BY PURE COINCIDENCE, I recently watched both It's Complicated, the 2009 film with Meryl Streep, Steve Martin, and Alec Baldwin; and Father of the Bride, the 1991 film with Steve Martin and Diane Keaton. Now everyone knows that when you watch Nancy Meyers films, the interiors nearly steal every scene (remember the charming cottage in The Holiday?), so when I came across the writer-director-producer's redecorated Los Angeles home, of course I had to have a peek, especially since she worked with LA-based interior designer Mark D. Sikes, whose work has been featured here many times.
On March 9, 1945, an armada of more than three hundred B-29s flew fifteen hundred miles across the Pacific to attack Tokyo from the air. The planes carried incendiary bombs to be dropped at low altitudes. Beginning shortly after midnight, sixteen hundred and sixty-five tons of bombs fell on the city.
I HAD BEEN MEANING to paint the living for a while now⏤something warm and pinkish by Farrow & Ball⏤Pink Ground or Peignor or Setting Plaster. That is, until I came across Edward Bulmer Natural Paint on Instagram and discovered that it was eco-friendly. All of their colours are created from just 12 earth and mineral pigments using gentle, plant-based chemistry with absolutely no pollutants or harmful toxins. Before I continue, I should tell you that this is not a sponsored post.
LAST WEEK WE featured the Hudson Valley home of Deborah Needleman and while we were researching her place, we came across Villa Arniano on Needleman's Instagram: "Back from a week at the house of my dreams—the Tuscan idyll of @camillaguinness. Spent a few days with @jacobwe, @skyegyngell, @davidprior, @holly_gore and my daughter Lily Weisberg who doesn’t bother herself with social media, and then a few days with #camillaguinness, @amberguinness and @macmillandavidmb languorous, long summer days eating (really well) reading, chatting , swimming and napping. I was so blissed out I didn’t take any pictures, so these are lifted from Camilla and Amber’s Instagram as well from @arnianopaintingschool the week-long painting workshops Amber runs here with her friend @willropercurzon"
WE MAY BE ON social media a lot less these days, but when we are, we try to use the time to find only the best in food, travel, fashion, and interiors, like these sumptuously chic spaces from @rizzolibooks on Instagram. There are grand hotel rooms with ornate boiserie and crystal chandeliers; ceiling beams and grand exposed brick fireplaces; velvet, linen and marble and warm carved wood; the most stunning outdoor terrace at Villa Paradiso in Genova, Italy and much more...
IT HAS BEEN amazingly blustery for the past two days and nights, the beginning of two separate storms set to hit England this weekend, we're told, so the desire to stay in and avoid being blown away has been strong this week. To encapsulate the vibe that is this time of year, we've created a moodboard for cosy February days ...
ARE YOU CLEANING and sorting and organising? We are. In fact, it's all we've been doing for the past month and a week. This year, more than other new years, seems to bring out that desire to clear out and begin again. There are too many dongles for the too many tablets and phones and desktop screens, and books and magazines and old newspapers threaten to overtake wicker baskets and racks while framed artwork and photos lean against walls and remain unhung.
AS YOU PROBABLY already know, TIG was down due to technical issues with the server from late Friday afternoon until this morning―apologies to those of you who receive the newsletter and were unable to click through to the site from any of the links. For the first time in a very long time, there was no chance to sneak in a few extra moments of work over the weekend or catch up on upcoming projects, which meant making the most of the sunny mornings ...
WE CAME ACROSS the beautiful kitchen of designer Jasper Conran's vacation home on the island of Rhodes on Instagram and instantly fell for its rustic charm. Nothing looks too perfect, and yet everything looks perfect. There are stacks of old pots and pans on lower shelves and large terracotta platters displayed casually above, a pebble mosaic floor (something we had never seen before), irregular white plaster walls and a thatched ceiling. We, of course, were intrigued to see the rest of the home, which once belonged to Baronessa Beatrice Monti della Corte von Rezzori.
THIS WEEKEND, finally ordered a new Mac Mini to replace my iMac, which has been running on the slow side for a little while now. Also ordered a fancy new white (non-Mac) monitor as well as a Lacie external drive and have been spending the first two weeks of this new year sorting through hundreds of files and folders and photos and taking stock, both literally and figuratively ...
ALEXANDRE DE BETAK has been designing fashion shows for the past 25 years: from Dior in Moscow's Red Square to Tiffany's in Beijing’s Forbidden City. The last Jacquemus show staged in a wheat field outside of Paris? That was the work of his creative agency, Bureau Betak.
THE INTERNET is a funny place—it can be both stifflingly small and a place so large, that we can all be "known" in our own little corner of it without ever running into each other. I only discovered Pia Baroncini, the Creative Director of Los Angeles clothing label LPA, today and loved the little glimpses she gave on Instagram of her Spanish colonial home in Pasadena, California ...
CHANCES ARE, you're already familiar with the work of Canadian interior designer Ashely Montgomery, for her designs have been all over Instagram lately. And it's no wonder—the effortless mix of deep wood tones and marble, ceiling beams and brass is both elegant and liveable at once ...
A SCHOOL FRIEND once remarked that I was good at seasons, and when I thought about it, I realised that she was right. I actually really do love to capture the feeling and moods of the changing seasons, the excitement that comes with arrival of the first snowdrops in winter, just as the days start to get longer, the way the sun's rays deepen in colour at sunset. And at the other end of the spectrum, when summer fades into autumn, we realise with the changing leaves and cosy evenings with their flickering firelight, that endings can be beautiful too. We learn, every autumn what it is to let go...
I stumbled across some photos of this beautiful castle in Umbria that is now a heritage hotel, and marvelled at how incredible the restoration of this 1000-year-old structure was and how the characteristics of the ancient castle and surrounding buildings were kept in intact while still offering modern comforts.
