The English Home In Perfect Harmony

Madame (and Sir): A few posts ago I presented for your consideration an excerpt from the excellent magazine The English Home.
Today, I offer you another selection from this excellent eye candy from across the pond.


This house was originally two 17th century cottages which were knocked into one and extended. New owners Jennie and Martin faced a huge amount of upheaval to restore the house, which hadn't been touched in twenty years.


There was evidence of wattle and daub walls, which in one room was exposed and encased in glass as a reminder of the property's origins.



They lived in the original small kitchen for several years until they got to know the property well enough to decide where a new kitchen should go. They looked at four possible locations for the kitchen, and chose the most light filled room with access to the garden. However the level of the room was not the same as the rest of the house, so they had to dig down several feet to make it usable.


After years of living with bold colors and patterns, Jennie was looking forward to a calmer, modern country look in each room, combining antiques and family pieces with furniture bought specifically for the transformation.


Striking Ralph Lauren wallpaper was used in the master bedroom. I love the antique trunks at the foot of the bed.


The attic bedrooms are simply furnished to allow the original structure of the building to speak for itself. The only drawback are the very low beams which have caught a few guests unawares.
Son Stephan says," They only bang their heads once, twice if they're forgetful."


Lady of the house Jennie says, "To a certain extent a house speaks for itself. You have to empathise with the style and origins, otherwise you are constantly fighting against it. Nothing has to match in a house like this, but everything works together as a whole."

Let me know if you like the excerpts from this magazine, and I'll post another for you.

Ash Wednesday To Do List

"After The Masked Ball"
by Heinrich Lossow (1843-1897)

1. Church
2. Take down Carnival decorations on the front of the house
3. Put away wigs, hats, boas, masks, costumes
4. Box up loot to send to Sabina
5. Take a nap

See you tomorrow!
PS We had a blast yesterday!

It's Just Not Another Tuesday! Happy Mardi Gras!

Before we hit the streets, one last post.
The sound of drums and brass woke me up before 7 AM, one of the zillions of walking parades making their way past our house on the way to The French Quarter. The first parade Zulu rolls at 8 AM, and the great walking parade of bohemians and artists, The St. Ann parade gets going around the same time in the Bywater. People have been out since 5 AM claiming spots along the parade route on St. Charles Avenue.


Rex, King of Carnival rules New Orleans today and has made his official proclamation ordering his subjects to celebrate! The Rex Organization is officially known as The School of Design.

You see everything today from Voodoo royalty...

Queen Marie Laveau and consort Dr. John

French Quarter royalty

... to skeletons and Indians...

...and kitty cats and many Elvi...

...and babies and kids...

...and vamps reveling too...

Wish you were all here to play with us!

Happy Mardi Gras!

Post Oscar Decorno - The Drab Age Is Over

I Heart Carlton Varney!
Renee Finberg has a cute backstory and interview about him.
I found the Green Room he did for the Oscars last year, and it is so much more glam and Hollywood worthy then this years design by Stephen Shadley (see katiedid).
The article and fab photos are from Architectural Digest. Enjoy the sparkle plenty!






From Architectural Digest June 2008:

Most designers faced with the prospect of having just five weeks to complete a job that’s key to one of the biggest events of the year could be forgiven if they opted to turn and run the other way. But Carleton Varney has never been like most designers. “It can always be done,” he says simply.

The indefatigable Varney was about to board a plane when he got a call from Architectural Digest editor-in-chief Paige Rense asking if he would like to design the magazine’s green room for this year’s Academy Awards. “Paige and I, we go back a while, and she’d seen the work I’d done for Joan Crawford and other stars,” he recalls. “I told her yes, indeed, I would!”

There was no question about the design concept. “We wanted to give it the early Hollywood look,” Varney notes, “when movie stars were movie stars.”

The president and owner of Dorothy Draper & Company didn’t have to look far for inspiration. His green room pays exuberant homage to four of Draper’s most notable projects—California’s Arrowhead Springs Hotel, the Quitandinha Palace & Casino Resort in Brazil, the Camellia House at Chicago’s Drake Hotel and New York’s Hampshire House.

No one did glamour quite like Dorothy Draper. The legendary decorator, who once pronounced, “the Drab Age is over,” was never one for the modest gesture. Rococo-style moldings, black-and-white-marble floors and overscale floral prints in vivid hues—all were part of her stylishly dramatic vocabulary.

The Architectural Digest Green Room, which Varney likens to “a set from a 20th-Century Fox musical,” is crisply theatrical and marked by bold colors and patterns. There are lacquered double doors and a floor stenciled in a checkerboard design. Mottled aubergine walls are offset by a glossy white wainscoting and oversize crown moldings. There’s a tufted-black-leather bar and luxurious fabrics: white satin, lipstick-red Ultrasuede and a bright green banana-leaf damask. A Dorothy Draper print adds a vibrant floral note.

