Girly Man House

This is a beautiful beach house. The decor is stunning. The house is in the Hamptons, and affords a little formality.

The owner is divorced and is a very successful retailer (among many other things). His decorator is Christopher Maya.

The master bedroom - so refreshing that a man chose to do this

The homeowner said, "I didn’t want anything too grand, I wanted it to feel more like a cottage than an estate.”

A notorious skirted round table

The homeowner tells us, “I rarely go out when I’m in the Hamptons. I prefer watching movies, hosting very small dinner parties, and hanging out with my kids.”

Besides all the gorgeous fabrics, I love the padded trunk used as a coffee table

The decorator’s first meeting with the client was inspiration enough. He "was sitting in the conference room with colleagues, a pink Hermès scarf wrapped around his head. I thought, This is going to be fun.”

A fun guest room  - Love the fabric covered wall behind the bed

“It would have been a lot cheaper to tear it down,” admits the homeowner. Most buyers in this community would likely have torn down the ranch-style structure, which clocks in at 6,000 square feet, and replaced it with an imposing Georgian Revival or Shingle Style residence. Modifications, however, were necessary to bring the place up to snuff—namely streamlining the awkward floor plan and upgrading the surfaces. New Jersey architectural designer Marina Lanina stripped the building down to its wood frame and reconfigured the interior, more or less hewing to the original footprint save for an expanded kitchen at the rear.

I love the blue dining room table

By now I am sure you know whose house this is, as it appears in Architectural Digest

(Text by Raul Barreneche; Photography by William Waldronl; Produced by Michael Reynolds)

Chris Burch who admits to having somewhat eccentric taste, which he describes as “a very quirky sense of classicism.”

I love this girly man house, don't you????

And pick up this issue of Architectural Digest to see many more gorgeous pictures. Nothing replaces looking at the magazine in person!!!!

Hover over any image to Pin it.

Please add my NEW address to your blog list:

http://thevisualvamp.blogspot.com
And please become a Follower again (or for the first time) on this newer VV blog

Sunday By The Sea - The Unhampton Home

This is my kind of house. Actually it has the feeling of the cottage I once owned, and the feeling of a house Sharonne Einhorne owned when she opened her first Ruby Beets on the Montauk Highway in Bridgehampton. Donna Karan also had rich girl version of this type of decor, buying most of the furnishings from Ruby Beets. That was the 1990s.

It's girly and done in a thrift style that reminds one of English cottages. In fact the owner is an English decorator names Podge Bune, who explains her unusual name, "I was a 12-pound baby. When I came out, the midwife said, 'What a podge!' and that was it."

Holy gallery wall! Podge Bune decorates her house in the Hamptons in a untypical way that I love - The stones around the fireplace, the old carved mantle, the tiny boudoir chairs and footstools, velvet used at the beach (!), and all the cosy prints anchored by the symmetry of the mirrors and lamps and pairs of everything used everywhere

Chintz and pink! And I know you love the huge fish wich is an old fishmongers sign

A clever built in bookcase in the dining room - I have something similar in my dining room, but not this nice

You know I am a plate queen just a heartbeat away from being a hoarder, so these are quickening my pulse

Sweet blue chest looks like it might have come out of the old Ruby Beets store on the Montauck Highway

The perfect beach bedroom, complete with a posy of blue hydrangea, the flower most identified with the Hamptons - Where's my long white cotton nightdress?

A very cute bathroom vanity - Note the old mirror and how pretty the very common hardware store handles and knobs are, and of course the chandelier is to die for, all tricked English style with little shades

The back deck with a water view and access - this I did not have - I had to walk across the street and put a two person red kayak in the pond behind The Springs General Store

Podge's water view - Love the weathered driftwood posts

A little garden shed painted green and pink - so very un-Hamptons and so very cute

The picket fence, arch, and rose garden leading up the front walk - I had a picket fence, and brick walkway with two Gothic style iron arches, and my garden was a riot of English flowers, with a stand of sunflowers that got nearly as tall as the arches

The front of the house of Podge Bune is perfection and very un-Hampton

Off you go to House Beautiful to read the entire article by Christine Pittel. It's charming and informative and I know you will like Podge. And here's a link to the slide show with the photos by Francesco Lagnese. The captions are very informative too.

