Just So French! https://justsofrench.com European Antiques & Furnishings Mon, 10 Feb 2020 00:08:03 +0000 en-AU hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.2.2 122463570 Just Outside Paris https://justsofrench.com/just-outside-paris/ https://justsofrench.com/just-outside-paris/#respond Sun, 09 Feb 2020 23:57:55 +0000 https://justsofrench.wpengine.com/?p=4609 Owning a Louis XV-era chateau means deciding whether to honor the past or completely upend it. But for Jean-Louis Tapiau, the solution was somewhere in the middle. JEAN-LOUIS TAPIAU stands in the vast entryway of his inherited chateau outside of Paris, dressed in a trim black corduroy suit, ready to give a tour. At first glance,

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Owning a Louis XV-era chateau means deciding whether to honor the past or completely upend it. But for Jean-Louis Tapiau, the solution was somewhere in the middle.

In a room off the kitchen, contemporary pieces from Galerie Yves Gastou, like an Ado Chale table and a vase by Emmanuel Babled, contrast with the 18th-century chairs and the pink plastic-coated gingham wallcovering | Credit Martin Morrell

JEAN-LOUIS TAPIAU stands in the vast entryway of his inherited chateau outside of Paris, dressed in a trim black corduroy suit, ready to give a tour. At first glance, the scene seems like a straightforward fantasy: a grand Louis XV-era legacy perfectly preserved in amber. Château d’Aunoy, 31 miles southeast from the city, is among the most elegant and well-maintained of the country’s remaining Baroque mansions, with 22 rooms over 8,600 square feet on 175 acres. The house, built from 1750 to 1754, is surrounded by the remarkable gardens envisioned by its second owner, the renowned 18th-century lawyer Pierre Jean-Baptiste Gerbier, among the first in France to employ the formal English style.

But in fact the chateau’s narrative — and its current owner’s — turns out to be more complex than it originally appears, just like the idiosyncratic rooms inside. Tapiau, 56, has been battered by deaths, disillusionments and divorce, events that have in turn shaped his answers to the questions that always arise for those who inherit an important old house: How much of the past should be respected? What if staying entirely faithful to what came before ultimately makes the place feel like a cage? Tapiau has chosen to respond boldly, transforming the interiors into a daring pastiche of high design and lingering legacy, from the Rococo to the contemporary avant-garde. Look closely and Château d’Aunoy can be read as a lavish antidote to personal suffering, a primer on how to use the layers of time as a salve for all that’s broken. “When I lost so much, it was a big opportunity for me to create something new and beautiful,” he says, “but at the time, I did not see it. I only see it now, 10 years later.”

At the beginning, it was all lightness on a magnificent scale. Tapiau’s father, Jacques, who had built a scrap-metal and recycling empire, bought the house in the late 1970s, when his son, an only child, was a teenager. The chateau had been through about a dozen former owners, the most recent of whom were Emmanuel and Maria Motte. Emmanuel was once a decorator for Maison Jansen, the fabled Parisian design company founded in 1880 and known for meshing Classical motifs with Modernist touches; over his 25 years at Château d’Aunoy, he added such flourishes as a vast ceiling mural modeled on the Galerie des Glaces at Versailles. When Tapiau’s parents took over, his mother, Rolande — an aspiring actress with an eye for dramatic detail — kept much of Motte’s work while putting her mark on the interiors, including the master bedroom with its all-encompassing floral print and en suite bathroom with invisible taps.

Jean-Louis Tapiau’s Chateau D’Aunoy | Credit Martin Morrell

After Tapiau finished university, he settled in Paris to become, perhaps unsurprisingly, a dealer of 18th-century antiques. But on Christmas Day of 1999, when he was 37, came the first in a series of misfortunes that would tie him intimately to Château d’Aunoy and foretell its reimagining: A hurricane tore through the city and the surrounding countryside, ravaging the Bois de Boulogne and the park of Versailles. Château d’Aunoy’s grounds became a chaotic tangle of felled trees. The storm turned out to be the first squall of Tapiau’s own tempest; soon after, his mother was diagnosed with cancer. Through her illness, her son oversaw the restoration of the grounds, installing thousands of trees, many of them the same beeches, oaks, hornbeams and maples that had originally thrived there. These years brought a few bright moments for Tapiau (including the birth of his twin daughters), but mostly there was darkness: His mother’s death was followed by the demise of his father a couple of years after he had signed over the chateau to Tapiau in 2007. Around that same time, his marriage fell apart.

Afterward, Tapiau began spending most of his time at Château d’Aunoy. As he contemplated what to do with the seemingly endless space, he turned to Yves Gastou, a gallerist who had helped him furnish his former Parisian apartment — a 19th-century hôtel particulier — from Gastou’s eponymous shop in Saint-Germain-des-Prés. Like Tapiau, the animated Gastou, now 71, had grown up steeped in the 18th century; his father had worked for an auction house. He knew the era’s charms and its limitations. But instead of remaining immersed in the past, Gastou moved omnivorously through the 20th century. His gallery freely mixed periods and cultures: the polished curves of the Italian midcentury master Gio Ponti alongside the simple lines of the contemporary British lighting designer Tom Dixon; the refined elegance of the eccentric architect Carlo Mollino with the industrial edge of the Japanese furniture designer Shiro Kuramata.

