The Printed Page: How an Arch Digest Editor Decorates a Pad for Arch Digest

Friday, August 16, 2013, by Amy Schellenbaum

Photo by Roger Davies/Arch Digest

This month's Architectural Digest has a look inside the Manhattan apartment of the magazine's own international style editor Carlos Mota, a stylist ("I had no formal training") whose penchant for "more crazy, more messy, more unexpected" translates easily into his own cramped, glammy interiors. While the master bedroom boasts an elephant bust that may or may not be made of aluminum foil and a bird cage occupied by fake avians, the living room has got tufted couches in silver velvet and avocado green silk carpeting. "I like color. I like to combine looks and periods. I don't like just any one style," he told AD. "I hate the word eclectic, so maybe I should call my look globally chic."

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The Printed Page: 25 of the Greatest Rooms That Veranda's Ever Published

× Like us and you'll find top breaking news in your Facebook newsfeed. Sign up for our daily email newsletter and get top stories and breaking news delivered to your inbox. Wednesday, February 29, 2012, by Sarah Firshein

In honor of its silver anniversary, the March/April issue of Veranda features 25 of the magazine's best rooms, all pulled from the archives by the designers who completed them. Above: an end-of-day, moment of Zen slideshow. Browse the gallery for spaces done up by Mary McDonald, Windsor Smith, Miles Redd, Carolyne Roehm, Thomas O'Brien, and a whole bunch more.

· Looking Back: Veranda's Most Memorable Rooms [Veranda]

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The Printed Page: Come, Let's Tour Photographer Mario Testino's L.A. Abode

× Like us and you'll find top breaking news in your Facebook newsfeed. Sign up for our daily email newsletter and get top stories and breaking news delivered to your inbox. Tuesday, February 28, 2012, by Sarah Firshein

Photo by Mario Testino/Vogue; click to expand!

The March issue of Vogue visits Mario Testino, one of the magazine's go-to fashion photographers, at his 1933 Spanish-style home in the Hollywood Hills. When he first happened upon the property, it sparked something deep-rooted in Testino, reminding him of his native Peru. So he abandoned plans to move home and settled here instead, forgoing a decorator and architect for his own intuition. “Coming here, I was inspired by rusts and browns and greens and ochers. The light is so bright, all of a sudden bright colors become garish; they look like bubble gum," he told Vogue's Hamish Bowles. Above, a shot of the living room, which is filled with finds from Marrakech—straw mats and sheep-colored carpets—a fireplace inspired by Cliff May, dean of the California ranch house, and an eclectic mix of pottery, art, and furniture. "What I wanted to do was to mix the periods that I like,” he says, “the Spanish mixed with the Indian, with the Inca. But then I wanted a seventies element. Really, it’s just a backdrop for the art.” Find two additional shots below and head to Vogue.com for the full gallery.

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The Printed Page: Paying homage to the little guys,...

× Like us and you'll find top breaking news in your Facebook newsfeed. Sign up for our daily email newsletter and get top stories and breaking news delivered to your inbox. Thursday, October 6, 2011, by Sarah Firshein

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? Previous: Adweek's Hot List Nominees

? Next: Willem de Kooning's Studio; "Ikea for Barbies;" West Elm; More!

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The Printed Page: Top Ten Jabs in the Times' Online Shelter Magazine Story

× Like us and you'll find top breaking news in your Facebook newsfeed. Sign up for our daily email newsletter and get top stories and breaking news delivered to your inbox. Thursday, June 2, 2011, by Sarah Firshein

Today the New York Times runs a truly epic story about the state of digital shelter magazines. (So epic, in fact, that it contains roughly 2,700 words over four pages online—countless column inches, no doubt, in the print edition.) As we've said before, Lonny is the grand doyenne of this crowd—its 2009 hatch to life has since inspired a notable stable of copycats: Rue, High Gloss, and Matchbook, among them. Fascinating things are learned about the kind of photoshoots these pubs organize, their budget, and, of course, the amount of traffic each site receives. (The key to the fountain of youth an absurd number of pageviews is being what's essentially a 347-page flipbook, just like Trad Home.) Interviewing these girls—as congenial as a luncheon on Sex and the City, right? Let's just say that it's a good thing the new-to-town (and decidedly un-girly) online design magazine Entra is sitting this one out. Here now, the top 10 jabs, from both the reporter and from the interviewees:

10: On the lack of an ad/edit page ratio: And the freedom from printing costs can result in excess, as when Lonny devoted 38 pages to a home in Chiswick, England.

