7.4.11

A ROLLING MANTEL GATHERS NO MOSS

Moss covered mantel in the DC Design showhouse.  Move over Martha.

Before.  The Eisenhower administration called, and they want their curtains back.


Photos from Washington Post, Lynda Cutler, Top, John McDonnell, bottom.  

24 comments:

home before dark said...

It appears the designer was rolling stoned. File idea of moss on fireplace under: Just Because We Can, Should We?

The Ancient said...

Perhaps she's making a play for the local mossback business.

(Whatever that is on top of the mantel -- crosses, imitation monstrances, a little something to ward off vampires -- it shouldn't be there. What was she thinking?)

The Ancient said...

There are better pictures here:

http://mynottinghill.blogspot.com/2011/04/2011-dc-design-house-where-to-start.html

(That Tinker-town Golgotha is a big mistake.)

The Down East Dilettante said...

Home Before: Good one!

Ancient & Ancient Redux: Agreed and Agreed again.

The room with the two swings leaves me gaping and gasping too.

Raina Cox said...

But the best part was the photo of the decorator (I shan't call her a designer) dressed like an extra from The Cosby Show circa 1988.

Anonymous said...

Did you know the ceiling is pink? It is.

The Down East Dilettante said...

Raina, :0

Flo, flo, say it isn't so....

Anonymous said...

From The Ancient's link to expanded coverage:

"The Dining Room is painted in Light Gray with Dutch Pink on the ceilings. The patterned floor is in Pointing and Babouche."

The Devoted Classicist said...

Uh, oh. I have a showhouse chimneypiece post scheduled for tomorrow and now wondering if I should pull it! It is from a Kips Bay room some years ago, so I will find some sort of resolution if you hate it!

I realize that many interior designers/decorators (and I do not consider the term "decorator" as a step-down) want to use the showhouse as a laboratory for their ideas and a forum to present their personal style, but Innovation ranks lower than Good Design for me. I had rather see a beautifully thought out, useable showhouse room any day, instead of just something trying to be new and different. But I blame it on the media. Because it is the whacky display that gets pictured in the newspaper every time. But then, that is why I am The Devoted Classicist and not The Trendy Stylist.

Anonymous said...

ps: I'll never believe you were an "expensive child" as charged! But it might be true that you got your storytelling gene straight from your Dad. LOVE the story about your nine-months-pregnant-Mom setting out for a day on the water. Good work, two beauts published in one day!

ArchitectDesign™ said...

No comment on the mantel, but I do LOVE those chairs, curtains and floors. DC is so staid and boring that once in awhile it's nice to see some crazy color down here.

Laurent said...

Careful, now. Reggie will not let you say "mantel," when the preferred Mitfordism is "chimney-piece." Be very cautious, or he could smite you from his sidebar.

Pigtown*Design said...

HOLY COW! What is that decorator wearing? Zebra is not doing her any favours!

The Ancient said...

Since this is now established as The Bad Behavior Room, I will tell a story, prompted by the peculiar architecture of the show house's living room.

When Oprah Winfrey first had a little money to spend, she hired a Washington decorator to do up her house "in the country" -- which as best I can now recall, was not far from Gary, Indiana.

The house had "A Great Room" -- it was the 1980s, after all -- and the decorator spent a quarter million dollars (perhaps more) on dozens of Federal and Georgian mirrors which he then bolted to the vaulted ceiling with screws driven through their giltwood frames, thereby reducing their actual value to zero.

P.S. This is a story with a happy ending: She still employs that decorator. And why not? Money should be fun.

The Down East Dilettante said...

Flo, the story telling gene is indeed from my father and his parents...except they all were more concise with better timing. Ah well.

I watched the video of the showhouse. I liked the designer, and I like her outfit. A little spunk, a little Iris Apfel.

Devoted, I'm on the fence. I always liked showhouses for the high quality, and the new ideas. But it sure isn't what has been coming out of them at either end in recent years. And so true, attention getting is winning out over better. I look forward to your CHIMNEY PIECE piece(I'm writing it one hundred times on the blackboard) Although, all ideas of 'non U' and 'U' usage aside, the shelf on the chimney piece is correctly called a mantel.

Laurent, I'm going to be laughing until tomorrow. Reggie won't strike me from his blog roll. Without those of us who occasionally lapse, how could he feel superior?

Speaking of usage, in the video about the showhouse, the announcer repeatedly used the word 'foyer', which if I had hair, would make it stand on end. And then in the next breath, the two ugliest words in the English language were uttered: 'Table Skirt'

My Notting Hill said...

I've seen this room in person and it all works beautifully together. It was a cloudy day on Press Day and her room was really vibrant and fresh even without any sunshine. I love the mantel. Camille is a true creative and is always pushing herself to do something in her showhouse rooms that's different.

Anonymous said...

Oooo, new text, ok, I was going to highlight your remark about the radiator, but. With thanks to Notting Hill, who I see in line before me this morning, we are able to see the whole house on her site, floor by floor, and this is where I saw a noteworthy radiator resolution. Apparently, each designer had to deal with those radiators in just about every room of the house. FWIW, I consider the dining room radiator transformation a flop, but "the family room" designer resolved the radiator reality so subtly that it disappeared into the background, worth sharing:

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-H2km7i1RQcw/TZu7n5IrzPI/AAAAAAAAKJM/xcMnSMDCAGo/s1600/P1090374.JPG

The Down East Dilettante said...

Notting Hill, thanks for the live view---I actually toned down the original post because I realized that it was a 'had to be there' situation--photos don't always tell the story. However, about those crosses....

Flo, agreed. And with you about Darryl Carter, btw

Anonymous said...

"Flo, agreed. And with you about Darryl Carter, btw"

His book [The New Traditional] is exceptional, the text is beautifully written, you can see his rational mind at work. Maybe that's the word I'm looking for, rational. This dining room is irrational. My fingernail:blackboard thing is "fun" - fun interiors, a fun room, a fun chimney piece. I'll use it in a sentence now: Flo is not fun.

The Down East Dilettante said...

Flo, rational is one of my favorite concepts---and so missing from so much of the dialogue these days, if you get my drift...

Anonymous said...

"agreed. And with you about Darryl Carter, btw"

My husband is out of town this weekend getting some CEUs, I'm dangerously home alone with DC's book and a can of black paint; the front doors are first, inside and out.

The Down East Dilettante said...

dangerously home alone with a can of black paint.

you go girl!

Decor Arts Now said...

I have learned the hard way that when you critique, others can get nasty back at you.
Not me tho '. Couldn't agree more......

Turner Pack Rats said...

i would say that a moss covered mantel was the least of their worries when they have a 6 foot hanging made out of RAZORBLADES hanging in another room - Designer house - ah the old famous firm of Daffy Duck and Bozo the Clown. maybe the crosses grew out of the moss.

DED - you demean yourself when it comes to funny - I'LL be laughing until tomorrow with the crack about the drapes.

security word def - "rephyp"- the line of patter handed to you by most designers