A 'can't miss' art show is coming.

Anyone who wanted to delve into the art world of Paris in the 1920’s would have visited Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas’ apartment on 27 Rue de Fleurus in Paris. Man Ray’s 1922 black and white photo of them comfortably seated in front of the fireplace gives you a glimpse into that world.  The photo is wonderful but does not do the scene justice.  Can you imagine the riot of colors all around them? Paintings were hung to the rafters with works by now famous names such as Henri Matisse, Juan Gris, Pablo Picasso, Paul Cezanne, Pierre-August Renoir and others.

First the artists came and then the writers followed with more jaw dropping names such as Ernest Hemingway, Ezra Pound, Thornton Wilder and Sherwood Anderson. Gertrude became known for two things – her collection of modern art and her collection of friends, both collected before the art or the friend was famous.  To say she had an eye for talent is perhaps a bit of an understatement.  It was one of those golden moments in time for the cultural world, as the birth of Modernism unfolded around the Stein’s.

It really began when Gertrude joined her brother Leo in Paris is 1904.  Leo was on his way to amassing a modest art collection and Gertrude caught the collector’s bug.  They were unlikely patrons who weren’t rich, living off of a modest income from a family trust.  The art dealer, Ambroise Vollard, once said that the Steins bought paintings “not because they were rich, but despite the fact that they weren’t.” Gertrude would lecture the stylish wives of her artistic visitors to save on clothing by dressing practically and use the money to buy art. Gertrude looked and dressed like a sack of potatoes but we are still fascinated by her today.

The Steins were extraordinary in that they trusted their instinct even when the critics of the time were loudly opposed to the new art form, and they befriended and encouraged young talent by being patrons of the art world even without financial means.

The Steins Collect started at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, is now at the Grand Palais in Paris until January, and then will travel to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in NYC from February 12 until March 12^th.  You don’t want to miss this show.

Selecting Tile. Read on. You may need this someday.

It seems to me that there is a renewed interest in remodeling kitchens and baths and that makes a lot of sense in this type of an economy.  Most folks figure they have to stay put so why not spruce things up a bit.  An important element in a kitchen and bath design is the selection of tile and one that should be chosen carefully.

I asked Maureen Savage at Village Tile to explain what types of tiles are in the marketplace right now.  She said that in Vermont, natural stones such as granite, marble, slate and travertine are commonly used because of their earthy quality. Another popular choice is glass tiles in a wide range of color, often made of recycled glass. In the manufactured tile category there is porcelain and ceramic tiles.  Ceramic tile is made of clay mixed with various minerals and water, then processed with heat and some are sealed with a glaze.  The glazed ceramics are best used as wall tiles because they would be too slippery for floor applications. Porcelain tile is made of finely ground sand, then processed under pressure and extremely high temperatures resulting in a very dense, glass-like material. Some are ‘through body porcelains’ with the color showing all the way through.  Chips won’t be as obvious and installers can cut the tile to use as bullnose edgeing.

There are so many choices that selecting tiles and creating a design can be a bit daunting.  I find it helpful to bring with me an inspiration piece such as wallpaper, fabric or a photo torn from a shelter magazine.  This is helpful in determining the style and feel of the room.  One trick is to select a tile collection, then use different sizes of it within a room. For example, a larger tile on the floor of a bathroom, a small mosaic for the shower floor, and a medium sized tile as the walls of the shower.  For an upscale look on a budget, use an expensive mosaic tile judiciously as the shower floor and as an accent border in the shower.

Grout has improved greatly with a new epoxy variety that resists mildew and staining.  Previously a sanded grout was used, which is a cement-based grout. Cement absorbs water leading to mildew.  Choosing a grout color needs to be considered as part of the overall design scheme.  You can match the grout color to the predominant tile color or you can contrast the grout with the tiles to create a checkerboard effect. 

A proper installation is the most important aspect to tiling.  A professional tile installer will take time to consider the layout to figure out how all the geometric pieces will fit together.

Maybe this long winter is a good time to do your research, visit tile stores and dream a bit about a beautiful new kitchen or bath.  

What is the spark that begins a career?

My passion for design began in Brooklyn, of all places, while traipsing after my mother’s decorator, a woman named Vinnie, who decorated for Roma Furniture.

It was the 70’s and we were descendants of recent Italian immigrants so you can imagine what the finished look was – velvets in red wine colors, cupids on lamps, and gold everywhere. I distinctly remember the custom made plastic slipcovers that encased the velvet sofas in my, and all of my friends’ living rooms.  The plastic dried out and cracked rather quickly, pinching our legs as we sat down. Someone must have made a fortune on this upholstery oddity and thankfully it was a trend that passed.

