I’ll Take This… House

What’s not to love about this house? The colour’s perfect. The detailing is classic. The location, overlooking the harbour in Falmouth, England is brilliant. What do you think?

Warehouse Sale

I stopped by my friend David Wiesand’s shop, McLain Wiesand this afternoon to get a preview of what’s on offer on Friday and Saturday at his warehouse sale. There were a lot of goodies that I saw, including some great pillows, this marvelous little faux tortoise-shell box, architectural elements, wrought iron bits and pieces and lots more.

The funniest thing about my visit was watching Pinky, David’s little Jack Russell mix, waiting for his arch enemy who walks by at about 5:30 each afternoon. They run up and down the window and mirror each other, teeth bared and snarling the whole time.

I will be heading over there at 9:00 on Friday morning, along with Michelle from My Notting Hill and her friend Anne. For specific information, e-mail Rose at McLain-Wiesand.

B&O Hotel Monaco

I was reading the Guardian the other day and they were talking about a scheme called Open House London in which more than 700 private buildings are open to the public once a year. You know the kind of building… an old office building downtown with really interesting architecture, or a private house that you’ve long admired.

There’s a building like that in Baltimore. It was the headquarters of the old B&O Railroad, and it’s centrally located on a prime downtown corner. The outside has some interesting carvings surrounding a giant globe, and knowing the B&O, the inside was equally interesting.  When my brother asked me for a fun hotel where he and my sister-in-law could stay this weekend, I suggested the newly-opened Hotel Monaco, part of the Kimpton Group of hotels. The building was opened in 1906, two years after a fire burned almost all of downtown Baltimore. Many of the original Tiffany stained glass windows and skylights remain today, as does the magnificent marble work. There’s an incredible double staircase leading up to the second floor where the reception area is located. It’s easier to see the detail in the ceilings from that level. The colours they’ve chosen are interesting, especially with the pale green acanthus leaf detail.   Many of the original office building details remain, including the mail chute and the elevator dial. I will look forward to hearing from my brother about the rooms and their decor. I hear that you can get a goldfish to take to your room to keep you company… or for a midnight snack.

Paris Map Upload Links

****THIS IS THE LINK TO THE PARIS MAPS****

The links below no longer work. This is a 5+ year old post. 

I've gotten a lot of requests to upload the Turgot Plan de Paris, and so I'm adding some links here. They are on a download service... drop.io. There is no expiration date on these maps, and they come in three versions, measuring about 48 by 36 inches.

For a copy of the greyish sepia map, click here for the JPG version or here for the PDF version.

For a copy of the greyscale map, click here for the JPG version or here for the PDF version

For the sepia-tone map, click here for the JPG version or here for the PDF version.
I would love to know what you've done with the map and to see pictures. Please e-mail me!

Weekend with Eddie Ross

A few months ago, I saw an announcement on Eddie Ross’s site about an event in Washington, DC. He and his partner Jaithan Kochar, would be leading a group of people on a tour of the Big DC Flea. Since DC is only about 40 miles down the road, I signed up immediately.

Then I got an e-mail from DC design blogger, Michelle at My Notting Hill, inviting me to a party for some of the DC Design Blog crowd and Eddie and Jaithan.

After a split second’s thought, I accepted with pleasure. We figured out that she lives about five minutes from my brother and sister-in-law. Michelle graciously said I could invite my SIL Gabrielle to come with me to the party. Gabi is a huge Eddie Ross fan and has just finished building and decorating a house, so she’s very interested in interiors.

I had the chance to meet lots of bloggers who I’ve read for ages, including Stefan of Architect Design, Thomas of My White Shirt, Scot of Domicidal Maniac, Janet of JCB, Beth of Style Redux AND Chinoiserie Chic, Jenn at Department of the Interior, Lauren at Pure Style Home, Terri at Wind Lost who was here from Calgary, Canada, and many more.

I also had the chance to finally meet Terri Sapienza from the Washington Post. We’ve spoken on the phone several times, and e-mailed a bit. She’s just wonderful!

By now, you’re probably wondering where all of the photos of everyone and everything are… Well it’s a long story! I fell down a flight of stairs on Thursday night and am a technicolour mess now! I am fine, but I went to the doctor on Friday afternoon. In the rush to get down to DC before traffic got really bad, I put the old battery back in the camera, and since it’s a proprietary Canon battery, I didn’t have use of my camera the whole time! I was heartbroken, as there were so many things I wanted to capture. You will just have to read the blogs linked above to see what fun we all had!

Special thanks to Michelle and her family for hosting the party, to Anne for driving me to the show,and most of all to CPF and GMF for having me stay over and for taking care of the terrorist Houdini dog, Connor, who escaped three times.