Please add my NEW address to your blog list:
http://thevisualvamp.blogspot.com
And please become a Follower again (or for the first time) 

Sunday By The Sea, Nautical Chic

So here we are again, another year gone by, at another unofficial start to Summer. It's time to revive a series called Sunday By The Sea.

Shall we go yachting?

Welcome aboard!  Nautical Chic designed by Kirsten Kelli

A statement state room

Are you feeling a tad peckish? Who wouldn't want to dine on board this yacht?

Fabulous sitting room - So many H's so little time! And the inlaid Moroccan table - wowza!

Time to eat again! This time topside

A living room on board that is bigger and nicer than those in most homes!

No dinky "head" on this boat!

Another space, perhaps the media room?

And this book looks pretty fabulous, Sand Sea Sky, The Beaches of Sagaponack, written and photographed by Tria Giovan.

Sand Sea Sky by Tria Giovan

What's a Sagaponack? It's a place in the Hamptons on the eastern end of Long Island, New York.
I spent many years celebrating the first unofficial days of Summer in the Hamptons, and I believe that the sand, sea, and sky there are among the prettiest in the world.

Among the prettiest int he world - from Sand Sea Sky

If your are in the Hamptons this summer, check out the book signing.

Saturday, June 30, 5 to 8pm, the East Hampton location of the Clic Bookstore & Gallery will celebrate the publication of photographer Tria Giovan’s book Sea Sand Sky: The Beaches of Sagaponack with a book signing and accompanying display of selected works.

A longtime resident of Sag Harbor, Giovan felt drawn to the serenity discovered within the protected bounds of the ocean front of nearby Sagaponack. In the production of Sea Sand Sky, Giovan spent over a decade observing the daily and hourly shifts in tides, wind, sand, and sky along its 3-mile strip of private and protected beach.

Tria Giovan on her beloved beach

The images produced from the study reveal a precarious and delicate environment subject to constant upheaval and rejuvenation. As she observes: “these photographs of this vulnerable landscape invite a thoughtful concern about the environmental preservation of special places that engage our capacity for wonder.”

Please add my NEW address to your blog list:

http://thevisualvamp.blogspot.com
And please become a Follower again (or for the first time) on this new blog

Anna Wintour's Bolthole

Bolthole. It made me smile. Had to look it up HERE

The October 2010 issue of World Of Interiors features Anna Wintour's bolthole. In fact her second one.

Table of contents from World Of Interiors

Okay okay. It's her second vacation home on Long Island, and here's how Anna describes the very un-Hamptons location of Shirley, Long Island in the article: "I just import the people I want…. I don't mind the town. It's white trash, of course, but I don't care".

Feedsack slipcovers, stripe rug, chintz drapes

It is a lovely place of course, very romantic looking, very comfortable, very elegant farmhouse.

The second bolthole living room
Toile (!) slipcover, seagrass rug, Brickmakers coffee table

More from Anna who wrote the article: "It was perhaps eight years ago that a neighbor's change of fortune resulted in my good luck. The property that adjoins my 1820 Long Island summerhouse (WoI March 2006) came up for sale when its owner left in a hurry. It had an 1834 farmhouse, with loads of additions and 12 poky bedrooms. It had a perplexing reception room with difficult, though grand, proportions. It had lawns that tumbled down toward a beautiful-to-the-eye, toxic-to-everything-else river. It had nearly 25 acres of difficult trees in deer-infested woods. It was, as we say at Vogue, challenging".

The same room sans toile

Rustic kitchen

Sweet, sweet bedroom
Can you see Anna sleeping here?


