What I'mLooking At Today: My still Un-named House

So here I am still waiting for my new abode and I have been sketching out some ideas about what this thing is going to do.....let me say this clearly.....when I was a kid, we were allowed one toy a week, it was usually something small and I always chose models, now my models always looked like the picture on the cover, but I always ended up with 'extra' parts....I am NOT a craftsman/direction follower.....lol...but I fear that I may have to become one.....

I'm hoping this thing has high ceilings.....but it may not, additionally it's only 24" w x 24"high do they mean to the roof, being a decorator I am thinking it should be to the top room....hmm guess we'll have to wait and see as there were no room dimensions.

In my mind I should be able to do three 8" rooms on the ground floor, but I should take walls into account, so there may be two 8"and one 6" hall.....The stairs are just for show...I'm going for an 18thc toy feel....charming and a bit fun....and home made looking....but not cute. I DON'T DO CUTE.

An idea for the hall. I want to make it seem as if this house is much more grand than it is, so the rooms might not be their full 12" deep and there might be doors on the back walls....have to see what happens...I'm thinking as with all these kit items, I'll be modifying it a lot.

Thinking there will be a sitting room to the right of the hall on the ground floor, maybe a 7 sided room with niches...paneling all painted out a French griege 

To the left of the hall I'm putting in a library...dark paneling

Up on the 3rd floor thinking about a tented room.....I don't sew....yet.

Second floor above the sitting room, I think will be the dining room with the stair hall beyond.

Just one bed room, Thinking grisaille paper that I will paint, thinking the bed will be ebonized... 

I'm thinking that I will add a piece of plywood to each side to break up the flatness and also to secure handles.

I'm thinking my facade is an improvement of the model, a bit more grand, but not too OTT....although I wouldn't mind if it got a little crazy. Thinking that I might place some urns with tin leaves on my plinths....well at least I'm still having fun sketching it out....I'm already bald, so won't be able to pull out my hair when this thing arrives.

What I'm Looking At Today: Miniature Furniture

So now that my mini house has been shipped, and I am anxiously waiting for it's arrival, I have started scouring for vintage as well as new furnishings....well, what a rude awakening i'm having!!! it's not that there isn't a lot of furniture out there, there is.....but some of the items I'd love to have cost as much as the real deal!!!! now granted, I can mix as in real life, but there's some really amazing  stuff out there....and I'm sad to say that i may have to splurge every once in a while....

Since this isn't a period exercise and I'm just decorating rooms as I would for myself or a client, there's going to be a good mix and a healthy dose of modern art...but I am planning a rather severe bed room and thought this El Greco might be nice over the fireplace.

I'm planning a tented room and thought a little Empire might be fun

two different sets of tables...I can always put a pair in the hallway...

collectors are insatiable  and these are really nice....as are the globes below....thinking I'm going to need a library....

below are fantastic William IV bookcases and a kneehole desk....pricey but great quality....

I'm thinking I will need to take up furniture making as soon as I finish building the house.....

What I'm Looking at Today: A NEW Hobby

Being a little impetuous, I've decided, much to poor Ric's chagrin, to take up model making.....again....albeit not plastic ships and planes. I am now waiting to join the ranks of the miniature  world....As I write this, Ric's making fun of me....saying I need an alarm system and a subway stop so people can get to it....but I am now waiting for my Gloucester Front Opening Dollhouse from Greenleaf....and have made copious sketches for it's improvement.

We live in NYC, so finding the right house was a bit difficult. I wanted something grand but not ridiculously so and it had to be a front opening house, because turning it back and forth is not an option....as it is, I have NO idea where it's going to live, but it will find it's place once it arrives. As in real life, every door is in the wrong place and the stairs need to be moved, and the facade should look dandy once the front has rusticated stone on the ground floor and four pilasters above....Brick or stucco...I'm thinking stucco, like london houses...painted white..balustrade and maybe a balcony at the parlor floor...there are only six rooms,so forget a kitchen, it's a city house anyway, they'll eat out..maybe a tented room ala Malmaison upstairs and I'm thinking a Tudor or Jacobean bedroom with grissaille painted walls....but I want lots of modern art....will have to commission Ric to make some...

The box that will be the house..have to give it a name....Ric says Bestopia or Ricistan....I'm thinking...NO.

Sketches of what I'm thinking it should do...now after the house is built, I'll have to find furniture...in all honesty, I've already bought a few items and will have to ferret out others..or maybe make them...when will I find the time?

The entrance hall, have to think how I'm going to situate the stairs...trying to make it seem as if it's larger than it is....

What I'm Looking At Today: A Mini World

 I'm in interior decoration and for the last several years I've been working on pretty large houses around the country and trying to make the world a better place one room at a time. I recently reconnected with an old friend, he's passionate about design and while not a decorator, he's spending a good deal of time thinking about design and creating a beautiful little world....and so now I've been introduced to the world of miniatures.......and I'm hooked.

I had known about the famous Quenn Mary's dolls house and the few other English 18thc houses with wonderful interiors, but there's an entire dolly world of grand palaces and sumptuous interiors.

Below are a few examples that I found while shopping for furniture. Now, I don't have much room in my tiny apartment in NYC, but I've started shopping for furniture.....just in case....

Three views of a grand Adam style ballroom by Ron Hubble in the Taiwan Museum

There are these wonderful makers, each specializing in their own type of interior, varying in quality, but never in scale.....these are in effect scale models 1:12...and there are countless obsessed individuals who make all their own furniture as well....now that's amazing.

