Happy New Year! Welcome 2021!

Happy New Year to all my followers and regular readers. May 2021 be a healing, peaceful, and prosperous year for the planet.

See you soon for the first post of 2021. Until then, Happy Designing!

Happy Winter Solstice and Happy Holidays 2020!

This year, 2020, the Winter Solstice--the shortest day and longest night of the year--for the northern hemisphere will happen next Monday, December 21st. I am wishing everyone a Happy Winter Solstice and a beautiful and joyous Holiday Season! See you all in 2021.

Know Your Sofas: Tufted

Upholstery is a huge and varied topic, but for this installment of Know Your Sofas, let's look at an upholstery detail that can define a sofa: tufting.

Simply, tufting is passing a thread through a base, like a cushion, to make a depression. When done with thread only, this is often referred to as blind tufting. But the practice of adding a button to the depression is--you guessed it--button tufting.

Because it is without any ornamentation, blind tufting lends a more contemporary, sleek sense to furniture, especially if it is done in a grid pattern, like this sofa below.

But buttons can be unobtrusive and blend in with a mid-century modern look as well...

...this button tufted single row, below, unmistakably references mid-century modern.

On the other hand, a diamond tufted pattern really feels a lot more luxurious and traditional. It can look great on a camel back sofa...

...or on a classic Chesterfield!

Then there is another type of tufting that is executed in a row called channel tufting. This detail can speak to a few different time periods like Art Deco...

Pavel Vozmischev/Getty Images

...or the 70s!

Happy designing!

Happy Thanksgiving 2020!

"Be grateful in your own hearts. That suffices. Thanksgiving has wings, and flies to its right destination."
—Victor Hugo

"Enjoy the little things, for one day you may look back and realize they were the big things."
—Robert Brault

I wish all of my readers and followers in the United States a very happy Thanksgiving Day!

Four Easy Steps For Autumn Decor

Since I love autumn, but also because my blog metrics tell me this is a very popular post with lots of hits, I am reposting my 2013 piece about autumnal décor:

This is the time of year when the air chills, days grow shorter, and we turn to our indoor lives. Since the temperature is dropping, we desire warmth and comfort, we desire insulation from the elements, and we desire to cocoon ourselves in special places that allow for beauty and contemplation of the season. Below are four very simple--and inexpensive!--ways to bring a touch of autumn into your home.

1. Nature
This is the easiest, fastest way to achieve a rich, fall texture in your home. And there are a few ways to work with nature.

A trip to the produce section of your local supermarket will yield a bounty of decorative objects. Think of buying a bag or crisp red apples to put in a basket or on a wooden platter as a centerpiece for a table. Pick up a selection of pumpkins (large, medium and baby pumpkins) and gourds to arrange on an end or hall table. Red or purple grapes and fresh cranberries can be put into decorative glass bowls or vases. Even things like stalks of Brussels sprouts, artichokes, or deep hued purple eggplants can be effective in centerpieces or tableaux. Another wonderful element to use in autumn décor are nuts: walnuts, Filberts, hazelnuts, pecans... just pile them up in an amber colored glass dish or scatter around a table setting.

A trip to the florist or nursery can provide you with some beautiful autumn color in the form of cut flowers like autumn colored chrysanthemums or potted orange marigolds. You can also find dried flowers and greenery like hydrangeas or eucalyptus to use in vases or other containers (I have a lovely antique ceramic German beer stein that gets some dried hydrangeas around this time of year.) Many places sell colorful Indian corn as well to add to the mix.

Finally, the most accessible way of obtaining natural elements to use is to forage! Autumn leaves, twigs to bundle or gather into bouquets, pine cones, sheaves of wheat or grasses can be found almost anywhere. Keep your eyes peeled and if you see a pretty fallen branch with a bit of moss on the sidewalk, snap it up!

2. Candles
Candles add a wonderful ambiance any time of the year but they seem especially appropriate in the colder autumn and winter months. Display pillar candles on a platter surrounded by nuts and pine cones, put them in lanterns, arrange a bunch of candles of varying heights with apples and mini ceramic pumpkins on a dining table. If you have a non-operational fireplace, candles look wonderful grouped in the firebox, giving the same visual cue as a log-burning fire.

3. Texture
For added interest, turn to earthy or rich textures:
* woods like oak and birch (candle holders, branches, bowls)
* burlap (a rustic table runner or cloth)
* velvet (pillows, drapery)
* blankets or throws in thick woven materials or faux fur
* rich patterns like paisley (pillows, throws, rugs, tablecloths or runners)

4. Color
At this time of the year, we are naturally surrounded by a rich palette: rust, crimson, purple, russet, mustard, forest green, umber, sienna...Use these hues as inspiration for objects in your own home.

It is easy to change out pillows, add some earthenware vases, and display some autumn colored fruit.

The addition of a throw and some white mini-pumpkins along with branches and dried vines in rustic jugs on the mantel above a warming fire sets the stage for fall.