Another view of a bedroom
Love the return curtain rods

A view from one poky room into another one of the dozen poky rooms

Love the lantern with the worn zinc color finish

The library - the chairs look like ones from Pottery Barn
The lamp in the center of the table is a bit odd

Another view of the library

Collage of the property

Found all this good stuff on Curbed and The Awl. Just wanted to share it with you.

Specimens And Vignettes At Ruby Beets

The Vamp Valorie Hart, with The Hipster Honey Wolters

- I have a ton of pictures from my birthday trip to New York this past July in a folder labelled "Photos To Be Processed." Amongst them are a zillion vignettes from my friends' store in Sag Harbor, New York, a little place called Ruby Beets.

I have known the owners Honey Wolters and Sharone Einhorn from our glory days in Soho (which took place many years ago). We were all associated with the restaurant The Soho Charcuterie in one way or the other.

Through the doors of that restaurant passed some people who worked there, or hung out there, who have become notables: Gina Davis (then only a model & wife of one of the waiters Richie Emilo), Ellen Barkin (actress & a waitress up the street at The Spring Street Bar), Max Blagg (poet & a bartender at Raul's who hung out with the Charcuterie staff), Jim Farmer (composer & Max's sidekick then), Annie Philbin (museum curator & wait staff at the Charc), Gretchen (beuatiful Valkyrie bartender & muscian), Jerri Bokeno (singer with Phil Spector & wait staff), Suzanne White (producer & bookkeeper and bartender), Elizabeth Streb (dancer & hung out with us), Nancy Alfaro (wait staff & dancer), Philip Maberry and Scott Walker (artists & hung out with us), Susan Salinger (wait staff & photographer), another Susan (wait staff and protege of Lou Reed), Robert Maplethorpe (photographer - hung out with us) Pat Iuto (fashion maven - hung out with us) and her husband Michael Schatz, Bruce Cliborne (chef), Jude Bartlett (wait staff & dancer), Brenda Norton (wait staff and singer in Loup Garou), Laura Zarubin (food maven who hung out with us), Anne Wright (chef & daughter of Russel Wright), and of course Sharone and Honey, and many more wonderful artistic souls whose names I can't remember.
The celebrity clientele was monster: Richard Gere, Susan Sarandon, Tommy Tune, Twiggy, Joni Mitchell, Meryl Steep, Warren Beatty, Julie Christie, Bette Midler, Dolly Parton, the rock group The Police, Adam Ant, Mary Boone, Julian Schnabel, David Brenner, Rod Stewart, Barry Bostwick, Betsey Johnson, and many more I am sure I have forgotten. Paul Prudhomme cooked there one night to launch his first cook book.
The Soho Charcuterie owned by Francine Scherer and Madeleine Poley was one of those magical places at a magical time in my history.

Sharone and Honey were the coolest chicks. Sharone looked like a rock star. She was rail thin, and always looked totally right. Her demeanor was sardonic and mysterious. She was totally rockin' and hot. I worshiped her. Honey was a glam hipster, and always laid back, always had this Mona Lisa smile, this killer body, a sensual creature with wit and a tell-it-like-is attitude. Both of them had tremendous style. They set trends in fashion, and how they lived.

Honey worked in a place in Soho called Craft Caravan, an importer of textiles and amber and all kinds of ethnic stuff from Africa, and other exotic places. She also did a stint at a jewelry store called Art Wear on West Broadway. She knew about objects like no one I had ever met.

Years went by and the Soho Charcuterie closed its doors. I worked there for six fabulous years. It launched my rock and roll career, and also my event design business. After it closed we all dispersed, kind like we graduated from this funky crazy school of booze, good food, drugs, sex, and roll.

Look at the cash box! It's the little vintage mini box. And I spy our card on the desk!

