Glen Harbor Drive

I think I may have mentioned her. However I will write about her again and probably more times as well. I met Mrs. Riggin in the early 60’s the very first time I met her she had taken to her bed she was ill with something or another. I was escorted into her bedroom by my friend Mary her daughter. I was hooked the minute I saw her. She seemed so sophisticated sitting in her bed smoking her Old Gold filter cigarette and probably having a little drink who knows. I went to meet her after school I was in the 9^th grade and I thought I had been dropped in Heaven. The house was beautiful it was of course decorated by Thelma Blow AID. The new house was only in the planning stages. I remember going out to the lake to see the pile of dirt that would become the most beautiful house I had ever seen. I wish there were more photos:  remember, flash bulbs were expensive and not just laying around. We were at least 35 years until cell phones with cameras existed. Mrs. Riggin was wonderful. I have of course glamorized her in my mind but I do think she was an attractive woman with a winning personality and a great voice and a way of speaking that almost made her sound like she was falling asleep. It seems to me she did most things effortlessly.  Even her car had a glamour to it as it was never quite flashy but almost. As I remember her clothes were always simple almost elegant never over the top just right …And that LAKE HOUSE well I can’t even begin to describe the feeling the first time I went there. We had dinner in the dining room at the big Drexel Mediterranean table and chairs. Mr Riggin lit his cigarette from the candle I’d never seen anyone do something so cool...as for the food who cared!

Pink Is...

Pink is one of my favorite colors. It is generally associated with youth and in fact does make one appear younger. It is known to be flattering to most peoples skin types. If one is very dark pink will make your skin brighter and more defined. Those of use who are very pale want to add it to our skin and make us appear more robust. Pink or tones there of are an excellent choice for guest bathrooms. As we look in the mirror the color reflects off us and we think we look really good and we will have a great time at your house as we think we are lookin good . This is something to remember when decorating. By the way sweets seem to taste sweeter eaten off pink dishes. Pale or Soft Pink also is very calming in 15 minute or so intervals, pink ceilings in a dentist office would be a good Idea. I have painted clients ceilings Pale Pink for years and years I learned this from a friend just because it looked good, however it also makes the room as well as its occupants look good. It will give a beautiful warm glow to the room, and who couldn’t use a good glow now and then? Look at the pit-bull with the pink collar and see how much less threatening she appears. The cake makes my mouth water And who wouldn’t want to spend the afternoon with the man in the PINK SPEEDO???

I wonder

Don’t you just love this gate? Look at the scale of the design, it certainly wouldn’t keep a small dog out of the street but who cares it sure looks good. I love things like this. I found it while walking down the street in Palm Springs. One never runs out of things to look at in PS. It is a treasure trove of mid century glamour every where one looks. I take a walk there and go for hours and hours and never get tired of looking. Go up in the foothills and one can see the coolest mid century houses. Many are still in their original condition and many have been carefully put back on there feet often with very thoughtful renovations.  I happen to live in a mid century neighborhood in Austin TX. Some of the Austin houses are simply beautiful:  unfortunately some have awful renovations and some have been completely demolished and replaced with huge new houses to tall and to big for the neighborhood. But it is a wonderful place to live.  I walk this too every day and wonder about the women who built these sprawling houses with pools and extra wide garages for big Pontiac convertibles. Maybe she smoked Old Gold filters and drank VO and water in the afternoon…..   

AUNTIE JAYNE

I have an ongoing client we’ll call her Jayne, She is a wonderful person and one of my MOST memorable clients ever: a real life Auntie Mame, some one worth knowing and a big thrill to work with. I don’t think I have ever met anyone with less fear of color not only in her interiors but in her whole life. Her house is like a mirror kaleidoscope the kind that reflects whatever one looks at the moment and breaks it up into wonderful colorful images. She has the kind of decorating ideas that Mame would have had. If only she had Mame’s pocket book I’d be ridin’ on easy street. We’ve had a fantastic time over the last few years coming up with some great Ideas for her living spaces .There is even a calm space that one might wonder if it’s in the wrong house, she is one of many personalities. The attached is a photo of the kitchen we worked on together. I have to say it’s a fun space a term I hear used far too often along with POP of color I guess this is both .Not every ones cup of tea but a good looking space all the same. In the future I’ll show some different spaces of hers, and other clients as well. I hope it’s interesting to see some of my work as well as what I like or occasionally hate by others…..

