What I'm Looking AT Today: A few More Houses in Asbury park

I found a few more pics of houses in AP so, thought I'd do another post.

This house belongs to our friends Keith and Celia,  Keith is a private art dealer and was the man responsible for bringing Memphis and Sotsass to the US in the 80's. Celia is a great fabric designer. They were, as well as friends, regular clients at From House to Home. Their home is filled with wonderful art and quite a few great pieces from me.

I have a lot of real estate stories from Asbury...got to see so many houses and they were for sale at rock bottom prices at one time......Believe it or not, this 8 bed room house with a carriage house, 3 blocks from the beach was available for 50K......we didn't buy it!!!!! what were we thinking!!!! it's obviously had work done, when we saw it there were no stairs to the second floor and the roof was partially gone, but still, for the price? it was a crazy time.....

This house belongs to Martin, we have a sad story here......for him! we were working with an agent, prominent in the city, who has since gone to meet his maker. This agent had a very odd way of negotiating.....the house is HUGE! there's an entrance hall right out of the last scene of Gone with the Wind, Tiffany windows, TIFFANY!! and tons of rooms...it was well beyond our price range at the time and we had no interest in the house. We received a call and were asked to stop by to see what was available.....we told our agent we weren't interested, but he insisted.....so we are walking around and this other couple is roaming thru the house. We are introduced and move on....several months later we are at a party and Martin comes up and says, we beat you and got the house! We asked what that meant....he said we had made an offer, they countered, we countered...they won!!!! GOB SMACKED! We had NEVER made an offer! We later found out that this agent had a reputation and never put in an offer for a house in which we were interested......lost that one....he was hellish! but he owned the town at the time......I think Martin still thinks we put in offers!

Most houses are Queen Anne or Victorian, but there's a few examples of modernism. I've always loved this house, but what's even better is the carriage house, pure Bauhaus...never been in either, but they look divine.

Hope you've enjoyed this brief tour of Asbury Park....d visit when you have a chance...it's the un-Hamptons in such a good way! And I can honestly say that we've made really good friends there.

What I'm Looking At Today: Ocean Grove, The Gay and the Gray

Ocean Grove is a small, square mile town on the Jersey shore. It prides itself on being 'God's Little Acre' and having a large assortment of Victorian architecture. We found OG thru our friend Vic and soon bought a cute Craftsman style house....we then found out it was a dry town....no liquor served in any of the restaurants although the rules had been relaxed since the 80's when cars couldn't even park in town on Sundays. You don't own the land there, it's leased for $ 1.00 per 99 years in perpetuity and they make you sign all these waivers that you won't invite 'undesirables' ....... it must have spoken volumes on the state of the town when Methodists sold to gays.... the town was dotted with rainbow flags, now = flags.......as the rainbows have been co-opted.....lol

In the 90's it was a little like living in a David Lynch movie, lots of characters and equal parts ancients, gays, religious fanatics and like us....true heathens. equal parts charm, horror and side show.

One of my favorite Italianate loggias

There are still some wonderful Victorians that haven't been redone within an inch of their lives.

This was our little house. The railings have been changed and sadly so have the the proportions. Most of the houses were originally painted white, but the town wants to become 'Victorian'....our poor Craftsman has been tarted up. As most houses in the Grove this was originally a tent, there's still an extensive tent village around the Temple.

There was a lucky fire next door to us and the house came up for sale.....honest, someone in an oxygen tent decided they needed a cigarette!!!!!! we bought it and had it taken down and then we put in a large garden, which was a real luxury in Ocean Grove. Sadly when we sold the cottage we offered the lot to our two neighbors so they could each retain a garden, but they declined and another new 'Victorian' was put in it's place.

There are some great porches and altanas with lacework detailing, but many have been over decorated.

This is an example of a horror story. It was a rather sever classical house but was bought by a fancy architect who prides himself on being an 'historical designer'....if ever there was a case for historicism rather than the tripe that passes for 'restoration'. Everything about this garish structure is to my eye, ridiculous and none of it was restored as it was not there to begin with!

