. Time worn finishes, oversize sofas, natural linens, rough wood and honed stone: all similar to a space by his father, Axel, but with a new twist. I hope to see much more of Boris in the future and that staircase is just a divine inspiration!
This frigid weather has me thinking of warmer climates and the beach: What about you? In the October 2009 edition of Elle Decoration is a beautiful house on the water in Normandy.
Look at that view from the terrace! Would love to have a glass of iced tea on this terrace and soak up the sun.
The interiors focus on the magnificent views as well, thanks to the gracious color scheme which does not compete for attention. I think this lends a very relaxed atmosphere. It's not fussy but you know a lot of care and planning went into this decoration.
I especially liked the white washed wood walls found throughout the house. The seagrass carpets help make some of the more formal antiques feel casual. The simple treatment of the interiors throughout adds to the vacation 'aire' of the house.
The living room has ample seating for a large group of friends. I can imagine sitting around the fireplace on chilly nights with a few bottles of wine. Even the artwork fits into the color scheme which generally I find a little forced, but works in a beach house such as this for me.
The kitchen continues the gray and mirrored surfaces. The space looks small and efficient with some interesting storage ideas. I love the all glass cabinets which seperate the cooking area from the breakfast room. Check out the interesting glass ventilation hood.
The house seems to have a great flow to it. Very few doors and lots of big windows.
The small den looks like a great place to curl up with a book on a rainy day. I think the high placement of the sconces is unusual, but helps to bring the high ceilings down a bit for a less formal feeling.
The master bedroom is an ocean of white and blue which is so inviting!
Even the master bathroom has a cozy nook to curl up onto with the built in bench. A lot of thought was obviously put into how this house is used daily. Quiet private areas as well as more gracious entertaining zones coexist in a grand but informal style without sacrificing the flow of spaces.
I hope this house reminds everyone of warmer days to come!
Featured in the March 2008 issue of Metropolitan Home magazine was an example of a city apartment with great bones which was renovated efficiently and beautifully. The great bones were there, natural light, outdoor space and tall ceilings on a high floor.
Jeffrey Povero, an architect in NYC, renovated the space for himself and his partner in a 1914 hospital buiding which had been converted to apartments in the 80s. The space was a bland box when he found it, but he saw promise in the 11 foot ceilings and views of the brooklyn bridge. I'm sure the huge terrace and three exposures didn't hurt either!
What started out as plans for minimal renovations turned into a gut job, as these types of jobs often do. Why do anything half way? While not a small apartment by New York standards at 860 SF, it still had to operate efficiently for the two.
I would buy a rat filled shoebox of an apartment for that terrace. Amazing! I'm in love with the walnut paneling Povero had installed behind the fireplace (top image) and in the kitchen below and with the acres of white marble. I would have used a beefier countertop at the island though I think.....it looks fragile and skimpy.
Povero wanted to create a modern men's club, which I think reads very strongly. While a bit minimal for my personal tastes, I think the apartment is stunning.
One thing Povero and I share is a love of organization, although he takes it further than I; his books, seen above, are arranged in Dewey Decimal order! He worked for years at Robert Stern designing libraries: I suppose that will do it for you!
The closet is also a work of supreme organization. How many closets get published in magazines? I drooled over this.....
The Villa Karma on Switzerland's Lake Geneva was his first major project, and here he was experimenting with what modernism was and yet still referencing the classical tradition more than in his later projects. It's this juxtoposition that I love so much and yet is so hard to find.
Loos's life, by the way, was a veritable soap opera, that would shock the most liberal biographer today. His contemporary, Frank Lloyd Wright was a walk in the park comparitively! But I'm not here to talk about his life ( you can read about it on wikipedia HERE if you're interested). The rear of the house, which faces the lake, takes advantage of the views with steep garden terracing, huge windows and numerous outdoor rooms.
Here you can see some of the classical Doric columns that are used here on a loggia, but also at the front entrance as seen in the top image. Their presence is striking against the slick and austere facade of stucco. Notice also the statue of a face to the left - a classical element.
While he eschewed traditional ornament, he used beautiful materials on the interior of the house to great effect: nothing boring here. The house is a positive mausoleum of beautiful marbles. In the oval entry foyer, a pattern of black and white marble on the floor contrasts with a rosey marble used on the walls and gold tiles on the ceiling.
The upper level of this opening, as seen from the hallway above, was an obvious precedent for Michael Grave's own house in New Jersey (as was much of the work of Loos). Recognize it?
The library again shows the decorative (but not ornamental) use of marble and wood with large windows overlooking the lake. I could spend all day in this room!
This corner of the library shows another modern take on 'tradition' - a stained glass window.
The most famous room in the house, however (which also appears on the cover) is the master bathroom. Classicism rears its head again, this time in a black marble. The bronze doors are studded and I wouldn't want to walk into them in the middle of the night! The sink is between the 2 doors seen below: this room is enormous - a veritable temple to cleanliness!
The dining room again uses tons of marble, with an interesting metal ceiling. I wish I could find a color photograph of this. Do you think it's copper? Steel? While this room looks cold in this photo,I think with a tablecloth, dishes, chairs - it would warm right up. But this is definitely a cold house, probably better suited for a tropical climate rather than Switzerland!