9: On making friends with Lonny: “We didn’t have a pre-existing relationship with them and haven’t been able to develop one,” [Rue editor in chief] Ms. Gentilello said.

8: On recycling content: Even the articles can feel oddly familiar: after Lonny featured the Manhattan decorator Vicente Wolf, he turned up in Rue’s first issue last fall.

7: On editorial judgment: And aside from the 22 pages that Rue devoted to him [Wolf], there was the added bonus of being referred to as a "design god" whose wrinkles “only increase his masculine beauty.”

6: On digital media: As Crystal Gentilello, the 28-year-old co-founder and editor of Rue, put it, “Everyone and their mother has a blog.”

5: On writing skills: High Gloss seems willing to introduce almost anyone as a “style maven,” and Matchbook’s recent “Portrait of a Lady” article on Diana, Princess of Wales, reads like a Wikipedia entry.

4: On gaining experience in the industry: “I think she [Adams] still has to learn a lot,” Ms. Simpson [her former boss at Domino] said. “She went from an assistant to running her own magazine. She skipped a lot of steps along the way.”

3: On editorial judgment, again: While the editors of Rue might run an article called “Darko Weirdo Dinner Party,” as they did in their March/April issue, Ms. Adams’s taste is more traditional, and old-line society decorators like Albert Hadley have appeared in the magazine.

2: On the market being flooded: Ms. Adams rarely mentions her competitors, and when she does it’s with barely contained annoyance. “All of our competition is using it right now, and no one knew it existed before,” she said of Issuu. “It’s sort of like, ‘Oh, really, guys?’ ”

1: On what sets Lonny apart: “A lot of our competitors seem interested in fame,” Ms. Adams said. “We’re interested in decorating.”

· The Thriving (Online) Shelter Magazine Industry [NYT]
· The Online-Only "Print" Pub Catfight: Rue Vs. Lonny [Curbed National]
· Please Welcome the World's First Non-Girly Digital Design Pub [Curbed National]

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The Printed Page: Elizabeth Taylor's Bel Air Estate Goes Glossy in Arch Digest

× Like us and you'll find top breaking news in your Facebook newsfeed. Sign up for our daily email newsletter and get top stories and breaking news delivered to your inbox. Thursday, May 26, 2011, by Rob Bear Photos: Firooz Zahedi/Architectural Digest

There were whispers that editor Margaret Russell would make her first real flourish at Architectural Digest by publishing the Bel Air, Calif., estate of the late silver screen star Elizabeth Taylor—the magazine even photographed the property during Taylor's last days, right after her interior designer friend Waldo Fernandez finished renovating the four-bedroom house. Well, today A.D. drops the feature as part of its online preview of the July issue. Taylor, the mag is quick to point out, wasn't one to conform to the prevailing trends, instead preferring her own unique style. That helps explain the purple carpeting and chintzy floral prints in the 7,000-square-foot spread, but no excuses are necessary for the artfully arranged rose archways or the artwork from greats like Warhol and Hockney. Soon, the estate may see a new owner—the house is now up for sale at $8.6M—and we hope they manage to retain some of the star's endearing quirkiness.

