john saladino

Lavender Love…John Saladino and Me

Those of you who know me well are quite aware of my love affair with the color lavender. I adore it in all its shades, from blue periwinkle to pinky lilac to deep plum, although rarely pure purple. Over the years I have collected hundreds of pieces of lavender transferware which I use in my kitchen ever day. But I am not the only one to love the color – there is someone else who comes to mind – none other than master designer John Saladino. He has a particular shade of periwinkle lavender he uses over and over again. Along with scratch coat plaster and his rigorous classicism, it has become one of his signatures.

The new issue of House Beautiful has me thinking about how John Saladino pops his signature hue against neutrals. I am not going to wax poetic about it all as the photos speak more clearly than I can. Just look at those amazing hall portieres above and try to imagine the living room below without its bursts of color.

Saladino often loves to juxtapose fine antiques with the rough-hewn. Here, in one of his previous New York apartments, he has exposed the brick walls. Again, the amazing natural light, the mix of old and new, and pop, the lavender armchair.

Here is the view from the other side showing his control over the fancy and the tribal, a real mixture of materials.

You have to look closely to find the lavender in the bedroom, but it is there, in the curtains and the transferware plates on the night table. Softness against the rough brick. Gotta love the quote on the top of the page.

In his living room in Santa Barbara, terra-cotta tiles provide the same contrast as the brick did above. This room has to be one of his most perfect spaces, even if that is a grammatically incorrect statement, as he has so many.

Saladino saturates the walls of his dining room at Robin Hill, his Connecticut estate. This room has such beautiful formal detailing, which he has contrasted with the very modern art.

I would love to east a meal in this dining room!

His table setting has just a whiff of lavender.

This room was featured in the October 2005 issue of Veranda. The periwinkle chairs just beckon from the far end of the room.

And here they are close-up with another signature, the tall beaker vases. Saladino routinely displays one blue delphinium in each, or in this case hydrangea, to pop the color even further.

SFLuxe’s Design Editor Claudia Juestel has a great interview with Saladino. In that 2010 article is this living room photo, clearly the same room as the one above, but refurnished and restyled, with just a touch of his color in the pillow on the sofa.

Saladino designed this room for Veranda’s SoHo Mews Showhouse using furniture from his line. In fact, almost all the upholstered furniture in these photos is represented there.

I couldn’t resist including this bedroom from the November Elle Decor as it, like the recent room above, pumps up the color volume. It will be interesting to see if he continues that trend.

Spring is definitely a time for lavender as the wisteria is open, the irises are peeking out and next month brings hydrangeas. If unlike me, you can’t commit permanently to a relationship with the color, you can easily achieve a temporary one with flowers.

For more on John Saladino, see one of my previous posts: A Masterful Modern Mixmaster…John Saladino

Image credits: 1-2. House Beautiful May 2011, photo credit:Eric Piasecki, 3-5. House & Garden April 1999, photo credit: Michael Mundy, 6-9. Style by John Saladino, photo credits: Barbara and Rene Stoeltie, 10-11. Veranda October 2005, photo credit: Antoine Bootz, 12. via SFLuxe, photo credit: Antoine Bootz, 13. Veranda January 2010, photo credit: Antoine Bootz, 14. Elle Decor Nomember 2010, photo credit: Antoine Bootz.

May 6, 2011 By tokyojinja in Color, Interior Design Tags: john saladino, lavender

A Masterful Modern Mixmaster…John F. Saladino

“Any fragments from the past, especially those that you can touch, connect you to the makers of those pieces, making you aware that we are threads in a great tapestry of time.”
John Saladino

Often referred to as the “designer’s designer”, John Saladino has been at the absolute top of the design field for over 30 years. He works not only as an interior designer but also as an architectural designer, landscape designer, and in this case, as a curator as well. This June 1998 House & Garden spread features the Colorado home of a couple with an extraordinary collection of antiques and art. Making sense of such a disparate group of items is something that only a master could achieve. Interspersed among the Greek, Roman and Egyptian antiquities are numerous Japanese antiques of all types. I would be hard pressed to imagine more than one antique screen (byobu) in a house; somehow he manages to integrate three. In testament to Saladino’s triumph, it feels neither like the hodgepodge of an antique store nor has the sterility of a museum, but rather a peaceful and lovely home.

The coffee table boasts a grouping of bamboo letter boxes and what looks to be a bronze hibachi on the raised fireplace hearth.

The dining room/living room has a treasure trove of objects – the first of at least 3 byobu (screens) in the house on the back left hand wall, a kimono rack with an extraordinary brocade (or perhaps embroidered) robe up on the stair landing, a bowl-shaped bamboo ikebana basket between the columns and a rare lacquered trunk in the foreground.

This 17th century antique screen is coupled with an art deco Ruhlman chair, an Italian chest and a Roman bronze head.

Another view of the living room reveals that amazing lacquered trunk, a pair of bronze altar candlesticks and the third screen. The maki-e work on the trunk is covered in symmetrical circular designs called mon or kamon, circular crests used to identify a family, much like a European heraldic coat of arms. For instance, the kamon of the imperial family is the circular chrysanthemum and it’s use by others was prohibited. Gradually mon became used by commoners and then later on as logos for merchants and products. The use of mon as a decorative device can be seen in lacquerware, porcelain and textiles and is one of my favorites. Looking for your own mon? This site has a full dictionary of them.

The serene bedroom has a pair of highly ornamental 18th altar tables being used as small side tables. Definitely use a coaster!

Can you date these rooms without looking back at the beginning of the post? Most likely not, as in addition to their extraordinary beauty, they are also timeless and will never look dated. For me, this agelessness is one of Saladino’s strengths. Another is that his spaces are places in which modernists, traditionalists, classicists, and the like can all agree.

Interested in seeing more? I recommend his books; Villa, which chronicles the renovation and restoration of his elegant 1920s California villa and Style, in which he reveals his design secrets.

Image credits: all from House & Garden, June 1998, Photographed by William Waldron

Sep 23, 2010 By tokyojinja in Furniture, Interior Design, Lacquer, Textiles, Then and Now Tags: altar table, baskets, byobu, john saladino, lacquer