Is Green The Unofficial Colour of 2012...?

The design world's current passion for green – particularly emerald green – appears to show no signs of abating, with increasing numbers of shelter and fashion/style magazines devoting column spaces to its fresh, modern, slightly whimsical and surprisingly elegant feel. In fact, some magazines are suggesting it could be the colour to watch this year – even more than Pantone's predicted Tangerine Tango forecast.

Now bright green isn't for everyone – I know people who avoid it like the proverbial plague – but I adore it. And I know many others do, too, including Kelly Wearstler, Kate Spade, Windsor Smith and Alison Pincus of One Kings Lane, as evident by her glorious hall, below.

Here are a few more images of this sassy, sophisticated shade. Let's see if you can be persuaded to join the Green Brigade!

The San Francisco home of one of the founders of One Kings Lane, Alison Pincus, which has just gone on sale. Spectacularly vibrant.  {Via Hooked on Houses}

The whimsical, tropical, truly glamorous Martinique Banana Leaf wallpaper, which was first made famous by the Beverly Hills Hotel and is now showing up in lots of other lovely hotels, such as this one.

It's also being seen in some seriously stylish interiors, such as Nate Berkus' Milan apartment. {Via Elle Decor}

And at New York's Indochine restaurant. {Via Wall Street Times}

The now iconic Reception of the Viceroy hotel in Santa Monica, LA. I adore those mirrors. (How very LA.) And the emerald leather chairs are fantastic pieces for welcoming guests as they check in. Much nicer than standing up at a overly high reception desk! {Via Viceroy Santa Monica}

Emerald and black and white always look crisp and chic together, and this bedroom shows how glamorous the combination can look. (I've mislaid the credit for this, so please remind me if you know where it comes from. Looking at it, it appears to be one of the suites of the Viceroy Santa Monica.)

A rare glimpse of Bunny Mellon's sublime green conservatory, which was photographed for Vanity Fair. {Via Vanity Fair}

A geometric green desk, a green Moorish-inspired design on the wall and some carefully selected pieces elevate this office to a truly inspirational space. {Via House Beautiful}

Who would have thought a green kitchen would look amazing? This colour is more of an olive green than emerald, but the painted cabinetry and checked ceiling really create a dazzling space – part country, part contemporary, and completely, utterly startling. {Via House Beautiful}

It reminds me of the gorgeous green dining room of Bistro Guillaume in Melbourne, here –

Bistro Guillaume in Melbourne. I've been wanting to go here for dinner for years, mostly because of the beautiful and unusual interior design! I've put it on my "Wish List" for my birthday in February, so will let you know if the food is as fabulous as the decor. {Via Bistro Guillaume}

I love this spread from Red magazine. Look at the luscious little VW! How cute is that for a weekend away?

Windsor Smith's entry hall. This must be one of the most beautiful halls ever designed. Simple. Thoughtful. Sophisticated. Inviting. And oh, so enviable! You know what makes this hall so gorgeous? The accents of green against the dramatic blacks and whites. {Via House Beautiful}

The front door of Sydney stylist Sibella Court's store, Society Inc. Now there's a door to adore!

One of the most enchanting little guesthouses in the world, the cutely named Bed of Flowers in The Netherlands. {Via Bed of Flowers website – www.bedofflowers.nl}

One of my favourite new fabrics and wallpapers, this print is called 'Woodland Fern', and it's from the range 'A Painter's Garden' by Sanderson. So pretty. {Via Sanderson}

And lastly, two of my favourite magazine covers, the much-missed Domino with India as cover girl, and  Town & Country – with a surprisingly un-Town & Country cover! Love that emerald gown!

The Fabulous Art of Food Photography

Have you see the Sweet Paul blog and magazine? {sweetpaul.typepad.com and www.sweetpaulmag-digital.com/sweetpaulmag} It's easy to see why it was voted one of the best new online shelter magazines in a recent poll by Casa Sugar. In fact, the year before it WON the poll – even though it's technically a food magazine.

Full of sublime photography and gorgeous ideas for the home, including, of course, recipes, its key to success is that it's all photographed so beautifully. Look at the spread above, which was wittily named Before The Gardens Went Grey (as a tribute to Grey Gardens).

But now there's another fabulous chef/food stylist/photographer who's giving Mr Paul a run for his money. Béa from La Tartine Gourmande {www.latartinegourmande.com} 

A French expatriate now living in Boston with her Irish-American husband and daughter, Béa compiles the most exquisite recipes and then shoots them in a way that could almost be cinematic. Her signature look is colour, but even when she shoots monochromatic spreads, they're still full of life and energy.  It's not surprising she's been given a book deal. And the video the publishers organised to promote it is just beautiful! Even The New York Times loved it.

