Office Design

I started my new job yesterday, and got to see my office for the first time. I trusted that my new boss wouldn't put me in a cubicle. The building where I am working is an old estate that was owned by two well-known Baltimore families. One gave the money for the first free public library system and the other owned the local newspaper. The campus is loaded with 100+ year old oak and pine trees, which date to the building of the house. We have just gotten an estimate and a lovely donor to pay the $180k it will cost to paint the trim on the house.

The house is sort of Italianate, mid-1800's and is old field stone. This is actually the original back of the house, but we use it as the front. The hall is black and white marble tile. The building has 15-foot ceilings on the first floor and 12-foot ones on the second floor where I am. I have two huge windows which are north-facing, so the light is good. But the very best thing is that I have a huge marble fireplace! It doesn't work though.
The walls in the office are cream (ew) but I can't paint because we're going to be doing some historic colours in the near future. I want to get a great picture for over the fireplace and then some more for the walls. The windowsills are about 15" deep, so I will put some plants there to bring some life to the room.

Before I did anything on my first day, I turned off the overhead flouresent light and put a high wattage bulb in the table lamp on my desk. Whew, that made lots of difference. Do you have any suggestions for cheap and chic additions to make my office a bit more warm and friendly... after all, I am asking people for money!
This building is the school we run. We're the fifth oldest children's welfare agency in the country, having been founded in 1798.

Weekend Edition

Even though it's August, and summer's almost over (hopefully), I am still looking at summer handbags. I found great one at a yard sale last summer. It's exectly the kind I like for summer - a rattan/wicker/bamboo handbag. I just found another one at a favourite haunt last week for $5.00. The bag I found last year is brown rattan with bamboo handles, and the one I found last week is black with white accents.

Both bags hold a surprising amount, including wallet, phone, filofax, camera, make-up and keys. They are also both vintage, probably mid-1960's, and one was made in Hong Kong. There are a bunch on ebay right now.

I stopped by the Book Thing today and did pretty well. I found some early 2000's Victoria magazines. That magazine stopped publishing a while ago, but I understand they're relaunching it. I also got Jessica Mitford's Daughters and Rebels, an autobiography. (if you click on the link, you get to the most hideous site about Jessica Mitford, aka Decca) She's one of the famous Mitford sisters. This promises to be very interesting.

I also got Cornelia Otis Skinner's Nuts in May, a series of essays from the New Yorker. She wrote the play, Our Hearts Were Young and Gay. When I went to Book Thing today, I took a bunch of books I had previously gotten there, but decided not to keep. As I said before, just like a lending library, but you can keep what you really like... and they're all free!

Tomorrow, I begin my new job... yep another one. The one I started in June turned out not to be what I had expected, but this one returns me to my first love, fundraising for non-profits. I had actually worked at this new place before, and am going back because I love what they do - working with children in the foster care system, and in juvenile justice. I have always had so much, and I feel the best way I can effect changes in our world is by raising money for groups who do the work.

McKim, Mead & White

I was reading something about Newport "cottages" in the New York Times today, and it reminded me of the turn of the century (19-->20th) architectural firm McKim, Mead & White, which is no longer in existance. The houses and buildings that came out of this firm are spectacular to say the most and classic, to say the least. Their works include the Arch at Washington Square, the Harvard Club in NYC and the Boston Public Library, along with summer cottages on Long Island and one of the original Madison Square Garden buildings.

Baltimore is lucky enough to have a couple of these buildings, and I was fortunate to work in one of them for a couple of years. Stanford White is the most well-known of the three partners in the firm, both because of his enormous talent and the fact that he was killed in a love triangle, on which the book/film Ragtime was based.

While the Garrett-Jacobs Mansion where I worked was the grandest and largest house ever built in Baltimore, it was the small touches that were most appealing. In the small dining room, amidst lots of carving and detail, there was a carving of the nursery rhyme where the dish ran away with the spoon and the cow jumped over the moon... In one of the bathrooms, the walls were marble, and there were pastoral scenes painted on the marble, so the paint, which looked like watercolour, saturated the marble, and then the marble was polished. This bath also had solid gold taps and spigots, which never tarnished.

Some of the interiors of the Garrett-Jacobs Mansion were used in the 1995 movie "Twelve Monkeys" with Brad Pitt and Bruce Willis.

Lulu Channels Dorothy

I just got my occasional newsletter from favourite designer, Lulu Guinness. This season Lulu draws inspiration from 1950's interior decorator Dorothy Draper. Her striking prints and embroidery give Lulu's bags a fresh new look for Autumn/Winter. Check them out!

Carleton Varney, Part VII - Stripes, The Common Denominator

I love stripes - from a classic French sailor's shirt to fun stripey tumblers for summer drinks. So when I opened Carleton Varney this evening and the page fell to Stripes, The Decorating Common Denominator, I knew this would be a fun topic. (especially with this cute guy headlining!)"Imagine for a moment a dining room with a white dado, and above the dado, papered walls with a two inch stripe. Hang colourful chintz curtains at the windoes - delphinium blue flowers entwined with peony pink ribbons and emerald green leaves." Well, actually this may be a bit much, but there are tons of ways to use stripes.
Blue and white mattress ticking paired with a toile is a classic look for the bedroom or bath. I bought an eiderdown comforter in the UK and found a duvet cover almost exactly like the one above. You can often find vintage French mattress ticking in some of the markets in the UK and France. It's often old linen, which lasts forever. Snap it up if you see it.
These crisp black and white striped pillows from Williams Sonoma Home would enlived any setting. Crisp blue and white shirts with white collars and cuffs are wardrobe staples. In certain Southern cities, blue and white seersucker suits have never gone out of style. Brightly coloured striped rugby shirts crossed the ocean from the UK decades ago, and haven't looked back. Chanel even did a (very) toned down rugby striped top in sequins at the Paris Spring Shows.

