innerspace | interior design blog

1/18/13

fashion | christian louboutin shoes

i have to admit to being the fortunate owner of a few (okay, pretty many) pairs of christian louboutin shoes.

1 2 christian louboutin|simple pumps 70mm
3 4 christian louboutin|ron ron zeppa 85mm

photo credits christian louboutin

my taste in shoes parallels my taste in furniture...
simple, classic, yet modern designs...
silhouette pieces...

'a shoe is a shape, first and foremost: if its structure is good, it can be enriched with all manner of details, a house is the same.'
-christian louboutin

5 christian louboutin
photo credit showstudio
quote marie bariller and guillaume de laubier | fashion designers at home: the private spaces of 21 makers of style

christian louboutin is renovating his house in paris. as part of the renovation, he is installing pyramid shaped skylights that were inspired by the silhouette of parisian rooftops.

the pyramid skylights that enrich the structure of his house could be compared to the spikes that enhance the shape of his shoes. a trend setting, yet classic detail...

spikes also enhance the shape of jonathan browning's anjou table. it seems that shoe shapes and furniture silhouettes are actually quite similar...

6 7 pyramid skylights | christian louboutin renovating his house in paris

compare the similarities between the silhouettes of christian louboutin shoes and christian liaigre furniture...

11 eric schmitt for christian liaigre|openwork side table | carriage house | paris | interior design by tristan auer

12 eric schmitt for christian liaigre|openwork side table

13 14 christian louboutin|cachottiere 100 mm

photo credits roger davies | christian liaigre | christian louboutin

or, christian louboutin shoes and holly hunt furniture...

or, christian louboutin and india madhavi...

24 india madhavi bishop stools | hyde park townhouse | london | interior design by shh

25 26 india madhavi|bishop stool

27 28 christian louboutin|flo 120 mm

photo credits shh | india madhavi | christian louboutin

do you think that the similarities are striking?

click here to read the selby's 15 january 2013 interview with christian louboutin, which includes photographs of his house and studio in paris.

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1/10/13

trends | chintz

'designers say: more chintz, less cool', a 4 january 2012 wall street journal article by william l. hamilton, predicts that chintz is making a comeback.

chintz
-a cotton or linen furnishing fabric of floral pattern stained with fast colors
-originally only referred to color fast, light weight, cotton fabrics made in india for export to england
-related to a sanskrit word meaning colored or spotted
victoria & albert museum (v&a) | london, united kingdom

1 painted and dyed cotton chintz hanging | india | circa 1700 | v&a | london

chintz was last popular during the 1980's.

during the 1980's, new york interior designer mario buatta used chintz in his projects so often, that he was nicknamed 'the prince of chintz'.

2 living room | palm beach FL | interior design by mario buatta 'the prince of chintz' | photo credit scott frances

but now, is chintz so 'out' that it's 'in'?

some interior designers think so.

during the season two finale of bravo tv show, million dollar decorators, los angeles interior designers mary mcdonald and nathan turner discuss how to redecorate her kitchen...

mm 'here's my other thing... i kind of want to go back to flowers.'
nt 'yes! do you know what i think that needs to come back?'
mm 'flowers?'
nt 'chintz! but, then do your modern twist on it... i think that that would be so chic... people forget that what's traditional is actually tasteful...'

how would you put a modern twist on chintz?

if you were an interior designer, would you use a traditional fabric to upholster a modern sofa?

3 living room | notting hill|london | interior design by homeowner | photo credit domus nova

if you were a fabric manufacturer, would you update chintz by printing it on linen, instead of on cotton, to make it feel more relaxed?

linen cotton

4 lee jofa | chinese peony rose linen chintz | 2009164.731
5 schumacher | salisbury cotton chintz | 115422

or, would you update it by reducing the number of colors in the print to make it look more modern?

less colors more colors

6 cowtan & tout | longbourn linen chintz | 11178-01 | from the archive project with veranda magazine
7 randolph alexander | kingsbury cotton chintz | grey

do you think that chintz looks modern, or traditional, or too 1980's?

p.s.
there's something happening here...

in 'seeking a cool look? go hide', an article in the off duty section of the 19-20 january 2013 wall street journal, new orleans writer and design consultant, sara ruffin costello, suggests updating chintz by combining it with leather.

'...i have been nurturing a crush on flowery chintz lately and had a settee covered in a cheery pink-and-blue hydrangea brunschwig fabric. everything i tried on the two armchairs adjacent was reading too 'nursing home'-the primary reason people have been avoiding chintz for 20 years. a french friend proposed two 18th-century bergere chairs covered in nutty leather. that mixed up the party. both the chintz and the leather made each other look better.'

chintz leather

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12/8/12

color | emerald green | pantone color of the year

almost a year ago, benjamin moore paints predicted that social media colors, like facebook blue and twitter green, would become some of the most directional colors for 2014.

click here to read my february 2012 post...

