Rich Patterns

 Details of painted plaster at the City Palace, Karauli, Rajasthan, photographed by Henry Wilson

 Detail from an 18th century French book of fabric patterns, photographed by Simon Witham

Both images are from the December issue of World of Interiors, they kindly provided these patterns on paper for wrapping  gifts at Christmas.

In this issue are related articles to both images Palace of Pattern and By the Book with further images and content on the palace and 18th century weaving in France. Excellent issue, always a treasure this magazine.

Room by Room

Yesterday I started to collect up ideas about classy and classic rooms and today came my favorite of design magazines, The World of Interiors with a special section "Room by Room"

This section in the December 2011 issue is where the editor, Rupert Thomas has selected rooms from the 30 years the magazine has been photographing and showing us how people live and have lived.

This has been my favorite magazine for just this reason, it looks at the way people with imagination decorate their homes. The homes the editors and photographers have shown us over the years have been cabins to castles, the fanciest decorators remodel to a humble home. It has been an invaluable resource on the history of interiors and the designers, architects and craftsmen who have built and designed original and creative spaces.

I shall enjoy reading and looking at this issue and it will again inspire me as I collect ideas for a new project.

A Bedroom

This bedroom reminds me so much of the bedroom I had when I was an au pair to a family in Provence. I had to help the children with their homework and take them to school, but my bedroom was like this one.

The room is actually from the Palais Abbatial in France, photographed by Ricardo Labougle for the September issue of the World of Interiors.

The Unmade Bed

World of Interiors, June cover photo, Ricardo Labougie

When we were growing up, we were taught always to make your bed in the morning. My Mom would say if you were not able to get anything else done in the day, make your bed, it will always feel tidy and organized.

I have been aware over the last few years, the unmade bed is shown in magazines, across blogs and in advertising catalogues. Photographers and stylists have left beds unmade, messy and pillows rumpled. Each photo shows a bed evocative of a long Sunday morning with coffee and the New York Times or the tender moments of reading stories to your little ones and most pleasurable, shared intimacy with your lover.

In photos for portfolios, magazines and advertising, the bed used to be smooth as a board, with a neat stack of elegant pillows. I was thinking of where the ideas of messing up the bed came from and remembered Tracey Emin exhibited her bed at the Tate Gallery for the nomination of the Turner Prize in 1999.

Tracy's bed tells a different story, one of profound sadness with the mess around the bed of refuse of personal matters, it speaks of the inability to care for oneself or others after relationships fall apart.

I always thought Tracey should have written the story and let our imagination fill in the sordidness, but now the materiality of it is an interesting contrast to the sumptuous and dreamy beds that are used to awaken our feelings of intimacy.

  A beautiful bed painting by Maggie Sinner

I still make my bed everyday, I like to pull the covers back and get in between clean sheets each night.

Yellow

Last December's issue of The World of Interiors recreated the Yellow Room that Nancy Lancaster had decorated in her home in Mayfair in 1959. The editor Rupert Thomas worked with Colefax and Fowler to remake this room and was photographed by Christopher Simon Sykes.

When I was looking for a room that could express the liveliness of yellow, this image, the room and the whole project to recreate it kept attracting my attention. The color definitely stands out, but doesn't dazzle and I could only attribute that to the balance of the whole room. Yes it is a large room of generous proportions, strong color is best with high ceilings and good natural light, but the arrangement of the furniture and the use of "pairs" of objects makes the room exceptional.

The article points out that "initially the color was much paler, more like that of a lemon, but over years it darkened to the deep buttery yellow of legend." 

This is a very sumptuous room, formal but comfortable. Even though we don't decorate like this today, you can see the principals of design: light, color, balance, proportions, symmetry all considered and working together. I wish I could have seen this room and it is amazing it was all recreated for a photo shoot. However it has given us a reference of a room that has influenced many designers and decorators over the years.

Yellow is a very good color for London, it works well with the gray skies, it is the most light reflective of colors so it will always brighten and warm up any space more than many of the grays and taupes used so often today. 

From formality and sumptuousness, I was also attracted this week to some faded, worn and weathered spaces. There is always something that stimulates my imagination seeing a room that needs a new coat of paint:

Source: flickr.com via Kelly on Pinterest

Source: flickr.com via Kelly on Pinterest

When I biked to Chelsea Harbour this week I saw some swatches that would work in many London rooms: Lemon yellow and grays: I could see a plush velvet sofa with bright yellow satin pillows and a shower of curtains.

 

An old chest of drawers and mirror I had painted:

Today the sun is shining and the sky is actually blue, must get on my bike... the daffodils are everywhere.