Go over and have a peek at www.latartinegourmandebook.com

At the moment, I'm putting together story ideas for a new online magazine that will be launched this year, only one that focuses more on lifestyle, destinations, inspirations and travel rather than predominantly food or interiors. I've started putting together some spreads for a Paris story – just photographs that I've done for various shoots over the past few years that I thought would add to the "flavour" of the piece (bad pun, sorry) – but then I realised my food photography isn't anywhere near as gorgeous as Béa's or Sweet Paul's! It takes a special kind of skill to shoot food, doesn't it?

(Chef's) hats off to those who do it well!

PS – Here's the way a professional does it! A lovely page from the portfolio of Australian photographer Sharyn Cairns.

Beautiful Butler's Pantries (Now Just Need The Butler)

As an addendum to the last post, here are some truly lovely – and more modern – butler's pantries. We're currently fixing up our rather modest version in our home – a decision inspired by the sublime job Willow Decor did with hers. (willowdecor.blogspot.com). However, I don't think it will look anywhere near as spectacular as these serving spaces.

{Images via House Beautiful and Willow Decor blog}

{Via My Kitchen Zoom}

{Via Melicharchitects}

Linen Rooms, Luggage Rooms, Serveries and Other Curious Spaces

Downton Abbey mesmerised many of us with its glamorous wardrobes, dressing-for-dinner rituals, grand interiors and upper-class pastimes (hunting, exchanging witty retorts, sleeping with guests and changing outfits every few hours just to fill in the time). But it also opened our eyes to the behind-the-scenes workings of a stately house in Edwardian times: the rooms behind the rooms, if you like – and even the rooms behind those rooms.

These intriguing and quite often secret spaces were hidden away in the labyrinthine floor plans of these grand estates, and many of them seem more fascinating than the principal rooms of these homes. My favourite spaces when walking through these historic homes always include the silver rooms, the linen rooms, and – the most deliciously decorated spaces of all – the boudoirs, which were also known as pouting rooms because women entertained intimate acquaintances there.

Highclere Castle, where Downton Abbey is set, has hundreds of these curious utilitarian corners, including a scullery (for washing up), a flower room (for arranging bouquets), a bakery room (for making cakes), a butler's pantry, a silver safe, a housemaid's closet (for storing brushes), separate wine and beer cellars, and even a brushing room (for brushing mud off clothes – the earlier version of a mud room). Other grand estates included fainting rooms (where women retreated for their regular pelvic massages from their doctors), newspaper rooms (for ironing the papers each day), spice rooms, root cellars, butteries, sauceries, sculleries, chandleries (where candles were made), and still rooms (where medicines, cosmetics, cleaning products and sometimes even beer or wine were made). These spaces make the utilitarian rooms we have now, such as gift wrapping rooms and craft rooms, seem rather prosaic! (Note: Don't you love the servant bells behind Mr Carson's chair? Imagine being responsible for all those?)

And then there were the rooms that served as reception rooms for other rooms; places I call spaces-in-waiting, where guests paused before they proceeded to the grander parts of the house such as the ballroom. Just look at the floor plan of the grand, Beaux-Arts mansion 'Whitemarsh Hall' in Pennsylvania (above). This 100,000-square-foot (9,300 m2) mansion featured 147 rooms in total, but many of them were anterooms for the principal rooms. Ironically, it's the anterooms that are far more intriguing. Look at how the Men's Room leads to the Billiard Room, and – more interestingly – how the Ladies Room leads to Mr S's Library. (This should have been the real Cluedo floor plan!)

Many years ago, I spent a great deal of time inside Clarence House, the former home of the Queen Mother and now the London residence of Prince Charles and Princes Will and Harry. I was also fortunate to glimpse inside many of Australia's magnificent mansions while photographing them for a book on country estates. In each of these grand residences, it wasn't the exteriors or even the principal rooms that were enthralling but the more utilitarian corners: the busy beehives of the home. So here, for those who are fascinated by the rooms behind the rooms, is a post on some of the more curious spaces in these gracious old estates.

