interior design

Katie Ridder, Eat Your Heart Out (Over My Latest Shrine Sale Find)

OK, so maybe that title is a little extreme, but I am so excited by my recent find and actually, I think she would be too! For those of you not familiar with her name, Katie Ridder is one of my favorite designers working today, with a most accomplished and interesting approach to interiors, a refined and coordinated eclecticism. Ridder has a brand new book out called Rooms, which I am dying for, of course! Unfortunately, I haven’t managed to get my hands on a copy yet (heavy holiday hint here).

Katie loves color and has a particular penchant for my favorite – lavender. In addition to the iconic book cover image with its amazing Kiki Smith etching, you can find the hue sprinkled liberally throughout her designs…

…and gently too.

She is also quite skilled at mixing it with blue and white porcelain, another favorite trick of mine.

She is a big fan of Muriel Brandolini prints, and also has her own line of charming patterns, including Peony…

…and the Japanese inspired Wave.

For me, Katie’s first great lavender room is from the days before digital images (1993!), but I am lucky enough to have saved it in my tear sheets, although it took me a good half day to find it. Featuring a lavender Asian toile from Manuel Canovas called Mandarin and quite a bit of whimsical ingenuity (love that valence) mixed with modern details, the small showhouse guest room, completed on a tight budget, was a clear stylistic precursor of what was to come. She worked with her husband, architect Peter Pennoyer, and I believe it was meant to invoke the Brighton Pavilion. Sorry the scan just can’t do the colors justice!

(Quick Addendum: I found a close-up of the toile in an old House & Garden tear sheet on Chinoiserie toiles. When I was writing this post originally, I couldn’t find a sample anywhere.)

More recently, to counter the vibrantly colored, robust and complex public living spaces she designs, Katie most often creates cool and tranquil sleeping areas. I come back to this simple guest room all the time, drawn in by the crisp hotel-like linens, Murano glass lamps and the mid-century Japanese brass globe lantern which, for me, is the key element that makes the space.

And so on to my find…Last weekend, I stumbled across not one, but two similar lanterns, in absolutely perfect condition. They also have a scrolling karakusa (arabesque vine) pattern, but no large flowers like Katie’s. And this photo, taken on the spot, somehow makes them look small, which they are not. No current plans for them, but I grabbed them as soon as I saw them and took them home! So let me gloat a little, and hope that the book finds its way to me this holiday season…

Image credits: 1-2, 6-7, 10-11. via Katie Ridder, 3-4 Elle Decor March 2008, photo credit: William Waldron, 5 & 13. Elle Decor March 2006, photo credit: Pieter Estersohn, 8. Elle Decor June 2009, photo credit: William Waldron, 9. Country Living November 2010, photo credit: Lucas Allen, 12. House Beautiful March 1993, photo credit: Antoine Bootz, 14. me. <a href=”http://www.bloglovin.com/blog/3209837/tokyo-jinja?claim=bhbgv3skc8m”>Follow my blog with Bloglovin</a>

Nov 20, 2011 By tokyojinja in Books, Movies & TV, Color, Interior Design, Lighting, Metals Tags: interior design, japanese antiques, Katie Ridder, lavender, shrine sale

Even Movie Stars Recycle…Early Homes of Cindy Crawford and James Belushi

After the post on Michael Smith interiors the other day, I received a couple of requests for the photos of the early homes of Cindy Crawford and James Belushi. The world was so different in the days before digital images and if these have not been published elsewhere, then they are not out there in cyberspace.

Cindy Crawford had owned her apartment for a number of years before she decided to enlist her friend Michael Smith to decorate it. Built in 1909 and converted to condos in 1987, this “exuberant Edwardian Baroque” Police Headquarters Building at 240 Centre Street is at the meeting point of Soho/Little Italy/Chinatown. The architects carved out a variety of apartments, many of which have giant windows, high ceilings, lofts and unusual architectural details. Cindy’s apartment appears to have a large double height living room/dining room and some sort of loft area bedroom, although I can’t be sure from the photos.

The cover photo shows the dining area with its signature Michael Smith large check on the wing chair and a mix of seating – both chairs and a banquet. Smith describes her as an old-fashioned heroine, but also pegs her taste as somewhat masculine in that she likes substantial wood pieces. I do love that patchwork pillow!

This is the shot that leads me to believe there is a loft or mezzanine floor over one side of the living room. My apartment in New York is in a converted school building and has much the same kind of architectural challenges (and advantages) as this building.

