Friday, May 11, 2012

My Favorite Chinoiserie Living Room


Perhaps my favorite article from Domino Magazine was their March 2008 piece on the apartment of Mary Jane Pool. Pool was one of the best magazine editors of the 20th century. She worked for both Vogue and House & Garden, and served as editor in chief of House & Garden from 1970 to 1980. House & Garden, one of my favorite magazines of all time, was never better than under her exquisite eye for detail. Pool is now 87.

I love these photos of her apartment - wonderful use of color, Venetian antiques, sumptuous fabrics and wallpapers, and the keen mixing of antiques and modern pieces. Note the split photos showing earlier and later versions of the same space. The first four photos are of her living room, but I had to include the rest of her apartment as well it is so lovely.

She incorporates with such style all of my favorite things - hand painted Chinoiserie wallpaper, blue and white Chinese porcelain, lots of books and magazines, painted furniture, mixing modern and antiques, leopard, orange, blue, yellow, coral pink, wonderful mixing of patterns and colors, modern art, silks, oversized lampshades, needlepoint rugs, tufting, brass, and pillows. This is my style and taste - a home that looks as though it were decorated over decades with beautiful things well loved as opposed to looking like an interior designer swooped in and redid it in a day.

Don't miss the orange guest room/study with the leopard carpet. Boy was she ahead of her time.







5 comments:

  1. Those a very pretty, ladylike, readerly rooms. Clear a woman of intellectual curiosity. I would adore settling in for a nice cocktail and chat in the living room. Reggie

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  2. Somewhere I have H&G from 70's with her apt. featuring,that bedroom with the painted Venetian furniture was and is sheer heaven. Another example of the things in a room are what make something fab and individual.

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  3. Thsnk so much for posting these photos. One of my favorite articles from Domino. I so miss House & Garden. Love your posts!

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