GASTOU AND TAPIAU shared a desire to mesh a historic sensibility with contemporary pieces to create a modern sense of the Rococo. One of Tapiau’s first purchases for the home in Paris had been a pair of fluorescent-hued acrylic sculptures by Jean-Claude Farhi; he began to see the world anew when he placed them in front of the 19th-century oak boiserie in his living room.

In one of the guest rooms, Zuber wallpaper installed by Tapiau’s mother in the ’80s, a console by Jacques Duval-Brasseur and a Maison Jansen mirror.Credit | Credit Martin Morrell

At the chateau, he and the Gastous (the gallerist works with his 36-year-old son, Victor) aimed to establish a lively dialogue between old and new. Tapiau sees the process as a continuation of “the conversation that Henri Samuel started,” referring to the legendary decorator who, like Motte, had worked for Maison Jansen, and had been dubbed a master of “progressive historicism” after creating wildly eclectic homes for Valentino Garavani and Marie-Hélène and Guy de Rothschild.

THE DECADE-LONG undertaking has been both intellectual and therapeutic. Tapiau found joy in repairing the parquet floors and black-and-white cabochon, in re-sourcing ornate wall coverings and repainting rooms in their original hues. He kept his mother’s bedroom largely as it was. Yet adding outré works to the public areas electrified him, creating not merely a new identity for the chateau but also for himself. In a small second dining room, for instance, Tapiau preserved Motte’s blue-and-white porcelain plates on the Vichy pink fabric wall but brought in a massive round table by Ado Chale, designed in the ’90s as an aluminum ode to the moon. In the entry hall, near a wall hung with imposing marble medallions mounted by another long-ago owner, each carved with the face of a different Roman emperor, there now stands a 1990 sculpture by the French New Realist artist Sacha Sosno; called “Tête Carrée” (Square Head), it is a six-foot-tall bust on a pedestal with a hyper-realistic neck that morphs into a giant, faceless block.

In the dining room, Tom Blackwell’s “Rainbow 74” (1969-70) and a pair of bronze busts by the sculptor Francisco Méndez look over a French Régence-period marble console.
Credit: Martin Morrell

Perhaps the ultimate expression of Tapiau’s approach can be seen in the 700-square-foot grand salon. Beneath the restored ceiling mural and antique Louis XV chandeliers, Tapiau has placed a red velvet-upholstered Louis XV sofa by Jean-Baptiste Tilliardalongside a monumental contemporary slate table by Emmanuel Jonckers and hammered bronze chairs by the French artist Philippe Hiquily. Farhi’s acrylic sculptures from Tapiau’s Paris apartment now flank the castle’s 18th-century marble fireplace like twin lava lamps.

The tableaus, says Tapiau, are ever evolving. No room is ever quite finished. But the cacophonous energy has, paradoxically, brought him the serenity he thought he might never again have. “I had lost everything, including my own identity,” he says, “but as I invested more and more time here, I started rediscovering a sense of self.”

By Gisela Williams Published Sept 11 2019 Credit www.nytimes.com


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New ARRIVALS and WEBSITE https://justsofrench.com/new-arrivals-and-website/ https://justsofrench.com/new-arrivals-and-website/#respond Mon, 19 Nov 2018 23:35:48 +0000 https://justsofrench.wpengine.com/?p=4566  I remember with fondness the weekend jaunts to France and other parts of Europe when I lived in London. Back home in New Zealand I am fortunate to still pursue my passion for antiques through the establishment of European Antiques. Fourteen years on and I still get so excited when new shipments arrive. European Antiques

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 I remember with fondness the weekend jaunts to France and other parts of Europe when I lived in London. Back home in New Zealand I am fortunate to still pursue my passion for antiques through the establishment of European Antiques. Fourteen years on and I still get so excited when new shipments arrive.
European Antiques is the result of a lifelong pursuit that sees me scouring Europe each year to offer the beautiful, the rare and the collectible; all of which are available for sale via my recently revamped website.
And here it is! WELCOME to the NEW website of European Antiques. It has been awhile in the making but there are so many features to make your visit more enjoyable. Some NEW features include:
  • Larger photos with a ZOOM function to fully inspect antique products
  • SUB categories added to PRODUCT categories to define your search
  • NEW ARRIVALS section on the homepage to showcase the latest products loaded on the website
  • A ‘RECENTLY VIEWED’ section at the bottom of product pages so you can revisit products viewed prior
  • INSTAGRAM feed so you can join 46,000 other followers on all things inspirational from Interior Design, French Chateaus, Gardens, and of course Antiques.

I trust you will enjoy browsing and would welcome any feedback to meredith@europeanantiques.co.nz so I can continue to improve the European Antiques web and product experience.

Along with a new website is the release of my new shipment. Here are some of the highlights:

Val St Lambert Crystal

Val St Lambert is a Belgian crystal glassware manufacturer founded in 1826 and based in Seraing, Belgium. It has the Royal Warrant of King Albert II and is still in production today.