The corner of the living room shows a close-up of the simple upholstery.

This view of the bedroom highlights her Bennison upholstered bed and a fantastic leather screen.

After marrying Randy Gerber and having her son, Cindy moved to the Upper East Side into a classic pre-war apartment in 2001. Smith came and helped her decorate, but she showed great practicality and re-used most of her furniture. You can see the couch, armchairs, small Moroccan table and even the green check wing chair from the old apartment peeking out in this living room.

Her beautiful bed is reused in the guest room, with a strong striped wallpaper and a suzani. Even the nightables and lamps are the same!

In contrast to Crawford’s “masculine” taste, James Belushi unabashedly admits to liking very feminine bedrooms. I couldn’t find the rest of his house in my files, but I did find the master bedroom and guest room. Again, I am unsure of the original publication date on these, but I would think they are from similar time period (later 1990s) as the ones above. Belushi’s decorating mandate was no “gaudy Louis stuff” and colors and feelings you get from “Italian paintings”. Smith delivers in this softly romantic master bedroom. Still, it is hard to picture Belushi sleeping there…

Stucco walls throughout the house have carefully thought out colors and finishes, like the lime green in this guest bedroom, inspired by an 19th century Venetian damask. The overall feel is pan-Europe, a little heavier on the Italian side.

Like Crawford’s apartment, the dining room has a mix of bench seating and chairs, Indian chintz and a similar check on the chair cushions. It all feels very relaxed and casual.

Belushi’s new house is built from the ground up on a double plot in Brentwood Park. Less obvious re-use of furniture to be found, but this project is at least a decade later than the photos above. He did keep with a similar Italian/European villa feel in the architecture and the interior design, but I also see a lot of Michael Smith’s more recent style peeking through, particularly in the palette change in the bedroom. Unfortunately, most of the photos are not available digitally, so I had to scan these too.

Smith specifically mentions re-using many of their existing furniture on the lower level, like this games table and chairs.

The rug in the dining room looks familiar and even if it is not the exact same one, it is very similar in color and style to those used in his earlier home.

One more thing to check out if you are interested is Cindy Crawford’s Malibu home, designed by Smith too. It has a great pan-Asian/Balinese vibe. The photos can be found in the March 2006 Elle Decor.

Image credits: 1. nyc-architecture, 2-5. Elle Decor October/November 1997 photo credit: Thibault Jeanson, 6-7. Architectural Digest March 2001 photo credit: Scott Frances, 8-10. credit unknown, but possibly Architectural Digest, 11-13 Architectural Digest November 2010 photo credit: Scott Frances

Dec 8, 2010 By tokyojinja in Interior Design, Then and Now Tags: Cindy Crawford, interior design, James Belushi, michael smith

Sourcing Antiques for Michael Smith Interiors

Last month’s posts on Japanese furniture in the White House and Imari porcelain lead me right to my next subject – Michael S. Smith, designer extraordinaire and decorator to the Obamas.

Michael Smith first imprinted himself on my consciousness with the apartment he designed for Cindy Crawford in the Police Building in New York City. I still have the entire Oct/Nov. 1997 issue of Elle Decor because I could not bear to tear out the pages. The apartment impressed me so much because it reminded me of my own – both the physical space and the look I was trying to achieve in decorating it. Smith seemed to bring a fresh view on using classic antiques paired with ethnic textiles and touches. I knew he was a talent to watch and I have early tear sheets of the homes he decorated for movie producers, actors and other Hollywood royalty in my files, including the first home Smith designed for actor James Belushi. This November, Architectural Digest featured Belushi’s new California home designed by Michael Smith, of course, but I think I like the smaller original one better!

Smith studied art at University, then worked briefly for antiques dealer Gep Durenberger and trained under John Saladino for a few years. You can see the Saladino influence on his designs, but whereas Saladino is more of a pure classicist, Smith adds the layering of traditional English country house style to his projects. When Saladino works with fine antiques, there is curatorial aspect to his perspective, art objet versus furniture. Smith’s interiors appear as though all the fine things are really used. After working with Saladino, he opened a home furnishings store in California. I imagine that is how he met all his early Hollywood clients.