A nice house right off the beach

Another horor. This was put up by the town's prominent builders with the approval of the historical society. OG has strict guidelines as to what can be built, what materials can be used and the colors a house may be painted.....Everything about this house is wrong, it's neither historic or historicist....just poorly designed. There are no correct details, the scale is off not to mention that it's just entirely out of place in this town......a pure example of the power of knowing the right people.

A typical beach block

The Centennial house is a museum in town and the prime example of what the town is supposed to look like.

One of my favorite houses in OG. A stick style cottage with a great porch. I used to walk in front of this house all the time and never saw the owners and it turns out that it belongs to one of my favorite people, the uber stylish Van of Van Gregory and Norton.

Another great house owned by designers.

There's a fine line between being historically correct and looking foolish and in Ocean Grove the foolish always seem to have the upper hand. Most of the houses are being tarted up and gingerbreaded regardless of their style. To make matters worse it seems that the Historical committee and the Building Commission don't speak! and have entirely different agendas. I hadn't been back in a while but luckily there are still quite a few beautiful homes there. I hope they don't all get ruined by historical 'correctness'.

What I'm Looking At Today: A Few Houses in Asbury Park

We are down in Asbury Park for the Holiday weekend, but now that we are beach house homeless, we're staying at the Berkley.....went for a walk around town and looked at a few of the houses that we knew well.

Sunset lake in the center of Asbury Park

This is the old P.T. Barnum house. One of the grand old Victorians that line many of the streets in AP

The house belonging to our friends Patsy and Billy, they really transformed this place.

This is the Crane House where the Red Badge of Courage was written.....I regret not buying this house, but Ric said it felt crazy inside......nothing that a few walls being moved wouldn't have fixed, but alas it was not to be.....the selling price at the time for this and the carriage house was a whopping 100K.......those were the days!

This is a great house on Sunset Lake that's unfortunately owned by the town crank and self appointed historian....it could be a showplace but has been in a state of disrepair for at least 15 years....

Just a brightly colored Craftsman on a side street.

This is the house we ended up buying. It was a rooming house for 26 people......and a true disaster, a few years of work and it became a pretty great house. We sold it back in 2006, it's still our blue and white scheme, but they took down our flag pole. We lived in what was called the drug store and on any given afternoon you'd see dozens of fancy cars driving down the street and dozens more dealers supplying the needy....that ended when we would water the lawn for 4 hours every night and waved as they drove by.

I remember one morning, I was in the kitchen making coffee and looked out the window and a swat team motioned that I should get down......lol, poor Ric, but it soon quieted down and became pretty civilized.

Our friend Brian and James' old house, the trees have all grown in nicely. We were all pioneers back in the 90's and early 2000's but it has changed a great deal now......fun to see that the houses we put so much time sweat and tears on are all being mostly kept up......

Happy Labor Day

What I'm Looking At Today: More Napoleon III Chairs

As you all may know, I love odd chairs and while I almost always use new custom upholstery for my main pieces, I do like to use antique or antique inspired frames for my secondary seating. Came across a few nice examples which I've posted below....some nice fabrics and these could go in almost any room.

Because life is too short to have the same boring furniture as everyone else.

What am I Looking At Today:Artist Unknown: Hercules at the Crossroads

Off to the beach for a week....which way is it?

What Am I Looking At Today: Neoclassical Items

Being a decorator, I have no fear of items that are ........decorative.....you'd be surprised how few 'designers' know historic styles. You see thousands of rooms filled with new 'antiques' that you will find at your best friend's house right after you've finished yours.....or scads of upholstery with monotonous shapes all dressed in beige. Nothing of interest for miles. So I like to mix things up a bit, some new with some old, high and low. The aim is create rooms that feel timeless.

Today, I'm looking at a 19th  Egyptian Revival sofa

A tall marble tazza

A chippy iron center table with acanthus leaves

Any of these items could live in an ultra modern ot traditional interior....

What Am I Looking At Today: Atilla Richard Luckacs

Canadian Artist born in 1962-

[Diane Farris Gallery]