How is the coloured crystal made?
Most coloured pieces have two layers of glass, called “cased glass’. The two layers are fused together at the glass factory. They are then cut through from the outer layer of coloured glass to expose the clear layer, which gives the piece that nice contrast. Cased “cut to clear” glass is more difficult to make and to cut, also more time consuming, and therefore more expensive.

There are different metal oxides used to colour glass. For example, real gold is used to create “gold ruby,” cobalt for blue and iron oxide for green.

Click here to VIEW the antique selection of Val St Lambert Crystal available under Decorative | Crystal and Glass. This section will be updated as more crystal is released for sale. Below is a sample of what you can expect to find.

The new ARRIVALS is a varied mix of unique antiques under all section categories NEW Arrivals  Furniture Lighting Decorative Mirrors Religious and Garden

LATE NINETEENTH CENTURY FRENCH SILVER GILT RADIATE-MONSTRANCE

A large and impressive late nineteenth century French silver gilt Radiate-monstrance with champlevé enamelled medallions rising from a quatrefoil base. It is hallmarked with the French 19th century silver hallmark (Minerva) and the makers mark for Chevron Freres (Brothers) the Parisian goldsmiths.

The cross at the top of the monstrance is finished with an enamel of the cross.
The central lunula containing a blessed sacrament is surrounded by a circle of large diamanté effect stones and high-quality champlevé enamel. Contained within the central hand painted enamel quatrefoil are four medallions depicting the four evangelists – Mathew, Mark, Luke and John. A further layer of filigree work surrounds the quatrefoil incorporating grapes and foliage.
The circular stem is finished with fine engraving work and faux ruby cabochons on the decorative knop flanking four enamels of the Holy Arch Angel.
The quatrefoil base contains four further champlevé enamel medallions depicting four Saints.
The monstrance is in original used condition (unpolished) which I like, but she could be polished if you prefer more bling! (. In 14 years of trading I have sold a lot of religious artefacts and this is the most wonderful monstrance I have been able to offer for sale and I know I am unlikely to get anything like this again. It is a work of art. I have a copy of the last purchasers receipt from 21st April, 1986 for 200,000 Belgian francs which historically equates to around $8k in NZ dollars.

Dimensions: H860mm x W400mm x D250mm |  Code: 23EA139f  | NZD $14,500.00

SPANISH VIDAL GRAU BAR IN THE FORM OF A WORLD GLOBE, C. 1970

Impressive Vidal Grau Bar c.1970 in the form of a world Globe sitting on a Brass pyramid Base. The resin globe opens to reveal a brass interior for storing up to 15 liquor bottles and associated glasses. The central gallery rotates for easy access to your favourite tipple!

The origins of Vidal Grau go back to 1953, when it was known as SOYMA, in the city of ValŽencia. Their furniture range was based on contemporary design using traditional quality materials such as wood, metal, glass, marble and other innovative elements such as moulded resin mixtures. This statement piece is in extraordinary condition and as the company is no longer in business it makes this piece even more desirable. Signed with molded manufacturer’s mark to underside: [Vidal Grau Valencia-Espana].

Dimensions: H1450mm x W530mm x D580mm | Code: 23EA122 | NZD $12,500.00

These are just some highlights of what is available through European Antiques.  I ship worldwide and encourage enquiries from wherever you are.

Best regards

Meredith

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Inside a Sublime French Château https://justsofrench.com/inside-a-sublime-french-chateau/ https://justsofrench.com/inside-a-sublime-french-chateau/#respond Sun, 11 Nov 2018 23:01:11 +0000 https://justsofrench.wpengine.com/?p=4511 The Beginning of a Painstaking Restoration Contemporary art dealer Pierre-Alain Challier fell in love with a romantic castle as a boy and finally fulfilled his dream of one day ruling the roost. When asking children what they would like to be when they grow up, the answers are often about being a firefighter, a movie

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The Beginning of a Painstaking Restoration

Contemporary art dealer Pierre-Alain Challier fell in love with a romantic castle as a boy and finally fulfilled his dream of one day ruling the roost.

When asking children what they would like to be when they grow up, the answers are often about being a firefighter, a movie star, or living in a castle. In the case of French contemporary art dealer Pierre-Alain Challier, living in a castle was his boyhood aspiration and today he is not too far off the mark. “I grew up in a little village next to the Château de Lascours, about 435 miles south of Paris,” says Challier. “It was always the magical, rundown castle next door, like the one in Sleeping Beauty.” He and his friends would play on the estate’s grounds, even though they were forbidden from doing so. When he was 12, Challier wrote to the owner of the property, a prince, and asked if he could buy the smaller château in the woods. He never answered. “I then went to see him,” he recalls, “and he told me his family would never sell anything.”

The property’s bamboo forest and ajacent driveway of plantain trees extends for almost a mile.

