Interior Design

Light Up My Life…The Quest for Lovely Lamp Shades

This is a post about a decorating detail that may seem small, but actually is not. Lamp shades, a seemingly innocuous subject, is one I feel strongly about. Great lamp shades can make a room, while ignoring their significance can leave a room boring and bland.

The problem is that good, let alone great, lamp shades are very difficult to find, particularly at a reasonable price. I adore a colored, patterned or trimmed lamp shade, especially one that does not “match” the room it is in. A perfect balance between complementing and contrasting is hard to find – both in terms of the lamp to the room and the lamp to its shade. Proportion and size requirements only add to the complexity. Custom making shades is one solution, but finding a craftsperson can be difficult. Vintage shades are another, as those from earlier eras have unusual shapes and lots of detail, but condition can be tricky.

It seems to me that the British have always had the hang of this better than any other nationality, just open any World of Interiors and you’ll agree. Robert Kime has some of the most beautiful shades around anywhere, softly gathered fabric ones made from his fabric line, ikats and antique textiles. Unfortunately, they run about £350 and if that was in my budget I wouldn’t need to write this post.

His shades are positively dreamy.

Soane, the UK design firm, which recently had a pop-up shop in New York City I would have loved to have visited, also makes beautiful but pricey ikat shades.

While visiting the UK last year I stopped into Soane and Robert Kime, but my favorite spot was a wonderful romantic antiques shop in Bath, Antique Textiles and Lighting. Filled with vintage chandeliers and gorgeous antique fabrics, the owner made bespoke shades from her antique textiles. I have a deep and lasting purchasing regret from that trip and wish I had bought some, even without any idea of where I would use them.

This all brings me to my personal conundrum. I have purchased many charming vintage lamps for the beach house in New Jersey, but almost none of them have come with shades. While they are all fabulous and absolute bargains, coming up with shades is proving to be a daunting task. The lamp stores seem to be full of nothing other than mass-produced low quality dull white and cream shades. Searching the web, eBay and Etsy has not yielded anywhere near as many options as I might have expected.

I have been scoping out two different ikat shades at Anthropologie, reminiscent of the Kime and Soane shades. I can’t quite figure out which lamps they might look good on, but as they have gone on sale, I am tempted to buy them anyway. I often do that, although regretfully not last year in Bath, so I am loath to let them sell out and slip away.

The first is the Pleated Ikat Shade…

…and the next is the Wandering Ikat Shade.

One of my lamps that needs a shade is this alabaster beauty. While quite tall, it has a short harp and would look best with a wider shallower shade.

I recently bought this dark grey pleated shade on mega-sale at Laura Ashley (the Japanese love Laura Ashley!), thinking it might be perfect for the alabaster lamp. It is wider and shorter than it appears in the photo, so it has the right proportions. But perhaps it is too formal for the beach? Maybe instead of carrying the shade home this summer, I should carry the lamp back to Tokyo. It would look great with its little sisters somewhere in my bedroom here. I would also definitely consider the two Anthro shades for this lamp and I think the dark ikat one would look beautiful, but unfortunately I belive it to be too big.

Not all the lamps need fabric shades. I’d also like some casual paper ones too. I had been hoping to find time to visit Susan Schneider’s shop Shandell’s in the Hudson Valley this summer. Having first read about her custom lamp and shade shop on Eddie Ross‘ blog and then visited her own, I knew she is a master of the lamp/shade combo, like this pair of flea-market mid-century lamps she topped with wallpaper covered shades.

She makes tons of charming covered paper shades from vintage wallpapers.

Continuing my search, I’ve turned to the other major catalog brands and actually had a bit of luck. For the upstairs guest room I have a pair of twisted milk glass lamps and was hoping for a shade covered in a Kathryn Ireland/Carolina Irving/Lisa Fine type pattern. All the shades in Kathryn’s One Kings Lane sale were too big as are the ones in her online shop. Surprisingly, I got extremely lucky with these Indian block print shades from Pottery Barn, on sale to boot!!

Here is one, in situ. Maybe a little too big? It will have to do for now.

Another lamp in my daughter’s room was purchased entirely for its lavender gingham shade. I wasn’t sure I would even use the lamp, but ended up liking it. It is sitting on the floor because I don’t as yet have a night table. One of the many things the house is missing…

In the last few weeks I have been doing a lot of antiquing with friends moving away from Tokyo and looking to take away decorative objects that will remind them of their time here. Personally, I have made some fantastic finds in the lighting department along the way. I mentioned vintage shades with their charming quirkiness earlier in the post – here are a few examples.