· The Printed Page [Curbed National]
· Elizabeth Taylor's Bel-Air Estate [AD]
· Elizabeth Taylor's Bel-Air Estate Hits the Market for $8.6M [Curbed National]

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The Printed Page: Some Things You May Not Have Known About Taxidermy Enthusiasts

× Like us and you'll find top breaking news in your Facebook newsfeed. Sign up for our daily email newsletter and get top stories and breaking news delivered to your inbox. Thursday, April 28, 2011, by Sarah Firshein

Photos: Fred R. Conrad/NYT

Perhaps our day-in-the-life-of-taxidermy snapshot a few days ago was a bit unfair; perhaps it was just a cool photogallery, an exaggeration that bore no grounding in reality. Leave it to the New York Times Home & Garden section to stick it to us and reveal what the existence of a true taxidermy enthusiast looks like. Today's Habitats column pays a visit to Deborah Lutz, a Brooklyn denizen who's filled her modest railroad apartment with a mixed bag: furniture rescued from the street, interesting sculptures, and, of course, Victorian accessories involving taxidermy. It's a fascinating story that answers a bunch of questions: what does someone like Lutz do for a living? Wear? Hang on her walls? The anthropological findings are revealed here:

· On careers: "Ms. Lutz, who teaches at Long Island University and is the author, most recently, of a book titled Pleasure Bound: Victorian Sex Rebels and the New Eroticism, is, like so many New Yorkers, living a life very different from the one into which she was born."

· On tabletop pieces: "A two-inch-high glass jar holding the whiskers of a departed cat is on display in a shadow box Ms. Lutz built from a discarded drawer."

· On bedroom furniture: "Vintage leather suitcases, complete with brass keys and other people’s initials, are stacked above her wardrobe. 'I don’t know any of these people,' Ms. Lutz said, 'but I love the idea of their stories, of the lives we might have witnessed but didn’t.'

· On jewelry: "Ms. Lutz also has a love of mourning jewelry—rings and lockets made with strands of human hair that in Victorian eyes represented powerful ways to mourn and celebrate the dead."

· On late-night shenanigans: "Another time, after a lively night out with friends, she discovered a 60-pound mahogany bookshelf that she lugged home atop her slender back. 'Being a little drunk,' she explained, 'gives you superhuman strength.'

· On finders keepers: "Still other finds included a black rotary telephone bearing the number CI 8-1296 that had mysteriously made its way to Brooklyn from City Island in the north Bronx, and a small doll with stringy blond hair and a missing foot—'wounded and bereft in an interesting way,' said Ms. Lutz, who keeps the doll on her bed."

· On wall decor: "A papier-mâché mold for a deer’s head, just awaiting its fur, glass eyes and movie-star eyelashes, is mounted on one wall."

· On wall decor: "Small grainy snapshots of someone else’s relatives—she has no idea who they are—are tacked above a love seat."

· Her Decorators? Flotsam & Jetsam [NYT]
· Ten Examples of Terrible, No Good, Very Bad Taxidermy Decor [Curbed National]

View the original article here

The Printed Page: House Beautiful Gives Sad Keanu Reeves Pink Places to Sit

× Like us and you'll find top breaking news in your Facebook newsfeed. Sign up for our daily email newsletter and get top stories and breaking news delivered to your inbox. Friday, March 11, 2011, by Sarah Firshein

Is there anything sadder than Keanu Reeves? Why, yes! Yes there is—sad Keanu Reeves, of course! To top off House Beautiful's recent Pink Chair Campaign—in which 30 pink chairs were stashed around Chicago as a weekend-long scavenger hunt—the magazine took to the Photoshop to superimpose the sad, sorry likeness of Keanu Reeves onto various pink perches throughout the Windy City. Why? Just for kicks, giggles, and chuckles, apparently. Note Keanu's "stalker" in the gallery above.

· House Beautiful is Coming to Chicago (and Giving Away Chairs) [Curbed Chicago]
· Design For the People: the Decor World Lightens Up [Shelterpop]

View the original article here

The Printed Page: What's Up With Rich People Pretending to Read Arch Digest?