Time marched on and Challier continued to fantasize about this romantic castle. He moved to Paris, opened his art gallery, but never forgot about this childhood dream. About 10 years ago, the estate’s owner died and bequeathed the huge property to a niece, who lived in Patagonia—and she had no plans of moving back. So in 2012, Challier and his partner, Bertrand de Latour, made an offer on the château and purchased the property, without ever having even been inside.

The first project was to replace all of the roofs—approximately 16,400 feet of it—just to keep the entire place from completely falling apart. Then work began on the expansive park and gardens. The property had been abandoned for many years, and as is often the case with such properties, had been stripped of all its mantles and anything that could be carted off and sold or repurposed. “Maybe this in a way would give me the chance to do something new,” Challier comments. “I want to respect the exterior and the way it was, but be a bit more flexible with the interiors.”

A family portrait inside the chateau. Bertrand de Latour, Pierre-Alain’s partner, and Madame Challier in front, with Isabelle, Pierre-Alain, and Olivier Challier surrounding their father.

Challier’s family still lives one village away and all of them have enthusiastically embraced the renovation project. “This is the project of a lifetime, which will take just as long,” he says. “This place is magical, and I want to think about it for the next generation.” His hope is to set up a foundation for artists to stay on the property and create. “Not a gallery, but for exhibitions and for large-scale monumental works.” This is a long-term plan and a few artists have already come to visit, wander around the property, and imagine. Meantime, Challier was approached recently by a young man from a nearby village who told him he had also dreamed about this abandoned château his entire life, asking if he could be married there. Not one to shy away from a celebration, Challier agreed and the young couple said their vows on the grounds this summer. Another dream come true.

Blog article by architecturaldigest.com

 

 

 

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Rustic meets Refined – James Huniford https://justsofrench.com/rustic-meets-refined-james-huniford/ https://justsofrench.com/rustic-meets-refined-james-huniford/#respond Thu, 01 Jun 2017 04:13:06 +0000 https://justsofrench.wpengine.com/?p=4489 7 Lessons from Designer James Huniford James Huniford claims to be “a minimalist at heart.” And while that may well be true (his interiors are never too packed, too layered, too colorful, or too overwhelming), he’s also never afraid to make a grand statement. “I’m not really into little vignettes,” he says. “I’m into bold strokes. My visual sensibility is

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7 Lessons from Designer James Huniford

James Huniford claims to be “a minimalist at heart.” And while that may well be true (his interiors are never too packed, too layered, too colorful, or too overwhelming), he’s also never afraid to make a grand statement. “I’m not really into little vignettes,” he says. “I’m into bold strokes. My visual sensibility is based on what is going to have the most impact.”

Never is that philosophy more evident than in his weekend home, a circa 1855 Bridgehampton, NY, farmhouse that he meticulously restored (out went the unfortunate aluminum siding and in went details like shingles, wide-plank floors, and cast-iron radiators). But the house isn’t such a period piece that it’s not cozy. “I wanted it to be comfortable for me, my family, and my friends,” says the designer. That it is, but it’s also a next-level example of how to use reclaimed and rustic elements to create a totally refined space.

Robert Rauschenberg works, framed in a honey-colored wood, are an example of Huniford’s preference for large pieces. He calls the Belgian table in the bay window—a 19th-century jeweler’s table—“probably the best piece of furniture in the house.”

Lesson No. 1
Use Objects in Unexpected Ways


“I’m always collecting found objects,” says Huniford. “I love things that I can repurpose and use in a different way, whether it’s a conveyor belt or a belt cover that I can put on the wall as a sculpture.” (He did just that in the main living room). “I think it’s about taking elements from different periods and not letting the history of them affect how you use them.” While his finds are always sophisticated, often they’re practical too. “I collected an octagon-shape 68-drawer cabinet from a hardware store that my son actually keeps his Legos in,” says Huniford.

Huniford isn’t one to say what specifically to collect, but he is a big advocate of authenticity. “Each person may have their own taste and sensibility,” he acknowledges, “but having an adventurous eye is important.”

The four pieces above the fireplace were sourced from a welder. “I look at objects and I look at wall spaces to see where I can create a detail that’s strong but clear,” Huniford says.

The master bedroom is simultaneously quiet and packed with drama. As for bed linens, “I think bedding should be very calm and serene and have nice textures rather than bold colors,” says Huniford.

Lesson No. 2
Turn Convention on Its Head


Huniford’s adventurous approach is perhaps best exemplified by his master bedroom, which manages to be traditional and rule-defying at once. While most find it impossible to resist placing a bed against a wall, Huniford presents it almost like a work of art, making it the undisputed focus of the space. “I like the idea of the bed floating in the middle of the room,” he says. “To me, the placement creates a sense of stability so that when you sleep, it’s almost like you’re floating.” The drama is amplified by the room’s amazing light, calming colors, and high angled ceiling.

Of course, the layout of the room is probably not the first thing a guest would notice. That would be the large wooden chain (sourced from a ship from the San Juan Islands) that Huniford draped from a ceiling beam. Given his masterful eye and ingenious layout, it plays like a museum piece.

“I’m always collecting found objects. I love things that I can repurpose and use in a different way”— James Huniford

Artfulness is achieved though the interplay of the raw materials—the contrast of wood and steel, the combination of matte and shiny surfaces—rather than through bursts of colour.

