Paris Review Auction

I told The Paris Review I would mention their auction this week since I'm a sucker for a good cause and one of the items up for bid is a two hour consultation with the fabulous interior designer Celerie Kemble. Unfortunately, I think you have to live in New York City to win but perhaps if you offered to pay her travel expenses she might be inclined to expand the geographic parameters.

For those who don't know, "The Paris Review is America's preeminent literary quarterly, dedicated to discovering and publishing the best new voices in fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. The Review introduced readers to the earliest writing of Jack Kerouac, Philip Roth, V.S. Naipaul, and Mona Simpson." Terribly high brow I know, but I bet one of your New Year's resolutions is read more intellectually stimulating material besides US Weekly right?

The online auction ends on December 13th and also up for bid is dinner for four at The Waverly Inn. I would just make sure they aren't going to seat you in Siberia before you bid on that one. Bonne Chance!

Busy Avenue of Life

After an exhausting week in New York, there is nothing I love more than staying in on a Friday night and watching a movie, especially one like Avenue Montaigne (Fauteuils d'Orchestre). The New York Times calls it "a film about love and art, about passing time and time passing, Avenue Montaigne is a humble pleasure" and I couldn't agree more. I laughed. I cried. It was a wonderfully sweet and funny movie. It's like Amelie but without the hocus pocus. Rent it today and you won't be disappointed. C'est Manifique!

Members Only

I had a fun evening at Soho House recently and although it looked like they might have relaxed the membership standards just a bit, I was surprised at how great the place still looks after four years. The interiors created by Ilse Crawford are modern and elegant and yet at the same time have that relaxed European feel. I have to come to think of that as her trademark and a style that I have loved since profiling her work for the Grand Hotel restaurant in Stockholm recently.


Crawford retained much of the building's original brick walls and timber beams. "Without those great bones, it would have been impossible to create the mix of amazing modern furniture and amazing vintage pieces." She also explained that her design was predominantly driven by an emotional reading of the Soho House clientele. "It's a happy, sexy place. You can have fun—but also do quite serious business."

The hotel rooms feel more like lofts than the usual hotel accommodations. Crawford created studies in contrast, energetic juxtapositions of ornate oversize French marriage beds, vintage armoires, modernist sofas by Piero Lissoni, and freestanding concrete tubs by Boffi.

In the library, Warren Platner's wire-frame seating and a velvet-upholstered sofa meet a floor lamp resembling an overblown desk lamp. The lamp's origins weren't given but you can find similar floor lamps from Design Within Reach and more reasonably priced at White on White.

In the Cinema Bar or White Room is just that. White. And modern with zebra skin rugs and white Moroccan poufs and also glamorous with it's mirrored bar.

The sixth floor displays a distinctively laid back edge. The restaurant boasts salvaged pine flooring, a new pressed-tin ceiling, and crystal chandeliers. Crawford likens the mix to wearing jeans and a T-shirt with a knockout pair of shoes. "It's boring to wear entirely fabulous things," she maintains. "I prefer to see the personality, not the decoration." The chesterfield sofas are also reminiscent of those she used in the Grand Hotel restaurant.

Crawford purposely waited to finish off the interiors with flea market purchases. On the rough painted brick wallsin the Drawing Room, she spontaneously decided to leave test patches of colors ranging from peacock and teal to petrol blue-green. "In my experience as a magazine editor," she says, "I learned that you need to combine the planned and the unplanned." The plastic armchairs are 1960's Italian.

The Library's cheeky custom wallpaper by Deborah Bowness serves as a backdrop for a Swan chair by Arne Jacobsen, twin armchairs by Jeffrey Bernett, and a conical chair from a New York flea market.

A Playhouse room's leather-covered chesterfield backs onto a stenciled wall above.

Aluminum chaise lounges line the teak decking of a rooftop pool area that made famous in an episode of Sex and the City. The roof also has fantastic views of the West Village and the Hudson River. Membership certainly has it's privileges!

New Design Crush!