OH WELL !

I love nail head trim, I was at the upholstery shop today and they were removing nail heads from an otherwise vanilla chair: it was just a low end factory made skirted wing chair with a bit of pizzazz. Removing the nail head took away the bit of smack the chair had. Look at the chair in the photo WOW now that is some NAIL HEAD of course you or the designer need to be a bit of an artist to do something like this.  AND the front needs to be hard from the rail down but that isn’t hard to accomplish. Any good upholsterer can do that. I think this chair is really great looking probably not for everyone but I have a client or two who would go for something like this. Love the art work love the cigarette table (member those). I had that carpet on my stairs in VA. White Leopard it was really great.  BUT why would any one mirror a bathroom door that opens in …come on that’s what a designer is supposed to catch, that’s my job.  Look at the reflection IT’S a bathroom,  ya mirror the inside NOT the outside and leave it open. The facilities (sinks toilets) are not something one wants to reflect out into the adjoining room…NOW REMEMBER THAT !!!

AHH...PARIS

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The very first time I went to Paris was in 2007. When I got off the plane I was so sick, all I wanted to do was go to bed. On the ride from the airport to the hotel it was pouring down rain. Sitting with my partner Yahen as we rode down the highways he immediately started telling me where we were, what everything was, and where we were going. The closer to the city we got the less I thought about how really bad I felt. After checking into our hotel we went to the Louvre to have a bite at Café Marly any one who has eaten there knows what a really cool experience it is all the skinny waiters NOT servers in there little grey pencil suits rushing around seeming to never stop .They are a show in themselves . Who knows if the food was good (it probably was)  and who cares WE were in Paris for heaven sake. No time to be sick …we walked to the Eiffel tower and it was twinkling it was the most fantastic thing I had ever seen. It was still raining when we got back to the hotel but it didn’t matter we were in Paris. Nothing matters when one is in Paris .In 2009 we went back for a month and rented a tiny flat near the Moulin Rouge. It was great to wake up in Paris, walk to the corner for a few croissants and look to the left and there the top of the tower rises over a beautiful row house, what a way to start the day. Some days we would walk  15 miles and some days we would sit in the Luxemburg gardens and do nothing at all…..    

My Long Weekend

Well this weekend I finished painting the front of my house.  I now live in Austin Texas in a fantastic mid century neighborhood. Our house is probably the smallest in the entire development and I am not in love with it, but I do like it more all the time .I have added as many floor to ceiling (or close to the floor and ceiling) windows as I can fit in at this time .I painted the trim white, the front door black as well as the garage door. I think it looks as close to sophisticated as I can get it. The stone was probably almost white once upon a time but now I just pretend. The light fixtures are from Global Views and just happen to be featured on One Kings Lane today, they are for interior use I had them rewired and they are under a three foot overhang, so they will be ok for a few years. I left the open overhang in front of the porch and painted the underside of the roof as well as the porch ceiling AQUA looks really good what a difference it makes when we open the door. I am going to hire a painter to do the rest, but no one could have painted the front to suit me . The painter actually left…so now it’s done……ALMOST…

I love this room

 In 1992 I was in Tulsa with my friend Rosemary for her  son’s wedding. While there she and I managed to squeeze in a show house, this is the dining room, designed by Sheri Mayer Williams. I have never even spoken to her, but have saved this picture all these years. I particularly love the fuchsia ceiling, the terrazzo floor has a pale pink boarder. The fabric from Decorators Walk is long gone as well as Decorators Walk .I have had Lots of fun with the fabric over the years selling it in different color ways as well as wallpaper. I’ve also used it in 2 of my own houses:  it is in my kitchen family room right now. I have used the fabric over and over, I don’t  know what I’ll do when it falls apart. I really like the red orange banquette that seems to have nothing to do with anything, but the whole thing is such a happy place.  I’d love to eat a meal in that room, have lots of wine sitting around that fabulous table. I had a wonderful client Mrs. Joy who had those chairs, they were offered to me when she died . Hers were from Decorative Crafts and had crazy zig zag fabric on the seats, any way I didn’t take them. I have beautiful dining chairs with black shiny seats and arms. I LOVE THIS ROOM!!!

