Global décor for a Park Avenue apartment

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Sometimes, browsing through magazines, I come across a house which matches my idea of a dream home. And it makes me happy and sad at the same time. Happy because I now have a picture to match to my thoughts and loads of ideas to inspire me when I eventually have a house of my own. And sad I do not know when that will be. So for now lets just drool over this beautiful home in Park Avenue, New York designed by Daniel Sachs.

It is the house of a globe trotter, someone who has travelled the world and fallen deeply in love with all things beautifully hand crafted. We see tribal textiles, Indian furniture, oriental pottery, Italian antiques and Turkish rugs.And everything is tastefully brought together with contemporary art.  

Robert Kime's octagonal ottoman is covered in a custom Suzani and he Ghiordes Turkish rug is from the 19th century. 

The entry hallway is a taster for the visitor as it neatly sums up what awaits them in the house. It shows off antiques from four countries — an Italian mirror, an Indian painting, a Flemish table, and a Swedish chandelier. A John Robshaw dhurrie completes the look.

Francesco Clemente's dramatic watercolors dominate the dining room

John Robshaw's pressed silver Indian chairs in the dining room.

A Satsuma porcelain baluster urn is tucked under an onyx-topped console in the dining room

In the living room, a Donald Baechler flower painting hangs over a comfortable armchair

The turquoise billiard cloth, Indian-inspired headboards and bed frames by John Robshaw and the antique map wallpaper in the boys' room are reminiscent of the colonial era hunting lodges in the Indian jungles. 

Sachs has drawn inspiration from Kashmiri Boathouses or Shikara's for the girls bedroom. A very feminine look with the curtains and the fabric-covered desk in Les Indiennes' Duchesse. The slipper chair is a Sachs L' indore design and is covered in Shikara by Nicholas Herbert

Canopied in billowing 18th-century Syrian embroidery, the master bedroom's handmade Indian silver bed is the apartment's grandest flourish. Its headboard is upholstered in Peter Dunham's Udaipur.

All images via House Beautiful

Celebrity Home: May Daouk's Beirut home

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This is the closest someone can get to my dream home, and I am positively consumed with envy as I type. Historic building - check, hand crafted details - check, mix of east and west - check, antiques - check! This home has everything I have always dreamt of. 

It is the home of Interior designer May Daouk. She returned to Beirut after a decade in New York, bought this stunning historic mansion and proceeded to fill it with her collection of antiques, a collection which she has acquired over a lifetime and is a testimony to her good taste.

What I think is unique about her style is that although her house is chock full of antiques and beautiful objects, she has managed to create a very relaxed and warm vibe. It is not a museum, it is a home, and you get a sense of that by the eccentric and highly individual way the objects have been arranged by her. 

This thought is echoed by May who says, “I use antique fabrics, but if they get damaged I just replace them,” she says. “The black sofa in the dining room? It’s used mainly by the dog, who likes to be able to see what she might get for dinner.” A house should be as comfortable as it is beautiful—that’s the message from this stylish designer. “Because I don’t want to live in a showcase, I want to live in a home.”

A trio of stone arches creates an enclave at one end of the living room; the antique chimney piece is Italian

Arrayed in the living room are an antique toile peinte, custom-made lacquer bookcases, and a pair of vintage chairs

The dining room features an English Arts and Crafts table and chairs from Ann-Morris Antiques; the calligraphic panel above the door is Syrian, and the carpet is 19th-century Persian.

Displayed on the far side of the room is a set of architectural prints of the ancient city of Baalbek. The sideboard, table, and chairs are all from Ann-Morris Antiques.

Luna the English bulldog in a passageway connecting the living room, kitchen, and bedrooms. The lanterns are from Damascus.

The antique lantern and the brass stool in the master bedroom are Lebanese. The ebonized slipper chairs are Italian, and the club chair, by O. Henry House, is clad in a Robert Kime ticking stripe; the bedside tables are from John Rosselli Antiques.

The master bath includes inlaid-wood pelmets and embroidered-lace curtains custom made by local artisans. The mirror is a Flemish antique, and the ’50s Nagasaki chairs are by Mathieu Matégot.

Two of Daouk’s sons share a bedroom with a 1940s French desk, a chair from Design Within Reach, bedcovers by Chelsea Textiles, and a striped kilim

Via Architecture Digest

Inspired by India at Sotheby's

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Today was the last day of the Inspired by India exhibition hosted by auction house Sotheby’s in London. The show featured textiles, ceramics, jewellery, furniture and photography by established designers, such as Alice Cicolini, Rahul Kumar and Sabyashachi Mukherjee and up-and-coming artists such as Els Woldhek and Pia Wustenberg, all of whom have been inspired by the culture, colours and crafts of India. Their work demonstrates how traditional Indian skills can be incorporated into contemporary work.