You've been warned. There is a new design crush in town and you're going to love him and his new book! David Oliver is the is the Design Director of The Paint and Paper Library in London and is master of colour and light. He trained at the National Art School in Sydney he developed an authority for twentieth century art and visual cultures. I had the opportunity to meet David and listen to him speak about his design philosophy and new book Paint and Paper: In Decoration and he really knows his stuff. Oh, and the Aussie accent doesn't hurt either!

Paint and wallpaper are usually the least expensive element in interior design, yet they are often the most difficult to get right. David offers advice on how to simplify the process and overcome what he likes to call “the modern phenomenon of paint analysis paralysis,” with his straightforward and extremely helpful approach in his new book. It's a "how to" book that doesn't look like a "how to" book. The photos are stunning and it really is a beautiful book perfect for giving this holiday season.

David is also well known for his Architectural Colours of paint, a tonal colour by number system for ceilings, cornices, walls and woodwork that will hopefully be sold in the US soon. His wallpaper collection is available through Stark in New York. Definitely check out his website and his new book and I guarantee you'll have a crush on David Oliver too!

Happy Hanukkah!

I want to wish a Happy Hanukkah to all my Jewish friends and readers! For those who don't know, the eight-day celebration of Hanukkah, also known as the Festival of Lights, commemorates the triumph of the Jews over their oppressors in ancient Israel. According to legend, when the Jews reclaimed their temple, they found only enough oil to create light for one day, but the oil lasted for eight days. The lighting of Hanukkah candles symbolizes that miracle.

Sitting down to a Hanukkah meal with family and friends is as significant a part of the celebration as lighting the menorah candles. Like the candles, the oil used to fry potato latkes and cook the traditional jam-filled doughnuts, called sufganiyot, recalls the miracle in the temple. After dinner, the children play dreidel, a game that uses a four-sided top with a Hebrew letter on each side. The letters are the initials of the words that together mean "a great miracle happened there."

The latkes alone make me wish I was Jewish and Martha Stewart has a great recipe. I always think it's a nice and thoughtful gesture to learn about and experience the traditions of another. Enjoy!

Elliott Puckette and Hugo Guinness

I would be immensely thankful if someone gave me a painting by Elliott Puckette or Hugo Guinness for Christmas. I think either would make an excellent gift but since I don't see that actually happening this year, I thought the least I could do is write about them.

First, Ms. Puckette is Southern, adheres to a strict schedule everyday and creates the most beautiful abstract paintings using gesso and washes of colored inks, on which she scores elaborate flowing lines using a razor blade. There is something poetic and lyrical about her work. It's at the same time calming but yet full of movement. I love her paintings and many other people do too. She has had a sellout show at Paul Kasmin Gallery and her work keeps popping up in magazines as seen below.



Her husband Hugo Guinness on the other hand is British, from the famous family of brewers, paints when the mood strikes and creates whimsical lino cut prints that can be found exclusively at John Derian. The dogs are my favorites and even though the prices have risen in the last few years, they still make the perfect gift and also come in vintage frames.

Even though their artist styles are different they somehow compliment each other and look great together in their home in Brooklyn which you can check out in the new Vogue Living: Houses, Gardens, People book. Not quite as fun as finding a painting under the tree but we can all dream. Isn't that what holiday wish lists are all about?

Josie Natori's Apartment from Elle Decor October 2007

Mark Cunningham's home from Elle Decor May 2007

Lucy and James Danzinger home from May 2007 Domino

Pen and Ink Drawing from Domino September 2006

Christmas at the Townhouse

It's beginning to look like Christmas everywhere including the fabulous Charlotte Moss Townhouse! I had the opportunity to photograph the wonderful decorations last week and I know you will be just as impressed as I was. I especially loved the use of blue and white Chinese pottery that I don't think most people would ever think to do themselves but they definitely should because it looks so beautiful against the greenery and red accents. I also loved the amaryllis in the silver pots and I know I will be copying them in my home this holiday! If you happen to be in New York, you should definitely stop by and pick up some gifts or to just be inspired!