First, I finally visited Yamamoto Syoten. Friends on the other side of town had raved about this shop, crammed to the brim with a wide range of merchandise, from fine tansu to vintage bric brac. I’ll be doing a full “Shop Talk” post on it soon, but I thought I’d show you what I got there. I had to have this wonderfully shaped green shade, as I have just the right lamp for it, a converted Chinese famille rose vase. I have searched my files for a photo to show you but can’t find one, so it will have to wait for the summer. I did not actually want the lamp it was on, so it took a bit of persuading to get them to sell me just the shade.

Days later I walked into Kanarusha to pick up the ceiling fixture I wrote about here and this was staring right at me.

How had I missed it the week before? I don’t know, but it caused me to do a jig of joy. I have been looking for a tiny jewel of a lamp to place atop a bookcase in the upstairs hall, lit at night as the hallway night-light. This was one of those shopping fantasies come to life.

My takeaway from this post? Custom lamp shades are a business to get into! And I plan on doing some more DIY lamp shade posts this summer, including covering a pair of sconce shades with this gorgeous washi paper.

Not traditional washi design at all, the tiny print resembles an Indonesian batik made for the Japanese market.

I have posted many photos of rooms with wonderful lamp shades, but rather than trot them all out I prefer this quick litmus test. A glance through the current House Beautiful demonstrates the importance of lamp shades with examples on almost every page. Here for instance, Anne Wolf uses shades covered in a tiny Lisa Fine print to update glass lamps in a cheery dining room.

Another example is this Carrier and Company living room, where a pair of vintage lamps are activated with bright shades. Many other examples can be found throughout the issue.

Image credits: 1-3. Robert Kime, 4. Elle Decor June 2010, 5. Antique Textiles and Lighting, 6-7. Anthropologie, 8-9, 12, 14-18. me, 10-11. Shandell’s, 13. Pottery Barn, 19-20. House Beautiful June 2011

Jun 6, 2011 By tokyojinja in Interior Design, Lighting, Textiles

Feeling Fresh…Indigo Textiles and Tenugui

Lately I seem to be passing up amazing indigo textiles at markets all over town, like this antique katazome futon cover, with scrolling floral and arabesque design.

This giant furoshiki (wrapping cloth) with sashiko stitched corners was purchased by someone else, perhaps at my urging. Am I turning into my grandmother if I am talking to strangers and pushing them to buy things?

And it is fairly rare to see such a fantastic boro futon cover. This one was so artistically patched that I went back and looked at it numerous times before leaving Kawagoe. I am sure purists would decry that tiny bit of red, but I think it is the perfect touch.

My reasoning for not purchasing, besides the usual “I can’t have everything,” is that I am not sure what to do with them. Not usually my problem…

But lately, I have been seeing indigo textiles in design projects everywhere and I have been craving some of that organic deep blue as it has such a cooling effect in warm weather. Many of the textiles in these projects are not Japanese but are instead Indonesian batik or even French Provencal fabrics, but they all have the same visual effect. In the best spaces, textiles from all over the world have been blended together!

I spied what looks to be a Japanese textile thrown over the sofa on the cover of the newest House Beautiful.

April’s Elle Decor featured the Brazilian beach house of designer Sig Bergamin, always a master of the global textile mix. The most unusual fabric placement? The indigo piece on the wall, serving as a backdrop/frame to the painting!

One guest room has beautiful batiks as extra coverlets at the foot of the beds.

Another is such a riot of color, country and pattern all piled on an amazing antique Chinese bed. Click the photo to enlarge and you will see textiles from almost every continent!

Stylist Peter Frank’s house was featured last fall, but I had to include his living room. That perfect blue patchwork pillow, made from antique Japanese textiles, the blue grasscloth on the walls and the amazing 18th century Korean screen, all on a woven paper tatami mat rug from Merida, exude an elegant cool. His entire Hudson Valley house is well worth looking at here.

Interested in cooling down and adding a bit of indigo to your life? I have been cruising the internet for throw pillows and found these made from vintage kimono at Jayson Home & Garden. That might be a good DIY!

Want a bigger swath of blue? Madeline Weinrib, famous for her ikat pillows and Moroccan motif flatweave rugs, also does a denim patchwork line, combining the look of patched Japanese textiles and vintage dhurries.

While we are mentioning Ms. Weinrib, here are a few photos of her New York apartment, resplendent with her textiles and also a great collection of Japanese inban (transfer printed porcelain) and other porcelain.

For those of us in Japan, it is easy to add a bit of indigo to our lives, and what better way to do it than by helping those up north in Tohoku? Amy Katoh’s Azabu Juban shop Blue & White is selling special “Genki Japan” tenugui. The checkerboard motif (remember it here?) is interspersed with encouraging kanji phrases, such as “Let’s Join Hands” and “The Power of Everyone.” All profits from sales will be donated to relief agencies. I think everyone needs one!

