Emerald Cut and Mushy Peas

Greens are still going strong, emerald and pea greens in particular.  I believe John Fowler used to say all greens go together. So glad as I am firmly holding on to my citrus green armchair, it will just need an emerald green cushion.

Z stool by Ashley Hicks

The Right of Spring collection by Jim Thompson

Lalique Languedoc Vase

Emerald Green Chinese Cabinet Inset With Antique Gilt Panels, China, Circa 1950, at Assemblage, see it on 1st Dibs

 

For good measure a few more palm trees, Island Palm fabric at Quadrille

Olive Green Jade Gloss tile at Limestone Gallery

Malachite Tile at Limestone Gallery

Interior Quotes

The essence of interior design will always be about people and how they live. It is about the realities of what makes for an attractive, civilized, meaningful environment, not about fashion or what's in or what's out. This is not an easy job. Albert Hadley

Details make perfection, and perfection is not a detail Leonardo DaVinci

Be faithful to your own taste because nothing you really like is ever out of style. Billy Baldwin 

Quality ... distinguishes style from fashion.  Giorgio Armani

Have nothing in your homes that you do not know to be useful and believe to be beautiful.William Morris

 

I owe my color sense to crayons.  Angelo Rafael Donghia, New York Times 

It is usually a mistake to impose an individual's taste on a room that has its own....style. Conversely, to put very fine pieces of furniture in a room that is without architectural distinction is as absurd as wearing a tiara with a bathing suit.  Nancy Lancaster

Nothing is in good taste unless it suits the way you live. What's practical is beautiful...and suitability always overrules fashion.  Billy Baldwin

So many young decorators are trying to reinvent the wheel, and the results are sometimes very dubious. They're striving to do things that have never been done before. Quite often it is done without authority, without knowledge, and without a background in taste. They need to be educated about the past, and they need a richer vocabulary.

Albert Hadley, The Story of America's Preeminent Interior Designer

The greatest mistake in the world is to believe that so-called good taste is any use without a sense of comfort to complete it. Sibyl Colefax

Scale is of prime importance and I think that oversized scale is better than undersized scale.  Nancy Lancaster, English Country House Style

Decor must have sentimental value. A house must tell a story.  Mark Hampton, Harper's Bazaar, June 1989 

It is just as disastrous to have the wrong accessories in your room as it is to wear sport shoes with an evening dress. Dorothy Draper

And finally, always keep some perspective:

Decorate your home.  It gives the illusion that your life is more interesting than it really is. Charles M. Schultz

Top 10 Interior Pet Hates

In no particular order, apart from no 1 which has has held its pride of place for some time now:

1. Shower curtains, useless, never attractive no matter what silly design they have, fungus magnets

2. Black and White schemes, never elegant, black and cream, black and stone at a push but never ever black and white and beware of too much black furniture.

3. Brilliant white walls, unless you want the mental asylum look, white should always be 'off' no matter how slighlty

4. Lever handles, especially modern ones:

The eye focuses on details such as light switches and door knobs and immediately bring down the quality of a build if chosen and positioned carelessly.  I once, years ago working as an assistant, forgot to specify a deeper lock so as not to graze the knuckles when turning the knob.  All the doors had to be refinished days away from handover.

5. Thoughtless electrical plans.  The electrical plan should be put together by the decorator together with the furniture layout, one cannot be determined by the other. You need twice as many plug sockets as you think you do, and 2 or 3 way lighting circuits, dimmer and lamp circuits make for a relaxed atmosphere and easier living.

6. Granite worktops.  They just look cheap and common and you never know how clean they are since they hide so much of the dirt, which I think someone somewhere thought was a clever idea back in the late 90's. There are countless beautiful stones of varying degrees of practicality which have far more character, including the new reconstituted quartz stones for convenience.

7. Primary colours, not even in a nursery!  Colours should always be a little mixed and unclear.

8. Outdated lampshade shapes, the quickest way to date even the most stylish interior.

9. Modern - as in recently produced - crystal chandeliers

10. Bad kitchen layouts put together by people who neither cook nor clean! No, it is not just a matter of the 'triangle' between the cooker, fridge and sink.

Tensira: Made in Africa

KAS fabrics

The most exciting find of the year so far goes to Tensira, creators of remarkable West African textiles, furniture and accessories.  Hand made by local artisans the Tensira duo of Tuulia Makinen and Hamidou Diallo are both encouraging and protecting crafts that are so far little known to the west.  Their striped weaves could sit as comfortably in the Hamptons or Hydra and the vegetable dyed Indigos would line the walls of a gentleman’s London study beautifully.  Fine Rattan furniture banishes hideous polypropylene forever and their crisp, fresh bed and table linens are perfect for dreamy spring and summer days and balmy evening suppers!

Images courtesy of Grégoire Voevodsky

Favourite Fortuny

Persepolis

Maori

I cannot point to my ultimate favourite cloth, there are too many and it would be unfair to discriminate between prints and weaves from Le Manach, document toiles by Bracquenie, Lelievre’s Mogador velvet, Tassinari and Chatel’s museum quality cut silk velvets, a classic chintz from Colefax such as Bowood, most of Donghia weaves, John Boyd horsehair, George Spencer’s trimmings and papers, Simon Playle's treasures and absolutely anything and everything out of the Claremont shop.

There is however one thing that always completes my schemes perfectly, Fortuny fabrics. 

Sevres

Tapa without stripe

Canastrelli

 Of course I could drape the walls and myself in it I love it that much but at over 700 $ a yard that isn’t always possible.  It is probably the sturdiest cloth ever, it may come across as relatively fragile much like printed linen but for some unknown, and secret, reason it outlasts many heavier weaves even some velvets. Do not be afraid to cover a chair in it, a metre will do for the back and seat of a small Bergere, it will, I promise last for years and there is nothing quite like the beauty and splendour of these cloths and their superb colouring.

Baberini