July 2009 Archives

Green & Growing in Columbus, ohio....Seurat's Ile de la Grand jatte!!!!!

July 31, 2009 1:00 AM

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One of my first "magazine rip-outs," almost twenty years ago, was an article about this park! I was fascinated by the idea and the visual stayed with me. Through the years, I asked anyone I met from Columbus if they knew the park. It definitely fell into the "little know facts" about Columbus category and made quite an impression!!! Several years ago,I went to Columbus for a wedding and of course, insisted that the park be our first stop!!! It exceeded my expectations....I was totally enthralled by it. I have been back several times since and always recommend visiting the park to anyone I know who is going to Columbus. Imagine accessorizing an entire park!!!

The concept of an interpretation of Seurat's painting  "A Sunday Afternoon on the Ile de la Grand Jatte" into a topiary garden came from local sculptor James T. Mason. The park, created on the land where previously there had been a school for the deaf, was begun in 1988 and dedicated in 1992.  It is the only garden of it's kind that combines horniculture and sculpture.  The topiary garden, on seven acres, is formed by yews, the tallest being 12'. There are 54 figures, 8 boats, 3 dogs, a monkey and a cat. A painting come to life!!!

It is quite simply...."a landscape of a painting of a landscape."  


Spectacular lighting....A combination of great design, color, and technique!!!

July 30, 2009 1:00 AM
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Born in Padua, Italy & trained as a biochemist, Paola Petrobelli changed careers in 1999 and became a glass designer. Her collaboration, with the same Murano glass maker since the beginning, results in the creation of simple, rigorous, and sensous designs. Her cylindrical suspensions, titled C-62, incorporate the formal qualities of architecture with the rich flow of glass. Her pieces are always functional, rather than decorative. These fixtures are a collaboration with Perimeter Editions, Paris and are an edition of 50. The light fixtures are available individually, although Paola prefers hanging three together, as do I!!! They come in three colors, tangerine, citrus, & grey. Having seen them last fall in Paris, I can honestly tell you they are incredible!!!


A place for everything......& everything in it's place!!!

July 29, 2009 1:00 AM
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As a "table top queen," this accessorator has a major storage problem!!! Napkin rings are often times left homeless. They either end up in plastic zip lock bags or in old gift boxes, squinshed into corners of the dish closet. Some are never found again, and others are unused because I can't remember where they live!! When I visited my friends Amen & Bob's fantastic new house last month, I saw the most incredible storage chest and a unique idea....a fabulous antique Chinese cabinet had become home to all of the napkin rings!!  I had seen a number of these chest, which I think were used by Chinese doctors for herbs & potions, over the years and always wondered what to do with the small draws....this was a genius idea!!! Imagine a separate place for each style and then hanging a sample on the outside of the drawer....these guys are major "accessorator's"!!!

Then Amen gave me the best idea......knowing that everyone didn't have an antique chest in their basement....he said a similar "new" chest was in the Crate & Barrel catalogue and suggested it would do the job just as well!!!!  Amazing idea, don't you think!!!!

New work from Karen Ryan......An English artist who celebrates "deconstruction"& "reconstruction!!!

July 28, 2009 1:00 AM
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'Whittle Chair' June 2009.

Whittle is about less.
All it requires is a penknife and an unwanted chair.
One afternoon I took the unwanted chair out of my kitchen and began whittling it whilst watching an old black and white Bette Davis movie.
The whittle chairs naivety is intentional as the process is left to be intuitive and unplanned.
The original chair is made naked revealing a different physical and emotional state, one of fragility and imperfections.
This is first in a series of whittle pieces 

 above text by Karen Ryan

Karen says it better than I do!  Remember her reclaimed plates, vases, and chairs that were originally found by 'the accessorator" and featured at j.roaman in East Hampton...some pieces still available!!!
                                                                    



Return to Africa..... with Batik Pillows!!!