And speaking of tenugui, I promised to devote some time to them in my last post, but my dear friend and quilting master Julie Fukuda has beaten me to it and written a great piece on her blog My Quilt Diary. Take a look! Julie often pieces tenugui to create the backs of her quilts and while it may look random, there is always a masterful artistic hand at work. Julie, don’t be angry with me, but sometimes I love the tenugui backs as much as the amazing quilt fronts!

Which brings me to one last indigo image from recent press – this bedroom in Maine by Tom Scheerer. The quilt on the bed must be American, but it is reminiscent of a patched Japanese textile or even Julie’s tenugui quilt back.

Stay cool wherever you are! And stop in to Blue & White for your “Genki Japan” tenugui!

Image credits: 1-3 & 14. me, 4. House Beautiful June 2011, photo credit: Francesco Lagnese, 5-7. Elle Decor April 2011, photo credit: Simon Upton, 8. House Beautiful October 2010, photo credit: William Abranowicz, 9. Jayson Home & Garden, 10. Madeline Weinrib Atelier, 11-13. Elle Decor December 2008, photo credit: Simon Upton, 15. Julie Fukuda at My Quilt Diary, 16. House Beautiful April 2011, photo credit: Francesco Lagnese.

Jun 3, 2011 By tokyojinja in Interior Design, Shrine Sales and Flea Markets, Textiles Tags: indigo, Madeline Weinrib, Peter Frank, quilting, shrine sale, Sig Bergamin, tenugui, textiles, Tom Scheerer

Colorful Stair Risers, June Magazines and Muriel Brandolini

I couldn’t resist posting these stairs featured in the new issue of Country Living. Designer Lisa Teague painted the risers in soft shades of the colors she uses throughout the house. I don’t know if I would actually do this, but as I have been musing on the topic lately here, I thought it was very pretty and interesting.

Those painted stairs reminded me of these fabulous boldly colored ones from Muriel Brandolini‘s Long Island home…

…which in turn reminded me of the ship chandelier hanging in this Ken Fulk designed San Francisco bathroom in the June House Beautiful, much like the one of Muriel’s featured here.

I am sure there will be some other link as soon as I get my hands on the June Elle Decor or World of Interiors! If so, I’ll add it here…

Image credits: 1. Country Living June 2011, photo credit: Bjorn Wallander, 2. World of Interiors July 2009, 3. House Beautiful June 2011, photo credit: Francesco Lagnese.

May 31, 2011 By tokyojinja in Color, Interior Design

On Dumbwaiters and Butler’s Trolleys…Non-Japanese Antiques in Tokyo at The Penny Wise and Found

While we are at it, let’s return to that same photo of the wall and staircase at the beach house from my last post, but this time, let’s talk about what is going in front of it. I need a piece of furniture that will hold extra serving pieces and platters, table linens, a lamp, alcohol and bar accoutrements. Basically a sideboard, but I imagine something more open. My dream piece has been a traditional Georgian or Regency period English butler’s trolley, also known as a dumbwaiter. Everywhere I look these days, bar carts are the trendy thing to have, but I find them a bit small and flimsy, and I prefer the stolid-ness of the trolley.

If you ignore the yellow sofa, this Jeffrey Bilhuber designed dining room in Bridgehampton has a very similar feel to my space. Dark table and floorboards, pale painted chairs, big bay window with white trim and blue-grey walls. He also has a dumbwaiter on the right hand wall, put to use exactly as I would like to. The whole house is light and lovely and gorgeous and well worth scrolling through here.

Christopher Spitzmiller uses a trolley to hold his bar goods, but also copper pots and kitchen items. Maybe this one is in a butler’s pantry?

I spy one against the wall in this eclectic Spanish apartment.

And Tom Scheerer has one stocked to the brim in the Bahamas.

Visually, I love the attractive open display of everyday objects. Kathryn Ireland uses a table with a lower shelf the same way in her house in France.

And maybe what I am truly drawn to is all the alcohol bottles arranged on or in a basket, like the photos above and this below…

…or this. Tom Scheerer again!

So I went and checked out the easiest and most well stocked antiques resource on the internet – 1stdibs. There was no problem finding some gorgeous examples, like this one from Huntington House Antiques…

…or this one from Hollyhock. There were a number of other lovely examples, but all are in the $5000+ range. Ouch!