× Like us and you'll find top breaking news in your Facebook newsfeed. Sign up for our daily email newsletter and get top stories and breaking news delivered to your inbox. Tuesday, April 26, 2011, by Sarah Firshein

AdWeek has just released the results of a hilarious survey about the reading habits of 860 households earning more than $250K a year. Thirty-nine percent of those surveyed list Architectural Digest as one of their favorite magazines, yet the pub. doesn't actually show up on the list of what these people say they actual read. In fact, the only shelter pub on the real reading list—topped by People, of course, and Costco Connection, surprisingly—is Better Homes & Gardens. So, just to be clear: you're telling us that most people only look at the pictures and/or leave Arch Digest on the coffee table because it looks cool and pretty and intelligent? Shocker of shockers!

· What the Rich are Reading [AdWeek via Fishbowl NY]

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The Printed Page: How to Be a Legendary Designer: Lessons From Robert Couturier

× Like us and you'll find top breaking news in your Facebook newsfeed. Sign up for our daily email newsletter and get top stories and breaking news delivered to your inbox. Tuesday, April 19, 2011, by Sarah Firshein

Photos from the May issue of Elle Decor by William Abranowicz

We just caught a glimpse of the May issue of Elle Decor in which the much-anticipated feature on the NYC home of famed interior designer Robert Couturier takes front and center. Couturier, dressed for the shoot in his usual dapper garb, plays every bit the part of the seasoned designer whose client roster so happens to include the likes of Anne Hearst, Frederic Fekkai, and Jay McInerney. And when push comes to shove, there's no better guy than a suit-clad French-born industry veteran to impart valuable lessons about how to create the sort of lifestyle that has a high chance, statistically speaking, of grooming the next generation of aspiring interior designers. We've pulled some handy advice from the 10-page feature; consider it CliffNotes, of sorts. Here goes:

10: Be born in Paris, and preferably in the 1950s when it "was very much still a 19th-century town" with "dressmaker[s] who made your clothes." Always be nostalgic for these times, even in the age of online shopping.
9: Move to Manhattan at age 25. Gloss over the details of how you paid for things.

8: Live in the kind of structure that takes five words to describe: "Italianate cast-iron loft building." (Always use these words, and always in this order.)
7: Scatter an eclectic grouping of furnishings ranging from Louis XIV to Art Deco.
6: Bunk in a famous hotel for a while as you figure things out—bonus points for being located on NYC's Upper East Side.
5: Eschew the very notion of ever using your kitchen; instead, strongly affirm the fact that you dine out four nights of the week and travel every weekend. It's a lifestyle thing.
4: Make sure there's no separation between living and working space—extra credit if the bedroom and office are a "single chic space." Double extra credit if said space includes a zebra-patterned sofa, a '30s desk, and a daybed that's actually the main bed.
3: Have insomnia.
2: Have a "Franco-American lifestyle," most certainly.
1: Finally, always be an "uptown gentleman," even if living downtown.

· Robert Couturier Will Be Featured in Elle Decor [Curbed National]
· All Elle Decor coverage [Curbed National]

View the original article here

The Printed Page: Today is shelter pub launch day...

× Like us and you'll find top breaking news in your Facebook newsfeed. Sign up for our daily email newsletter and get top stories and breaking news delivered to your inbox. Wednesday, April 13, 2011, by Sally Kuchar

Today is shelter pub launch day over on Curbed National; they're taking a look at Trad Home, the younger, cooler, 347-page digital cousin of Traditional Home, and all the examples of the high life in the New York Observer's Spring 2011 Observer Home supplementary mag. Click over for details. [Curbed National]

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? Previous: "Legs" is Voted San Francisco's Least Favorite

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The Printed Page: Exploring the Supersize Premiere Issue of Trad Home

× Like us and you'll find top breaking news in your Facebook newsfeed. Sign up for our daily email newsletter and get top stories and breaking news delivered to your inbox. Wednesday, April 13, 2011, by Sarah Firshein

When news broke in December that Lonny cofounders Michelle Adams and Patrick Cline had been tapped to create a younger, hipper, cooler, digital cousin of Traditional Home, the questions—oh, how they boiled. Most pertinently, how would Trad Home break the shackles of the sort of aesthetic their wizened elder has grown known for: formal portraiture as just one sticking point? Well, the spring issue of Trad Home has just gone live, which means we finally get to see what Lonny/Traditional Home offspring looks like.