CHATSWORTH HOUSE

Chatsworth is an extraordinary piece of architecture with 300 rooms, including a leather room (one of 6 libraries in the house), a china pantry, a flower room, a linen room, a mineral room (for precious stones), a gun store, and a Belvedere Tower containing a plunge bath built by the Bachelor Duke.
At one stage, it required a small army of servants to maintain order, such was its size. According to Wikipedia, there was a butler, an under butler, groom of the chambers, valet, three footmen, a housekeeper, the Duchess's maid, eleven housemaids, two sewing women, a cook, two kitchen maids, a vegetable maid, three scullery maids, two stillroom maids, a dairy maid, six laundry maids and the Duchess's secretary, plus an upholsterer, scullery-maid, two scrubbing women, laundry porter, steam boiler man, coal man, two porter's lodge attendants, two night firemen, a night porter, two window cleaners, and a team of joiners, plumbers and electricians. There were also grooms, chauffeurs, gamekeepers and more than 8o gardeners. There was also a librarian. (I would have adored that job.) {Images via Chatsworth House. If you would like to see behind the scenes at Chatsworth, there are tours that specifically visit the back-of-house rooms.}

BLENHEIM PALACE

The only non-royal palace in Britain, Blenheim Palace features a service wing of monumental proportions – and hundreds of fabulous stories of the servant life that went on there. (For example, during the time of the 7th Duke servants were required to be invisible, so whenever His Grace strode by, they would have to flatten themselves against the wall and try to blend in with the wallpaper!) At the height of its grandueur, there were more than 100 servants here, including 40 inside and 50 outside. These included flower arrangers, carpenters, electricians to keep the newly installed wiring working,  game-keeping staff of 12, lodge keepers, and even a cricket professional to ensure the success and honour of the estate cricket team. {Tours are also available of Blenheim's servants quarters and behind-the-scenes rooms. See www.blenheimpalace.com for details}

BELLTREES

Beltrees has been home to the home of the White family since 1831. (Patrick White was a cousin). One of Australia's most famous country estates, Belltrees' land has been so coveted over the years that the late Kerry Packer bought some of the property to create his own rural idyll. I visited Belltrees to photograph it for a book and fell in love with both the house and its gracious matriarch, Judy White, who told fascinating stories of the family's history. (Apparently when her mother-in-law first went there, there was a servant behind every chair. And when Prince Charles stayed for a weekend, he would excuse himself every night to go and phone his mother.) Inside this grand mansion, there are dozens of fascinating rooms, including an enormous servery and silver room, a gun room, and a room that was just for polishing boots (there was once a servant whose sole job it was to do it). But by far my favourite spaces were the luggage room and the linen room; the former filled with beautiful vintage steamer trunks from the family's voyages around the world. {Images from Belltrees website. If you would like to see Belltrees or even stay there, consult the website www.belltrees.com for more details.}

What You Can Buy On A Budget Of $650,000...

We have been looking for property. It's a dispiriting thing to do. We thought we had a reasonable budget to spend – around $650,000 or so. (Equivalent to US$650,000) Turns out, $650,000 won't get us much at all. Not in Melbourne.




This is what I have found for $650,000 in the inner suburbs of Melbourne. 

Is there even glass in those windows? Look at that poor plant in the front. Applaudable attempt at gardening there. The curious thing is, someone clever will buy this, fix it up and probably make a profit. But not us. 

Or this one...

It DOES have a little awning... Clap of hands at the decorating effort there. Not sure about all those security grills though. Does this mean the street is... a little dubious? Collingwood IS being hailed as a "hot new area". Could be a good buy? But I just can't get past those security grills... Could someone please straighten that awning on the way out too?

Or this one...

THIS house seems so badly in need of some reno love that the agent has forbidden people to enter. 

Yes, that's right. For $650,000 you can buy a house YOU CAN'T EVEN ENTER! Here's the property copy.

Forthcoming Auction - Land Value Only

Currently uninhabitable four room Victorian semi-detached residence offering huge potential within walking distance of tram, train shops and cafes. Comprises: entry hall, two bedrooms, lounge/dining, kitchen and bathroom. Land 6.5m x 30.3m approx (196sqm approx) with the bonus of rear access via right-of-way. External viewing only.NOTE inspections – the home is in extremely poor order DO NOT ENTER THE PROPERTY!

Now we could have taken our $650,000 and bought...

 This little cutie in our own village. It sold for around $500,000. Which seems cheap, but it was a decent price considering  it was fairly diminutive.

OR we could head overseas – to this. A glam little pad in West Palm Beach Florida. With this, we could have have $150,000 CHANGE left over! For a boat. Or a Mercedes convertible. Or our retirement. We certainly wouldn't need to spend it on the garden.

Or this grand brick residence, in the gracious city of Atlanta, Georgia, for $500,000...

And then there's this lovely home, in Boston, for $499,000... No security grills on the window there.