How To Style And Photograph A Room - Choose Your Favorite Photo

It's like playing one of those games on a paper place mat in a family style restaurant, you know, Where's Waldo?
I took the suggestion of a professional photographer to take photos of room decor using only the natural light in the room, and using a slow shutter speed. It's not as easy at it sounds, especially when using a run of the mill point and shoot digital camera. He also says to move things into the shot, that a room "as is" in real life, seldom works for a photograph.
I also pretended I was styling the room for a client paying me to do so, trying to cast a critical eye on my personal objects.
By and large, I am not happy with my living room. It is small. It has windows and/or doors on each and every of the four walls. I did not choose to paint it yellow, but rather moved into the house four years ago with this wall color, and have just worked with it due to indecision and laziness. I enjoy the yellow on many levels - it looks like a morning room, and in fact I enjoy having my morning coffee in there - the light is very lovely.
I have acquired the furniture over time, and none of it is good, or expensive. It's alot of flea market crap. The sad thing is, I will never be able to afford proper things. I am a real make-do gal. Up until recently, I thought I made-do to a great and pleasing effect, worthy of any magazine. I think I have been living under a very cozy rock.
These photos show my latest bout with restlessness and discontent. I fished the rug out of my magic closet. This is a closet filled with junk I have accumulated - lamp shades, picture frames, pillows, knick knacks, fabric, rugs, art work, small furniture - stuff that gets rotated, until I decide to toss it or sell it. I have had bare floors, a Jonathan Adler rug, a leopard rug, and a cow hide rug.
The colored toss pillows are a "new" addition too, inspired by watching the 1954 movie A Star Is Born, and my looking at a book on Tony Duquette. I recently dyed the slipcover and curtain panels pink to play off the yellow walls. I had a pair of 1970's pale flesh pink lamps in the shed out back (given to me by a 90 year old lady), and swapped out the black lampshades from the bedroom.
I've had the big clock and the nine foot long credenza and the two chairs (slipper and Eames) for awhile. Ditto for the Will Barnett lithograph. The wall paper mural on the door has been there since I put it there four years ago, my attempt at doing something cute with an ugly door. The chandy was put there by us (another gift from the 90 year old lady). I've had the pair of vintage tables (used as a coffee table) for a year - they can be a table or a stool, as the tops come out and reverse to a cushion or a hard surface. They were an eBay purchase. The orange Foo Dog is a recent purchase from Pier One, an attempt to add an accent color along with the orange toss pillows, and also a very Duquette touch in my mind's eye (which I'd like to poke out sometimes). The modest size flat screen came into our lives a couple of years ago so we could watch the World Cup in style.
I'm on the verge of investing what will be big bucks for us, recovering the couch in faux white leather, with nail head trim. It will cost as much as new couch. I could buy a new couch, but so far the ones in the furniture stores that we can afford are all very depressing, mostly the fat ass cushion types, or bad Pottery Barn knock-offs. I think I am over my Mid Century Modern phase, something that came upon me, as a way to make my living room look young, as if you can do such a thing to a room, like lipo or botox. So L-shape sectionals seem played out too.
Along with the re-do of the couch, I have decided to re-do the living room, i.e. get rid of the yellow, do new neutral color window treatments, get rid of the Eames chair, and try to do something with the credenza too. I want the room to NOT look like vintage vamp. I want it to look as sophisticated as I am in my mind's eye.
In the meantime, please choose one of the photos that you think looks best.

Adding two X-back chairs,
and lowering the clock; removing the VCR

A tablescape with different flowers -
I've had the lamp and white vessels forever

Most of the room, with the hard to photograph chandelier,
and showing one of the tables with reversible cushion option -
I cheated and left the chandy light on - the unlit bulbs looked sad to me
The fan light over the door is an antique from a NOLA Creole house

Moving the chair to the left...
removing VCR and DVD player,
and keeping the table tops with the hard surface -
moved the faux fur throw...

Moving the Eames chair to the right,
where it makes no sense since it's the chair for TV viewing;
letting flat screen be seen

Putting the cute dog in the shot

Eames chair, showing the VCR;
taupe silk pillows were removed for later shots;
faux fur throw to hide slipcover flaws also removed later

Leaving the VCR in the shot;
complete flat screen and drapes showing -
We live with flat screens in the open now,
but do we like to see them in a photo of a room?

Hope You Had A Great 4th of July Weekend

My girls!
My sister; her daughter - my niece, with her two daughters;
my grandnieces - and the little one is my God daughter!
Aren't they fabulous!!!