1 2

now, color authority pantone, has named emerald green the color of the year for 2013.

pantone, a division of x-rite, provides professional color standards for the design industries.

emerald green reminds me of the emerald green and grey dining room, designed by atlanta interior designer kay douglass.

the dining room was named one of veranda's most memorable rooms for the magazine's 25th anniversary,

4

emerald green also reminds me of all of the georgian terrace houses with technicolor front doors in dublin, ireland.

my husband, bob, and i toured ireland with his parents while we lived in london. living in london for five years was such an amazing european travel opportunity!

5 6 7 8 9

now that we live in the san francisco bay area again, emerald green also reminds me of the de young museum in golden gate park, which was designed by swiss architects herzog & de meuron.

herzog & de meuron covered the museum building in copper panels with a perforated pattern that resembles the pattern of the light filtering through the trees. the panels are developing a green patina that also helps the building blend into the natural environment.

san francisco philanthropist and socialite, dede wilsey, was instrumental in raising more that $190 million in private funding and selecting the architects for the reconstruction of the de young museum, which was damaged during the loma prieta earthquake in 1989.

she is also renowned for her incredible harry winston emerald and diamond jewelry.

11 12

do you associate emerald green with anything incredible?

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11/7/12

art | edmund de waal

i love chinese ceramics, so the opportunity to learn how to throw porcelain (yes, porcelain) pots from one of my favorite potters was an irresistible opportunity.

i first met british potter edmund de waal during a tour of his london studio while i was studying chinese art history at the british museum.

he describes himself as a maker and a writer. but, i think that he is also a modern song dynasty ceramicist.

so, when he taught a ceramics course in conjunction with his porcelain room exhibition at the geffrye museum in london, i signed right up!

the hands on experience was unforgettable, even though the pots that i threw didn't look like this...

ru ware incense burner

photo credit britishmuseum

or, like this...

edmund de waal | porcelain room | 2001
650 thrown porcelain vessels in celadon glazes
first exhibited at the geffrye museum, london united kingdom
photo credits edmund de waal

de waal used shelves, trenches, and ledges of pots to define the structure of the porcelain room.

after the exhibition, he began concentrating on creating installations instead of individual vessels.

doesn't the red I-beam shelf that holds signs and wonders, an installation in the dome of the ceramics galleries at the victoria and albert museum (v&a) in london, seem like a structural element?

edmund de waal | signs and wonders | 2009
425 porcelain vessels in white, celadon, and grey glazes contained in a red aluminium shelf
installation in the dome of the ceramics galleries at the victoria and albert museum | london, united kingdom
photo credits edmund de waal

in america, edmund de waal may be best known as the author of the award winning and bestselling book, the hare with amber eyes...

edmund de waal | the hare with amber eyes | 2010
photo credit books.google.com

...the biography of a collection of 264 netsuke, and the biography of his family.

hare netsuke
ivory with eyes inlaid in amber buffalo horn | signed masatoshi | osaka, japan | circa 1880
photo credit edmund de waal

after writing the hare with amber eyes, de waal began enclosing his installations in vitrines, like the the vitrine that enclosed his family's netsuke collection.

for the contemporary at waddeston exhibition that he curated in 2012, he thought of waddesdon manor, the rothschild's 19th century country house in buckinghamshire, as a vitrine that enclosed his installations along with the waddesdon collection of fine and decorative arts.

edmund de waal | something else, somewhere other | 2012
84 porcelain vessels and bowls in white and celadon glazes contained in two freestanding vitrines
exhibited in the tower drawing room | waddesdon manor | buckinghamshire, united kingdom
photo credit edmund de waal

his current exhibition, edmund de waal: a thousand hours, at the alan christea gallery in london from 6 october-10 november 2012, uses vitrines of vessels to define space.

de waal perceives the gallery as a vitrine that encloses two cabinets, filled with a collection of 1000 ceramic vessels. the cabinets not only define space, but also hold time.

'my new exhibition, a thousand hours, has at its heart a meditation on time, both the time it takes to make something, and the time it takes to see something.'
-edmund de waal

edmund de waal | a thousand hours | 2012
1000 thrown porcelain vessels, some glazed in celadon and white, some unglazed, within a pair of aluminium vitrines with transparent and translucent acrylic
exhibited at alan christea gallery | london, united kingdom
photo credits edmund de waal

how do you display your collections?

contained?

edmund de waal | remembering x, i think of y | 2012
48 unglazed porcelain vessels contained in two glass vitrines
exhibited in the archives | waddesdon manor | buckinghamshire, united kingdom
photo credit edmund de waal

or, freestanding?

edmund de waal | a sounding line | 2007

52 porcelain vessels in 5 celadon glazes and 14 thrown porcelain vessels in 5 white glazes

installation in the chose chapel corridor | chatsworth house | north derbyshire, united kingdom

photo credit edmund de waal

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