THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, November 19, 1995 TAG: 9511170047
SECTION: HOME PAGE: G1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY DEBORAH MARQUARDT, SPECIAL TO HOME & GARDEN
LENGTH: Long : 145 lines
A STRAW FIELD HAT, masquerading as a light fixture, throws a sumptuous glow on shiny copper pots hanging from a hand-crafted wrought iron rack in a first-floor kitchen suite.
In a nearby room, a poem by Octavio Paz, painted in script around the crown molding, sets a dramatic stage for a living room. The poem is called, ``The Object Lesson.'' It is about collecting things: ``Over the bookcase, between a Tang musician and an Oaxaca pitcher. . . .''
Upstairs, a down-filled sofa graces a grand library - just the place to curl up with a good book on a blustery November day, the room's warmth created by a gilded tea paper on ceiling and walls.
Authentic fresco paintings, created with natural pigments in wet plaster, star in a lush bedroom. They set off a billowing Lyonnais silk canopy bed in a pattern first created for Louis XV's father-in-law, the king of Poland.
Welcome to the 1995 French Designer Showhouse, sparkling like a jewel box at the corner of East 65th and Lexington Avenue in New York City. Its rooms glisten like rubies and emeralds, a cheap thrill for the $15 entry fee, and an investment considering the pearls of decorating wisdom from the 28 designers and 14 artisans who completed the makeover.
The Showhouse benefits the American Hospital in Paris, which has bridged the French and American medical communities since it was built in 1910 to care for American ex-patriots, then soldiers from two world wars and now, again, citizens living abroad.
The Showhouse is another window on the world. Just three weeks before opening in October, the townhouse was a shuttered dowager in peeling paint, ceilings collapsing from water damage and windows ``compromised,'' as one decorator delicately put it.
But like Cinderella, the home was magically transformed and soon breathed the carefree air of the roaring '20s, when it was built. Its carved fireplaces were shined and gleaming, its marble hall and staircase polished, its lead and stained-glass windows scrubbed. And if anyone is curious, it is now for sale, a mere $4.9 million.
Sure it's a dream house. But before saying real people don't live like this, look closer and learn how Old-World values can enhance our brave, new world. As the 30 rooms unfold, there is a striking undertone: Quality materials, careful details and inventiveness. Real people can live like this by following the lead of the decorating masters.
Lesson No. 1 - Buy quality. This is perhaps the greatest lesson we Americans, who tend to have a more temporary mind-set, can learn. The French landscape is peppered with monuments, castles and cathedrals that have survived for thousands of years. The legacy translates to their everyday apartments and modern homes.
It is evident in the Showhouse as well. For example, ceramic tile is used generously in kitchens and baths, because it is durable. In the Showhouse kitchen, once the domain of a house staff, the work table is solid maple, the stove-top polished marble, properly sealed, and the floor tumbled limestone from Provence. Wrought iron is a sturdy forum for pots and pans.
The room, designed by a mother/-daughter team, Jane Victor and Jennifer Ellenberg of Jane Victor Associates, celebrates the French Colonialism of Vietnam. Stone floors served a practical purpose there, providing coolness. And you can be sure they won't need replacing in a few years.
The kitchen's original old cabinets, once covered in multiple coats of lead-based paint and resembling those still found in many Ghent apartments, gleam with a warm cherry finish, meant to deceive. The wood was not particularly good, but in the hands of a third-generation Italian refinisher, it soon glowed. ``This was where the staff cooked, so everything was practical,'' Ellenberg says.
Lesson No. 2 - ``Decoration is details,'' says Odile de Schietere, of O.D.S. Design, author of the Pompeii-style boudoir, pointing to one bed tassel that took an artisan a month to make. If you can't afford to reupholster the sofa, disguise it with a wonderful throw, creating ambience and style. Elaborate trim can transform a drape or pillow.
Few of us will have the luxury of fresco painting by a master like Gerard Aubert in de Schieter's[sic] Showhouse room. Yet, art is perhaps the most personal statement we can make in our homes - and a worthwhile investment. Are you buying a painting because it matches the sofa? Buy art because you like it. It will find a place, and you'll be enjoying it long after the sofa has been donated to charity.
Lesson 3 - Set decorating priorities. Splitting time between New York and France, designer de Schietere has been hired to decorate ancient castles with budgets in the millions. She is just as eager to assist young couples with little money but a sense of style. While admitting that the Showhouse room was a personal dream inspired by a vacation in Pompeii, she is generous with practical advice.
Recently she worked with the young owners of a typical suburban home in Connecticut by defining a budget and setting decorating priorities for their home. They started in the rooms most lived in, selecting good, quality carpet and simple polished cotton window treatments that have the look of silk. She found reasonably-priced furniture in catalogs like Pottery Barn and Ikea. When the couple has more money, they will continue the process.
``It's better to buy quality and have the look of quality,'' she asserts, ``unless people have so much money that they can redo everything every three years.''
Lesson No. 4 - Mix shape, color and texture. Don't be afraid to marry old, new; classic, modern. In a room that mixes an 18th-century Italian table with an American torch lamp, de Schietere notes that styles are meant to be mixed.
The Ellenberg/Victor team married two cultures in the kitchen, the simplicity of Vietnam with the elegance and tradition of France. Here, a twig table in the dining nook is graced with Haviland china, in a pattern reminiscent of the Indochine period. The table sits atop a Vietnamese prayer rug. In the working kitchen, a rack of dried herbs softens the effect of copper and steel pots and pans.
The living room by Sheryl Asklund Rock and Jorge Letelier is designed as a backdrop for personal collections, as eclectic as a traveling curio cabinet from Spain and an African chair.
Lesson No. 5 - Use your imagination. Before walking into a showroom and plunking a down payment on a five-piece living room suite, stop and think. Your home is your castle, your retreat. How do you want to live? What do you want that home to say about you?
``A real room is made of up memories,'' Thierry W. Despont told the New York Times. His Showhouse room is a tribute to the 1946 movie classic, ``Gilda,'' starring Rita Hayworth. The inspiration for Tunisian born Jeanne-Aelia Desparmet-Hart was a rooftop retreat from the days of poet Frederic Mistral.
Do you have a favorite family piece? A memory from a place you've visited? It can be the main ingredient for a design palette.
Lesson No. 6 - Use expected pieces in unexpected ways. One Showhouse designer used a long, narrow coffee table as a nightstand, creating a perfect setting for television, books and magazines. Unattractive windows were adorned in glass beads. One bathroom wall was punctuated with colorful pebbles set in a shallow coat of plaster. A floor was sponge painted to resemble tiles.
The Showhouse is a lesson in refinement, Old-World values and comforting details. Yet somehow it seems the perfect salve for a modern day world. ILLUSTRATION: Color photos
NORMAN McGRATH/
Details such as elegant tassels, plush pillows and a Lyonnais silk
canopy bed make the difference in this Pompeii-style boudoir
designed by Odile de Schietere. The 1995 French Designer Showhouse
in New York closed last weekend.
This maple table, wrought iron pot rack and limestone floor are made
to last.
Photo
NORMAN McGRATH
An abundance of potted herbs and other plants create a cozy
Vietnamese-style kitchen.
by CNB