Lesson No. 3
Scale Back on Color


“The key to this house is the palette,” Huniford says, “the calmness and the soothing that, for me, is everything.” Indeed: While eccentric elements abound, the effect is always elevated, always timeless. “I really like grays and blues and greens, celadon greens. They’re colors I relate to, and they’re the colors in paintings I really like.” The blue of the living room was chosen because it reminded him of the blue in an Agnes Martin painting he admires, and the entire interior is painted a shade that Huniford mixed up himself and dubbed “foggy summer squall.” “Depending on the shadows and the light, it reads as different colors,” he says.

Much of Huniford’s palette is achieved through his choice of raw materials. Wood is omnipresent in this home and lends a natural, nuanced richness to the space. “It’s interesting to mix woods or grain materials for contrast,” says Huniford. “I think it’s more important to have the mix than the match.”

A cistern, repurposed as wall art, and a heavy wood bed ground the guest bedroom, while the glass bottles are an arrangement the designer put together and considers a personal sculpture. Huniford’s custom wall paint appears almost gray in the afternoon light.

Lesson No. 4
Think Big (but Balanced)


When using large-scale pieces as decor elements—be they tree trunks, ship chains, or the cistern from Indiana that hangs above the bed in the guest bedroom—Huniford believes in going all out. Once you have your statement makers in place, it’s important that they fit into the overall scheme. “Think about what is going to balance out the rest of the room,” he says. As always, the challenge is putting it all together: “I think a great interior is about editing, and being restrained, and knowing how to balance out comfort, function, and the visual idea of what the room could be.” He’s a stickler when it comes to sight lines, always aware of how all the elements work together. “When you walk into a room, consider what your eyes are going to be drawn to,” he says. “There always needs to be a calmness, a tranquil moment, to make you want to be there. The rooms I design are always curious and inviting and comfortable.”

A collection of green glass vases is one of the only pops of color in the serene guest bedroom.

“I think a great interior is about editing, and being restrained, and knowing how to balance out comfort, function, and the visual idea of what a room could be”               — James Huniford

Every piece has a story. For instance, under a glass cloche he acquired in England, Huniford placed a sculpture he made of swordfish noses. The candlesticks are another testament to his creativity: He made them from found wood objects.

Lesson No. 5
Collect with a Curatorial Eye


Huniford’s aesthetic is so singular and his design experience so vast, it’s easy for him to immediately know if a piece fits his vision. But whatever your point of view, consider the bones of a piece. “I really look for objects with a sculptural shape or form or an interesting color,” he says. “That, for me, is key.”

When displaying your finds, grouping similar objects is a simple way to create a streamlined look. Hunniford’s home features many clever collections placed throughout the house—green glass bottles, grouped artfully under a glass cloche; a series of black wood candlesticks. Within reach and out in the open for use, they also serve as objets d’art.

A WPA-era advertising sign that once lived on the side of a truck looks refined in this well-edited room.

Huniford is a longtime admirer of American ceramics—in particular, California pottery. “I admire the adventurousness of the wheel and working with clay. I love that process of the unknown and having it become something that you couldn’t imagine until the end.”

The hoops are the work of early American weavers (“I just loved those shapes. They seemed whimsical and playful,” Huniford says), and the spiked lamps were made from pieces of old farm equipment originally used to turn soil.

Lesson No. 6
Planning Is Everything


Huniford storyboards out all the elements of a room before settling on a design. “In the same way that you lay out a shirt or a blouse and a jacket or pants and shoes so you know how to accessorize it, it’s about creating that story for an interior so that you have a clear vision,” he says. He measures everything in advance and pays particular attention to scale. What you don’t want, says the designer, is a flat plane. “Try different table heights,” he advises. “For instance, if the seat cushions for the sofa are 19 inches high, then the coffee table should be lower.”

 

Lesson No. 7
Aim for a Sophisticated Mix


Though his Bridgehampton home is full of rough finishes, a closer look reveals the depth of his approach. His preferences regarding wood are a case in point: “You can use tinted wax on wood to have it look a little more refined, which I do often. It’s about the high and the low, to be able to have a reclaimed or rugged material with a very elegant and luxurious material, like a porous wood with a silk velvet. It’s that mix of very delicate, refined finishes and some rugged elements that creates that tension, which I think is what rooms need.”