First necessary fact: the book totals a daunting 347 pages, with the vast bulk grouped in a massive feature well. (Far off the distance, print editors are wailing that they, too, can't have 200-page wells.) Moreover, Trad Home's entire feature well here is devoted to the 20 "new traditional" designers that the magazine unveiled in February. Defined by "an uncommon ability to be traditional in the 21st century," the group includes it-boy decorator Ryan Korban, whose work for fashion designer Alexander Wang is shown in this month's W. As expected, there's talk of shag rugs, linen draperies, flea-market finds, rules of symmetry, Albert Hadley, and Dorothy Draper. It's worth pointing out that none of these projects were submitted as-is; last we caught up with Adams she and Cline were flying through hell and high water to style and produce and/or assign the shoots.

Front-of-book sections feel very Lonny, with pages themed by color and trend, short interviews, and feminine, collage-like layouts. Elsewhere in the magazine, designers Jonathan Adler and Charlotte Moss chat about their thoughts on traditional design in a terrific video "spread." (You flip the page, and the video begins—it's wild.) Speaking of traditional, an entire 10-page spread is devoted to—what else?—the Louis chair. But of course!

· Lonny Duo to Launch Online-Only Version of Traditional Home [Curbed National]
· Delightfully Absurd Portraiture in Dec. Traditional Home [Curbed National]
· Trad Home Spring 2011 [Lonnymag.com]
· Sneaking a Peek at Trad Home's 20 "New Traditional" Designers [Curbed National]
· Your Place or Mine? [W]

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The Printed Page: Interior Design For Men, by Nate Berkus, Barry Sonnenfeld, More!

× Like us and you'll find top breaking news in your Facebook newsfeed. Sign up for our daily email newsletter and get top stories and breaking news delivered to your inbox. Tuesday, February 22, 2011, by Sarah Firshein

This month's Esquire has a full feature devoted to interior design for men—and we're not talkin' man caves, people. We're talkin' sleek, stylish, sophisticated spaces with nary a a trace of the NFL store to be found. Want to achieve that whole "man at his best" look (with or without buying the entire Esquire Home Collection? Heed the advice of the following humanoids:

Nate Berkus, celebrity decorator and host of The Nate Berkus Show:
· Buy an L-shaped couch that's low-slung and tufted, preferably. Also acceptable: a tuxedo-style sofa. It just sounds manly.
· Definitely get some piece with star power. Name-dropping designers such as Milo Baughman and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe is a manly must!
· Your coffee table must be a "raw piece of wood on iron base." Period.

· All futons must be removed immediately and replaced with a couch bed.
· You need one rug, and his name shall be sisal. (Or jute, sea grass, coir, or anything else tan-colored and natural.)
· "Try checking out books of European castles and English country houses to see how they divvied up their enormous rooms." Then, re-assert your manhood by pounding a Guinness.
· You've got two choices in life: facing the TV or facing your guests. Choose wisely.

Barry Sonnenfeld, film director/producer:
· Buy and use a heated toilet seat regularly: "Just when you are overwhelmed with life, full of tension, sciatic rage, and anger toward everyone, coping with everything going wrong and no one giving you a second thought, you plant yourself on the seat and are instantly engulfed in a warm, relaxing, embryonic welcome."

Ted Allen, one-time "food guy" on Queer Eye for the Straight Guy:
· "Instead of putting a giant, cock-blowing marshmallow in your living room, buy good armchairs with footstools; perfectly comfy, and the ottoman doubles as another seat."
· Have tabletops made of thick glass, stone, or tile. Manly and stain-resistant!
· If you do have a bar cart, use it to transport whiskey and only whiskey during a party.