The loggia, off the dining room is similar in form, but the floor pattern from the dining room is echoed on the ceiling out here in a classical motif. The niches at the end of the space are also somewhat classical (and I feel were probably added by Ehrlich and not Loos)
The photographs are by Roberto Schezen from the marvelous book, Adolf Loos Architecture 1903-1932 by Kenneth Frampton and Joseph Rosa. 
One thing European architects and designers do well, in history and today, is consider the entire envelope. Not just walls and floors of an interior, but ceilings as well. Here in the states, so often we paint the ceiling white, stick a fixture up there (that hopefully isn't overly offensive) and install all manner of ductwork and fire equipment because 'no one ever looks up there'.
People do look up and a ceiling is as important as any other surface! I think these 3 images from my travels prove that point (in formal and ornate ways) - who could NOT notice these efforts? The first thing people tend to notice with memorable interior designers are their ceiling treatments: Real estate agents always will point out crown moldings and any decorative beams. It shows an attention to detail. Don't think no one will notice ill-placed air vents, sprinkler system heads or home depot light fixtures!
First image: Royal palace private apartments: Naples, Italy.
Grisaille: a French term for a painting done in monochrome: generally in shades of brown or gray. These wallpaper panels in the 18th century section of the Louvre's Musee des Arts Decoratifs fit the bill nicely. These are obviously LATE 18th century as they are done in a neoclassical style that crossed over into the early 19th century.
I hope everyone has a relaxing early holiday weekend and stays warm! Winter is here (or at least it feels like it!).
I now have a personal scanner -exciting news here at ArchitectDesign! I wanted so much to share with you one of my favorite books, which if you love beautiful historic interiors, you must add to your library - Potsdam by Gert Streidt (author) and Klaus Frahm (who provided the lush photography). 
This is probably the design book I refer to the most -my comfort blanket. As an exchange student in high school, I visited this neighborhood of palaces outside of Berlin and knew that this is what my passion was -great residential design. I remember standing in this room above in Sancoucci (which I've blogged about before HERE) as if it were yesterday and being totally blown away. Known as the Voltaire room (he supposedly lived here while in residence at the palace from 1750 till 1753), the room features wood paneling painted a beautiful yellow, marble floors and a built in bed (Thomas Jefferson wasn't the only one!). The painted woodwork features fruits cultivated in the palace park and greenhouse. The goal of the rococo movement, used here and at which the Germans excelled, was to integrate the surroundings into a unified whole -this was accomplished in this room by using the same motifs on the walls, ceiling, chandelier and even embroidery.
Another favorite room featured in the book is the private writing room of the royal quaters at the New Palace (literally across the park from Sanssouci). Again we have beautiful painted wood paneling but an unusual porcelain framed mirror above the fireplace (not painted wood which is more usual). The amazing writing table is covered in tortoise shell and silver plated bronze overlays; So over the top gorgeous.
I saved the best for last. This desk, by Karl Friedrich Schinkel, is probably my favorite piece of furniture ever. It is located in the ladies-in-waiting drawing room at the Charlottenhof Palace, an AMAZING neoclassical house from 1839, also designed by Schinkel. The interiors are very simple, almost modern, and were considered very middle class in their day. This simplicity was due to a small budget but also the changing of fashion. The building stands in sharp contrast to some of the earlier rococo palaces featured in the area. 
Recently, on one of my favorite blogs, The Realestalker, I came across the apartment of the late Dominick Dunne. It came as no surprise to me that Dunne had one of the most PERFECT NYC apartments that should I ever win the lottery, I would snatch up in a heartbeat!
It's not the space itself that is so wonderful (small but cozy, see the floorplan below) but the enormous south facing terrace that is larger than most New York apartments at 850 sf. I would fill this with trees and ivy with potted geraniums for low maintenance greenery.
The best room which takes advantage of the terrace views is the study, where I assume Dunne wrote his Vanity Fair column. Since I'm a movie buff, I would put a long deep couch under the windows facing built in bookshelves with a tv mounted on the front. The couch of course would double as a guest-bed for overnight guests. A low coffee table would hold bowls of popcorn and jelly beans during movie nights and dozens of potted orchids and plants on a console behind the sofa would enjoy the sunlight with 2 lamps for nighttime.
The long living room, seen below, would house my collection of framed architectural watercolors, be painted a french gray and receive an antique oak herringbone wood floor. I would also need to source an antique white marble fireplace and some lalique crystal wall sconces to brighten the space. I would leave the french doors without any window treatment for a clean look and an antique rug would define the seating area. 2 comfortable reading chairs in a warm velvet, an antique sofa and mirrored coffee table would finish off this end of the room.
The other side I would treat as a dining area with 60" round dining table, perhaps with parsons chairs for comfortable seating for long suppers with friends. The kitchen I would continue in the same french gray color (including painting the lower cabinets. A mirrored backsplash and countertops (ala Miles Redd) and painted wood shelving instead of cabinets to open up the space would be a great way to display my collection of china! I might even go with undercounter refrigerator drawers to create more counter and shelf space. That plate rack has GOT to GO as does the dated light fixture. I would continue the same wood flooring from the living room.
The fussy roman blinds in the bedroom would be replaced with simple drapes in a gray linen to match the wall color: Continue the wood floor and a soft carpet would be nice underfoot near the bed. Would a mirrored 4 poster bed be too over the top, or perhaps overdone as many NY interior designers seem to favor this look? The dressing room currently has a beautiful chipendale mirror, seen through the doorway, that I would definitely want to keep!
What would you do with the space? Would you prefer such a generous terrace or a larger apartment?