I met up with them again when I started working in the Hamptons a couple od years later. They had opened a store in this 11 room farm house in Bridgehampton called Ruby Beets. And these cool New Yorkers had left the city and were living in the Hamptons too! If I have to name one of the biggest influences that formed me as a decorator, I have to say it was Honey and Sharone and what they did at the original Ruby Beets.

I would love to own this painting!

Each room was lovingly decorated, and it used to kill them when people actually bought stuff, disturbing their perfect encapsulations. And boy did the people buy! Whole rooms could be wiped out by Donna Karen and her friend Babs. In fact Honey and Sharone got me a job doing the weekly house flowers for Donna Karan.

White paint was slapped on alot of stuff back then. And this is the first store I saw (and bought) taxidermy from to use as decoration. Those girls love specimen collecting. I really think Ruby Beets invented what we call shabby chic now. I still own at least four pieces of furniture I bought way back then, and I still love them and use them.

It was such a hassle when they sold out of merchandise. Of course they wanted and needed to make money, but in those days they rented a huge truck, and drove hundreds of miles picking antiques and vintage stuff for the store. The shopped, loaded the truck, drove it back to Bridgehampton, unloaded the truck, painted and repaired the stuff, arranged the store, and BAM! it would all be sold in a weekend, and they'd be on the road again.

Stacked stone lamp base!

Honey had two young boys then, so it was hard running the business and being a single mom. Now those boys are grown. Sharone has kids now too.

A still life waiting to happen

So this past summer it was a sweet reunion. I had not been to the Hamptons in over 10 0r 12 years.


Yet when I walked into the store Honey acted like I had been out just for a few minutes.

Conversation picked up where we left off. Sharone called to say hi to me on the phone.

I need to get a couple of these waste baskets!

The new store was a marvel to me. Even with working in retail now myself at the most stylish shop in New Orleans, I was still disarmed and charmed by the things at Ruby Beets.

I couldn't stop taking photos. And Honey filled me in on every object I was attracted to.

Shades of Fornasetti!

She offered to share their sources with perch. in New Orleans, something so generous, and very much appreciated for sure.

This new Ruby Beets is tiny in comparison to the old 11 room house. Somehow it's assembled like the perfect puzzle and treasure trove.

The girls still like old things, and specimens, but they also have contemporary furniture and textiles made just for the store.

This wooden model of a whale is spectacular!

They have added modern accessories too, keeping in step with how we all decorate now with that required mix of vintage, antique, and contemporary.

Ruby Beets was always a legend, and even more so when the girls closed the old place, and took a break for five years. Everyone talked about the great stuff they got from Ruby Beets, and missed it being out on the Montauk Highway.

So now open again for a couple of years, the new Ruby Beets is a media darling, and I am so happy for them. The internet hastens every one's fame these days.

I hope you enjoy all these photos I took. I think it's the largest collection of photos of the store.

Please feel free to use them. I think they are great studies to perhaps do a painting from. You have to love a store that sells a scent library.

Library of Scents - too divine!

They carry Cara Croninger a fabulous jewelry artist from the old Soho days. I used to have a couple of these hearts, but lost them one night at The Mudd Club or maybe at Heartbreak or Area. I still have a pair of Cara heart earrings!

Cara Croninger hearts - I Heart these! Are you listening Santa?

I love all the scientific gadgetry they have.

And they love glass.
They are masters of layering object upon object.
Here's an updated take on taxidermy.
This teeeny chartreuse bust just slayed me!
And here are the flat weave rugs they have manufactured for the store.
The whole place reminded me of country version of perch. I could move right in!
The huge beet hanging out front harkens back to the days of 17th and 18th century shop signs.
The store front is so elegant.
Here are the girls in their glam shot done for a Shop Talk story at 1st Dibs. Sharone used to have black hair! But man she still looks sexy. And who could resist Honey?
These last couple of photos are from 1st Dibs.
I don't know how they stopped at a half dozen ha ha.
This last photo is mine. It says it all: Old and New!

Click on images for larger views...