Mary Alice Stephenson, TV personality:
· Do not throw a fur blanket just so on the bed. Particularly if it's still got the head on it.
· No silk or satin sheets, ever.
· This is not college—both a flat and a fitted sheet are a must.
· This is not college—wrap the white comforter in a duvet cover, please!

· Esquire [official site]
· All man caves coverage [Curbed National]
· Ten Commandments of Manhood: Lessons Taken from Esquire's Furniture [Curbed National]

View the original article here

The Printed Page: Hearst and HGTV to Release HGTV Magazine in Fall 2011

× Like us and you'll find top breaking news in your Facebook newsfeed. Sign up for our daily email newsletter and get top stories and breaking news delivered to your inbox. Thursday, April 7, 2011, by Sarah Firshein

When Hearst bought Hachette, thus acquiring Elle Decor, the glittery-towered publishing empire effectively asserted its control over the consumer shelter magazine industry. But now news comes that expands that domination by leaps and bounds; Hearst and HGTV have teamed on HGTV Magazine, new lifestyle pub. that will debut in fall. They've tapped former Coastal Living editor Sara Peterson as editor in chief; the first test issue hits nationwide newsstands in October, with a second one coming out in January. According to the release, "content will include real estate, decorating, home renovation, gardening, entertaining and food," pulling in "themes covered in HGTV’s popular programming, as well as lifestyle content that goes beyond what’s featured on the network." We have all sorts of burning questions: We're assuming its target reader isn't, say, Veranda's, so will HGTV Magazine's readership demographics mirror those of Hearst's wildly successful Food Network Magazine? How the new magazine will be staffed, on both the print and digital sides? What will its website will look like? Will there will be an iPad app involved? Stay tuned as we gather more intel.

HEARST MAGAZINES AND HGTV COLLABORATE ON
NEW LIFESTYLE MAGAZINE CONCEPT

First Test Issue to Hit Newsstands in Fall 2011

NEW YORK, April 7, 2011 – Hearst Magazines, one of the world’s largest publishers of women’s magazines, and HGTV, America's leader in home and lifestyle programming, today announced that they are partnering to test a new magazine in the market starting in fall 2011. Entitled HGTV Magazine, the publication will explore the themes covered in HGTV’s popular programming, as well as lifestyle content that goes beyond what’s featured on the network.

Sara Peterson, formerly editor of Coastal Living, is HGTV Magazine’s editor-in-chief. The first two test issues will feature HGTV talent throughout its pages, offering readers personal tips, tricks and expertise, as well as a behind-the-scenes look at their shows. Content will include real estate, decorating, home renovation, gardening, entertaining and food.

The debut test issue will hit newsstands nationwide in October, followed by a second test issue in January 2012. Hearst and HGTV will use the test period to gauge consumers’ interest in the concept ahead of a possible full-scale launch in 2012.

"We’re pleased to be testing this new magazine in the market, once again partnering with Scripps Networks. Our first joint venture, Food Network Magazine, is currently the #1 selling food magazine on newsstands,” said David Carey, president, Hearst Magazines. “Hearst is known for its successful partnerships and HGTV’s enormous fan base and rich lifestyle content dovetails well with our expertise at delivering entertaining and compelling content."

“We’re encouraged by the enormously positive response Hearst and our parent company, Scripps Networks, have received with Food Network Magazine," said Jim Samples, president, HGTV. "We expect that HGTV's collaboration with Hearst in the form of a lifestyle publication will resonate with our millions of viewers, as well as with new consumers who are passionate about their homes and the lives they live in them."