Lynn von Kersting Shares Cottage Style Know How

Lynn von Kersting has another feature in the Summer 2008 issue of decorating, one of those special interest publications done by Better Homes and Gardens. At $5.99 these slim quarterly issues are nice little spin-off money makers. One wonders what makes an editor choose to put a major designer/decorator such as Lynn von K in the spin-off, rather than feature her in the main magazine. Anyway, it is a pleasant surprise, that makes an otherwise ordinary super market magazine rack offering very special. And of course that's why I bought it, instead of putting it back on the impulse buy rack once my checkout was completed. In all fairness, the enitire slim issue packs in several nice offerings.
I had to do a double take, since I saw another von K house featured in the June/July issue of Western Interiors HERE
Both homes are in the Los Angeles area, and both have similar use of fabrics and furniture, but they are not one and the same home. So if you're a Lynn von Kersting fan, pick up this issue.

Signature von K elements: prints, comfort, color, collections

Ticking stripes and shell covered mirror look fresh again,
and I love the colored silk Burmese lanterns

Lynn does another brilliant DR chair -
remember the red stripe one we all love in Western Interiors?

I have not seen this much editorial on Lynn von Kersting. Joni Webb at Cote de Texas did a wonderful piece on her, naming her #7 on the Cote de Texas Top Ten Designers list, where she used several von K photos HERE. Joni noted that published pictures of Lynn's work are rare, and that there is no von Kersting book. You can of course see her work at her store in Los Angeles. Lynn is a special type of designer - she owns a restaurant (The Ivy) that has been a watering hole for the celeb set for a long time (maybe 20 years by now). She has her store Indigo Seas, which is styled to the nines. Through the store, and by word of mouth of many happy clients, comes her commissions to do interior design and decoration.
It is so refreshing to see Lynn keep traditional and romantic decor alive and well and current, especially in the Los Angeles/Palm Springs mecca of all things Mid Century fabulous.
It is curious that her work is appearing in what I think of as off- shoot and regional publications (Western Interiors and decorating). The big two guns left standing, Elle Decor and Domino, haven't published any of Lynn's current work yet.
I predict we will see a Lynn von Kersting book very soon!

The entryway: More stripe ticking
Note the white tile floor - something many of us have
How "green" of her not to rip it up, but make it work

A guest room using all the things that we love,
that have been discarded for the Domino groovy rooms:
Chintz, florals, quilts, wicker!

The master bedroom - there's that red stripe we love
used on another style of chair to great effect


Detail of a corner in the master bedroom -
Another fab shell covered mirror -
Love the turquoise accent color
used throughout the entire house

Below: Another dining area on the sun porch
I love the straw fan display on the mantle

Do Style Bloggers Have To Be Beautiful And Young? Photos Of Your Favorite Bloggers

I am just catching up with the decor and design blog postings, as I have been distracted and detached lately. I subscribe to a few faves, and Mrs. Blandings posted this photo of herself (on the left), and Heather of Habitually Chic. They met on the Inter Net, and Heather visited Kansas City, where Mrs. Blandings lives, and they got together and made a festive time of it HERE
Many commented on how adorable they both look. Indeed they are just what you would think authors of blogs to do with design, decor, and style would look like.

Elaine from Decorno


Melissa from Sneaky Chic

I have been e-mailing a few other popular bloggers, asking them for their photos for a survey, guessing game, or article I had in mind. Some have declined. Most have sent me a photo, or told me where I could find one of them or of a fellow blogger. Most of these bloggers are women, and most are very attractive, and most are young or young looking.
Does it matter if a blogger is good looking or young or well groomed or stylish in order to have credibility with their readers while making pronouncements on matters of style? Should bloggers hide what they look like? Some ask not to be photographed. As blogs become more important as on line magazines, other media outlets do feature stories on them, and often publish a photo of the face behind the beautiful-to-look-at, and well written blog.

Joni from Cote De Texas
with her daughter

I have so many nice photos, and I thank you all for sending them. Blogs are often a launch point for media recognition, and many photos are in the public domain (mine included). And of course the face and space sites are wildly popular, and have kind of taken the edge off personal revelations at every level.
So many of us work at home either full or part time these days, wearing and working in PJs all day, only pulling ourselves together for a video conference call, or to run errands outside the house. Those are photos we don't have to see LOL!
For fun, I will publish three or four photos of the top design bloggers every week. Would you like me to tell you who the bloginista is, or would you like to guess?
I like having a face to associate the writer with. So many other things are revealed in our blogs, some of it personal, so why not see a photo of who we invite into our homes on daily basis?

