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

A Townhouse transformed into a contemporary home

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Today's post is about a grand renovation - a traditional Townhouse's transformation into a stylish contemporary home. If you live in a Townhouse or a Terraced House, you can find loads of inspiring ideas for that renovation you have been planning. Personally, I do not need any excuses to ogle wide eyed at this stunning house. 

Designed by New York based studio Archi-Tectonics, this 3,400 square feet house was completed in 2011. As it is located in Chelsea, New York City, the architects have retained the traditional front façade. However, the rest of the house has been given a complete makeover. They have opened up the floor plan, fitted large glass windows on the rear façade and used a palette of natural tones to maintain the light and airy feel.

All images via HomeDsgn

Celebrity Home: Brooke Shields Greenwich Village Townhouse

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Brooke Shields beautiful Brownstone reminds me so much of elegant London townhouses. I am sure the interiors are inspired from the old money confidence of patrician homes in Mayfair or Saint-Germain. The house looks so well lived in, that it is quite impressive to know that this look has been created from scratch – for the house was just a derelict shell when Brooke bought it. “It needed a complete gut,” she says in the Architectural Digest article, “but after a quick walk-through, I could see our future there. My bathtub in a niche by a window, our daughters’ playroom on the top floor. A light-flooded kitchen with a big hearth and a balcony”.

She along with interior designer David Flint Woods and architects MADE, have filled the house with specially selected pieces from her childhood and her mother’s flea market finds. Eccentric buys such as a job lot of vintage hardware was used by MADE to accessorize the cabinetry they designed for the townhouse. A wood tub, crafted by a canoe maker in Idaho, was installed in the guest bathroom and a cast-off marble slab that was scavenged at a county fair was re-cut as a vanity top. 

MADE’s mandate was to salvage as much of the house’s original detail and structural integrity as possible. This has been balanced by infusing a sense of fun and wit in the interiors. Jolts of color and asymmetry give the decor an edgy downtown personality. As Flint Wood says “In my design, as in a British drawing room comedy, there is a subtle tension between propriety and irreverence. He has created an urbane mix of furnishings and materials that includes colonial rattan, Asian porcelain, hand-blocked Zuber wallpaper, neoclassical Italian tables, Chinese lacquer consoles—and art by Keith Haring.

The living room features Louis XVI–style armchairs, a French Empire commode, and a 1970s Lucite-base cocktail table. A Keith Haring painting and portraits of Shields’s two daughters hang on the walls .

Linen cushions are by John Robshaw ; the settee is George III, the curule-form stool is covered in a David Hicks fabric from Lee Jofa, and the jute rug is by Pottery Barn.

In the family room, portraits of Shields and her children are propped alongside 

works by Richard Avedon and Adam Fuss.

Don't miss the Louis Vuitton vintage trunk!

I love how the Chinese porcelain jars are placed under the console, like an afterthought!  

A drawing by Haring, used to wrap a gift for the actress, overlooks a chrome bench from Vermillion in the vestibule.

In the master bedroom, an Anglo-Indian tester bed and John Robshaw block-printed linens.  

Guest Bedroom, don't miss the stack of vintage suitcases in the corner. 

All images and product details courtesy Architectural Digest.