19.10.08
Dear Eloise! "Oh my Lord I am absolutely so busy I don't know how I can possibly get everything done"
Like Eloise, I am scampering around this weekend preparing a table design for the luscious "Holidays on a High Note" event in Atherton at the venerable Circus Club. So, please be patient and wait for further postings...some of which are sure to include, happily, the finished table: "A Birthday at the Little House."
There will be egg cups.
And, as you know,
Leaving you with
a lovely pic of Clara Bow,
who looks...well,
not that busy.
But awfully stylish.
16.10.08
Tales of the Twentieth Century: Mr. Dole, Mr. Vickers, and Mr. Everen Save the Subways From Gloom
Herbert Dole, Squire Joseph Vickers, and Jay Van Everen,
"all classmates at Cornell University's College of Architecture,
designed most of the plaques and tile work on the N/R line,
and in subway stations above Grand Central Terminal
on the East Side and below
Times Square on the West Side."
From
When I snapped the above photo this summer
(I'd fallen in love
with the mosiacs in the subways, particularly one
that was the most charming little house...we seem to run past it
at the speed of light, surely late to something),
little did I know that
I'd be meeting--a few months later--an
absolutely marvelous woman who knows first-hand of
the magnificent architect behind the art...
life is full of wonderful little miracles, isn't it?
15.10.08
12.10.08
11.10.08
7.10.08
And A Good Time Was Had By All!
Dozens of Red Roses From Jack, Her True Love
The Fountain We Found In Nola
Barb's Day At The Beach
BBC
09.22.08
Happy Birthday, My Dear Friend!
Best Wishes for The Wonderful Year Ahead
6.10.08
Something Different is in the Air
Looking for Something Different?
Got it.
This is a bit of fun, out-takes from a shoot that was actually for a house that was under construction (I selected many of the finishing materials and colors for the interiors and exterior).
Margot, Megan and I took a few moments off to do a riff on "Brooke Astor Meets Eloise by Way of The Little House," or something like that (Brooke Astor had just passed away, and I was reading Patchwork Child, one of her autobiographies, and was enchanted by it).
I'd hoped to create a little advertising campaign for my design business around one the other shots--a close up, with the binoculars.
It was to say:
"Looking for Something Different?
Victoria Thorne Design."
Photo Design|Style: Victoria Thorne
Photographer: Margot Hartford
I Can Fly
mary blair, genius
victoria thorne, staging & design
margot hartford, photographer
megan logsdon, model
house on laurie avenue, pink bath
house on laurie avenue, pink bath
[thumbnail for "my magic mim"]
4.10.08
Audrey Hepburn Redux
The little Audrey Hepburn table has been a big hit...
so I've ordered up one more dish o'raspberries
with a sweet smile on the side. Cheers!
design | style victoria thorne
"Garden office rooms are all the rage," says Emilia D’Erlanger
Great article on working from home, via Shedworking.
(If I read Shedworking enough,
will a lovely little shed appear in my backyard?
With a comb and a brush and a bowl full of mush?
And an old lady--would that be me, now?--whispering hush?
Once upon a time,
I certainly read "Goodnight Moon" enough...
when the T.K. were all so very little.
And it seems it has appeared, somewhat...
now, where is that rocking chair?)
I digress.
Anyhow, lovely quote from the article:
"Garden office rooms are all the rage," says Emilia D’Erlanger,
interior designer. "The smartest of addresses now all
want a media room and a garden office
as a sanctuary away from distractions."
Roald Dahl and Dylan Thomas worked at home;
one would be in good company.
Working at home. The new old frontier?
Now, if my smart garden shed
would manifest in my backyard. Bitte.
(above, a sweet little brickhouse @the Presidio)
3.10.08
2.10.08
Be Light of Heart
A Summer Rhyme, In Time for Fall
I asked my mother for fifty cents
To see the elephant jump the fence;
He jumped so high he reached the sky
And didn't come back till the Fourth of July.
illustrated by Maurice Sendak
21.9.08
Why Coworking is Good, or: I never could get through Ulysses.
"Ulysses" (and "Moby Dick," since we are being honest here) was the book I simply couldn't conquer as an English major. Therefore, it was a delight to find this sentence in an article which was noted in Shedworking today:
"Working from home is like living James Joyce’s Ulysses — a tiresome stream of consciousness interrupted only by procrastination."
"5 rules for Working at Home," looks wonderful--like everything else Shedworking recommends. Having worked from home for the last 18 years (well...26, if you count being a mother as working...which I suppose we all need to do), it made me laugh out loud to see the task compared to reading Ulysses. Kay Spicer is brilliant.
It's one of the reasons that I'm really looking forward to the development of the co-working movement, which will be a boon to many, including any parent who must work from home. Brad Neuberg spearheaded this, and he is marvelous; I was fortunate enough to meet him this spring at a co-working seminar at M. F. Chapman's brilliant Cubes and Crayons in Menlo Park
I would've loved co-working 25 years ago, when my husband was driving submarines around arctic waters and I was at home with, in a quick four years, three babies. All good. Now, to get back to Ulysses...
Above, a fairly typical item one might
find
in my work area:
Handwoven Japanese Snow Shoes.
I am wondering if I should start photographing and cataloging the odd items, thanks to my photo-styling days and quirky antiquephile tendencies, that dot my workspace...and then, perhaps, crate them all up...
20.9.08
18.9.08
Let's Give a Hand to Hollister Hovey
The truly wonderful Hollister Hovey is in the New York Times Home & Garden section today...a perfectly marvelous treat...her blog is delectable...her taste, impeccable...
for a look at her picks, just click here.
Congratulations Hollister!