Warm autumnal tones and a large scale paisley print look cozy and inviting.

Branches with brilliant rust and brown leaves placed inside honor the crisp days of the season. Notice the blanket of leaves, apples, and a gnarled piece of wood at the foot of the arrangement.

Gourds, decorative mercury glass pumpkins, an antler, and lanterns with glowing candles make a textural, interesting grouping. Image from Pottery Barn.

Branches and a selection of pumpkins in various hues are displayed with antique rakes in an almost minimalist tableau.

This casual table setting includes cinnamon sticks on forest green glass mugs (a lovely touch), apples, pine cones, leaves, and a coarsely woven cloth in natural hues of linen and taupe.

I set my Thanksgiving table every year with some gourds, red leaves, and a dried floral arrangement studded with eucalyptus, dried lotus pods (I love their shape) and pheasant feathers. I also use my grandmother's pressed glass turkey candy dish filled with an assortment of nuts (although some years, it holds cranberry relish!). Photo by Jeff Fiorito.

Bare twigs in simple glass cylinders (available at any craft store or florist) are anchored by what looks like a mix of wild rices. Berries, moss and lichen covered branches, pine cones and mini pumpkins complete the festive look.

Hazelnuts act as vase fillers for copper mums. Brilliant.

The simplicity of a single leaf on a white plate still expresses the richness and bounty of the season.

Now that you are acquainted with some simple, available ingredients, I hope you are inspired to gather some of these elements and honor the textures, smells, and sights of the season. And remember my helpful guidelines for creating a tableau, previously here: think about the shape your grouping makes; include tall, medium, and low objects for a variety of levels; odd numbers work best; and most importantly, contrast brings interest (rough next to smooth, light next to dark, large next to small).

Have a wonderful autumn and happy designing!

Celebrating The Darkness Within: Happy Halloween!

In recognition of Halloween next week, let's look at spaces that embrace and celebrate a deliciously moody darkness...

The home of London designer Abigail Ahern is a spectacular example of the power of dark colors...

If you're not afraid of the dark, give me a call--we can create a dramatic, moody space for your very own.

Happy designing and Happy Halloween!

History of Furniture: Empire

As we have seen over the last many posts in this ongoing series of The History of Furniture, no style or movement or shape happens in a vacuum. Everything in the decorative arts springs from a milieu...that is a very specific time and place that gives birth to something representative of that period: politically, socially, scientifically, and economically.

And this installment is a great example of this principle. The Empire style (pronounced ahm--PEER, as it is in French) is a product of layers of social and political upheaval that came right before it. After years of the excesses of late Baroque, King Louis XVI and the aristocracy were overthrown in the French Revolution. However, the Revolution was not a single event, but a series of events that took place over many years. Once the monarchy was no longer in power, the French First Republic was created, overseen by a five member committee called the Directory.

The style of decorative arts--including architecture, interiors, clothing, and painting--during this period is called Directoire which I wrote about in this post.

But the rise of Napoleon I and his power led to a coup d'etat which abolished the Directory. Napoleon then created the Consulate, and after enduring several years of counter-plots and assassination attempts, he created an imperial system of government based on the ancient Roman model.

And this is where the Empire style grew from...the Directoire style already borrowed classical silhouettes and motifs from ancient Rome (who had stolen their style from the ancient Greeks before them), and since Napoleon I was now Emperor, France dove head-first into ostentatious pomp. Self-aggrandizing Napoleon saw himself as a Caesar, and everything produced in France at that time was meant to idealize Napoleon's leadership and the French state.

And perhaps no other location exemplifies this better than Chateau de Malmaison, the residence of Emperor Napoleon I and Empress Josephine and the seat of the French government from 1800 to 1802. Located nearly 10 miles west of the center of Paris in Rueil-Malmaison, the chateau is full of the kind of Neoclassical bluster that inflated Napoleon's view of himself. Just take a look at this portrait by Ingres, Napoleon On His Imperial Throne.

Napoleon's bedroom is draped in fabric to recall the kind of tent he would have lived in during his war campaigns.

But Josephine's bedroom was even more resplendent, with a red and gold scheme and again, the tent-like structure but this one held aloft by Corinthian columns. Also note the swans, eagles, and sphinxes which reference ancient Roman design.

The Council Chamber at Malmaison also looks like a tent, draped in striped fabric used in actual campaigns. The entry doors are painted with trompe-l'œil trophies (gatherings of swords and helmets suspended by a cord) of war and topped with the Imperial Roman eagle. Notice the X-shaped stools based on the ancient Roman curule seat.

Here is an ancient Roman coin showing Emperor Tiberius seated on a curule seat!

And the library at Malmaison, featuring teak woodwork and a ceiling painted after the frescoes of Pompeii, held over 13,000 books in 1814.

You can take a marvelous virtual tour of the Chateau de Malmaison through the official website.

Happy designing!