“I’m not really into little vignettes. I’m into bold strokes. My visual sensibility is based on what is going to have the most impact”— James Huniford

Source: onekingslane

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Tour Claude Monet’s Incredible Gardens https://justsofrench.com/tour-claude-monets-incredible-gardens/ https://justsofrench.com/tour-claude-monets-incredible-gardens/#respond Mon, 08 May 2017 01:33:03 +0000 https://justsofrench.wpengine.com/?p=4468 His iconic paintings were often inspired by the lush landscape Claude Monet’s Impressionist paintings aren’t his only legacy. In the French village of Giverny, his vibrant gardens, which the artist tended for more than 40 years, are just as impressive, attracting tourists from around the world. “Monet composed his garden like a well-balanced palette,” writes

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His iconic paintings were often inspired by the lush landscape

Claude Monet’s Impressionist paintings aren’t his only legacy. In the French village of Giverny, his vibrant gardens, which the artist tended for more than 40 years, are just as impressive, attracting tourists from around the world. “Monet composed his garden like a well-balanced palette,” writes author Adrien Goetz in the new book A Day with Claude Monet in Giverny ($35, Flammarion), which offers an up-close view of the artist’s property. “In the Clos Normand, he dug regularly shaped rectangular beds that were each assigned a color. The result is never monotonous because the palette constantly changes.” To this day, the landscape continues to burst with hyacinths and tulips, rhododendrons and water lilies, cosmos and sunflowers; it’s not surprising that the gardens inspired many of Monet’s best-known works. Read on for a tour of the verdant space.

Photo: Francis Hammond/Courtesy of Flammarion
The central path in Monet’s walled garden, Clos Normand, explodes with jewel-toned nasturtiums during the summer.
Photo: Francis Hammond/Courtesy of Flammarion
Tulips and forget-me-nots greet you at the entrance to Monet’s manor house, which was once a cider mill.
Photo: Francis Hammond/Courtesy of Flammarion
A view of the riotous garden from the residence’s eye-catching teal porch.
Photo: Francis Hammond/Courtesy of Flammarion
Monet often painted water lilies from one of his two Japanese bridges. In May, the structures are covered in white and lavender wisteria.
To see more, pick up a copy of A Day with Claude Monet in Giverny.

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Chic Sag Harbor Rental https://justsofrench.com/chic-sag-harbor-rental/ https://justsofrench.com/chic-sag-harbor-rental/#respond Thu, 27 Apr 2017 03:53:41 +0000 https://justsofrench.wpengine.com/?p=4424 I don’t know about you, but I adore a bit of Hampton Chic.  I thought this home exuded all the interior design elements that make these homes so special.  So many rooms have special touches! Truly a wonderful interior remodel with a subtle sea caption theme. I would love to stay for a month.  How

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I don’t know about you, but I adore a bit of Hampton Chic.  I thought this home exuded all the interior design elements that make these homes so special.  So many rooms have special touches! Truly a wonderful interior remodel with a subtle sea caption theme. I would love to stay for a month.  How about you?

In most of America,  $175,000 would buy you an entire house. In the Hamptons, it will only get you a one month rental in this house in Sag Harbor Village for August only via Corcoran. While most of us can’t afford that price tag, we can peek into the home remodeled by David Kleinberg for a British politician for free online. The home previously belonged to Pulitzer Prize–winning playwright Lanford Wilson until his death in 2011. You can see photos of what it looked like before on Curbed Hamptons. The compound includes a main with five bedrooms, five baths, and a gym with a two-bedroom cottage and 50-foot swimming pool. The house really reminded me of the Captain Overton House by Steven Gambrel I toured this time last year and then I read that it is also a sea captain’s house so it makes sense that they have similar layouts and architectural details. If you decide to rent it, please invite me over for a visit.

Source Habituallychic

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5 decor Lessons from Gorgeous French Homes https://justsofrench.com/5-decor-lessons-gorgeous-french-homes/ https://justsofrench.com/5-decor-lessons-gorgeous-french-homes/#respond Thu, 27 Apr 2017 00:24:31 +0000 https://justsofrench.wpengine.com/?p=4417 Found this fabulous article on Architectural  Digest. The content is taken from a new book AD France that celebrates the designers behind the country’s famously nonchalent style. We turn to the French for lessons on how to dress, how to parent, how to wash our faces—and, of course, how to design our homes. Back when Marie

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Found this fabulous article on Architectural  Digest. The content is taken from a new book AD France that celebrates the designers behind the country’s famously nonchalent style.

We turn to the French for lessons on how to dress, how to parent, how to wash our faces—and, of course, how to design our homes. Back when Marie Kalt took over as editor in chief of Architectural Digest France, she and her editors tasked themselves with finding the decorators who represented the future of the country’s aesthetic (and therefore the look we would hope to achieve in our own houses). Twelve of those once up-and-coming, now fully established, design stars are featured in a recently released book, The New Chic: French Style from Today’s Leading Designers ($65, Rizzoli). “Despite their wide stylistic diversity, whether minimalist or quasi-Baroque, glamorous or architectural, the designers presented here share many points in common that combine to delineate a new French style,” writes Kalt. “With elegance, aesthetic freedom, and sometimes audacity, they all uphold a kind of classicism (no one can completely sever their cultural roots) without ever losing sight of that elusive attribute called ‘chic.'” Read on to discover the tips and tricks we gleaned from a few of the stunning projects found in the book.

