My Favorite Way to Undecorate

I am happy to report that Alberto and I inspired and entertained hundreds of people who toured our home. And am even happier to report that the black foot prints from those hundreds of pairs of feet coming through on the black and white stripe guest room rug actually vacuumed off. Yes, not only did I clean the house for the tour, I did a light cleaning of it after the tour ha ha.

Go HERE for a great article by Stephanie Bruno in The Times Picayune
Alberto and I were so flattered!
We had a group of wonderful docents in the house,
including Julie our wonderful next door neighbor,
decor blogger Mitchell, Decor gals Kellie and her mom Jill,
client Gigi and her little girl Grace, and interior/set designer Bruce McNally.
Artsy Crafy Babe Beki and her husband dropped by -
she's expecting her fourth child and she looked fabulous!

Taking a break reading the Sunday New York times, I came across two fabulous articles. One is about the book "Undecorate" HERE. I am happy for the press for this book. A point was raised in the article that because of the economy the folks in the book opted not to hire a decorator or designer, and instead decided to do the work themselves. I don't think anyone of these "undecorators" would hire a designer, even if they had all the money in the world! They just happen to be people who are visually astute and confident enough to decorate their own (and I reckon others) home.

I know that if money were no object, I would never hire anyone to decorate my home. And I felt this way long before my current reinvention as a decorator. There used to be a BBC show called Changing Rooms that morphed into a USA version called Trading Spaces, and my thought bubble was: "I would never do that show!" Even amongst my talented group of friends, I doubt that I would even want them to do up my house. I love doing it myself.

What about you? If money were no object would you hire someone, and who?

Anyhoo I am off on a tangent. I wanted to share some photos from the NY Times Style Magazine that is devoted to home decor this week. I loved one story called "Family Style" HERE by Daisy Garnet with photos by Magnus Marding (of which you see below).

The first photo sums up everything I love and aspire to as a decorator. I remember being in apartments in Paris and in other places in Europe, where the building was very old with grand proportions and architectural details, and the furnishings were a mix of modern and vintage and antique.

The perfect mix! The color of the walls, the architectural details, the chevron pattern wood floor, the antique mirror and fireplace, the modern chandelier, the modern table with antique style wood turned legs, the vintage style Eames chairs - this is the way I love to decorate!

The house is in England, called Dinder House. A young family purchased it, and turned what had become a commercial space filled with institutional offices, into a home. They turned the grand ballroom into a kitchen and dining room, and spare bedrooms (there are 39!) into additional bathrooms.

This sarcophagus like hunk of marble is the kitchen island! Maybe a bit too much marble for me, but somehow it works with the proportions of the ballroom now a kitchen. I love the the large modern floor lamp used in a kitchen space, and of course the saturated color of the walls!

There is also a room for the kids dedicated to Legos! Yes there is a Lego Room! Up until a few months ago I would not have understood this, but a recent client has a ten year old little boy whose bedroom I am redoing. He is very excited about what I am doing, but he was very concerned about having me move his completed Lego projects, and then having space for them in his new room! I wish I could give him a Lego Room!

LOVE the master bedroom - the wallpaper is to die for! The floors are different and look new. The ornate bed and a pile of books for a nightstand looks fabulous, but really, I think a proper nightstand is more practical, and I am sure there is just the perfect one out there somewhere

Daisy Garnet writes: "This approach makes the house beautiful and welcoming — and fun, respecting its history without leaving it stuck in its period or turning it into an ersatz version of a stately home. Crawford (VV- the designer is Ilse Crawford) and the Mycocks have given Dinder its own look. Georgian tallboys sit in bedrooms covered in Marthe Armitage wallpaper and lit by Marianna Kennedy resin lamps. New sits happily alongside old. (And very good. There is no trace of shabby chic here, though playfulness is everywhere.) The boys can ride their bikes on the oiled parquet floor, “which looks nicer when it’s a bit used and abused,” Crawford says. And they can leave their half-finished painting and Lego projects in situ, just as their parents have space to hang their growing contemporary art collection among their framed holiday photographs. How do you live in a place like Dinder if you are a young family new to country-house life? Very comfortably."

The kids playroom - LOVE the chandelier!

This bathroom is called the boot room, perhaps what we think of as a mud room, and the fabulous hand-printed botanical wallpaper is by Marthe Armitage


More spectacular hand-blocked wallpaper in the living room is a foil for the kooky and playful contemporary furniture like Geoffrey Harcourt's Cleopatra chaise -
and again I die for those chevron pattern ancient wood floors!

The exterior of Dinder House on 23 acres - yes the owners are wealthy and successful, internet business tycoons, but their decor could jump off the pages of "Undecorate"