Why Not?

Charlotte Moss gave an interesting and inspirational lecture at the PRC Heritage Luncheon in  conjunction with New Orleans Homes and Lifestyle Magazine, in New Orleans. She was there toting along her newest book (she's done seven), "Charlotte Moss Decorates: The Art of Creating Elegant and Inspired Rooms", and then doing a book signing after lunch.

A very pretty room from Charlotte Moss Decorates

Charlotte confessed that after 25 years of doing interiors, she has evolved into doing gardens.
There was a Power Point presentation of images, most of them photographed by Charlotte in her travels around the world, showing lots of gardens we've dreamed about, or only seen in a book.

Charlotte Moss is moving onto garden design

Rather than manipulate a room, she's moved onto arranging trees rather than furniture, and in the process producing something with a very long shelf life.  A  garden design she now sees in her mind's eye, might not have the total reveal until 200 years from now. She explained the process of the optimism of designing gardens in the manner of the great English country homes, and French chateaux. as something you may not see as a completed project in your lifetime, but rather as a living legacy you leave behind for future generations to see and enjoy. Charlotte's greatest joy is designing and working in her garden in East Hampton, New York, and she says her next book will be on the subject of gardens.

Charlotte Moss with her camera in a garden - How divine!

Charlotte shared her design process, and it is much like yours and mine. She is a pack rat of magazines, and keeps an enormous clipping file. Her favorite tool is her camera, and she takes pictures of everything all the time. Record keeping is part of her work ethic. As she collects images, she makes scrapbooks, and when she has a job, she creates mood boards the old fashion way by cutting and pasting images. It's what we all do with blogging! Hello my little visual vampires!

One of the mood boards done by Charlotte Moss

Charlotte Moss does her mood boards by hand, spending hours clipping and pasting images she has collected in a clipping file that spans twenty five years

Perhaps this is the realized room inspired by the above mood boards

Or maybe this room came out of the inspiration of a scrap book done by Charlotte Moss of her favorite things

She says an 11 x 17 board can take her hours to put together, and she can't exactly explain why the juxtaposition of certain images work. Like all artists, she works without a net and instinctively. The things on the mood board are not necessarily the literal things she would use in a room. She creates a gestalt, a feeling, and then proceeds to shop for things to produce that feeling in a practical reality. A detail on a mossy urn might translate into a bed.

Charlotte says "Who doesn't love blue and white"? Perhaps a vase like this will inspire a fabric design

As an avid traveler, she collects memories and images that she carries home to her enormous clipping file. She saves fabrics for years and years. She now has a new fabric collection, and she explained the extensive research that goes into choosing a final design. She makes sure a print has not ever been done before. Her inspiration can come from flowers, from an old fabric scrap found under a piece of upholstery on an old chair about to be refurbished, or from the rhythm of nature.

Design inspirations for the Charlotte Moss fabric collection for Fabricut - LOVE the carnations!

Speaking of flowers, Charlotte has a huge love affair with growing them, and arranging them. The first thing she does when she gets to her country house, is pour a glass of wine, slip on a pair of Wellies, and head to the garden, and then finally move to a room just made for flower arranging. She spends hours in a flower trance she calls the ninth hole. When her husband taps her on the shoulder while she's arranging flowers, she asks him if he would like her to do that while he is on the ninth hole on the golf course. She said he got it, and now he lets her be alone at her ninth hole in the flower room.

Charlotte Moss loves to arrange flowers

Charlotte also told us that objects talk to her. She said if anyone collects anything they would know what she means  You could see a sea of heads bobbing in affirmation. She spoke about buying china even when you don't need it, and always having an eye out for just that other set of salad plates that will go with things she already has. She spoke about Southern women really having a knack for the china syndrome, and really knowing what to do with flowers. The dining room may the most important room to Southerners. She doesn't think Yankees have the same make-up, but I can assure her that this damn Yankee has the china and flowers talking to her all the time, and setting a wonderful table is one of my great joys and accomplishments.

The things that speak to Charlotte

More than a book on decor, The Art of Decorating is imbued with a philosophy for living life

The theme of the talk and of her book is 'Why Not".  There are a series of Why Not questions in the book:

* Why not:  slipcover a Bergere (chair) to reveal its beautiful frame rather than conceal it?
* ...use (ladies) fans as decorative objects?
* ...hang landscape paintings in a small room to trick the eye into seeing views beyond?
* ...enliven a color scheme with a brilliant accent, such as chartreuse, orchid or Granny Smith apple    green?
* ...use little chairs to hold books & pictures--at least until visitors arrive?
* ...bring a planter indoors & change its contents seasonally--boxwood in winter, tulips in spring, daisies in summer and dahlias in autumn?

Life lessons as taught by Charlotte Moss

But more than a series of decor tips in the form of "Why Nots" Charlotte's message is about living life to the fullest, enjoying it, and sharing that enjoyment. She quoted Diana Vreeland (among many other icons from Bill Blass to Billy Baldwin to Ronald Dahl) paraphrasing that it's not about the dress a person wears, but about the life in the dress. This can be definitely said about decorating rooms. It's not the objects or the actual interior design, it's the experience of doing it, the fun of it, and the making of  something that will come alive by being lived in.

Why Not install a reading rack in your house?

At the end of the presentation she ran a little eight minute video she put together, with images and musical snippets. It was very telling. Vintage House and Garden magazine covers appeared, with many images from 25 years of her clipping file, and of course there were many photographs that she has taken (go HERE to see her photos in a section on her web site called "C'est Inspire".)

Charlotte Moss teaches (and photographs) Leaf Lessons as well as life lessons

The music on the video Charlotte produced, ranged from romantic standards, to hippie classics, to funk, and there was a clip of Disney flowers singing in "Alice In Wonderland". The video reveals a life lived, a visceral experience, and this my darlings is the prize we get for not being young anymore. You acquire a grand and important collection of experiences that only gets better and more interesting with the passing of time.

A drawing of Charlotte Moss doing one of her favorite things

It was wonderful to hear Charlotte speak. She's a kindred soul to all decorators and lovers of life, and who doesn't love a girl who loves the humble and unfairly maligned carnation. I give her a resounding "Amen Sister!"

                                                       Get The Art of Decorating by Charlotte Moss HERE   -                                                                                                All images in this post are from the book or from the web site of Charlotte Moss

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