I was determined to take a look at one in person to see the scale and proportions up close. Finding one in Tokyo also fulfils a dual role, which is to prove that absolutely everything is available somewhere in Japan if only you know where to look. In Hiroo, not far from my house is an antiques store called The Penny Wise, which imports furniture from all over Europe. In addition, they have another nearby shop that stocks scrubbed pine and Colonial Check fabrics as well as a huge warehouse in Kachidoki. So I took a quick walk down the hill and voilà!

Exactly what I was looking for. They also have a few more in the warehouse. And the price? Around $4500, which is unexpectedly less than the ones in the USA. The Penny Wise tends to be a real “brown” furniture shop, but they stock just about everything and I am not surprised to have found one on my very first try.

Ironically, the other item of furniture I am looking for is a china cabinet. I have been imagining something kind of 1920s, with legs off the floor and a casual paint job. Something like this…

And guess what else The Penny Wise had in stock? This!

Thinking about painted furniture makes me wonder if I might prefer a painted piece in that spot as I already have a dark wooden dining table. Maison Maison on 1stdibs had this example.

Not long ago I visited another great Tokyo antiques shop at the far side of Meguro called Found, which has great displays of on-trend French furniture made more casual by stripping and painting techniques. If you are looking for a chair upholstered in feed sack burlap, Found is the place to go. They had a small painted shelf piece, which while not officially a trolley, could work well.

Their artfully staged vignettes, like this one with a 19th century china cabinet and bentwood chairs (which are just as trendy in Tokyo right now as they are in the US) are fun to browse. Hmmm…I am liking these dark accents too. Perhaps a china cabinet painted dark grey or black might be a perfect punctuation point.

While we are talking about black, maybe it isn’t a light painted piece I want, but a dark one.

I have drooled for years over Michael Smith’s gallery edge trolley from his furniture line for Jasper. Also quite expensive…

and I missed a half-price one in his Tastemaker Sale at One Kings Lane last year. Here’s another view of it. Too fancy? Maybe…

I have also been wondering about this marble top console table from Wisteria. At $899, it seems like a bargain in comparison and I love the practicality of the marble top. But maybe a little small and too French?

After all this thought about the open shelves of a butler’s trolley, I remembered another ingenious bar idea. Rita Konig wrote in The New York Times about her friend Amanda Lindroth’s makeshift bar. Basically it is a chest of drawers in the hall which she styles like a bar during a party, pulling out the top drawers to hold pitchers and ice buckets and arranging glasses and bottles in a basket on top.

Just thinking that there is a lot to be said for closed storage too…

If you are new to Tokyo or just plain old tired of Ikea, bad furniture and fake Chinese antiques, I recommend the stretch of Meguro-dori running southwest from the Meguro station for a few miles. There must be more than 50 antique and home decor shops, with everything from mid-century modern to Louis XV. The Penny Wise would represent the northernmost end of the strip and Found would be the furthest south. I have long been planning on a walking guide to all the shops, but life keeps getting in the way. I promise one next autumn, and in the meantime, feel free to email me with any questions.

Image credits: 1. Elle Decor July 2007, photo credit: Pieter Estersohn, 2.Elle Decor December 2006, photo credit: unknown, 3. Nuevo Estilo via A Perfect Gray, 4. via Tom Scheerer, photo credit: Pieter Estersohn, 5. House Beautiful November 2009, photo credit: Kathryn Ireland, 6. House Beautful June 2009, photo credit:Reed Davis, 7. via Tom Scheerer, photo credit: Matthew Hranek, 8-9 & 14. via 1stdibs, 10-11, 13, 15-17. me, 12. via Houzz, 18-19. via Michael Smith, 20. Wisteria, 21-22. The New York Times, January 12, 2010, photo credit: Rita Konig.

May 25, 2011 By tokyojinja in Furniture, Interior Design, Shop Talk

Japanese-Inspired Fabric Follow-Up…Katsugi, Kiku, Kasumi, Kaba Kaba, Katana and More

In response to my post in April about R.P. Miller’s new textile line, a reader from Vienna, Austria wrote, “Love this post – and it just so happens that I am looking for Japanese-inspired upholstery fabric – I found a delightful Schumacher fabric called “Katsugi” that I really enjoy because of its rich colors and organic, imperfect design. Can you recommend any other lines?” So I thought I’d do a quick although not necessarily comprehensive round-up of some of the fabrics I think she might like.

For everyone else, I’ll start with the popular Schumacher linen and cotton blend Katsugi that she mentions, which comes in five colorways.

Don’t be deceived by these swatches. The surprise about Katsugi, and often many other fabrics viewed only in photos, is the scale. If you are imagining the circular patterns are about the size of an apple or the pomegranate they resemble, then you are incorrect. They are actually unexpectedly large. Designer Tom Scheerer has used this fabric to great effect in numerous projects.

