Innholdsfortegnelse for Spring 2019 i MILIEU

The new and the renewed. That is the theme and idea we chose to focus on at MILIEU for this spring issue. There is an obsession, especially among the millennial generation, for all that is new, but much of what is considered new actually has its roots in the past. The old can become the new and sometimes is the new. We invite you to look closely at our features this month, just to see how we really embraced this idea. Some of our featured interior designers brought new life and identity to old houses—a centuries-old stone building in France, a classic home in Charleston’s historic district, an 1860s church and school in New Orleans that’s now a boutique hotel. And to emphasize our wish to celebrate people of the…

I have been to India more than fifty times, and I never go without visiting Delhi. Many visitors just stop there overnight while recovering from jet lag, enroute to see the Taj Mahal in Agra or the Pink City of Jaipur. What a mistake! Scottish writer William Dalrymple labeled Delhi “City of Djinns” (City of Ghosts) in his travelogue/memoir of the same name. Djinns because Delhi has been burned, destroyed, and rebuilt eight times; the djinns loved it so much they could never bear to see it empty. Part of Delhi’s magic is about the visible traces left from each past life. Delhi is a multi-layered city with each layer telling a story, not only about the place itself but also about India. New Delhi is so lush and verdant…

Some architects think of furniture as architecture. And some architects, such as Charlotte Perriand (1903–1999), design furniture that has an architectural presence within a room. At a time in the 1920s and ’30s when a female architect was as rare as a Greek Revival pediment on a Modernist edifice, the French-born Perriand was collaborating with the most important design talent of the time, notably Le Corbusier. As a young woman, trained as an architect and industrial designer at the Ecole de l’Union Centrale des Arts Décoratifs, she showed her portfolio of furniture and decorative objects to the famous architect, who immediately brought her into his atelier. Though her unique design language began to emerge in the late 1920s, it wasn’t until the 1940s, following extended trips to Japan, that her…

The 29th annual Antiques & Garden Show of Nashville took place from February 1–3, with proceeds benefitting Cheekwood Estate and Gardens and the Economic Club of Nashville. This year’s theme was “A Passion for Home,” and MILIEU was the proud sponsor for a panel discussion that featured Grammy® Award–winning superstar Faith Hill and the celebrated architectural and design team of Bobby McAlpine and Ray Booth. MILIEU’s Design Director, Leslie Newsom Rascoe, led the distinguished group in a fascinating talk about “Designing, Building and Living in Paradise.” While in Nashville, MILIEU cohosted with the Atlanta Decorative Arts Center (ADAC) and sponsoring showrooms a cocktail party at the hilltop home of Ray Booth to toast Nashville designers. For more images, visit milieu-mag.com…

WHENEVER A NEW piece of furniture arrives at a client’s home, Shannon Bowers likes to be on site. “My intention always is to make a client’s home personal, tailored exactly to their lives,” says Bowers, a Dallas-based interior designer who is also MILIEU’s editor-at-large. “If I’m present and something arrives, I can’t help but rearrange the furnishings and accessories. It’s part of my desire to make the interiors exactly right for the client. If I achieve that, it means I’m doing what I do well.” Because she and client Amy Detwiler are close friends, Bowers was extra attentive to the designs of Detwiler’s Dallas home. During one such installation of a new acquisition, Bowers did a considerable rearranging of the furnishings. “Later in the day, Amy’s husband came home and…

Kay O' Toole Kay O’Toole, who runs her namesake antiques business in Houston, likes to say of the items she acquires, “I try to buy things that are dramatic, that make a difference in your home, and that represent a personal connection.” She describes herself as a Texan and someone “who believes that a home should be personal and have drama, with room to breathe.” Kathryn M. Ireland A native of England, Kathryn Ireland was raised both there and in Scotland. Prior to launching her interior design business in the early 1990s, Ireland, who established herself in Los Angeles in 1986, was an actress, clothing designer, and filmmaker. Today she is considered one of the most influential interior and textile designers in the world. In addition, she is the founder…

HOTEL PETER & PAUL New Orleans, Louisiana Some see it as nothing less than a simple miracle. What was once a long-abandoned Catholic church and school in New Orleans’s Faubourg Marigny neighborhood is now filled with life and devotees of good design. Pilgrims to this new boutique hotel are saying their prayers of adoration. It took four years to transform the buildings, originally built in 1861 and designed by the noted Irish-born architect Henry Howard, into a campus that includes the sixty-room boutique property—with its School House Petite to the aptly named Mother Superior suite. Elsewhere, there is the Elysian Bar, a café overseen by Bacchanal, the New Orleans favorite known for its libations, food, and music, as well as event space and a wedding venue situated in the former…

Inside Dutch design firm Scholten & Baijings’ studio, one half of the firm’s namesake duo, Stefan Scholten, is staring intently at a chair. Specifically, the back of a chair. It was woven, or at least attempted to be woven, by his own hands. He’s spent a good deal of time staring at and working with this chair, perhaps months. And he’ll likely spend a good deal more, perhaps years. It’s all part of Scholten & Baijings’ signature, an admittedly slow and deliberate, design process. “I’m just looking at it again now,” he says, “and just by giving it that manual attention, trying to weave it yourself, it gives you a better idea of what you want and how you want it. For us, it’s impossible to design everything on paper.…

