Villa Fontanelle: Versace's chateau de Guermantes

I must admit that when the Sotheby's sales catalogue of the contents of Gianni Versace's Lake Como house arrived last week, I didn't tear it open. In fact, it took a good few days to get around to it and even then I approached it with reluctance.

Much to my surprise and delight, instead of being assaulted by brash clear colors and over-the-top gilt and gilt-mounted furniture suites, my eyes took in a restrained - although very high style - villa that was right up my alley (although maybe not so many nudes).

Built by Lord Charles Currie who was so enamoured by Italy that he took up Italian citizenship, the house is in the neoclassical style but as seen through the prism of an English mi'lord. Versace set out to furnish it sympathetically with Empire period and inspired pieces.

Two Views of the Salon

My interest was further piqued by the introduction - unsigned but presumably by Donatella - which notes that Gianni called it "a Proust house", one full of memories, sensations, and feelings, which of course made me think of Madeleine Castaing who even kept of photo of the author in her library . Who knows - perhaps she sold Versace some of his Napoleon III pieces?!

The Library

A Landing - a Rex Whistler-esque moment of whimsy

Amusing. Either that little boy is two feet tall or the mustachioed painter has giantism.


The Dining Room

Smashing. The dining table below is loosely based on a table in the bedroom of Caroline Murat, the Queen of Naples, in the Elysee Palace, and now in the Trianon (estimate: $8,900 - 14,800)

Another dining room....

Gianni's Bedroom

I think I like the wall-covering - what do you think?


A Guest Bedroom

The painting on the wall could inspire some home projects...

To die for. Truly an earthly paradise. Especially since George Clooney is probably nearby.

Made me smile 2

Yes, that's Lucille Ball brandishing a whip as part of a bizarre dance sequence with cat-besuited ladies in the 1946 film Ziegfeld Follies. It alone (and only) is worth the price of admission.

Colonial Revival Chic: Henry Davis Sleeper's Beauport

When I first saw this photo which graced the cover of World of Interiors a few years ago, it was love at first sight. I sprang into action and bought Farrow and Ball's Arsenic...
...and was determined to create my own Gold Step Room* by painting the baseboards, cornice, and enormous armoire in my dining room this stunning oxidized copper color. Eventually - I told myself - I would troll ebay and form a similar collection of green majolica and snap!

Although the can of paint was never opened (much to Mr. EEE's relief), my affair with Beauport continues to thrive. Dreamed up by Henry Davis Sleeper, a decorator and collector whose imagination and wit knew no bounds, this 40 room summer "cottage" located in Gloucester, Mass. is a veritable Aladdin's cave of historical styles. Between 1907 and 1934, Sleeper conjured up each room out of a unique style inspiration, from Horace Walpole's 18th century Gothick Strawberry Hill to Benjamin Franklin's stove.


Sleeper found these wooden pelmets and designed the windows around them. The round shape of the Library Tower followed. Click here to see the Mother of all Wooden Pelmets.

Indeed the higgledy-piggledy exterior of the house was held hostage to the roomscapes it enclosed as evident in this photo of the harbour-front facade.


18th century "Pillar and Arch" wallpaper found in Paul Revere's house was replicated in this bedroom by Thomas Strahan and Company between 1906 and 1910.

I wonder if Sleeper ever saw this painting of an Irish Georgian interior by Philip Hussey? (The Victoria and Albert says that two types of "Pillar and Arch" paper are depicted here.)

Adelphi Paper Hangings make this Pillar and Arch paper "1776" in partnership with Historic New England, although not en grisaille unfortunately.

Another dynamite room is the China Trade Room which was formerly a medieval hall until Sleeper found rolls of this unused hand-painted wallpaper. It certainly served as inspiration for Henry du Pont's Chinese Parlor at Winterthur below....


In fact, du Pont was so taken by Sleeper's example that it is questionable whether Winterthur would exist in its current form otherwise - and to take it an extreme step further, possibly the entire colonial revivalism of the twenties which included the period rooms at the Metropolitan Museum of Art (1924) and the founding of the Magazine Antiques (1922).