A Star Is Born: Decor In Movies

Judy Garland as Vicky Lester in the film "A Star Is Born"
in the fabulous Mid Century Malibu living room set
designed by Gene Allen and decorated by George James Hopkins

Billy Haines designed all three of these rooms;
his was the main influence on the set design

Lindley Associates, located in Los Angeles, California is carrying on
the Haines legacy by faithfully reproducing the original Haines furniture designs -
Peter Schifando and J. Jonathan Joseph are extending
the Haines aesthetic with painstaking accuracy
and fulfilling the current demand for Hollywood Regency design

You can go to William Haines Designs HERE

I have been watching television, and the other day the old movie "A Star Is Born" came on. There are three versions - one from the 1930's with Janet Gaynor and Frederic March; one from the 195o's with Judy Garland and James Mason; and the third from the 1970's with Barbra Streisand and Kris Kristofferson. I watched the one from 1954.
The other star of this movie, is the fabulous set design. The Malibu home of the newly married Vicky and Norman (Judy and James), is an ode to the best of Mid Century Modern.
The influence of Billy Haines is attributed, though I see alot of Tony Duquette influence as well. It's all very swell and grand and fun, and it is the image I hold in my mind as the essential version of Hollywood glam, only to be compared to the great Art Deco Moderne sets of the 1930's Astaire and Rogers films.
As usual there are not many film stills or photographs of this important set design. So you must rent the movie and see it for yourself.
I like to play a little game with film sets I like. The game is, could I recreate it (money no object). I made a list of the things I saw, and started looking on the Internet, the best place to shop. Of course you can find nearly everything, if not the same designs, certainly one can find pieces of similar look and era and pedigree. So I put together a little photo essay with some of the things I found including rooms by Billy Haines and Tony Duquette. While searching I found an excellent article about the interior design done for the film at Jet Set Modern HERE
Below is an excerpt, along with photos of various sites I scouted online to build my dream A Star Is Born living room.

Tony Duquette Hollywood Glam

Playing with color pillows in my living room

"A STAR IS MODERN" by Sandy McLendon

Gene Allen was tapped to design the sets, George James Hopkins to do the set decoration, and George Hoyningen-Huene to consult on color.

The Malibu location specified in the story was already known to audiences as a scenic, desirable place to live, and the house could be showcased in a production number planned for the movie. Titled "Someone At Last", it was the last section of the movie that could be considered lighthearted; the story careened into its darkest territory after the number ended.

Set designer Gene Allen took his cues on building the house from several sources. There was his own familiarity with how movie stars lived. He had seen the Case Study Houses being built in Los Angeles. And he knew just how far he could go with lavishness, because he worked for Jack L. Warner.

Warner had one of the finest estates in Hollywood- nine acres landscaped by Florence Yoch, who had landscaped Tara for Gone With the Wind. The house itself could only be called magnificent; it had been decorated by the most expensive interior designer in Hollywood, Billy Haines.

Jack Warner home done by Billy Haines -
Note the Chinoiserie wallpaper on the right

Done in an eclectic mixture of Georgian, Chinese, and Billy Haines-designed moderne, the décor was the most famous in town. Gene Allen appropriated several Haines "touches" for his set design; the borrowings were necessary because using Haines himself was out of the question.

The first reason was that Billy Haines was considered pricey even by the standards of a town where money flowed like water. The second was that Haines had had a taste of working in the movies, and wasn't interested in going back to them. He'd been an M-G-M star back in the silent era, becoming very popular and doing excellent work, notably in 1928's Show People, with Marion Davies. His performing career ended over his personal life: Haines was gay, and he didn't care who knew it. M-G-M head Louis B. Mayer did care, and dumped Haines at the first slump in his box-office popularity. Unfazed, Haines drew on his established talent as a decorator- his own house was the most beautiful in town- and built a whole new career. Gene Allen emulated the chinoiserie Haines had sold Warner, as well as the mogul's private projection system, with a screen that rose from the floor, assisted by a water-powered pump. In addition to paying homage to Haines' work for Warner, Allen also may have been inspired by a house Haines had decorated for Fox mogul William Goetz and his wife Edie, who was, curiously enough in view of Haines' movie-career downfall, Louis B. Mayer's daughter. The Goetz residence had glowing light-grey walls, modern furniture, and a collection of Modern and Impressionist art so extravagant it encompassed Picassos and Renoirs.

A room by Tony Duquette, using the same elements of Impressionist art,
glowing grey walls, Chinoiserie, modern furniture,
that inspired the decor in the film

More Duquette Hollywood Glam

Following standard movie-making practice of the time, the Malibu house Allen designed was built mainly as an interior set; only a small portion of the exterior was built. Matte painting superimposed a painted house on real Malibu footage for exterior shots. The major portion of the house seen onscreen was the living room, and for all its apparent Fifties Modern simplicity, it was one of the most complicated and expensive sets in ASIB to design, furnish, and decorate.

Allen gave the house a Fifties Modern look loosely based on the Case Study Houses, but "warmed up" for mass-audience consumption with pickled oak paneling and details. Set decorator George James Hopkins was responsible for choosing the furniture and accessories for the living room, and his sensitivity to the needs of the movie resulted in what may be the best work of Hopkins' long career. He began with two Edward Wormley sofas by Dunbar, one brown, one gold. He also turned to Dunbar for a Wormley game table and chairs that were very reminiscent of Billy Haines' famous furniture designs.