July 27, 2009 1:00 AM
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As everyone knows, Dransfield & Ross are my very favorite pillows designers!! These four African batik patterns are the ultimate pillows for this season.  Brightly colored and bound with straw tassels, they cover the whole gamut of "chic" for summer 2009!

A must, must, must have for all of the "pillow queens" among us!!!


Out of Africa......and into Milan!!!!!

July 24, 2009 8:08 AM
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My "inner accessorator" continues to have a long running obsession with Africa! Several years ago I found these spectacular pieces of furniture in Milan at, my favorite store in the world, ROSSANA ORLANDI. Rosanna told me that she found all four pieces at a market in France and that their origin was unknown. After a bit of research, I think that the webbed pieces were made by Cheick Diallo, a wonderful Mali furniture designer & architect. Cheick's work was included in the extraordinary international exhibition AFRICA REMIX. I was lucky enough to see the exhibition at the Pompidou Museum in Paris and was awed by the incredible work. It greatly fed my addiction to all things African!

On my last visit, the pieces were still living in the courtyard waiting for a new home.  Any 
takers????


Please join us Saturday.....NYSCF needs our support!!!!

July 23, 2009 11:13 AM
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Anglophiles Delight!!!!

July 22, 2009 9:53 PM
IMG_3054.JPG JIMMIE MARTIN is moving it's showroom in London and lucky for us that means sale!!! Take a look at this wacky furniture, combining a dry English sense of humor with antique shapes. I have several pieces and they are conversation starters!!!

Jimmie Martin website

House Beautiful must see!!!!!

July 22, 2009 9:25 AM
                    

Right now, hurry over to Rockefeller Center to see House Beautiful's kitchen of the year. Divine & delicious cookbook author, Ina Garten and interior designer Robert Stilin collaborated to create this fabulous & functional white kitchen.  If you can't get there this weekend to see it...click on the House Beautiful link below and see the fabulous images of the kitchen, as well as a conversation between HB's Editor in Chief, Stephen Drucker and Ina.

House Beautiful website

Color is everywhere.....if we look around us!!!!

July 21, 2009 8:49 PM
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This kind of "design poetry" just happens!!  Walking around my cousin Eileen's garden I snapped these pictures. She of course, never consciously thought about creating these accent colors in her garden......it is just how she lives in the world. Doesn't everyone have a pair of orange saw horses and a blue hose?????  

Makes you want to go back to dancing school!!!!

July 20, 2009 8:52 PM
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The legendary Sharone Einhorn & Honey Wolters invented "shabby chic," more years ago than I choose to remember, in a wonderful farmhouse in Sagaponack.   With their store, Ruby Beets, they created a new venacular in decorating. It was fresh, inventive & young. The sense was that anything worked and everything seemed accessible. With everything painted ecru or ivory and the upholstered antique pieces covered in the same palette,you couldn't go wrong! Each room was an enchanting vignette that you wanted to move into immediately! Their style became the "must have" in interior design for a decade! But, as creative thinkers know, you need to make a change.....and after a number of years they took a breather!!!  

Several years ago they hung a magical "ruby beet" over the door of a funky store in Sag Harbor and a new Ruby Beets was born!!! Combing the unique decorative antiques they are known for, with contemporary furniture, accessories, art and photography they have created a modern, contemporary version of their sensability.  It is fabulous!

On my last visit, hanging from the ceiling was this fabulous lucite ballroom chair!!!  It is incredible and makes the ghost chair look like an aged ghost!! A must have......Go see for yourself!!!


Midnight musings from the accessorator #1.......An apple app a day!!!

July 19, 2009 12:00 PM
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My friend Stephen assures me that no one reads blogs on Sunday, so I thought I would write about something that has nothing to do with design, furniture, fashion, color & pattern, or anything that is expected from me! Rather, something  that has been pressing on my mind all weekend, that I really need to muse about...the Apple iphone!!! 

