Glass Globes and Cloches in Interior Design
Friends tell me there is a story behind everything in our house. The story or provenance is the history of an object. My fascination with glass globes and garden cloches began with these flowers from my sister’s wedding cake. She was married in a garden in Fredericksburg, Texas in the Hill Country and after the wedding the flowers traveled with me in a box on the back seat of the car.
Espalier in the Garden
My fascination with espalier, or training plants to grow on walls harks back to childhood when we had a yellow flowered, heavily scented Carolina Jasmine vine growing on the fence. Later, when married with dogs, we were probably the only couple who had a vine covered dog run. Here, in this photo taken during a two-week summer tour of Italy with my sister, ivy growing on wires strung between posts to create a living fence could be seen outside more than one villa in Montecatini Terme, Italy.
Enriching Life Through Flower Arranging
Fresh flowers are a lifelong passion of mine. Reflecting on flowers and flower arrangements calls to mind so many moments of my life… heather and baby’s breath in a porcelain vase shaped as a woman in a long dress, the flowers filling the back of her skirt; a birthday gift from my father. Standing in the lobby of the Willard Hotel in Washington, D.C. thunderstruck by the tall glass cylinders placed on a round mahogany table and filled with twisted grapevine stems and orange lilies.
Renewing and Repurposing a Table: Personalizing Possessions
Renewing and repurposing furniture you already own is one of the most satisfying experiences! Yes, it does take some amount of courage though less bravery is needed when the piece has outlived its current purpose. Here is a glimpse of my large vintage table in its new form. Read on for the full story!
Elevating Plinths
A plinth is a support or base for a column made of a thick block of stone. The contemporary meaning for plinths used in interior design includes bases made of various materials for sculpture, decorative vases, altar candles, and other objects of interest.
Considering Wedding Gowns
This photo is a mezzotint print I made of a bridal headpiece found in a vintage shop. It wasn’t a clothing shop so the head piece was buried in a box of odds and ends of lace and hat ribbons. Unearthing it prompted a decades long fascination with bridal raiment.
Interior Design Book Inspiration: Stone Scent Diffuser
We often open the double doors onto the terrace and those at the opposite end of the house leading to a walled garden to let the canyon breezes flow through the house, bringing in the scent of ash juniper, rosemary, and sage. When the doors are closed some of this freshness remains, augmented with other scents to create a unique and personal olfactory experience.
Faux Tortoise Shell Finish
Tortoise shell with its warm neutral tones has been used in design as a decorative veneer on furniture, boxes, jewelry, and picture and mirror frames.
Style Notes 1
Lingering over the Sunday New York Times Style section and T Magazine insert is a pleasure not to be missed. My focus is on these sections that provide me with ideas and inspiration related to lifestyle, fashion, and interior design including stories about the people who create fashion and interiors. When we lived in Galveston, Texas we used to walk to a local shop where they made breakfast burritos and sandwiches. You could buy a paper from the stack and sit on a stool at the counter, alternately reading the paper and watching traffic go by on the Seawall Boulevard.
On Being a Vintage Book Bibliophile
As defined in Wikipedia a bibliophile is “an individual who loves and frequently reads or collects books. This image of a painting by Pierpaolo Rovero, ‘Past Present Future,’ is indicative of the way we readers understand the power of books to take us to unknown places, allow us to try on the lives of others, provide information and inspiration, give us comfort…there are infinite connections between books and readers.