One thing that gave me bragging rights with my friends was the wallpaper selected for the kitchen – the very same mustard and avocado green wallpaper that The Partridge Family had in their TV kitchen.  I now know that the 70’s was not the best decade for design but at the time it seemed that a door was open a crack into a very special world.

The other thing that really solidified it for me was my exposure to what lay just over the bridge in ‘The City’.  My schoolteacher mother, who was well traveled for her day, took the four of us kids on outings to every museum and historic house we could reach by public transportation.  She would extol the notion that it was a big, beautiful world out there and to be cultured was a very important task of growing up.  Teddy Roosevelt’s boy hood home particularly stuck in my mind, most likely because of all the dead animals strewn around the brownstone on East 20^th Street off Park Avenue. To this day, I am still a bit iffy on the use of dead animals as decoration.

I have continued the tradition with my own family, dragging my two daughters and husband to every historic house we could reach by a car ride away from our home in Dorset.  The Berkshires holds a wellspring of historic houses. Most memorable is Edith Wharton’s house, ‘The Mount’, in Lenox, MA, which brought her philosophy of design to life as written in the book she co-authored with architect Ogden Codman, Jr. called The Decoration of Houses. Her mansion positively sparkles in the sunlight due to the marble dust she insisted be put in the white exterior paint.  She didn’t just concentrate on the house design but also created elaborate exterior rooms in her gardens, which are accessed by cleverly designed sod covered steps. This home must have been her laboratory to explore her innovative ideas.

If someone asked me how to be a good decorator, my advice would be to live fully, travel often, ask questions and never stop learning. 

A Not So Hidden Gem

At the junction of 7A and Center Hill, across from Gringo Jack’s and Adams’ Park lives a charming cottage with a Victorian porch, picket fence and pretty lace curtains in the windows.  I have always wondered about this house because of its storybook demeanor.  The other day, seeing the Antique flag flying by the front door, and with some free time on my hands, I decided to stop in and take a look around.

I was greeted warmly by Phyllis Carlson, who, along with her husband, runs this shop filled with the finest collection of antique linens I have ever seen, outside of the Shelburne Museum.  Crisp white napkins pile up on tables.  Painstakingly handmade lace tablecloths hang on a round rack.  Quilts and bedding fill armoires.  It feels a bit like stepping through time and Phyllis adds to the illusion with her pretty white hair done up in a bun and her violet blue eyes, giving her a Victorian allure.

Phyllis explained that the linens in her shop date from 1775-1930 and consist of three distinct categories --  Plain Linens, Fancy Linens and Needlework.  The Plain Linens were used daily, such as homespun sheets, tablecloths and towels, and were made out of flax.  These basic necessities tended to be unadorned but were sometimes initialed by the maker. Each homemaker grew her own flax and wove her own goods. She showed me one example of a sheet that was beautifully pieces together because the loom was only so wide.  The delicate stitches add to the overall design.  Such care and expertise!

Fancy Linens were made by the upper class.  Girls around 1778-1840 were sent off to boarding schools or academies to learn the 3 graces – needlework, art in the form of watercolor, and music.  Needlework consisted of samplers, silk work, fancy embroideries and wool work. Phyllis has fine examples of these hanging in her shop.

Women of that day, whether poor or rich, elevated needlework to a fine art. Phyllis showed me a rare pair of beautifully embroidered long pockets on a string. Women would ties these pockets around their waists and wear them under their long skirts to store their treasured needles and thread, accessed by slits in the side of skirts. Their tools were always close at hand and traveled easily to a neighbor’s house. 

I have been stumped by how to care for fine linens and knowing that I had an expert in my clutches, I posed that question to Phyllis.  Here are her recommendations. Linens with any kind of handwork or embroidery must be washed by hand, pressing the water out rather than wringing.  The most important thing to remember is never use Chlorine bleach as it continually breaks down the fibers of the fabric. She has tried all sorts of laundry detergent and recommends you use the one that you prefer.  You can soak stained linens in Oxi-Clean overnight but you may have to accept some stains as part of the charm. Hang them on the line, and iron when still slightly damp.  Store linens on hangers, in acid free paper on a shelf or an acid free box.  She even suggested that a clean pillowcase makes a nice environment for old fabrics.

I hope you get a chance to visit her shop and learn, like I did, to appreciate a different era in America, not so long ago.  And as Phyllis says: “Anything of this quality is worth a bit of effort!”

Helping the home we call Vermont.

Water flooding a field and spilling over the road on River Road in Manchester, VT.

We took an unexpected body blow when Hurricane Irene made her unwanted visit.  That fateful Sunday will be seared in our memories.  We watched in horror as streams, rivers and lakes all over Vermont overflowed their usually placid courses to wreak havoc in neighborhoods, on farms and roads throughout our community.  For a state that has a long-standing respect for nature, this has given us an even deeper respect for the power and fury of water.