It's hard to imagine a decor where stripes wouldn't work.

25 Design Mistakes

Currently, I am not working on Mondays, so took the opportunity to watch a little HGTV. It's a good thing I don't have cable at my house, or I would never get anything done. I was at the house where I stay sometimes, so could indulge.

I watched the Designers 25 Design Mistakes. I agreed with some of them - strongly - and disagreed with others. Their No. 24 was too many family pictures. I think that there are two schools of thought on this, as evidenced by the August Domino Magazine, and Style Court's recent post. I like some family photographs, but only if they're black & white in silver frames. Having said that, I do have a wonderful photo of my grandmother, which is sepia tone, and in a wood frame. But it's the only photo I have on the bookshelf. Others are tacked onto my bulletin board.

They also singled out too many colours or patterns, which I think is okay, but then they also go after "fear of colour", which contradicts the colour/pattern dictum. I think that an all white room, as well as one filled with a riot of colour can look wonderful... as long as they're both done with a fine hand.

Another thing they think is a mistake is keeping something that you hate. I am not sure about that one. What if your spouse gave you something truly vile, are you just going to chuck it out? I know you can have a conversation about what you like, but is it worth it in hurt feelings?

Their number one design mistake is fake flowers! Hmmm... I am sure with the design and editorial talent they had picking mistakes, they could have come up with a better one than that!

What is your pet design dislike? Why?

Dorothy Draper SCORE!

I wish I could yell "goal" like the announcers on the World Cup do, because that's what I scored this afternoon! Got the goal, scored the big one and won the game. I went by the Book Thing after work today (yes, I do work Saturdays), just to see, and because I felt it calling my name. They're only open on Saturdays and Sundays, so I have a limited window to get there.

I got there and the power was out in the whole area, but they were still open. They're in an old warehouse, so there was enough ambient light that I could pick titles out. I went to the decorating section first, and there, glimmering in the darkness was Dorothy Draper's "Decorating is Fun!". Yeeha! No cover, but it looks like it's a first edition. It has a preface by Mrs. Theodore Roosevelt. I just checked Amazon and they had two original copies, starting at $99.95. Once again, the Book Thing is a goldmine!

Grace Kelly - 25 Years Later

What becomes a legend? Grace Kelly has become a legend and remains a style incon 25 years after her death in an accident. Think about what's iconic about her - her cool crisp style, her classic movies, including To Catch a Thief, High Society, the Hermes Kelly bag, her way with an elegantly tied scarf...

I recently read this book by costume designer Edith Head who talked about outfitting Grace Kelly for some of her movies, in glamorous short evening dresses, an impeccably tailored suit, a full-skirted floral dress, and casual jeans for Rear Window. Head also designed the ice blue outfit that Kelly wore to the Academy Awards where she won the Oscar for Country Girl. Images of Princess Grace from 50 years ago retain their classic good look, with hardly a fashion mis-step. How many other actresses can we say that about?

Two of the most famous French luxury lines, Cartier and Hermes, outfitted Kelly and the items she wore have become timeless classics.

While it's difficult to believe Princess Grace has been gone for 25 years, her legacy lives on in her philanthropic work with the Red Cross and with the Princess Grace Foundation in the US which funds theatre, dance and drama, and through her three children. Follow this link to an article in the UK's Guardian newspaper about an exhibition in Monaco this summer on Princess Grace.

Things swimming around in my head.

With the flooding in our dear little Tewkesbury this last week, I've been thinking about New Orleans, the times I spent in Louisiana and some other things, sort of southern. You know how your mind leaps from place to place...

I was in Scotland when Katrina hit and spent an anxious couple of days trying to find out if my friends there were okay. When I was in Louisiana, I learned how to cook with the Chef who made Cajun food famous. We were based out of his home parish and did the local food festival there. But his restaurant was in New Orleans and offices and plant were in Metairie.

I spent time in New Orleans with friends, exploring the city. One of my meccas was a place called Lucullus, a culinary antique store with a branch in NO and another in the sweet little town of Breaux Bridge. I was in heaven here, with their stunning merchandise and merchandising. I collected copper cookware at that time and was just agog at the pieces they had. They had a wonderful cement floor, painted to look like old stones. It was just great.

The architecture of Lousiana was always a big favourite and one of my special memories was in a friend's kitchen, with a black and white tile floor, black and white checked curtains and bright white appliances, with the sun streaming through the Spanish moss on a tree just outside the back door. I also love the little shotgun house, and in fact, my rowhouse in Baltimore is shotgun style, with the hall running down one side.

As everything was happening during Katrina, this song kept looping through my mind and I found it on YouTube the other day. The song is "Take Me Home" by an incredible singer called Marc Broussard, who is from the small Cajun town of Carencro, close to St. Landry Parish, where I was based. The video gives you a real feel for South Louisiana. This is the singer's version, but if you're interested, there's also this version that was produced in the aftermath of the storm for the local United Way.

Ho Ho Whoa!

It's not even AUGUST!!! But I was at the dollar store getting bones for the Connor pup and damn if they didn't have their Christmas crap out already. They also had a lot of their "harvest" things out. If it's the Fourth of July, can Christmas be far behind? Am I the only one who thinks that this is pushing the season a bit?