Designer Suzanne Tucker makes a similar, although smaller in scale pattern called Kiku, which means chrysanthemum in Japanese. According to her website, the pattern is reinterpreted from a 19th century Japanese futon cover, with stylized chrysanthemum and lotus roundels and interlocking arabesques on a heavy linen ground.

By the way, there are 11 meters of it available in the sapphire blue on eBay right now for a fantastic price.

I don’t believe Martyn Lawrence-Bullard’s Kaba Kaba is based on Japanese textiles, but it looks like an elongated version of shippo tsunagi, also known as linked circles or seven treasures pattern. It also looks as if it was made with a traditional paste resist dye technique, even though it is not.

Compare it to this 19th century shibori (tie-dyed) yukata (cotton kimono).

For a sense of scale, you can see it on the pillow here, with two other great fabrics from his line.

As many of you know, I am a total Bennison junkie and have been using their floral linens in my beach house. While those patterns are their most famous, they also make a number of fabrics based on the karakusa (arabesque vine) pattern. Their “Kasumi” comes small, medium and large in numerous colorways. Unfortunately, none of the photos show the difference in scale, but it is dramatic, with the smallest size being a very fine subtle pattern and the extra-large size making a bold graphic statement.

The easiest way to show karakusa patterns is on Japanese porcelain, but it can be found in almost all the decorative arts.

For a quick and easy dose of karakusa-style fabric, one of my favorite home bedding brands, Pine Cone Hill, has a full line of products in their “Scramble” pattern, from duvets to dust ruffles to table napkins, all in a wide variety of colors.

Annie Selke has also issued Scramble as a fabric by the yard available at Calico Corners in five colorways. Here she has used it to upholster chairs in a Cape Cod dining room.

Lisa Fine’s Maharab, shown here in the indigo colorway, and on some cushions that actually look like old-fashioned Japanese futon, is not actually Japanese inspired.

But while the individual motifs are Indian inspired, the overall pattern reminds me of a typical style of Japanese fabric in which multiple stencils are used to make an overlapping collage like pattern. This fabric is a close-up from a mid-19th century futon cover, made with a rice paste resist method.

Asa no ha, or hemp pattern, is one of the most classic Japanese patterns there is. Ironically, for all that it is so ancient, it looks so modern. Here is it on an early 20th century yukata.

For a truly mod version of asa no ha, look no further that Kelly Wearstler’s fabric line for Groundworks in the Katana pattern, which takes the motif and stretches it to great dynamic effect.

Like some of the other fabrics in the post, the scale is surprisingly large.

Vanderhurd makes an amazing hand-embroidered linen in a hemp pattern called “Grande Etoile,” which comes in numerous colors, not all of which are pictured here, as well as a smaller version called “Petite Etoile.”

RP Miller’s new hemp pattern fabric has the unusual name of “1509 EB.” I imagine there must be a story behind that somewhere…

Thanks to the lovely Ariel at Hollywood at Home, I have gotten my hands on some samples from that new line, including a few I did not mention in the last post, such as the large chrysanthemum pattern Mrs. Burnside, the small star pattern Tanabata Night Sky and the delicate and leafy Weymouth place shown here in wheat ind indigo.

The wheat colors were a great surprise, very subtle and satisfying for those who like to work with neutrals.

Chiyo’s Pond, the pattern that looks like flowing water and petals reminds me of typical Okinawan bingata stenciled fabrics.

But my favorite is still the very unusual woodblock print inspired Le Witt Loom. In the wheat colorway if has a faux bois effect while in the indigo and white it is crisp and clean. I can’t think of anything else like it on the market.

For more photos and information on that pattern and the rest of RP Miller’s new line, see my previous post R. P. Miller…New Japanese Inspired Fabrics From Rodman Primack Debut at Hollywood at Home.

All of the photos of antique Japanese textiles came from what looks to be a fantatsic website called narablog, which features wonderful antique textiles, mainly Japanese, many for sale. I really recommend you take a look! Another fabulous resource for antique Japanese textiles is Sri Threads.

Photo credits for the three Tom Scheerer photos are: 1. Simon Upton, 2. William Waldron, 3. Eric Bowman. Annie Selke dining room from House Beautiful February 2009, photo credit: John Kernick. Kelly Wearstler image via decorpad.

May 15, 2011 By tokyojinja in Interior Design, Textiles Tags: Bennison, Japanese design, Kelly Wearstler, Lisa Fine, Martyn Lawrence-Bullard, Rodman Primack, RP Miller, Suzanne Tucker, textiles, Tom Scheerer

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