· It's Official: Hearst Buys Elle Decor [Curbed National]

View the original article here

The Printed Page: Bunny Williams in Elle Decor: Previewing the Feb/March Issue

× Like us and you'll find top breaking news in your Facebook newsfeed. Sign up for our daily email newsletter and get top stories and breaking news delivered to your inbox. Monday, January 31, 2011, by Sarah

Cover photo and right photo: Roger Davies/Elle Decor

Though the next issue of Elle Decor hits stands Feb. 8, their reps sent us a first-bound copy last week. And zOMG, is it phenomenal. Front-of-book standouts include the sleek, muted furniture debut from designer James Huniford, a lively page on houndstooth fabrics, and a spread on the first-ever Elle Decor showhouse, which was quietly produced in San Francisco last year. But it's only after sifting through page after page of A-list ads (kudos to the ED sales team!) that the crown jewel of a well appears, in which six masterfully produced stories showcase the first signs of editor in chief Michael Boodro's impression on the magazine. Gotta love that fact that Boodro kicks it off by featuring a Moroccan oasis and closes with the wacky, wonky Tribeca loft of fabric designer Kazumi Yoshida.

We caught a glimpse of a Park Avenue project from classic American decorator Bunny Williams (remember her epic holiday trappings?), who tells Curbed about her longstanding relationship with Boodro: "I believe he's still upholding a very high-quality of selection of material. The thing I've always felt was exciting about Elle Decor is that they want things fresh, but they want texture. You don't want to look at 10 different projects that all look alike." This project in particular incorporates Williams's trademark "elegance, comfort, and practicality," adds Boodro, "but it is also fresher and more youthful than what many people might expect from Bunny. To me, it just proves that you shouldn’t try to pigeonhole creative people—or magazines, for that matter." Amen, brother!

All photos in the feature above by Roger Davies for Elle Decor

Upward Trajectory, by Ingrid Abramovitch.
Republished from the Feb/March issue of Elle Decor:

She's been hailed as one of the great decorators in the classical tradition, but Bunny Williams graciously begs to differ. “I like an interior that defies labeling,” she says in her no-nonsense manner. “I don’t really want someone to walk into a room and know that I did it.” Indeed, if not for the trademark drinks tray, inviting sofa with its loose fabric cover, and playful concrete ram grazing in the living area of a Manhattan space Williams recently completed, even her most devout disciples might have trouble pegging the place to her.

Williams’s clients, empty nesters who first approached her years earlier to decorate their country house and later the formal Park Avenue apartment they still call home, longed for a more casual retreat in the city—one that blurred the lines between indoor and out. So when the penthouse above them finally became available after a 10-year wait, the pair called on their trusted decorator. “Each time we work together, Bunny perfectly translates how we want to live,” says the wife. “Her interiors tell the story of where we are in our life as a family. And this time we wanted a sleek, spare hangout that could double as guest quarters, a place that had the feel of a downtown loft.”

Neither strictly modern nor classically traditional—more Albert Hadley than Sister Parish (the legendary design duo with whom Williams began her career)—her decoration of the 1,500-square-foot space inspired the designer to choose a different term for her approach. “It’s transitional,” she says, “which means that when someone walks in here in 25 years, they won’t be able to tell when it was done.” After gutting what was once a handful of traditional rooms that had belonged to an elderly couple who lived there for decades, Williams first focused on the envelope. “I wanted it to be as architecturally interesting as the floor downstairs,” she says, referring to the muscular crown moldings throughout. “Flat ceilings and no moldings just didn’t seem right. It had to be something edgier.” Her clients, whom Williams credits with inspiring her to be as inventive as she could, loved the idea of exposed beams, a concept Williams ran with, although in a surprising direction. To forge a connection between the interior and the wraparound terrace, she installed blue glass on the ceiling to mimic the sky and added architectural detail with a framework of tailored zinc beams. “It took us 20 tries to get the size of the bolts in them right,” she says with a laugh. More zinc spans the central wall in the living room, surrounding the fireplace and flat-screen television above it. The floors are laid with slabs of honed pink granite, and mica-flecked plaster coats the walls.

