Surrounded by Books

Books
May 15, 2013

Penguin Books. Just looking at these brightly bound classic paperbacks brings on a sensory overload. I smell the old paper, mingled with sun and sand, and I see the light filtering through the windows of the tiny library on the Floridian Island where we used to visit my grandparents. If I close my eyes, I can even feel the air in that little library. There is something about these little Penguin books that stir up memories in all of us – feelings that you want to surround yourself with as often as one can.

Penguin Books published its first ten paperbacks in 1935. For the first time, classic titles were available to the public for the price of a pack of cigarettes. No longer did reading require a library card – you could now buy your books at the newsstand. In this respect, Penguin Books stood out from its other publishing house counterparts with their expensive, overly decorative hardcover books. The famous paperback covers were designed by Edward Young, a 21 year old office junior, who would later go on to become Penguin Books’ Production Manager. Fun fact: the different colors on the covers have significance; orange is fiction, blue is for biographies, green is for crime novels, and so on.

Wallpaper! Now you don’t even have to go to a bookshop or a library to get that Penguin Books sensory overload. This Spring, Osborne & Little, Britain’s premier wallpaper and fabric house, has released Penguin Library wallpaper. Featuring tons of different classic titles, such as Wuthering Heights and others, now you have the ability to surround yourself with these classic books in any room of your home.

Like a Pantone color chart, these books breathe life into any space they are assembled in. And what a cocktail party conversation they would make! I can imagine having a few drinks and wandering around the room looking at the titles. Might also be wonderful in a kids play room – it might encourage your children to read! I wish I had a place for this wallpaper, because I think it is absolutely wonderful, don’t you?

Photos courtesy of Osborne & Little & Stephen Small on Flickr

To Elsie, With Love

Books
June 13, 2012

When I started this blog three years ago, I started it with a post on Elsie de Wolfe’s The House in Good Taste. Today, some of my favorite quotes from that famous text. If you don’t have a copy, I suggest you go purchase one.

“Our ancestors built for stability and use, and so their simple houses were excellent examples of architecture. Their spacious, uncluttered interiors were usually beautiful. House and furniture fulfilled their uses, and if an object fulfills its mission, the chances are that it is beautiful.”

“The strongest, the most intense, feeling I have about decoration is my love of color.”

“We must learn to recognize suitability, simplicity, and proportion, and apply our knowledge to our needs.”

“The house was very simple, you see, and very small, so when the time came to leave it we had grown to love every inch of it. You can love a small house so completely!”

Photos courtesy of Darryl Carter, Architectural Digest, House Beautiful, Elle Decor

Cocktail Hour & Campaign Furniture

Architecture
March 13, 2012

If you have not yet read Cocktail Hour Under the Tree of Forgetfulness, I highly recommend it. It is a story about life in Africa, and stories like that are always exciting. This story, unlike West With the Night or Out of Africa, provides a little more comic relief. Reading this book has put me in the mood for British Colonial decor. A style I have always admired, I am hoping to incorporate it into the design scheme of the Charleston house.

This is in fact extremely appropriate, because Charleston is often thought of as part of the Caribbean – made clear by areas of town such as Rainbow Row above. Instead of arriving directly from Great Britain, most of Charleston’s early settlers came by way of the Caribbean; and unlike many of the settlers arriving in New England, these early Charlestonians came to South Carolina already wealthy Caribbean landowners.

These British ex-patriots arrived in Charleston already well versed in the trials and tribulations of living in a hot and humid climate. Taking a cue from the homes that they had built in the Caribbean, or rather some of the mistakes they had made, Charlestonians built houses that faced south with double and triple height piazzas so that they might take the utmost advantage of the breezes coming off the harbor. It is in keeping with this British Colonial history of Charleston that I look to British Colonial decor of the Caribbean for inspiration.

One cannot really admire Caribbean decor without looking to India Hicks. Daughter of the late great designer David Hicks, and a flower girl at Princess Diana’s wedding, this Brit has made her life in the Caribbean, incorporating all of the things that I would like to see in the second bedroom in Charleston. Campaign furniture, such as the chest in the photo above, is a must – and caned furniture like the bed in that photo is an added bonus.

Books are everywhere, and the floors are painted white – notice the lack of rugs. The all white scheme helps with the heat, and the palm fronds bring the outside in. I love the contrast of dark antiques with the white walls, floors, and upholstery.

Ah, yes, and one of my favorite aspects of campaign furniture … that it is portable! Again the contrast of the dark wood folding chairs against the white table cloth and porch – wonderful. So far I only have antique campaign bed side tables in place … but I’m getting there.