On My Coffee Table: Beyond Chic

Books
February 25, 2014

If you follow me on Pinterest, and I wish you would(!) you will notice I’ve been pinning into the “Style” and “Closet Cravings” boards lately. Spring has sprung, and I’m ready for a wardrobe change. That is why this book, Beyond Chic, is so well, chic. It is a book of photographs of the home’s of some of the world’s most famous fashion designers. Looking through this book, one can satisfy their appetite for historic preservation, architecture, interiors, and fashion. Below is just a teaser of some of the interiors in the book, but I highly recommend you go out and purchase a copy for yourself. Beyond Chic: Great Fashion Designers at home is available at Barnes and Noble here, and Amazon here.
Stefano Pilati, ParisManolo Blahnik, BathKevin Carrigan, BellportLaudomia Pucci, FlorenceAzzedine Alaia, ParisNicole Farhi, LondonReed Krakoff, New York

Beyond Chic: Great Fashion Designers at home is available at Barnes and Noble here, and Amazon here.

First Street to Church Street: Julia, You’re Invited.

Architecture
February 19, 2014

The House on First Street, title of a great book, New Orleans home of a great writer, Julia Reed. I am a big fan of Julia Reed. As a Connecticut girl who has adopted South Carolina as her home state, Julia Reed has been quite the inspiration. Not long after my husband and I moved to Charleston, my aunt sent me a copy of Julia Reed’s But Mama Always Put Vodka in Her Sangria! A book full of stories about friends and family, eating and drinking, entertaining, and all the other things that southerners seem to have a knack for. I devoured that book, and have subsequently sought out her her other books, articles in Garden & Gun, and features in Southern Living. Despite the fact that I know absolutely nothing about Julia other than what she has written about herself, I am convinced that Julia and I would be great friends. I would invite her over for cocktails on the porch and dinner in the garden, and we would drink too much and laugh too hard and it would be fabulous. We could bond over historic houses (obviously), preservation (definitely), great Southern cities, and how to make a good Southside.Julia was assisted in her First Street project by friend and amazing decorator Thomas Jayne, who was an apprentice to Albert Hadley. Need I say more? You loyal Lacquered Lifers know how I feel about Mr. Hadley … In her book, The House on First Street, Reed regales us with stories of the trials and tribulations of a home renovation in post-Katrina New Orleans. Although I absolutely cannot relate to what the citizens of NOLA experienced with Katrina, I can understand the frustrations associated with a construction project. Somehow Julia manages to make some of the most stressful moments something to laugh about. I don’t have nearly the number of cookbooks that Julia has, however, we did install shelves in the kitchen specifically for my cookbooks. Even so my kitchen bookshelves are full, and I think I may have to take a cue from Julia in the next project for back of the island shelves.Ready for a party. Julia, just let me know what I can bring over for the potluck. Thanks to Sara Foster, I can do a mean deviled egg … So when I’m in New Orleans next month, don’t think I won’t be strolling past the house on First Street and imagining all the laughing and drinking. Julia, let me know if you’re ever in Charleston.

The House on First Street and But Mama Always Puts Vodka in Her Sangria! are available at Barnes & Noble here.

Photos via Southern Living & Elle Decor

The Great Ascent

Architecture
February 11, 2014

Charleston is expecting some winter weather today, which leaves me ready to curl up with a good book. I believe I will go with Staircases: The Architecture of Ascent, out from Vendome Press. This is a stunning pictorial of staircases throughout history each with various purposes and architectural styles. Many of the staircases featured in this book were amazing feats of engineering at the time they were constructed, and observing them today they are no less marvelous. Staircases: The Architecture of Ascent is available at Barnes & Noble here and Amazon here.

Staircases page 25 — Steps at Sigiriya in Sri Lanka

Staircases page 80 — Hotel de Ville in Nancy

“… first you have to resolve the geometrical conflict between the diagonal of the pitch and the floor, and then you must consider the delicate and complex question of the handrail, turns and landings. You also have to work out how to finish both the upper level and the base – that point where the steps leave the ground and take off, soaring upwards.”

Sculptures on Stairway in Palazzo Canossa — Palazzo Canossa

Staircases pages 164-65 — Harlaxton Manor in Lincolnshire

Senftenberg, Landmarke Lausitzer Seenland

The author outlines the different types of staircases and gives examples of each; the typologies are as follows: straight-flight stair, wall-mounted stair, curved stair, parallel stair, unprotected stair, impossible stair, samba stair, floating stair, random stair, stairway to heaven or hell, and the imperial stair. Now wouldn’t you like to know what each of those mean?