* so-called because of a model ship of the same name displayed in the room

Photos #1, 5, 8 by Christopher Simon Sykes for the World of Interiors, #2 courtesy of Farrow and Ball, #3 courtesy of Historic New England, #6 National Gallery of Art, Ireland, #6 courtesy of Adelphi Paper Hangings

Adieu La Goulue

Mark your calendars - you have until April 5th to get yourself to one of the last bastions of the neo-Swan set, La Goulue. This weekend I said my farewells with a long, boozy lunch of steak tartare and frites, but you might say yours with the raved-about cheese souffle.

Bask in the warm glow thrown from the Louis Majorelle sconces and the dark paneled walls while you gaze surreptitiously at the other diners in the dark oxidized mirrors. Although the management hope to reopen in a new location eventually, chances are they won't be able to recapture the gilded-age aura of the original.

Of course the original La Goulue harks back not to the 1970s but to the dance halls of Belle Epoque Paris. Born Louise Weber to a washerwoman, "The Glutton" came to rule the Paris nightlife with her dazzling can-can and audacious practice of stealing patrons' cocktails while performing (hence the nickname).

The Queen of Montmarte also buffeted her earnings by posing as an artist's model, most famously for Henri Toulouse-Lautrec.

But as it seems with all of the bright stars of the night, this one burned fast, furious and then out. By her fifties, she was depressed, destitute, and prone to the bottle. She died at the age of sixty-three and lies buried in Montmartre.

Puttin' on the Chintz

My dear friend and talented decorator Beth Martell of Randall Ridless insists that chintz is back - and I couldn't agree more. What could be a better antidote to tight budgets and grey forecasts - for both the weather and economy - than this exuberantly colorful and patterned printed cotton?

Its lack of pretention and brashful cheeriness are just two reasons why it feels so right. And it doesn't hurt that it's easy on the pocket book compared to the grander lampas or brocade.

The custom of using tailored covers, often of checked cloth, first started in the 18th century in grander English houses to protect precious Genoan velvets and silk damasks when not entertaining. In the 19th century and onwards, chintzes were used liberally as covers. Many like at Brodsworth Hall, below, have both summer and winter prints

When English Heritage took over Brodsworth in 1990, they commissioned a hand-blocked reproduction of "The Favorite", the summer chintz seen above. "The Champion" used in winter-time is the same pattern but more subdued.

A guest bedroom at Brodsworth last redecorated in 1905 and left as English Heritage founded it. Several of the total 107 different patterns are on display.

The drawing room at the eccentric Calke Abbey. The floral sprays of the chintz covers serve as a blast of fresh air and enliven the room's gilded opulence.

No mention of chintz could omit its royal highness (and Beth's former boss) Mario Buatta. His work for the Palm Beach residence (top photo) of the owners of Carolands featured in this month's Architectural Digest is full of zip and zest. Buatta is known for his English Country House style and was greatly inspired by John Fowler.

Nancy Lancaster's bedroom by Colefax and Fowler. "Berkeley Sprig", inspired by a fragment of antique wallpaper found in a Berkeley Square residence, covers the George III armchair and is the firm's signature print.

Colefax and Fowler alumna Nina Campbell used Baker's Ferns by GP & J Baker in this bedroom. Apparently the project was low on funds at this point and the reasonable price point enabled her to use yards and yards of it. Baker's Ferns was first introduced in 1935 adapted from Curtis’s Flora Londinensis, and was a favorite of Elsie de Wolfe. This image inspired me to use Ferns in my bedroom.

Another fabric I'd love to use is "Geisha" by Jean Monro, first introduced in 1928 by Jean's mother, Mrs. Geraldine Monro, a top drawer English society decorator. Jean started reproducing the firm's archival prints, staying faithful to the original techniques, in 1981. The quality of these chintzes is phenomenal, still hand-blocked and using as many as 24 screens. Click here to see more...

Do you have a favorite chintz?

Top photo by Scott Frances for Architectural Digest, #2 and #3 by Antony Crolla for The World of Interiors, # 4 courtesy National Trust, #5 courtesy Colefax and Fowler, #6 from Nina Campbell's The Art of Decoration, # 7 courtesy Jean Monro