Design: Book Thing

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Booked: Ben Pentreath’s English Decoration

When I was in NYC last week at Grace & Favor, a book caught my eye, and I knew I had to have it. First, it’s by Ben Pentreath, about whom I wrote last month, here. Ben is a hugely accomplished architect and shop-owner as well as a blogger. Second, it’s about English decorating, which, as in many houses in the UK where I’ve been a guest, is all about generations and layers.

I’ve seen a number of images of Ben’s house on his blog, as well as the houses of friends, so I knew this book would be a treat.

Ben talks about six or eight houses and what makes them work. Obviously, classical architecture’s a good jumping off point.

And then a selection of great pieces that’s been assembled and collected over the years, not just picked up at HomeGoods.

Ben talks about the art of styling a table, and of course, he goes right to the master – David Hicks.

One of the things I love about British decorating books is that the rooms are not styled to within an inch of their lives, like American rooms are. For instance, you’d never, ever see an image like this in an American book.

Or this:

In an American book or magazine, everything would be perfect. The pillows would be fluffed and chopped, the blanket would be thrown over the back of the chair at an insouciant angle and the books would be in the Hicksian colour arrangement. I think that more people live in houses that look like this than in houses where everything’s perfect. I know I do!

It was great fun to see Ben’s massive London map in a few of the images of his flat.

And in the bottom image, you can spot the map in the mirror and the David Hicks book on the table.

The book is terrific and if you’re looking for a present for yourself or someone who loves English Decoration, you can find it here.

Alexa Hampton: Decorating in Detail

When I was in High Point last month, Alexa Hampton had just released her new book, Decorating in Detail. In part, it’s spun off her decorating columns from the Wall Street Journal’s Off Duty section, in the days when Deborah Needleman days. Alexa has the best sense of humour and it really comes across in this book. That, and her amazing eye for detail and colour are what made me want to buy this book. I have her Language of Interior Design book as well, and it’s terrific.

What I loved about this book was that she talks about 10 or so of the houses she’s recently designed and goes into detail about how they came about. And, of course, because detail is what this book is all about, there are tons of gorgeous images of the details which make the decorating come to life!

There are small details that many people wouldn’t notice,

and grand details which bring a room together.

What was great was that the columns that Alexa did for the WSJ were reprinted in the book, and I was pleased to be able to see these again, because they were full of great advice!

Another thing that she does that intrigued me is “decorating by Sharpie®”. She takes an existing image of a room and sketches out the layout she’s proposing right onto the image!

Using this method, both she and the clients can get a good sense of the space and the arrangements, without tons of effort! She’s clearly inherited some of her father’s talent in the drawing arena, as well as the decorating!

Decorating in Detail will be a new favourite of mine!

Ex Libris

Where I work, we have archives dating back to the late 1700’s and about 250 boxes filled with ephemera that’s both deadly boring and endlessly fascinating. I am working on a timeline for a long hallway and need to find a lot of visuals to create a picture of our history. So, I’ve been searching our archives, which are located on the top floor of our four-story stacks library… where the ghost lives.

One of the boxes I opened contained hundreds of bookplates. At one point, our librarian had sort of an exchange program set up with physicians and medical colleges around the world where they would trade bookplates.

I noticed that the ones I have fall into several distinct categories. First, the medical-related ones with skulls and microscopes.

And I can’t resist sharing this one from an OB/GYN featuring a set of Fallopian tubes, the rabbit, lab rats, famous physicians and scientists, some stirrups and a speculum.And just in case you were worried about where he went to school, there’s the Tulane University seal! That’s a lot packed into a 3x4 inch piece of paper!

And who wouldn’t love this charming butterfly resting atop a human skull?

The second variety is the crest, whether real or created for the occasion.

Lots of stags, lions rampant and other beasts.

Then there all of the monograms with the intertwined letters and the fantastic lettering.

I love the brain capping off the piece!

Finally, there’s a genre of ye olde-style bookplates.

I keep finding so many fascinating things that I am thinking of starting a blog on the history of Maryland Medicine so that these pieces aren’t lost to history. I do put some of them on my FB page, but that doesn’t have nearly the audience that a blog would. If I wrote it, would you read it?

PS – sorry about the awful quality of the images. I photographed these instead of scanning them, as scanning involves quite a bit more effort, including standing on a stool to see the scanner bed!

Bienenstock Furniture Library

On my way out of High Point, I stopped for a tour of the Bienenstock Furniure Library, one of High Point’s year-round treasures. The library was founded by the owner of Furniture World magazine in 1970 as a personal collection of books. The collection includes contemporary books as well as some of the classics, including an original copy of Thomas Chippendale’s furniture design book.

I was lucky to get a personal tour of the library and its collections from Director, Karla Webb who loves books as much as I do! One of the fun collections at Bienenstock is the old copies of House Beautiful, House & Garden and many auction catalogues.