Photo: Gonzalo Machado

Embrace multiple aesthetics at once

Fashion designer turned decorator Vincent Darré likes to bring together wide-ranging inspiration in a single space. “I adore a certain grand French decorative style à la Jansen, the English spirit of David Hicks…. I’m also very much inspired by Italian Baroque. Then I put it all together in my own mishmash!” he tells Cédric Saint André Perrin in the book. The dining room in Spanish model Inés Sastre’s Paris apartment boasts Darré-designed fire engine–red wallpaper.
Photo: Jérôme Galland

Use light to your advantage

Designer Chahan Minassian tells Axell Corty, “I use light to bring out [materials’] opulence, their sophistication, their depth.” Minassian updated this 19th-century Paris apartment with Venetian-style interiors. Sumptuous Cordoba leather lines a cozy living room.
Photo: Gonzalo Machado

Pair furnishings from different periods

Although the same Paris residence’s main living space features a harmonious mix of gray hues, the furnishings all hail from different eras. An armchair from the 1700s sits next to another from the 19th century, while opposite them is a 1940s-inspired méridienne.
Photo: Jérôme Galland

Invest in one-of-a-kind pieces

“Chahan Minassian is very attached to the concepts of commissions, bespoke work, and haute couture. Which is one of the reasons he lives and works in Paris,” writes Axell Corty. In the decorator’s own apartment, Peter Lane ceramics grace the fireplace, while a Richard Serra painting and a resin artwork by Aaron Young hang on the walls.
Photo: Gonzalo Machado

Strike a balance

“[Isabelle] Stanislas’s style is unmistakable: precision, a focus on the preparatory drawings, pure lines, simplicity tempered by a desire for warmth, and a rendering that she sees as arising from a ‘perfect balance of masculine and feminine,'” writes Françoise-Claire Prodhon. For this living room at the AD Intérieurs exhibition in 2015, the designer balanced soft velvet sofas and glitzy mirrored surfaces with raw concrete walls.

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The time I spent with Ian Towning https://justsofrench.com/time-spent-ian-towning/ https://justsofrench.com/time-spent-ian-towning/#respond Fri, 10 Mar 2017 04:58:40 +0000 https://justsofrench.wpengine.com/?p=4408 THE REAL DEAL: IAN TOWNING AND MEREDITH LEE It was a meeting of great minds when antiques expert and United Kingdom celebrity Ian Towning and local antiques doyenne Meredith Lee sat down to chat to me one sunny Friday morning in February. The occasion was a break in Ian’s recent busy trip Down Under, and

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THE REAL DEAL: IAN TOWNING AND MEREDITH LEE

It was a meeting of great minds when antiques expert and United Kingdom celebrity Ian Towning and local antiques doyenne Meredith Lee sat down to chat to me one sunny Friday morning in February.

The occasion was a break in Ian’s recent busy trip Down Under, and the venue Meredith’s amazing house and showroom at 21 Ariki Street, Grey Lynn Auckland.

For those not familiar with his incredible career, Ian Towning is one of London’s foremost antiques dealers and appears regularly on television as an authority on antiques. He opened an antiques unit in the Chelsea Antiques Market on King’s Road way back in 1976, and has had an inspiring presence in the area since. After the closure of the famous market in 1997, Ian and his partner opened the Bourbon-Hanby Arcade on the corner of Sydney Street and the King’s Road, Chelsea. Bourbon-Hanby Arcade is now well established and much feted, and Ian is known as ‘The Jewel in the Crown’ of Chelsea. Bourbon-Hanby is the only remaining antiques emporium in central Chelsea and Ian’s dedication and excellent eye make his arcade a key destination for lovers of antiques. Ian appears regularly as an antiques expert on the ‘Dickinson’s Real Deal’ series on ITV 1, and on Channel 4’s hit series, ‘Posh Pawn’. In demand for his unique combination of expertise and sheer fun, he has also appeared on television as a guest of both Alan Carr and Alan Titchmarsh. He has personality plus, to put it mildly!

Under the moniker of European Antiques, Meredith has spent the past 13 years sourcing and selling European antiques and decorative items sourced from France, Belgium, Sweden, Italy and the United Kingdom, and her showroom has to be seen to be believed. The World stores also offer a selection of her personally sourced mid-century and antique stock, and she supplies both the interior design industry as well as the general public.

The purpose of Ian’s three week-long trip Down Under was threefold: he has established a long distance friendship with PN editor Martin Leach, wanted to say thank you to his fans and customers in New Zealand, and also to visit his partner Les’s elderly uncle in Palmerston North. “I really wanted to say thank you to the people in New Zealand who watch the shows I am on and then visit my shop in London, it is such a wonderful gesture,” says Ian. “They always buy something – and it needn’t be the most expensive of items – and we make such a personal connection.”

Another connection to the Antipodes is Ian’s early career as an entertainer in Australia. He was raised and educated at La Martinier College in Lucknow, India, leaving at the age of 16 to pursue what he has called his “stage activities” in Australia. These included a time as a key member of the famous drag queen line up at infamous King’s Cross haunt, Les Girls. He visited Auckland first when he was 18 years old, laughing before admitting, “It has definitely changed a lot since then, for the better!”

