To Elsie, With Love

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

More Books

How Do You Take Your Bookshelves?

I’m currently doing some work for a client whose dining room walls are lined with bookshelves. She wants to wallpaper the room, but she doesn’t want the wallpaper to be too busy with all of the books in the shelves. In her dining room, the books are the main feature, however, in some rooms the books are simply a piece of the larger scheme. 

In some shelves the books are all vertical, in some shelves they are horizontal, and in others there is a mix. Some shelves hold only books, and some shelves hold books, decorative objets, and even lamps. Some are color coordinated, others are random. With so many ways to style a shelf, there are dozens of ways to decorate around them – how do you like your bookshelves? 

 Photos courtesy of House Beautiful, Elle Decor, Traditional Home

More Interior Design

Porch Approach

Of course today, the day I’m leaving Charleston, is beautiful. A perfect porch morning. Thought I would take the opportunity to compare two schools of thought on the porch – outdoor room or simply just outdoors. Interestingly – we have three very American examples for the outdoor room, and three extremely European examples for simply outdoors. Let’s find out what you like best. 
Southern Living

House Beautiful

House Beautiful




As for me, here’s one side of my porch. While the white rocking chairs say “outdoors” like my European friends, the throw pillows in China Seas’ Java Java along with the garden stool say “outdoor room”. Clearly I can’t commit.


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