15.9.08
12.9.08
Baby Bauhaus: Revolutionary Rockers
Never fails to intrigue me, this cradle
from the Bauhaus Museum in Weimar.
It was a marvel to wander through the museum and see how brilliantly these men and women thought, how beautifully they brought new concepts of form and function to the modern world.
Hard to believe it has been nearly a century since Bauhaus was founded by Walter Gropius.
Hard to believe this cradle first rocked almost a hundred years ago. What design, now, is as revolutionary as this was, then? What shows us the future, now...are we paying attention?
Design like this shakes me from the complacency of "pretty things:" things that have been seen a million times, and always fall a bit short of beautiful. And far short of revolutionary.
Next Step
Yummy new blog called stair porn, by the brilliant minds behind materialicious. To salute their new step, I'm posting a photo I took last summer at the Friedrich Schiller University of Jena. There's another photo of these steps on one of my earliest posts, "Vedana--Eric Case's Weblog: Steve Jobs Inspiration Roundup." I mention this because, for me, today has been a day of connecting dots...remarkable dots. Mr. Jobs covers this sort of thing beautifully when talking to the graduates at Stanford. I think there is so much between the lines in what he says, also: so much that can be heard, but was not said.
Funny thing about the Jobs "talk:" it's one for the history books, now. His words have been so often quoted, and ring so true, that it's more than just a commencement address. Worth watching; worth another watch, if you haven't seen it for awhile. Click here.
10.9.08
Drop Me a Line.
Although an incredible number of invitations and notes are sent on the internet, it's still the siren call of stationery--real paper, real envelopes, real stamps, real ink in a real pen--that gets to a lot of us. Maybe it's the retro joy of opening the mailbox and finding real correspondence.
Maybe it's the pure art of it, when it is well done: the thrill that comes when one receives their own little bit of thoughtful beauty in an envelope.
Here are two marvelous stationery moments:
the first, Cotton Idea Studio, has yummy stuff.
Chic, elegant: disciplined, yet soft. Nice. The other, also
from the beautifully curated black*eiffel,
is a delicious selection of designer's wedding invitations.
Full disclosure: I spent several years creating illustrations for invitations, having had a delightful little stationery business...with a lovely business partner. We had great fun, and I will promise you that, as with all else in life, a truly great invitation is achieved through much hard work. I tip my hat, therefore, to every marvelous stationer...it is an art, and beautiful to behold when done well.
Above, elegant penmanship from Friedrich von Schiller's house in Weimar.
8.9.08
Design for a Willow Glen Cottage
When a place has good bones, be it a cottage or a palace or a treehouse in the woods, one simply doesn't want to disrupt this fine circumstance.
Staying true to what already works...what is already beautiful...is important to the harmony of the house and those who inhabit it.
A lovely little cottage wants to grow with reason and care. A palace wants an Inigo Jones to create that perfect addition. And a treehouse, done well, feeds the souls of those who must climb the ladder to get there.
Therefore, I believe, one must try to build without rattling the bones.
Long ago, at this cottage, the sweet 20's garage might have housed an early version of Henry Ford's masterwork. Perhaps there was a cart, also, or a wagon, or some such thing--something to bring home baskets of cherries and bushels of plums from the surrounding orchards.
All things considered, the little building cried out for a good solid set of doors that looked like they'd been crafted to keep the cavalry mounts in for the eve. Somehow, in it's soul, the now-vintage space seemed far grander than a garage/fruit drying shed.
It might have held cherries, but I couldn't help thinking that the first inhabitant of the sturdy structure might've been a horse, rather than a horseless carriage. Anyway, it--the structure, not the long-ago-imagined horse--wanted us to make these doors. Bespoke, as it were.
Either way, I find myself hoping the Buffalo Soldiers would have approved wholeheartedly.
Above, the as-yet unpainted doors await final touches.
design: victoria thorne
Hearth for Home
The truly important part of home design is the collaborative effort behind it.
When the project is finished, the goal is to have created something that is useful and beautiful: the design needs to fit, like a glove, those who live there.
If you can create a space in which your clients can live well and happily...a space that holds, with care, the essence of their lives...then you've done your job.
To get a call from someone gifted with a great eye, an open spirit, and the desire to roll up their sleeves and work toward this vision with you...that is, clearly, the best of all possible worlds. This project is that.
When we started the work, I had just returned from France and had seen, in the Louvre, the original foundation of the Great Tower. The rough beauty of the 12th century stones was astonishing. There was a sort of quiet enchantment to the whole business...something that made you just want to be there, a solid peace.
To build a fireplace--the virtual heart of the project--and incorporate a bit of the feeling from this remarkable fortress seemed ideal.
The result sits firmly centered in the back of the yard now, holding down it's own little fort. It is solid and well-used, and has a bit of a sense of humor in it's stout and stalwart appearance. (When riffing--in California and elsewhere--on an ancient french chateau, a grain of Cleeseian Salt seems advisable.) The fireplace became the inspiration for much of the building and masonry that followed. Grand in it's own happy way, it brings a quiet bit of peace to the family on many a weekend, and work night.
A Little Cottage Project
This week: will be showing a few details from the cottage I've been working on...first, a little taste of the barbeque doors. The feeling I was going for was a bit of Brian Keith's groovy cali-ranch in the 1961 "Parent Trap" (one of my favorite movies, as a kid...still is...doesn't it just make you want to run away to camp?)...with a little touch of Connecticut Yankee thrown in. The doors are set in the outdoor grill-o-rama, which is actually pretty subtle (read: not on steroids, thank goodness)...so these were sort of a fillip, adding a dash of elan with a sense of humor.
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