Tag: style

favorite things: peonies

elegant country style

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There is something about peonies: their lush, feathery petals, their intoxicating smell, their rich, dark green foliage, their old-fashioned beauty…and they don’t get as much attention as the rose, but they should. They don’t have thorns, and they are easier to grow. All you have to do is stake them when they flop or better yet, clip them and bring them inside. I’d love to have a field full of peony bushes like Martha Stewart does at her country house above, but since I don’t, here are a few of my favorite things that would add a touch of elegant country style to a home wherever it might be.

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Stylist and author Tricia Foley, using a simple straw bag in the photo above, highlights the striking beauty of pink peonies freshly cut and ready to be arranged. Click here for a similar bag that I love from Dreamy Whites (which of course can be used for many other things as well).

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Try floating the flower heads in a pretty bowl on a coffee table (I learned about this first from writer Katherine Mansfield, who did this often and notes it in her diary). And click here for a video from Martha Stewart with other tips on arranging peonies.

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Colefax and Fowler’s Tree Peony linen fabric is a favorite. It comes in three colors and I like them all, but this version in a muted pink and green would be perfect on throw pillows for a summer refresh on a porch or in a bedroom or family room.

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Lili Bermuda is a perfume shop in St. George’s, Bermuda where you can find notes of peony in their Pink perfume and scented soaps (and they ship to the US).

E8D46364-FDC8-4BC9-B53A-46904CC2375BInspired by 17th century Dutch still life paintings, Liberty London’s Peony tablecloth makes a perfect gift this wedding season, or a new addition to your own linen collection.

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Antique botanical prints are a way of bringing the garden inside. Here is a gorgeous white peony by artist and botanist Pierre-Joseph Redoute (1759-1840). You can find an unframed book page version on Etsy here and another printed version here.

Enjoy the rest of May and the peonies however you find them…

gracious rooms

elegant country style

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Barbara Westbrook’s rooms aren’t all in the country, but her way of decorating a house has roots in the countryside of Virginia, where her grandparents had a farmhouse that she loved and remembers fondly—and these memories infuse her work. I stumbled upon her book Gracious Rooms at my local library (I love when this happens, when I’m not looking for anything in particular, and something beautiful appears). I’m always on the lookout for unexpected ways that elegant country style is expressed. Continue reading “gracious rooms” →

a mantel vignette

elegant country style

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The mantel, as we know, is the perfect place for a still life vignette because the fireplace is often the focal point in a room (especially in a country house), and because most mantels are shelf-like, with space (but not too, too much space, for vignettes should be smallish things) to create an artful display of objects.

(And there is indeed an art to the vignette, which I find fascinating because they might be formal or casual, and they might be short-lived or permanent, and they tell a little story of the house, and I will be exploring them much more in future posts.)

Interior designer Justin Bishop’s American country vignette in black on this bright white mantel is thoughtfully balanced and interesting (if not whimsical, then certainly curious with the dangling leg of the figurine, the top hat echoed in the antique print hanging above, the shadowy hound, and the small American flag, a trinket). There is a silhouette quality at play here that takes us back in time, but instead of being stale is crisp and fresh. And like a good vignette should, it makes me wonder: what will come next?

another transitional space

elegant country style

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The hanging straw hats, the long bench, the large mirror (for straightening our hat), and the freshly clipped flowering branches in the white pail suggest that this space is one where we make the transition from indoors to outdoors and visa versa. Like most transitional spaces (even the much fancier butler’s pantry from last post), it is utilitarian in nature, but also quite pleasant. This one, a mudroom or back entry hall from Martha Stewart Magazine, is spare and minimal and bright and has a touch of the Swedish country style in its look, with its unadorned windows, simple rustic mirror, painted floors and exposed beams, and the elegant wooden bench with Gustavian lines.

an elegant butler’s pantry

elegant country style

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Historically, a butler’s pantry was a transitional space between the main kitchen and the dining room where the last minute preparations before service of the meal took place (because those dining were not to be exposed to the messiness of the kitchen), in a house, or estate, wealthy enough to have a butler, and therefore this luxuriance.

These rooms and this concept have gone out of style. We are more likely to have open kitchens and great rooms in our homes today. But there is something lovely and romantic about this butler’s pantry above with its double arches and blue and white mural and the ceiling-high plate rack and charming collection of delft wall sconces. For those of us who favor smaller rooms and spaces with distinct boundaries and who have a fondness for old-fashioned, out-of-style notions, why not embrace the idea of a butler’s pantry, with or without the butler.

a chintz sofa: classic English country style

elegant country style

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A chintz sofa, yes, I’m aware that there is nothing at all new about it, in fact it’s a bit old-ladyish (which really doesn’t bother me in the least), but I’ve always been drawn to them (though I doubt I could make it work in my own house), and then there is this Colefax and Fowler fabric that I’ve long had my eye on: Bowood chintz in green/grey, used here by interior designer Gabby Deeming in a striking manner. It is fresh, but also full of warmth and a sense of the past.

John Fowler (1906-1977), of Colefax and Fowler, discovered this pattern in the archives of Bowood House in England. And it (along with the green painted paneling and the spare but noble feel that Deeming  has given this room) absolutely fit Fowler’s belief that, “A room must be essentially comfortable, not only to the body but to the eye…well-behaved but free from too many rules…mannered yet casual and unselfconscious.”

And I do think that that’s exactly what elegant country style is all about—being well-behaved but free from too many rules…mannered yet casual and unselfconscious.

So just a note for now…Fowler will come up again I’m sure. And his partner Sibyl Colefax. And perhaps Bowood chintz, and certainly other chintzes and lots more English country style. I hope you’ll check back and continue to follow the threads…

the story of the tulipiere

elegant country style

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The story of the tulipiere starts with Tulipmania (1634-1637), when tulips were the new gold, costing a small fortune and bringing along with them high social status (Queen Mary II was a huge fan). It has been said (though there are some conflicting reports on this, but isn’t that the case with all good stories) that the potters and ceramicists of the day created the tulipieres so that the much coveted, outrageously expensive bulbs could be planted in the individual compartments of the vessel so as not to be disturbed or upstaged by any of the lesser flowers. Others say that the tulipiere was not made for growing but for displaying the freshly cut tulips in an artful and practical way (as you may know, tulip stems continue to grow even after they are cut and placed in water and begin to get a bit unruly, in which case the tulipiere keeps them in place). Whatever the case may be, the Dutch, of course, made them first out of their delftware and these are the ones we are probably most familiar with.

Meanwhile, the tulip has come down, you might say (all of us common folks can get them now in the grocery store). But the story of the tulipiere seems to be having a second act. They are back in the spotlight, having their moment in the spheres of interior decorating, antique collecting, and floral design. And modern day potters (like Frances Palmer and Matthew Solomon) are reinterpreting them in whimsical ways.