Design & Decoration in Little India

As I mentioned in my last post, some friends and I were going up to NYC for the day. There were two directions on this trip and I took the second… the road less traveled. Julie, who’s my partner-in-crime on Sunday mornings at the Farmers’ Market and the Book Thing, and I headed out to Queens and the villages of Flushing (which I wrote about here) and Jackson Heights, which is also known as Little India.

One of the things that I was most intrigued with was the sheer volume of design, decoration and colour on even the simplest of products. The other thing was the sheer volume of incredibly intricate jewelry in almost every store. While I prefer much simpler jewelry, this was incredible because of the delicate work that had been done on each and every piece.

Here are some examples of what we saw: This simple tin of curry, by Appointment to His Excellency, the Governor of Bombay (now Mumbai) reflects the age of its founding during the Victorian era.

These tins were about 12 inches tall and were just so beautifully decorated. If we weren’t getting on the train back into Manhattan at rush hour, I would have bought one for Connor’s dry dog food. Wouldn’t that have been elegant?Each brand and variety of rice (and who knew there were so many?) had labels designed to attract the attention of buyers, many of whom may not know how to read well.  

We saw some items that have been long gone from American stores, including tooth powder and snuff!

The main street we were exploring, 74th Street, was lined on both sides with shops selling saris and jewelry. Each window had dozens of necklaces, bracelets and earrings on display. Most of the gold is 22k and doesn’t have the alloys in it to make it shiny like a lot of the gold jewelry sold in the States. Most of the stones are semi-precious, such as tourmaline, coral, turquoise and pearls.   Even if the jewelry isn’t to your taste, you have to admire the workmanship that went in to creating it.

I did rather like this piece! I can just picture it on a black cashmere sweater. It would be striking.

It is always fun to explore places that I have never visited, and Little India will now be on my list of fun places.

NYC Bound

A couple of friends and I are headed up to New York tomorrow. Once we get into the city, we’ll split up and head in two different directions, both literally and figuratively. Two will head to Soho and CB2, ABC Carpet & Home, Muji, Pearl River Mart, Kate’s Paperie and other long-time favourites.

Two will head to Queens and Little India, Butala Emporium and Patel Brothers, and then the Chinatown section of Flushing and Double Star Trading Company and lots of amazing Chinese restaurants (click here for a great interactive map via the New York Times).

Can you guess which group I’ll be in?

Tour de Baltimore Details

In August, I floated the idea of a Tour de Baltimore and many of my favourite places here. Because of logistical concerns, mainly the Baltimore Marathon, I will be hosting the tour on Saturday, October 17, 2009.

We will meet at Housewerks at 10:00 a.m. for coffee and a tour. From there, it’s a short 20-minute drive up-town to Deborah Dean’s fabulous shop, Gore-Dean. Deborah is such fun and has really fantastic things at the shop, which is located in an old mill building.

We will head back down the Falls Road to the village of Hampden, a kitschy funky neighbourhood filled with small shops. We will have lunch at Cafe Hon, where you can get a taste of the “real” Baltimore. We can spend some time checking out the shops, especially Red Tree, a terrific place to find one-of-a-kind furnishings for your home and garden. Finally, we will head over to the one and only BOOK THING! Of course, there are no guarantees that you’ll find a first edition of I Married Adventure or the June 1978 House & Garden magazine that you need to complete your collection. But with 6,000 square feet, and gawd only knows how many linear feet of free books, you’re sure to find something you can take with you.

Please either send me an e-mail or make a comment below if you’re interested in joining the group. Once I get a number, further logistics will follow.

Anyone in?

Miles Redd’s Bathroom

About a month ago, I did a little post about Miles Redd’s apartment being featured in New York Social Diary. One of the pictures I showed was of his incredible bathroom. It’s huge and it’s like a hall of mirrors.

Yesterday, my friend Tracey, who’s one of the two owners of Housewerks Salvage, about which I have often written, left a comment about the bathroom. The two owners of Housewerks, are both graced with an excellent eye for amazing pieces, which can be found in their Victorian brick pumphouse building in Baltimore.

Here’s what Tracey said in her comment:

That was us!! Housewerks salvaged Miles’ mirrored bathroom in Chicago AND installed it in his house. It's even more amazing in person. One of the best things we ever salvaged.

She wrote me a follow-up e-mail about the bathroom and mentioned that I should talk to her partner Ben about it. I stopped in today, but he was busy.

So, you’ll have to stay tuned for an interview with Ben about the incredible bathroom which was taken from David Adler’s Armour Estate in Chicago. The entire bathroom was found in a restoration yard and once featured in a Robert Altman movie.