As Smith mines deeply the lexicon of Japanese decorative arts, from furniture to folk craft to lighting, I thought it would be great fun to try to source the items in some of his interiors. I tried to stay local, but occasionally had to resort to the internet (and even use a piece of my own). First up is his New York apartment, featured in Elle Decor. The standout piece is the isho tansu (clothing chest) in the right hand corner of the living room. Also note the Japanese style blinds and the covered Imari urn on the left hand side bookcase. I’ve written so much about Imari porcelain lately, that I won’t post another photo here…

Here is a standout Sendai region tansu very similar to the one in his living room.

Next up are the door panels mounted to the wall in his entry hall in Manhattan. The grill work pattern is a classic, one of the most common Japanese motifs called seigaiha or seikaiha (English translation spelling varies). Used extensively throughout the decorative arts on textiles, ceramics, etc., it is also often seen on exterior buildings and walls. My best match up is a similar door with an overlayed circle pattern called shippou-tsunagi (seven treasures pattern).

Smith seems to enjoy using Japanese pieces in his own homes. Moving on from Manhattan to his home in Bel Air, also featured in Elle Decor, we find traditional low tables used in the living room and sunroom. These tables were not originally made to be used as coffee tables – sitting on the floor was the norm, therefore the low height. Some smaller low tables were used for altar displays.

Here is an art deco era lacquer low table, combining the curved legs of the table in the living room, with some of the color and fanciness of the table in the sun room.

The blue and white porcelain in the Bel Air home is just gorgeous (as are the peonies)! I love the repurposed vase lamp, but it is the moon flask vases which are particularly special.

I’m cheating a little here and sourcing from my own house…

Michael Smith also has (or had) a house in Santa Monica. I wish I knew the date on this photo spread but I didn’t mark it down when I tore it out. I do know it is quite early and I imagine he no longer lives here. For me, this represents California casual decorating at its best. The plain silvered byobu (screen) behind the sofa reminded me of this lovely plain screen I saw at an antique show last month.

Rather than focussing on the gilt and wood cabinet in the hallway of a London project, I thought the unusual placement of a wood and inlay hibachi (charcoal brazier) as an accent piece on the floor was ingenious. This is an easy piece to match. Found at shrine sales and antique stores, it simply is a matter of picking size and design. I saw an inlaid hibachi with hydrangea once and passed it up. Now I am waiting to find another.

The amazing lacquer trunk under the table in this next photo challenged me and I couldn’t find an exact match nor could I stay local. Instead, I have gone to the Naga Antiques site and pulled up this lacquer samurai armor chest. Note the blue and white vase lamp here too.

One of his most beautiful projects is this Malibu home featured in the October 2009 Elle Decor. I find it to be less English country house and the most “Saladino” like of his recent projects. The bedroom has such perfect proportions and symmetry, with its John Robshaw bed and gorgeous inlaid small tansu on stands used as the night tables. Blue and white lamps too!

I couldn’t find any lacquer ones right now, but these small chests on stands are not hard to come by.

I used the kitchen in this house in one of my earliest posts and I keep coming back to the perfection of this room. The sleekness of the modern streamlined kitchen combined with the rustic mizuya tansu (kitchen cupboard) and those amazing pre-WWII light fixtures hanging from the wooden ceiling beams. I found a second view too, highlighting the gorgeous metal stove hood and a small collection of bamboo baskets on the upper shelves. This tansu here looks to be late 18th century, while most readily available today are late 19th century, like the one sourced below. The light fixtures in the photo are fabric stretched over a metal frame. I have sourced some milk glass ones from the same period with metal detailing on the outside.

Michael Smith’s interiors are unusual in that he weaves in Japanese antiques in almost ever project he does – rare in the decorating world we see published in the glossy magazines. Testament to his greatness is the way they fit seamlessly into the eclectic melange he conjures.

Image credits: 1 & 3. Elle Decor April 2010, photo credit: Simon Upton, 2, 4, 12, 16-17 and 21. Kanarusha Antiques, 5-6 and 8. Elle Decor, photo credit: Simon Upton, 7. Edo Arts, 9 and 20. Okura Oriental Art, 10. me, 11. Metroplitan Home?, date unknown, 12. Michael S. Smith, 13. Not sure of attribution here, please let me know, 14. Naga Antiques, 15 and 19. Elle Decor October 2009, photo credit: Simon Upton, 18. via Chinoiserie Chic.

Dec 5, 2010 By tokyojinja in Design Motif, Furniture, Interior Design, Lacquer, Lighting, Porcelain and Pottery Tags: interior design, japanese antiques, michael smith

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