While many of the furnishings are reproductions, others are original Draper pieces, such as the baroque sconce and the palm-tree lamps.

The room was to sit just offstage at Hollywood’s Kodak Theatre and needed to accommodate between 25 and 30 people. Measuring approximately 40 by 20 feet, it was more or less the size of a New York City living room.

But most living rooms have things like walls, a ceiling, electrical outlets. The green room had to be constructed in its entirety at the ABC television studios before it was dismantled and rebuilt at the Kodak.

It took the set builders about four days to create the bones of the space, and then the carpentry, electrical, painting and drapery departments performed their duties. The move to the Kodak proved a bit more complicated. The room was a foot and a half over the fire exit doors and had to be tweaked to fit. In the end, the various departments worked feverishly to pull the room together on time.

By all accounts, the green room was an enormous success, and Varney is pleased that he can bring back glamour to interior design. “We live in a beige-and-gray world. We need a sparkle, a way to make people smile again. That’s what it’s all about.”

2009 Oscar Green Room via katiedid
Stephen Shadley needs to get some sparkle on!
The Drab Age is over!

Fantasy French Kitchens

Like many of you my first experience with a French kitchen came from watching Julia Child.

Her TV kitchen was fascinating. I loved all the stuff! Pots hanging on the wall, knives everywhere, pottery, platters, dishes - it certainly didn't kook like my mother's kitchen!

Her first kitchen as a newlywed in Paris was very primitive. If you haven't read this book, please do read it sooner than later. Get it HERE.

Julia Child's home kitchen is now under glass ensconced at The Smithsonian Museum.

I studied her kitchen and knew I had to have hanging pots, copper if possible, or at least a peg board.

I travelled to France too, and would devour with my eyes the real kitchens I saw there.

It didn't have to be a country kitchen. Even the small kitchens in Paris apartments held so much charm and inspiration.

Beamed ceilings and rustic plaster walls were other things to emulate.

Stone and brick floors also fascinated me.

Not to mention vaulted ceilings with brick work or stone

I visited the chateaux, and their kitchens.



Now there are so many great images to inspire. Joni from Cote de Texas, Brooke from Velvet and Linen, Willow Decor, Shawn from Country French, Things That Inspire, Vicki Archer of French Essence, Sylvie of So Sylive, Corine from Hidden In France - are all blogs with huge archives to look at. Please go to my blog roll for their links.

While in the kitchens of France I saw metal furniture, rattan chairs, pine furniture, armoires and dressers, clocks, tall pot racks, bakers racks, etc. I saw kitchen tables and rough butcher blocks, but I didn't see islands or chandeliers back then. Now of course design is global, so even the French have these things.

The one predominant theme in all versions of French inspired (or Belgian or Italian or Spanish or Portuguese) kitchens is a touch of romance. We want to feel sensual and romantic in our kitchens.

Even though many of the images might be show house kitchens, or maybe kitchens that don't see much cooking, they still manage to convey the feeling of a great meal prepared and shared with loved ones is about to happen.




Chandeliers in a kitchen are now expected, as are large oversize lanterns.

The vaulted brick ceiling is even reproduced in a modern interpretation.

Accessories and accents are fun to add.



White is a popular color way in many French fantasy kitchens.

And always some kind of stone counter top seems to rule the day.


Homey touches like sink skirts pay homage to the rustic kitchens of the past.

But how would you like to go and visit a real French kitchen, to cook in it? Here's one for you with all the things we've come to love about a French kitchen: pots hanging, knives, rustic butcher block, and even an Aga cooker, a stove that is mysterious and fascinating to me, something I've always wanted to learn to use.


In this house in Normandy lives a woman named Susan.
Susan lives year round in the lovingly-restored convent in the center of Louviers and across the street from the Gothic Church of Notre Dame de Louviers.


As an internationally-recognized expert on food, Susan takes a unique approach to her craft; combining training in journalism with a love for food and the people who produce it.


Extensive travel throughout the United States, France, and Italy has given Susan a depth of knowledge and an appreciation for the rich traditions around food—how it is grown, harvested, and prepared. Susan believes that learning about cooking and food should involve much more than recipes and techniques. She delights in meeting and introducing the personalities and customs behind the great cuisines of France.

She runs a cooking school in her home. And yes, you can take classes there.


Her immense and awe inspiring home provides ambiance and inspiration for meals served in the dining room and in the courtyard al fresco.

The cathedral is right next door, and the chiming bells in the bell tower is the clock of Susan's house.


Of course there is a wine cellar.

These are a couple of the bedrooms of the many in the large house. Though Susan does not offer accommodations in her home, she has some suggestions of charming places to stay near her home.


I love the roof line of her home. It looks this way because of the various additions to the house over the centuries.

To learn more about Susan and her house and cooking school go HERE.
Why not take a fantasy trip to France and cook in a real French kitchen?