It’s a mix that, in the wrong hands, could leave a place cold. But warmth is in Williams’s DNA, and once she built out the bones of the space, the rest was a matter of keeping the design simple while piling on texture. “My client had very strong opinions and was able to verbalize the feeling she wanted, which is a gift,” says Williams. “She has a wonderful appreciation for patina.” Good thing, given that her decorator thought nothing of flanking the entry to her study with a pair of battered 19th-century American fluted columns with ornate Ionic capitals and using an African woman’s dance stool as a drinks table next to an Italian Art Moderne chair. It was only when Williams homed in on the 1960s Lucite-legged resin cocktail table—perfect for the living room—that her client raised an eyebrow. “When you’ve been in this business as long as I have, there’s only one real rule to follow: Buy pieces that are beautiful, no matter their age,” Williams says. “I never would have looked at that table 20 years ago, but it’s essential to see pieces anew, to refresh your eye.” And her eyes are always open. The powder room wall covering— an album of family photos printed on glazed canvas scrawled with white gold—was inspired by grisaille walls she once saw in a European dining room and by her client’s love of the artist Jean-Michel Basquiat. She spotted the guest bed at a closet shop, of all places, in Florida. When not in use, the Houdini-like affair rises up to hide in a glamorous red-lacquer bookcase of her own design.

Even more magical than the pullout bed, though, is the arabesque staircase leading to the new penthouse space. Spiraling up from the living room, the marvel of steel, resin, and glass hints at what lies above. “The stairs themselves build a degree of anticipation, so I had to be sure the payoff at the top was as surprising as they are,” Williams says. Mission accomplished. “I’ve shown new clients this space, and they don’t believe I did it,” she says with a laugh. “It tickles me to death.”

· Sketchy Sneak Peek at the Elle Decor Showhouse [Curbed National]
· Banner Year for Elle Decor [Curbed National]
· How Bunny Williams and John Rosselli Decorate for Christmas [Curbed National]
· All Elle Decor coverage [Curbed National]
· Elle Decor [official site]

View the original article here

The Printed Page: Dwell the Most-Followed Shelter Magazine on Twitter, Of Course!

× Like us and you'll find top breaking news in your Facebook newsfeed. Sign up for our daily email newsletter and get top stories and breaking news delivered to your inbox. Tuesday, February 1, 2011, by Sarah

Folio has just released a list of the top 50 most-followed magazine brands on Twitter—People obviously ranks No. 1. Just when the cold absence of shelter magazines starts sinking in—wait!—there's Dwell, clocking in proudly at No. 35. As we've established before, things like spartan prefab housing outside Zurich or a sliced-open bunker in Holland are among the brightest spots in our days. Kudos to our lovable San Franciscan cousins for their social media knowhow.

· The Most-Followed Magazines on Twitter [Folio]
· Ten ItemsDwell Positively Cherishes [Curbed National]
· @Dwell [Twitter
· All Dwell coverage [Curbed National]

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The Printed Page: Ten Totally Out-of-Place Ads in the Gorgeous Feb. Arch Digest

× Like us and you'll find top breaking news in your Facebook newsfeed. Sign up for our daily email newsletter and get top stories and breaking news delivered to your inbox. Tuesday, January 18, 2011, by Sarah

· All Arch Digest coverage [Curbed National]
· Architectural Digest [official site]

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The Printed Page: Fashion Designer Revives Legendary Interiors Photos in Clothes

× Like us and you'll find top breaking news in your Facebook newsfeed. Sign up for our daily email newsletter and get top stories and breaking news delivered to your inbox. Thursday, January 6, 2011, by Sarah

It's a normal occurrence for our sister site Racked, but how weird is it to see catwalk-strutting models on Curbed! There's a method behind the mania; today, the folks over at Lonny give airtime to fashion designer Mary Karantzou, whose new collection features '70s interiors shots by lens wizards Helmut Newton and Guy Bourdin rendered on fabric. The photos were all taken from the archives of World of Interiors and Arch Digest. None of that "match your outfit to your room!" or "match your room to your outfit!" mumbo-jumbo—but this is hella cool.
· Office Obsession: Mary Karantzou Spring 2011 [Lonny Blog]

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