The show’s curator Janice Blackburn who has travelled extensively to India said about her choice of designers - “I mixed designers based in India with others who are truly ‘inspired’, the designers I selected use the best of fine, original design without compromising the rich tradition of India’s hand-making processes.”

So just in case you missed the exhibition, I have put together a selection of products for you right here. Enjoy! 

Gita Pandit Photography

Pieces from Alice Cicolini's collection Silk Route

Pia Wüstenberg's jewel-toned stacking vessels

Rahul Gupta's earthen pots

Woldhek’s striking table,which combines desi basket-weaving
 and European thatching techniques

Gunjan Gupta of Wrap presented her throne chairs

Images courtesy Sotheby's and Alice Cicolini.

Yastik by Rifat Ozbek

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Rifat Ozbek graduated from Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design in 1974 and had founded his own fashion brand by 1984. His label became very successful in Turkey by the end of the nineties. That is when he decided to express his creativity through cushions. Why cushions you might wonder? He says “The cushion is very important. It is a luxury, a thing of beauty, it might have a memory – someone might have given it; someone might have left it; or it might have come with an armchair.”

His first store Yastik (which means cushion in Turkish) opened in Bodrum and Istanbul five years ago. Now with their shop on 8, Holland Street in London, Ozbek and his partner Erdal Karaman are wowing everyone with their individually handcrafted, limited production cushions. Each cushion is like a work of art with a fusion of sumptuous materials, vibrant colours and delicate embroidery. Even the store looks like an art gallery with stark white shelves lined with cushions.

So what exactly is the secret of these cushions?  The answer lies in how each cushion is designed.  Much thought is given to mixing and matching fabrics. Ozbek chooses from new and antique materials he has collected from his travels all over the world for years. Among these are Anatolian Brazilian flower pattern prints, striped English fabrics, Ottoman silks and African prints. Each cushion is sewn with great care and displays a high level of craftsmanship. Ozbek also adds fragrant dried lavender to the down inside each pillow, so that each time you lean against one of them, you are hit with the fabulously soothing scent which also fills the store.

All images courtesy Yastik by Rifat Ozbek 

Celebrity Home - Will and Jada Pinkett Smith

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I have been touring English Stately homes recently. Wandering around the sumptuous rooms and enormous gilded galleries makes one wonder - what exactly did the common folk think about the grand owners of these houses? Living in small communities where they were the richest and most powerful, their immediate neighbors usually villagers living in a little village named after the grand house. Did this situation inspire awe in the villagers or contempt for the ostentatious display of wealth?

To find the answer I looked at the elite of today’s society and their homes. The closest in profile to English landed class would be the Hollywood stars of today with their enormous wealth and penchant for displaying it through their houses. A perfect example is the home of Will and Jada Pinkett Smith featured in Architecture Digest. The house is the height of luxury and ostentation, I am even having trouble calling it a house, especially when my own little flat would neatly fit in their hallway (with ample room leftover). But it gives a fair idea of the awe and wonder the stately homes must have inspired in the simple folk. For me it also tells a tale on the shifting nature of celebrity.

The stars commissioned architect Stephen Samuelson to design an adobe-style residence full of free flowing spaces, organic forms, and handcrafted details. The exterior of the house sits comfortably in the landscape and the adobe walls - reminiscent of baked mud huts of Africa, offer protection from the hot Malibu Sun. The interiors designed by Judith Lance are a complete assault on the senses. But what redeems the interiors for me, is that the stars have their personality showing through in every corner. Their love for Indian and African style oozes through all the rooms, in the form of ethnic textiles and prints, rough-hewn wooden sculptures and warm earthen colors.

 

The house’s massive front door was salvaged from a fort in northern India



The pair of vintage resin tusks flank the carved wooden columns and the lanterns at left are Moroccan.










Rustic reclaimed timber complements the nature inspired furniture,
notice the Sitar by the window and the Indian Haveli door

 



The iron four-poster in Willow’s bedroom is draped with a canopy of patterned silk

The private terrace off the master suite 



All images via Architectural Digest

Graham and Green Goa Villa

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Look what I found! A 150 year old traditional Portuguese house lovingly restored and furnished to a high standard by none other than Graham and Green. In their own words, “The Graham family have a strong love of spicy colour & eclectic Indian style. Paired down chic with a touch of Bollywood sums up the flavour of this exotic holiday let."

If that is not irresistible enough, Casa Tota is situated in the village of Assagao, one of the most sought after villages in the Bardez province of North Goa. The house is entered through a portico shaded by deep overhangs and has a central courtyard with a kitchen and decorative water feature. The bedrooms have colonial four-poster beds and comfy armchairs and the back veranda opens onto a lush lawn and garden. Graham and Green’s have achieved a simple but stylish mix of tranquil calm and colonial cool. When I look at these pictures it makes me want to take off my shoes, and let my bare feet touch the cool terracotta floors. I know exactly where I’m going for my next holiday, if you feel the same visit here. 

All images courtesy Graham and Green