Thursday, my quasi assistant, Jill came over to update all of my technology. When she got to my I Phone....my "mind jog" began!!! There are 65,000 applications with 226 for electronic whoopee cushions  alone!!!  On Monday, I had read an article in WWD (my former fashion bible) about how Net-A-Porter had created an iphone application and that I could now shop on line! Well, of course we added that to my phone.....followed by iphone shopping at Christies Auction House and Amazon...then Fandango for movies....CNN Money....the NY Times..and now I pick can match paint colors from Benjamin Moore!!!!. The I went to dinner with friends, where I was told about the ultimate app.....Google, where I am able to ask questions in my own voice and have the correct answer in seconds! My mind was boggled and I was in a total panic!  

In the past eight months I have been endlessly thinking & talking about the "new world" that we have entered.  I don't think anything will ever be the same as it was prior to this past October and the financial crisis that we are in.  I think most frequently about my worlds.......that of retail & manufacturing, and of course my beloved magazine industry. The fashion business will never look the same, and in my view Gilt Group appears to have become the new retail genius. I now think shopping by phone is a monumental step. And after last week, my fear for magazines has become even greater!!!  I am too old to read a magazine on an iphone!!!  I am a magazine addict and have been reading, ripping & clipping for decades...I have files that go from bookshelves to Bangkok!!! How can that happen on the phone??? How can we going to save our magazines from iphone extinction, as well as from the computer nerds who want us to read online?????  WHAT ARE WE GOING TO DO?????? HELP!!!!!!!!~

Ani Antreasyan creates a not so secret garden!!!

July 17, 2009 10:25 PM
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The work of Ani Antresyan defies description.....garden designer, antique dealer, outdoor stylist, and installation artist...... are all part of who she is and what she does.....yet no one title seems perfect.  Each project that she takes on results in it's own vision.... whether a more traditional garden, a patio design, or the design for a pool house. Each situation is unique and there seem to be no design job that she isn't willing to tackle.  Her love of objects resulted in the origional name of her business.... ANI ANCIENT STONE, which started out importing stone antiquies from her native Turkey. She origionally sold pieces to interior designers and eventually found they wanted her to do the garden designs for their clients. 

In the above pictures, she created an 80' installation that covered a low wall.  She used both green & flowering plants, as well as trees......everything was planted in ancient vessels.  This "container" garden, created for a client on Long Island, took two years to complete.  Every vessel told a story and was a treasure.  Ani searched a number of countries to find these objects and then they had to call out to her, and sing together!  In the bottom picture the white stone vessel is an ancient stone cistern that was found in Turkey.  It seems to set the pace for the installation. The continuity is also defined by it's color story...vivid purples, white, green, with a touch of pink.....accented by the colors of the vessels.

What could accessorize this house more than this fabulous garden???



Aliens again?????

July 17, 2009 2:27 PM
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I am beginning to think I am developing an obsession for creatures from another universe!!! But, fortunately these "aliens" are a pair of 1940's root lamps from Hawaii. They are 23" & 24" tall and have rattan shades....... and as with all things that are made by nature, they are not a perfect match! But we hate perfection anyway....

I tend to love the unusual but, these bazaar lamps are even a step up for me! Still, I adore them....as well as the divine rattan furniture, that dealers Rico Baca & Wade Terwilliger have brought from their store in West Palm Beach all the way to East Hampton. OBJECTS IN THE LOFT, is a 6000 sq. ft. gallery of 20th century modern design and based on what I saw this past weekend is a must visit!




Fabulous new blog from my friend clint smith...mark your calendars!!!

July 16, 2009 9:58 PM


Dear Chintz Charming,

I am redecorating my kitchen. I love the country look, but can't decide weather I should accent with roosters or ducks. What do you think? Sincerely, A Little Bit Country

 

Dear Little Bit,

Oh, Honey...farm animals should NEVER be allowed in the kitchen unless they're being sautéed and covered in a burgundy sauce. Please go against your instincts and skip the fowl. Some of my suggestions for incorporating tasteful country accents include....visiting http://www.chintzcharming.com on August 15 to find out!

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