Top photo shows Judy sitting at the game table;
second photo is Billy Haines game table and chairs;
third photo is a chair in the same vein now on istdibs

His lighting choices included an Arteluce three-arm adjustable pole lamp designed by Gino Sarfatti in 1950, and the latest fad of the early 50's in the game room- a Gotham Lighting pull-down fixture. A Paul Frankl table for Johnson Furniture was in the living room, as was a most curious pair of Barcelona chairs with ottomans.

Above: Frankl style coffee table now at istdibs

Tony Duquette living room with Frankl style coffee table

White Barcelona chair behind Judy Garland

The chairs appear to be the Knoll version, but the ottomans are clearly copies, perhaps to lighten the weight Judy Garland would have to handle as she moved them during the sequence. In addition, the chairs are obviously re-upholstered; the cushions are not as well detailed as original Knoll cushions would have been, appearing somewhat overstuffed. This was probably due to Hopkins' choice of white for their color. The furnishings were complimented by Impressionist and Modern art that included a real Maurice de Vlaminck painting, and by some Chinese pieces that included a lamp and a T'ang Dynasty camel sculpture.

Chinese camels turned into lamps at istdibs with politically correct shades

To complete the set, Hopkins found many small accessories that looked perfectly appropriate and innocuous, but which would become props for Judy Garland's send-up of M-G-M musical production numbers.

The problem was that it served as the setting for "Someone At Last"; in that song, Judy Garland performed a delicious spoof of all the M-G-M musical numbers she was famous for, creating the fantasy that the room and its furnishings had become the ultimate Hollywood soundstage. Everything in the room had to support the premise, and serve the number's action.

And how well it all worked! "Someone At Last" began with Garland calling "Lights! Camera! Action!" as she swiveled the Arteluce lamp's arms into position for lights,

Arteluce lamp like the one Judy used-you can get it on istdibs

rolled her tea cart into the shot to serve as a "camera",

Vintage tea cart on eBay HERE

and swung into the action of the number. As the music played on a Fifties hi-fi system built into a chinoiserie cabinet,

Two hi fi cabinets - the top one is by Tommy Parzinger
the bottom one is unsigned - both are for sale at 1stdibs

and the CinemaScope cameras played lovingly over the expansive set, Garland lip-synched, and simulated everything found in a Hollywood production number with what was to be found in the living room. One of the Barcelona ottomans was stripped of its cushion so that its straps could be played as a harp

X-base stool like the one used as a harp - you can get this on istdibs

Barcelona chair like the ones used in the set design -
you can see why the structure of the chair would lend itself
to being imagined as the harp Judy played

("there's always a harp in a dream sequence!"), and the Dunbar table and chairs became the Eiffel Tower for a lampoon of Edith Piaf. Garland plucked two leaves from a philodendron in a bullet planter

Bullet planter on eBay HERE

to use them as a stripper costume, holding them to her bosom and then dropping them in a merciless send-up of every bored blasé strip-tease "artiste" who ever was. Since 1954 was not a politically correct era, the number included Judy as a Chinese girl in a coolie hat improvised from- of course- the coolie lampshade from her Chinese lamp. The room's tiger-skin rug became a tiger costume for Garland in an African-inspired moment. Even the sofa pillows got into the act:

Multi color pillows in a Tony Duquette room
very much like the ones Judy played with

Judy used a striped bolster as a concertina and a ruffled pink pillow as a can-can skirt. A pair of salt and pepper mills on the tea cart became maracas for the "Brazilian" part of the song. At the end of the sequence, Garland and Mason barricaded themselves into a fort devised from the Wormley sofas (like the ones pictured below currently on 1stdibs; also pictured is a pair of Billy Haines sofas that also look very much like the sofas used in the movie, and they are also on 1stdibs) and shot it out with imaginary bad guys in a Wild West bit.

James (as Norman) and Judy (as Vicky)
sitting on the Dunbar sofas -
note the color toss pillows

Top photo below shows a pair of Billy Haines sofas
that look very much like the ones in the movie
The second photo is a Dunbar sofa both are for sale on 1stdibs
The third photo is a current Billy Haines sofa made for William Haines Designs

The most inspired moment may have been when James Mason manipulated the controls of the room's private movie projection system, making its screen rise from the floor and its projector run without film. Garland cavorted in front of the screen; the flickering, strobing beam from the projector made her look as if she was performing in a silent movie.

I leave you with one last photo of Judy rehearsing the big living room number -
It shows the fabulous drapes and a bit of the Arteluce lamp
casting a shadow in the left hand corner