Above is a paneled room by Robert Dawson

 Above is the Salon, part of the ballroom suite in the Taiwan Miniature Museum

Room Box by Ron Hubble

http://www.ronhubble.com/commissions.html

http://swanhousediy.com/site/index.php?main_page=index&manufacturers_id=20

Below are a few links of what people are doing......amazing

http://miniatureenthusiast.blogspot.com/2012/02/dining-room-fireplace.html

http://objetsdecharmeminiatures.blogspot.com/

Palazzo Barberini

Let it never be said that a Barberini didn't spot a bargain

'What the barbarians left untouched the Barberini have destroyed'......when they plundered the copper roof off the Pantheon, but luckily they added the Baldechino to the Vatican and Urban VII, being an astute businessman, also added the beautiful palazzo that Alessandro Sforza was forced to sell in 1625 to his personal holdings.

The sloping site was developed by three great architects each bringing their singular vision to the project. Carlo Modeno was comissioned by the Sforzas to replicate the lines Palazzo Farnese but the design quickly evolved to incorporate a semi-enclosed garden in front of the building....he basically invented the front yard.

The work was started by the Barberini in 1627 and Carlo had a young nephew whom he brought in to help, Francesco Boromini. When in 1627 Carlo died, Boromini was passed over for Bernini, but he continued to work on the project. 

This is a statue of Apollo that belongs to one of the army buildings behind the palazzo....but it's on axis to the great stairs running through the building to the garden.

Courtyard with stairs

The famous helicoidal staircase by Boromini

The main stairway to the piano nobile

The building houses the Galeria Nazionale d'Arte Antica, so they don't allow photographs of the interior and there are tons of docents with eagle eyes....

The garden and the back of the Palazzo with a view of the greenhouses.

The palazzo is right up the street from The Tritone and the Via Veneto...worth a visit.

What I'm Looking At Today: Gloria Vanderbilt

I fell in love with Gloria Vanderbilt when I opened up a book and there she was in a full length gown, in her fabulous celery green living room with a full length portrait....nothing and no one could have been more glamorous for a little gay boy living in Elizabeth, NJ. 

Many years later I came across a book of Horst photos and the ever fabulous Ms Vanderbilt was again a standout. 

Ms Vanderbilt studied acting as well as art at the Art Student's League of New York. Well known for her one woman shows of oil paintings, watercolors and pastels she eventually licensed them to Hallmark Cards. In 2011 Ms Vanderbilt  opened her first exhibition 'Dream Boxes' at the southern Vermont Arts Center to critical acclaim.

Yesterday I encountered the artist's work in person at the 1st Dibs Showroom in NYC. The space is clean and fresh with super white walls and floors filled with her textured and multilayered paintings and collages.

A view of the gallery space

Celebration 1970

The gallery space with a painting 'Two girls in White' at the far end

Surprises 2002

Below are three wonderful pictures taken by Horst P. Horst from 1970 of Ms Vanderbilt in her fabulous apartment 

Below is my homage to the Queen of Decoupage, a show house in Nyak, NY with a floor created out of patchwork

The World of Gloria Vanderbilt is open thru October 24th at the 1st Dibs Showroom

200 Lexington Ave, New York City

646.293.6633

Duomo of Florence

Meanwhile, in a town not far away from Siena, another church was being built....Santa Maria del Fiori 

is the church of Firenze built in the 14th c at the same time as that of Pisa and Siena. Built over the crumbling 5th c church dedicated to Saint Reparata, the current cathedral is one of the largest in Italy and is still known for it's great brick dome.

The church was designed by Arnolfo di Cambio  in 1294, architect of the Palazo Vecchio and the church of Santa Croce. The building took 120 years to complete with major changes to the eastern part of the church which was greatly expanded. One of the perks of taking down an old building is that you find some odd surprises.....I once found some old quarters and a newspaper from the 1940's but these guys hit pay dirt....they found the relics of St Zenobius in 1330. That was a lucky find as relics were better than gold and in 1331 the wool merchants guild assumed exclusive patronage of the building and hired Giotto to oversee the work. The tall campanile is his major design but alas in 1337, he died and so Mr Pisano of Siena was given charge until all work halted because of the Black Death of 1348.

View of the dome and campanile from the Uffizi terrace

Work began in 1349 and continued under various architects until in 1418 the Arte della Lana announced a competition. The two main contenders were Lorenzo Ghiberti, winner of for the bronze door competition of the Baptistry and Filippo Brunelleschi [ favorite of Cosimo Medici].

Turns out that Brunelleschi won but Ghiberti was named coadjutor and was given the same salary as the winner....but neither claimed or was given the prize money of 200 florins. Brunelleschi decided he was 'ill' and so Ghiberti took over but soon gave up and at that point sole responsibility came to Brunelleschi who finished the dome from 1420-1436. There's a story that when asked how he was going to build it, he took an egg and smashed the wide end on a table making a 'dome' and he said....like this'. It is the first octagonal dome in history to be built without temporary support each brick is held in place by the weight of the brick above it.

Looking at the polychome marble decoration which was begun in the 14thc and not completed until 1887 under Emilio de Fabris.

Below, looking up to heaven. The decoration of this cathedral is much more sedate than that of siena...plain white walls hardly and decoration anywhere.

 The cathedral has seen it's share of bloody history when it witnessed the murder of Guliano Medici and the near death of Lorenzo il Magnifico. 

The Baptistry below was built on the Temple of Mars. Like most Baptistries it is dedicated to st John and is octagonal, 8 being the number of rejuvenation in Christian lore.

beautiful floors

below is the amazing gold mosaic decoration

The Baptistry is known for it's doors which are now in the Opera behind the cathedral, it was in use until the 19th c.

The Duomo entrance is free, the Baptistry is currently 5 Euro, you buy your tickets next to the  fancy ice cream shop on the right. Be prepared to wait a long long time.