CREATIVE COLLABORATIONS are born in many ways. The one that produced Kay O’Toole’s home in Houston began one Saturday morning over a cup of coffee. Architect Kirby Mears stopped into Kay O’Toole, a shop renowned for its fine European furnishings from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. “I loved everything I saw there,” recalls Mears. “Kay told me to make myself at home while she brewed some coffee.” Their first conversation and the many that followed established the foundation of a friendship. “I stopped in regularly to see Kay after that,” says Mears, “and one day she told me she was thinking of building a house.” O’Toole lived in a Houston high-rise apartment building at the time. “It was lovely,” she says, “but I had four bedrooms and too many bathrooms…

“There was a real desire by the homeowners to establish a more tranquil environment.”—Ray Booth EVER SINCE RAY BOOTH and his client began their work together eighteen years ago, they have been speaking the same language. Each of them refers to it as simpatico, the Italian word that means a comradeship, a mutual understanding of each other. “The moment Ray saw this place,” says the homeowner, referring to her New York apartment, “I realized that his vision and mine were perfectly aligned. I realized then that we were very simpatico.” Booth, too, uses the very same word when recounting the first meeting with his client and discovering that many of the furnishings she wanted for the rooms were from magazine clippings she had kept of his completed projects. “I’d been…

COVER Photography: Simon Brown, simonbrownphotography.com. Upholstery and slipcovers by: Melanie Williams, melaniewilliams.co.uk Beaton sofa, SOANE, soane.co.uk, covered in Osmunda Frond linen, Azure, seat cushion covered in Osmunda Silhouette linen, Azure, both from SOANE, soane.co.uk. Pillows in Simla linen, Blue, PENNY MORRISON, pennymorrison.com, trimmed in Cambridge Strie Braid 34161, Robins Egg, SAMUEL & SONS, samuelandsons.com. COMPETING FOR ATTENTION Photography: Simon Brown, simonbrownphotography.com. Page 26-36 Stripes on wall throughout in Metropolitan, AF-690, and Decorators White, OC-149, BENJAMIN MOORE, benjaminmoore.com. Legs on furniture pieces painted in Baby Boy Blue, 2056-50, BENJAMIN MOORE, benjaminmoore.com. Page 26 Pair of bespoke corner chairs, MAX ROLLITT, maxrollitt.com. Left chair covered in Floriental silk linen, Sapphire, JIM THOMPSON, jimthompsonfabrics.com. Right chair covered in Shalimar linen, Cielo, SCHUYLER SAMPERTON TEXTILES, schuylersampertontextiles.com. Page 28 Antique round conversation piece, HOWE LONDON,…

Giuseppe Ducrot spends much time in his Rome studio getting to know popes and saints, emperors, kings, the occasional angel, even Hercules, Minerva, and other figures from mythology. In fact, it is Ducrot himself who breathes artistic life into these personages through the creation of his three-dimensional ceramics. Although these figures mostly occupy his imagination rather than the actual space in which he works daily, the sculptor does continue to receive commissions from real-life entities at the Vatican, from cathedrals throughout Europe, and from mayors and city authorities in various municipalities. While Ducrot is known as a figurative sculptor, he is also one of the world’s most important working artists making furniture, domestic objects, and decorative accessories, notably fashioned of ceramic in his signature yellow hue. Ducrot does not claim…

Upon waking from dreams, we attempt to shake off the fleeting images our subconscious minds have constructed from fragments of memory and imagination. Pierre Bonnard (1867–1947) spent his life putting those fragments on canvas with luminous colors that displayed the dreamlike rooms of his memory. An exciting exhibition of the artist’s works is slated to fill the walls of London’s Tate Modern from January 23 through May 6, 2019. This show prompts viewers to savor the paintings, without hurrying, and to allow the eye to take in the voluptuous scenes. Bonnard challenges museumgoers to visit his rooms and to become guests stopping by for afternoon coffee, or pensive friends peering at landscapes through his open windows and doors. “I’m trying to do what I have never done—give the impression one…

IF YOU COULD TEACH PEOPLE THREE LESSONS ON ETIQUETTE, WHICH ONES WOULD THEY BE? Observe the Golden Rule. Remember that etiquette is about making others feel more comfortable, not less. Go the extra mile, and you’ll be remembered for the right reasons. WHAT LED YOU TO BECOME MISTER MANNERS? There’s a need in our culture for ongoing conversations about everyday etiquette and common consideration. Most people want to do the right thing; sometimes, they just need a bit of guidance on what the right thing is. THE ONE ITEM THAT MAKES A MAN FASHIONABLE? Confidence. You’ll win no style points unless you wear what you can wear assuredly. THE ONE OBJECT YOU MOST CHERISH? A vintage Underwood No. 6 typewriter. AN OLD BOOK ON ETIQUETTE THAT CONTINUES TO INSPIRE YOU?…