A Banner Year

Designers
March 1, 2013

The other day I was looking for living room design inspiration, and i was at a loss. Upon my mother’s recommendation, I decided to go into my “vault” and grab some old issues of House Beautiful. I started in 2009, and whoa. It seems to me, after going through the entirety of 2009, that there is no other year of House Beautiful that has more photos that are blogged about, pinned, printed, loved, whatever. I mean for Lacquered Life alone, three posts this week were spawned by HB 2009. I feel as though I have seen so many of these interiors so many times – and not just because they have been around for 4 years. I cannot believe that all of these “well-loved” pictures are from a single year. Below are some of the culprits.

Meg Braff, October

Ned Marshall, March

Miles Redd, July

Jonathan Adler, May

Windsor Smith, September

John Willey, March

Ginger Barber, July

David Lawrence, June

Jonathan Berger, July

Annie Selke, February

Lynn Morgan, April

And my personal favorite, again, Albert Hadley, July.

Dare to Compare

Designers
February 28, 2013

Yesterday, you learned about Mrs. Nancy Pyne, the doyenne of Far Hills who helped to resuscitate Schumacher’s Hollyhock Chintz. In the post, I mentioned that Mrs. Pyne had left her beloved Cherryfields (pictured above) for greener, rather smaller, pastures. In that mention, I referenced the fact that Mrs. Pyne had actually traded houses with John Dransfield and Geoffrey Ross of the eponymous home ware line, Dransfield & Ross. Above and below are photos of the living room of Cherryfields during Mrs. Pyne’s tenure, under the direction of Mr. Albert Hadley.

I love the look of this classic Parish Hadley room … notice the overabundance of Hollyhock Chintz. For a rather traditional room, I find it quite strange, albeit quite fabulous, that Mr. Hadley declined the use of a rug. How straightforward, how simplistic, how modern, how Hadley.

And here we have the redesign by Dransfield & Ross. Apparently, they wanted to keep the drapes that had been chosen by Mr. Hadley, but when they took them down to have them restored, they had a visit from Mrs. Pyne who declared that she would never speak to them again if they put the drapes back up. As a result, in deference to Mrs. Pyne, the windows remain naked. Interestingly, Dransfield & Ross have kept the floor naked as well, not too dissimilar to the decor during Hadley’s reign. On one hand, this living room is much more colorful today, in the way that Dransfield & Ross have designed it. Note the peonies on the mantel and on the center table. However, as shown above, the room during Mrs. Pyne’s residence was quite colorful itself, with the Hollyhock Chintz, yellow brocade upholstery on the sofas and chairs, family portrait above the mantel, and the overabundance of fresh floral arrangements.

So what do you prefer? Do you recognize the modernity in Mr. Hadley’s 1962 design? Or do you prefer the overtly simplistic re-design as done by Dransfield & Ross? Despite my deceptively negative undertone, I adore the Dransfield & Ross redesign, however, I can’t ignore the modernity of the 1962 Hadley design. As undecided as it may seem, I appreciate and love each design equally, as they are at once so completely different and yet so inherently similar. Both are evenly featured in both my inspiration folders and my Pinterest boards. But do you have an opinion? If you do, we would love to hear it.

Photos courtesy of House Beautiful & Elle Decor

Pyne-ing for Hollyhock

Interior Design
February 27, 2013

Everybody has a favorite fabric. Even if you are not particularly into fabrics, you know what you like. There is that one that you think you might use someday when you are not pinching pennies to furnish your apartment through all our favorite catalogs and Etsy shops – yes, that fabric. If you had asked me a few years ago to name my favorite fabric, hands down it would have been a Quadrille or China Seas print – you really cannot go wrong. However, if you had told me then that in a few years my favorite fabric would be chintz, I would probably have answered, “Do you think I’m a %$*!ing Stepford Wife?” And my reaction would have been wrong. Above is a picture of Lonny Editor-in-Chief Michelle Adams’ NYC bedroom. Her bed canopy? Schumacher’s Pyne Hollyhock Chintz in Charcoal – my favorite fabric.

This fabric is my absolute favorite, and isn’t it glorious? Despite my worry about being a chintz-loving Stepford wife, this fabric actually looks extremely modern and cutting edge. In fact, the history of chintz is one of cutting edge technology and scandal, not of suburban stuffiness. When chintz was introduced to Europe from India in the 17th century, it became so popular that it threatened to cripple the British and French textile industries, and so it was outlawed … just long enough for the British and French textile manufacturers to become extremely well adept at crafting their own chintzes.

Above is Mrs. Nancy Pyne, known to her friends as “Princess”, in the living room of her Far Hills, NJ home, Cherryfields. Mrs. Pyne had Cherryfields decorated by Parish Hadley in 1962, and Albert Hadley chose the Hollyhock Chintz as the dominant fabric in the room. Meanwhile, chintz had a bit of a fall from grace, and Schumacher discontinued the Hollyhock print. Fast forward to years later when Mrs. Pyne was kind enough to loan some fabric scraps back to Schumacher so that they could resuscitate this venerable chintz, hence the name ‘Pyne Hollyhock’. This time, they produced it in the original charcoal, as well as two additional colorways, seen below.

This colorway, called Tobacco, is meant to mimic the effect of time on the Charcoal colorway, as evidenced by the fabric in Mrs. Pyne’s living room.

Indigo.

Here is another shot of Mrs. Pyne’s living room with the Hollyhock Chintz. Notice the color of the fabric – time and sun have made it look more like the Tobacco colorway above. When Mrs. Pyne sold her house, or rather traded houses with John Dransfield & Geoffrey Ross, she brought both her Hollyhock and Albert Hadley with her, retaining the fabric that the pieces had been upholstered in 47 years prior. See below.

And to me, this is the “sell” shot. There is nothing more modern, or more traditional than this photo here. And that is why this is my favorite fabric. Do you have a favorite fabric?

Photos courtesy of Lonny Magazine, House Beautiful, FSSchumacher.com, & Town & Country