The House

I just returned from attending a fabulous lecture by published author, and fellow blogger, Emily Evans Eerdmans at the equally fabulous Evergreen House in Baltimore.

Emily took the audience on a historic trip from the time of Napoléon and his consort, Joséphine, along through the 1800s and right up until Madeleine Castaing’s death in the early 1990’s. A fascinating journey in beautiful rooms and stunning interiors, all with a thread connecting them through time.Emily is just a delight… smart, funny and very well-versed. And she’s gorgeous, too!  One of the most interesting things that Emily said in her lecture is that Madeleine Castaing is the Coco Chanel of interior decorators. Her innovations, though sometimes subtle, are all around us in so many ways. And Lisa? Lisa is my friend Lisa Simeone, former host of NPR’s Weekend All Things Considered and all ‘round gal about town. She and I attend a lot of these great lectures together!  Here we three are in the Leon Bakst Theatre at Evergreen. You can just see the stenciled roosters in the upper left of the image.

The brilliant Emily Evans Eerdmans will be the premiere lecturer at this year’s House Beautiful Lecture Series at Evergreen House in Baltimore on Wednesday.

Here’s what Evergreen has to say about Emily…

Napoléon's consort, Joséphine, was renowned for her flawless taste and the creation of the severely chic Empire style owes much to her influence. Nowhere did her personal style more crystallize than at her country house Malmaison. Join design and decorative arts historian Emily Evans Eerdmans as she discusses Malmaison’s interior decoration and its revival in the mid 20th century by such legendary designers as Madeleine Castaing, George Geffroy, Henri Samuel, and Emilio Terry.

I can’t wait, and hope to see you there! Tickets are here.

It is interesting making this slipcover for several reasons: First, my sofa is huge, more than 70 inches long, so the amount of fabric I am hefting around is massive. Second, who knew that there were so many bends and curves in such a seemingly straight-lined sofa? Third, I love figuring out how to do this without a pattern and am delighted when it works.

Connor’s already making himself at home on the new cushion covers. The interesting thing about this sofa, is that the covers on the cushions were removable, but the three pillow covers were not. So when I removed the three covers, luckily, I found that the pillows were encased in a light muslin cover. Unfortunately, when I tried to remove a little of the original fabric from the sofa, all I found was padding. No muslin.Even more unfortunately, you could see the pattern of the sofa through the fabric I am using. I had to go buy a bunch of muslin to line the sofa. Since my sewing skills aren’t too good, I decided to bond the muslin to the sofa with a heat n’bond type material. It worked really well, although it took hours. I did the back and front and the arms. In the image above, the slipcover fabric is just draped over the back.

The stupidest thing is that I know I could go out and buy a new sofa with a new cover, but I am already in for a penny on this one! It’s a good exercise in learning a new skill.

I always look forward to the last Saturday of the month when the WSJ. Magazine appears for just two short days. If you don’t pick it up on Saturday or Sunday, then it disappears into the mists of time.

Rita Konig has penned an excellent piece on English decorator and blogger, Nicky Haslam.  The story is about Nicky’s country house, once the home of John Fowler, late of Colefax & Fowler, and leased from the National Trust. There are some marvelous images of the house in the magazine, and a totally different set of images in a slide show on the WSJ. Magazine’s website, here. The entire article is here.

Time’s ticking. You’d better get your print edition ASAP!

I was opening a package from Scotland today with my friend David, and one of the items had us both baffled. They are some sort of Victorian-era kitchen implement, but we’ve no idea what. When I mentioned that they looked vaguely gynecological, David turned a rather unbecoming shade of green.

They’re scissor-like, with one end having a closed loop and the other having a fork-sort of end. They’re about seven inches long. The pivot point is marked, but I think it just says the manufacturer’s name. I can’t even begin to describe this to look on the internet to see what they are. Any ideas?

As I mentioned the other day, I love my Barbour Stockman’s coat, and it’s not the only one I have. I managed to accumulate a few of them when I lived in the UK, where they are pretty much standard issue. Given the weather, it’s quite understandable.I got an e-mail from Liberty and they were touting their slightly more feminine versions of the traditional Barbour jackets. Instead of the usual assortment of plaids as the interior fabric, the Liberty versions have some of their traditional prints. 

Here’s what I’d do with my old Stockman’s coat… add a contemporary Liberty paisley as the lining. If it’s going to rain, you may as well have fun with your rain gear!!

Yep, it’s that time again. I am de-accessioning. I love that word… dee-ak-sesh-uhn - to sell from a collection, especially with a view to acquiring funds for the purchase of other works. Hmmm. Sounds exactly like what I am doing.Even though I’ve only lived in my house for a few short years, it’s filled with things I’ve collected, but no longer want or need. So, over the next four or five weeks, I am going to be adding a lot of things to my Etsy shop. There will be great bargains on books, china, silver, french ivory cutlery, fabrics, pillows and a lot more! Let me know if there’s anything you’ve seen in my posts that you’re interested in. Let’s make a deal!