Pink Toenails

WOW, I was just listening to GMA report on a story about a J Crew executive painting her sons toenails pink in a catalogue ,and how outraged some people have become.What the hell are these people talking about?  Most all little boys would want there finger or toe nails painted if they were watching there mother, sister,  aunt, babysitter etc. paint theirs.  Could sane people really be so foolish as to believe that toenail painting by men or women is anything more than culturlally related. In some cultures men wear skirts made of grass oh HOLY JESUS are they all gay lawn men? Better check this out. I don't think my own mother gave it a thought when she tied scarves on our heads when we were little boys she was just trying to keep her boys ears warm...BUT, I grew up to be GAY dam it was that scarf...If only she had given me a scalpel I would have grown up to be a Surgeon.

Claudine Longet

Some times it’s just better to do something oneself, especially if one is very critical of life in general. By that I mean I notice every little detail both good and bad. I hired a painter to  paint the trim on my house and of course almost bit my lip off just watching the prep work get started .Absolutely nothing was moved,  pretty soon I had flaking paint all over the porch furniture all over the door matt that I looked everywhere for,  all caked with soaking wet paint chips. Not to mention the fabulous light fixtures were hit with 500 lbs of water….That was It!  I figured I’d better take over, so here is a photo of my slow progress.  I am finding painting to be very slow and tiring and yet somewhat therapeutic. There is plenty of time to listen to my favorite music or to discover in this case

 new,  Claudine Longet. It is amazing this woman ever had a career, and yet she had several very popular albums (remember those, great big black plastic disks) her wispy voice and almost tongue tied pronunciation is mesmerizing to me.  I find myself singing along for hours…I hope in these photos you can see the ceiling I painted it aqua LOVE it . I almost always paint ceilings a color, a favorite person of mine taught me that years ago, pink mostly (more about that some other time) any way I have got to stop rambling on so take a look and maybe let me know what you think….

The Carriage Trade

When I first started to practice my field after a short stint in the Metro DC area I moved back to my home town Kalamazoo Mi. in 1973 Kalamazoo was flying high. I went to work for Thelma Blow AID at The Vogue Shoppe ,as I've said before it was a beautiful Shoppe in a huge Victorian house with a modern showroom addition painted black on the outside. Upon entering one was in a huge foyer with a winding stairway to nowhere, It was fabulous at first site and most people were duly impressed. We catered to women ,these women I refer to as The Carriage Trade they are almost all dead .Todays client is hardly ever Carriage Trade. These women never worked and were never home in the afternoon and just as likely to be  out playing cards and drinking as having there hair done and drinking. they were a breed of there own they somked and smoked and laughed and we all had a great time .Lots of my buisness was done over lunch .It was a big deal to take the designer to lunch and out do there friends most clients knew each other,  it was a very social buisness. I loved thse women and they Loved me I still Love this buisness but I do miss these women.......

Seems T o Me

Seems to me there are lots of people doing  Design today who get a lot of credit for doing a lot that of what has been done before. Can anyone not see how much of what we are being sold as new and original looks very David Hicks? And people are getting rich off it.  Now there is even a  blog that has a line that looks just like Hicks, or Westgate prints from the 70's.Since when does copying someone elses work with an itty bitty change constitute DESIGNING it .How does one claim to have designed a sofa with a Charles of London arm or a skirted Lawson style chair?  I think they have been around for at least a hundred years, making it shorter or deeper, changing the leg does NOT make one the designer . I think we all nee to give credit where credit is due. There have been blue jeans for a hundred plus years, as well as oxford cloth shirts unless you put the zipper up the back they are the same and it's only sticking ones label on someone Else's design and hoping to get away with it. Why does the Music industry keep such close tabs on it's products while we just seem to be happy to buy any old bootlegged design when NO credit is given to the original designer. anyway this is something to think about ...have a great Davis free weekend...............