Ian has been tripping about New Zealand and Meredith makes regular runs to Europe, so I ask if they can ever ‘turn off’ their dealer’s noses and actually walk past a store or a market without poking their heads in? “Oh god, it’s impossible!” says Ian, with Meredith chiming in with “oh god, never!” She adds, “you never turn off as you just can’t, it’s a profession that you stay in because you love everything about it. Its an obsession”. Do they buy? “Oh god yes!” laughs Ian, with Meredith telling me that one of her favourite finds over the years was the full shop interior of an old apothecary in Dusseldorf, Germany. The shop interior was complete with signage, counters, shelving, jars, the lot! She had been asked to source a unique idea for a client opening a new cafe and thought this would be perfect! It was shipped to New Zealand and is now aptly named The Apothecary Cafe, located in Howick.

Ian’s personal weakness is a beautiful Buddha, of which he has a large collection. His prize treasure is a bronze Buddha which dates back to the 1500s, and he also has a collection of three-legged frogs in everything from coral to turquoise.

The pair swap anecdotes about picky clients and the rules of window dressing like old friends, and Ian shares his secret to keeping things interesting: serving Champagne every day in the store from 12 noon. His personal tipple of choice is Harrods’ Own Label Champagne, which his clients have quickly grown to love, too.

When dealing with clients both agree that building a relationship with new customers involves enlightening them when it comes to the true value of what they are selling – or buying – and that honesty is paramount at all times. They are also both experts when it comes to incorporating antiques into the modern home, as people don’t want to feel as if they are living in a mausoleum. “Our customers put so much trust in us and become not just clients, but friends,” says Ian. “I feel lucky to have met them and also lucky to have flown around the world to meet the most amazing people, too.”

Written by (HELENE RAVLICH) Ponsonby News www.ponsonbynews.co.nz

Photography: Martin Leach from Ponsonby News

www.bourbonhanby.com  www.europeanantiques.co.nz

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At home with Master Plaster Caster | Peter Hone https://justsofrench.com/home-master-plaster-caster-peter-hone/ https://justsofrench.com/home-master-plaster-caster-peter-hone/#respond Thu, 09 Mar 2017 04:34:08 +0000 https://justsofrench.wpengine.com/?p=4393 This is a fabulous post spotted on www.thisisglamorous.com.  And no, its not ‘justsofrench’ but so gloriously British! How we only came across the one-bedroom Notting Hill flat of antiques dealer and self-proclaimed Master Plaster Caster PETER HONE now, is quite a mystery, and a rather scandalous one at that! Browsing through our Instagram feed this

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This is a fabulous post spotted on www.thisisglamorous.com.  And no, its not ‘justsofrench’ but so gloriously British!

How we only came across the one-bedroom Notting Hill flat of antiques dealer and self-proclaimed Master Plaster Caster PETER HONE now, is quite a mystery, and a rather scandalous one at that!

Browsing through our Instagram feed this weekend, we came across an image of the most magical place with a large round table and striped tablecloth, surrounded by plaster casts, and immediately needed to find out more about the space. The apartment sits inside a Georgian townhouse in Ladbroke Square in West London and is a virtual TREASURE trove of neoclassical marble busts, statues, urns sculptures and architectural fragments, Roman and Greek statuettes and 19th-century Coade stone sculptures.

In early May of 2014, then shopkeepers Pentreath & Hall wrote about their experience visiting his flat for the first time, and the feeling of being overwhelmed with the thought that such a place as beautiful as this even exists, let along in a one-bedroom flat in London. The pair were there to ask if they might sell Hone’s architectural plaster casts in their shop, and to their delight, he was on board at once.

Peter Hone became an antiques collector by accident, walking down Camden Passage (a street in Islington, north London known for it’s antique dealers), when we saw a sign in a shop window that said, ‘To Let 65 pound-per-week’, and decided that setting up shop would be fun. He was only 19 at the time and working as a pastry chef. “I had lots of famous customers – the Rolling Stones, The Beatles, aristocrats and Dame Barbara Cartland, who would pull up in her pink Rolls-Royce.” (The Telegraph).

Although Hone has been collecting for nearly five decades, he always told himself that he’d get rid of everything when he turned 75, and on 26 October of last year, to mark his turning 75, Hone sold his collection at Christie’s South Kensington.

Scroll through for what could only have been the most enchanting and utterly charming home in Notting Hill…

All images via Light Locations, Pentreath & Hall and Christie’s

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Put La Rotonde on your must visit list https://justsofrench.com/put-le-coucou-must-visit-list/ https://justsofrench.com/put-le-coucou-must-visit-list/#respond Wed, 08 Feb 2017 21:13:22 +0000 https://justsofrench.wpengine.com/?p=4377 Le Coucou is a French restaurant in New York designed by Roman and Williams that is très popular. Now the chic design duo have renovated an actual French restaurant in Paris called La Rotonde de la Muette. Located in the 16th arrondissement, La Rotonde has been around for years but has new elegant interiors and

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Le Coucou is a French restaurant in New York designed by Roman and Williams that is très popular. Now the chic design duo have renovated an actual French restaurant in Paris called La Rotonde de la Muette. Located in the 16th arrondissement, La Rotonde has been around for years but has new elegant interiors and terrasse perfect for people watching. Definitely put it on your must visit list.

Source: http://habituallychic.luxury/2016/06/le-coucou/

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