That day two of my neighbors’ houses were overrun by the Mettowee River, which runs between their two properties. Told to evacuate quickly and take what they could, neighbors helped wade through waist high water to carry out a few of the more precious belongings – photo albums, paintings, important papers. My husband kept a careful eye on the storm drain near our driveway that was under a foot of water but still, thankfully, draining away.  As a precaution, I started to pile up a few items on the dining room table that I would grab just in case the lake forming outside our window got any larger and headed towards our home.  What would you take if you only had a few minutes time?  My pile consisted of computers, some jewelry, passports, a bag of clothes.  Items that were either practical or irreplaceable made the cut.  In the end, we did not have to evacuate but I will reflect on those frantic moments for a while to come.

Some Vermonters were not lucky enough to even have a few minutes preparation before their homes washed down a river.  My heart breaks for them.  We who fared better are now called on to help where we can.

I am impressed with the way Vermonters are getting to work on the hard task of rebuilding our state.  I come from an Italian tradition of operatic histrionics when faced with adversity but that is not the way here.  No less felt, but in a quiet, steely determined way, the work ahead will be hard and together we will rebuild the place we call home. 

Now, let’s get to work.

Summer …. It’s all about the exteriors.

I have become obsessed with gardening. I don’t know how it happened and it seemed to have come upon me suddenly. It all started last year when I decided to put in an English cottage garden at my Design Studio in Dorset. I clipped magazine spreads of beautiful, lush, yet slightly askew country gardens and brought them with me to the Mettowee Mill Nursery. Cornering Tina, the nursery’s Manager, in one of the greenhouses, I asked her how I could achieve this look, even though I was starting with a neglected plot and a beginner’s level of gardening. Tina said she would meet me over at the Design Studio to take a look.

Perhaps calling me a beginner gardener is a bit kind. You see, I am notorious killer of houseplants and have been doing so for many years. In fact, the wide windowsill in my kitchen is known as the “shelf of death” because nothing has survived on it yet. I explained this to Tina but she seemed unruffled.

We conferred on the types of plants and she drew out a floor plan of the overall scheme. It all seemed simple enough and not that different from interior design, with a well thought out planning stage followed by an execution. I was to prepare the beds by weeding thoroughly, composting freely and edging the beds away from the grass. A few days and one bad back later I was done and ready to plant. Tina brought over the plants in a big truck, unloading them onto the grass. While still in pots, she placed them in their soon to be new homes and told me to start digging. As she pulled away, it was starting to rain, and she yelled back to get them in sooner rather than later. Well sooner was in a torrential downpour but I kept going until I was covered in mud from head to toe, but the task was completed. I was quite proud of myself and wished them good luck under my breath hoping they would fair better than my windowsill plants.

They say it takes three years for perennials to really shine and I am on year two. It is a daily pleasure to visit my garden each day and see what has bloomed when I wasn’t looking. I asked Tina back this year because I am converting a barn into a shop and she advised that we should create outdoor rooms with structure, urns filled with flowers and paths of marble stone. Outdoor rooms, Grecian urns, marble? Sign me up. I better start digging again.

Something in your home is naked. I hope it isn’t your windows.

There are times when I bring up the subject of window treatments to my clients that I see a panicked, deer in the headlights kind of look in their eyes. More often than not I hear, “My spouse likes to keep the windows clear so they can look out at the view.” Fair enough as we Vermonters are lucky enough to usually have the kind of views most people in other less scenic states would envy. Nature is the best decorator, after all. But why not frame that scene with a beautifully designed, well thought out, functional window treatment that calls attention to that hard earned view. And for all you naked window homeowners out there, take notice that when the sun goes down your cold, undressed window turns into a black hole. Yes, a black hole. It happens every night.

Window treatments like most things in the marketplace have come a long way. They are no longer the little old lady lace affair with polyester sheer under drapes and the style and price varies widely to fit any desire or budget. Think of draperies and shades as clothing for your window – you can dress them up in designer duds or ready to wear. For the do-it-yourselfer, the ready-made market is the way to go. If you want a more custom approach you must go to a pro as the details to work out and the choices are endless: with a wide array of decorative rods, a world of fabric choices and trims galore.

I like to think of windows as if they are people, with strong bones to highlight and weak features to downplay, and dress them accordingly. There are many visual tricks you can employ to fool the eye. For example, if you hang the draperies inches higher than the top of the window frame and place the brackets as far to the left and right as possible your windows will look much larger and grander. All of sudden your plain, uninteresting, ‘wouldn’t get a second glance’ window becomes the star of the room.

I have seen it time and again: wonderful furnishings, carpeting, art and accessories are set in place, but a room is never really finished until the draperies are hung with care. Like magic, the draperies pull the whole scene together, raise the eye up high and wrap everything in a warm embrace. Finally your windows are fully dressed and ready for company.