books

Design for Living: Finishing Touches

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Design for Living: Finishing Touches

Finishing Touches

I've been decorating a client's Brooklyn brownstone apartment and we're at the final stage of adding the finishing touches.  Her living room bookcase that until now had contained nothing but books presented us with the opportunity to change the dynamic and incorporate some of her favorite accessories and keepsakes among the books.  Decorating bookcases or shelves is a great way to express your creativity and bring an artistic dimension to a room.  Also, as London Interior designer, Kelly Hoppen succinctly puts it, "A beautiful arrangement of accessories on a self is an easy, elegant way to embrace trends and keep your interiors up to date."

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What I'm Reading Right Now - Sargent: Portraits of Artists & Friends →

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What I'm Reading Right Now - Sargent: Portraits of Artists & Friends

I'm currently reading the fantastic Sargent: Portraits of Artists and Friends about the celebrated American artist, John Singer Sargent.  A beautifully illustrated book written by Richard Ormond with Elaine Kilmurray coincides with an upcoming exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, June 30 - October 4 2015 of the same title.  Not only a painter of portraits celebrating American and European high society, Sargent also made numerous portraits, often not commissioned, of his friends, who were writers, actors, artists and musicians.  

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What I'm Reading Right Now - Ottoman Chic

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What I'm Reading Right Now - Ottoman Chic

The Turkish decorator, Serdar Gulgun has made his home in a former pasha's hunting lodge in the middle of Istanbul.  The lodge is decorated in classic Ottoman-style, with Murano-glass chandeliers, French fauteuils, Chinese porcelain, luxurious Oushaks and colorful suzanis.  I met with Serdar in his home a couple of years ago and was dazzled by both the elegance and opulence of his interior design aesthetic.  A new book chronicling this beautiful home, Ottoman Chic (Assouline, $75) contains enough decorating ideas to keep the most avid decorating enthusiast and interior design professional alike engrossed.

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