Thomas Jayne: The Patron is a Lady

I attended a lecture by the charming Thomas Janye at Evergreen House and was very sorry that more people weren’t there to hear what he had to say, and see his delightful work but there was a distinct lack of PR about this event. The title of the lecture was “The Patron is a Lady” and Thomas started off by telling the group something that both his and my mother said: Just because she’s a woman, doesn’t mean she’s a lady.”Thomas’s lecture was about some of his female clients, all of whom are distinctly ladies! And because the owner of Evergreen was a distinguished lady, Alice Warder Garrett, it was a perfect focus for the lecture. Thomas’s thought is that every room should have an object of focus, and there should be a lot of thought regarding what the focus is. He mused that perhaps women thought more about this because they were more used to paying attention to the details of their clothes.

He said that one of the best ways to modernize a room is to simplify the curtains, and in all but one of the slides he showed the group, the curtains were dead simple, with just the littlest bit of ornamentation on the edges.

Thomas mentioned that a room should look like it belongs where it is, and that was certainly true of this cottage on the coast of Maine that was designed by architect Peter Pennoyer.

The details in this room come from coastal influences – stencils from indigo prints, that might have been brought back from a sea captain’s voyage across the seas. The wallpaper is a copy of an 18th century print and the walls are painted grasscloth.

The powder room has a mural of a seafaring scene, painted by Anne Harris based on paintings by Fitz Hugh Lane.

The curved windows are reminiscent of the bow of a huge ship and look out over the water.

There were several other houses shown during the lecture, and you can look through them on Thomas’s website, here and then click on Rooms.