Remembering Lee Radziwill with a Look at Her Former Paris Apartment

February 17, 2019February 17, 20196 Comments

Yesterday Lee Radziwill, former princess and sister to the late Jackie Kennedy died of natural causes, as confirmed by her daughter. She was 85. She lived what seemed to be a happy, free-spirited life that was also shrouded by sadness. Like Jackie, she had a soft spot for Paris and once owned a beautiful sixth-floor apartment in an 8th-arrondissement neighborhood facing Avenue Montaigne with views of the Eiffel Tower. Lee put her 1,625 square foot apartment up for sale in Fall 2017 citing that she was no longer spending enough time there. In memory of Lee Radziwill, let’s take a look back at the beautiful Paris apartment she once owned and decorated herself. In a comprehensive article by T Magazine, Lee was quoted as saying that the Paris apartment was her “favorite of any home I’ve ever had”.

Photo credit: T Magazine photographed by François Halard circa 2013; Match Magazine circa 2015; Real estate listing photos circa 2017.

The Pink House Outside Paris

December 27, 20186 Comments

It’s been a challenge to find time to write a proper post since we’ve been back from our Fall trip to Italy. Today is a good day to break my silence. After seeing this home online at Architectural Digest I knew I immediately had to share it with you. It is the home of Jason Basmajian, CEO of the esteemed menswear line, Cerruti. Basmajian is a Boston native but now lives in London. This is Basmajian’s country home located outside of Paris that serves as his weekend retreat. I love that he maintained the home’s original antique, rosy hue. Isn’t it beautiful? The interior was remodeled and required the installation of new bathrooms in the attic space since the original home had none. Creature comforts!

I left all the creaks in the floors and wanted to keep the old house’s sensitivity, but with all the modern comforts. –Jason Basmajian

How You Can Tour the County Estate “Patina Farm”

November 4, 2018November 4, 20183 Comments

If you’ve never been to the charming town of Ojai, located in Ventura County 80 miles northwest of Los Angeles, then I highly suggest you plan a trip this upcoming weekend. It may be last minute, but wouldn’t life be dull without a little bit of spontaneity once in a while? A trip to Ojai any time of the year is wonderful but this weekend is particularly special – especially for all you design enthusiasts out there. To kick off the holiday season, the annual Ojai Holiday Home Tour & Marketplace will take place November 10 & 11.

The official website describes the event as follows:

“Each year the Ojai Holiday Home Tour welcomes designers and florists, each of whom are assigned a home and tasked with bringing their own vision of décor and the holidays to life. This year (November 10-11), we have lined up the following designers Bruce Abbott, Angela’s Flowers, Carolyn Bennett of cdb gardens, Laurel Crary, Brooke Giannetti of Giannetti Home, and Ojai Blooms.”

What particularly caught my attention is that the home of Brooke and Steve Giannetti is included in the home tour this year. Inspired by the country homes of Europe, the talented architect and designer/husband and wife duo Brooke and Steve Giannetti designed and built a country house in the Ojai Valley of California. It took them 6 months of planning and 18 months of construction to develop the five-acre site that is now their home and farm. Brooke is also the author of a website that I’ve followed for many years, Velvet & Linen, where she chronicled the project that ultimately led to the publication of a beautiful book that I am happy to have on my bookshelf. I’ll also be preordering their latest book, Patina Living, that provides insight on what they’ve learned while living on the farm. Patina Living is due out in April 2019 and is available for pre-order on Amazon.

The Ojai Holiday Home Tour is a wonderful opportunity to step inside some of the most beautiful properties in the valley, including Patina Farm. Tickets to the event can be purchased on-site or in advance here, with proceeds benefiting the Ojai Music Festival. I have other commitments this weekend and am very disappointed that I won’t be able to attend to tour Patina Farm. However, I do hope that one day I might be invited as a guest. In the meantime, I will sit back and enjoy Brooke and Steve’s lovely book. You can purchase your own copy here.

If you happen to attend please send me a note to let me know…I’d love to hear all about it…

The Perfect Little Office

November 1, 2018November 1, 20182 Comments

Having a small space doesn’t mean you have to skimp on style and the 176 square foot office designed by Amy Mitchell is a perfect example of that. When her business outgrew the designated space in her New Hampshire home (her kitchen!) she converted a 19th-century building on her property that was being used as a storage shed into a beautiful office space for her interior design business, Home Glow Design.

I read about the project in this article on Houzz where I learned that the renovation of the space was designed over the course of 6 short weeks as part of the One Room Challenge earlier this year. In case you missed it (like I did) you can still catch up on all 6 weeks in these posts: Week 1/Week 2/Week 3/Week 4/Week 5/Week 6. Each week gives insight on the progress of the renovation work, as well as provide source details for the items used in the space. Many of the items are from Ikea, several which I’ve incorporated into my own office space. If you’ve been concerned about using Ikea in your own office, don’t be. My pieces have held up well, been very versatile, and come at such an affordable price point that my wallet appreciates. The money I saved allowed me to splurge in other areas. Plus, the amount of storage they provide can’t be beat. For me, they’ve turned out to be a great alternative to pricey built-ins.

STEVEN GAMBREL RESTORES 27 SUFFOLK STREET

October 9, 2018October 9, 20181 Comment

I’ve never met an interior designed by Steven Gambrel that I didn’t like. I follow him on Instagram (along with 78,000 other people) and have been enjoying the images of the work he has been doing at 27 Suffolk Street in Sag Harbor, New York. I noticed a couple of days ago that he announced that the home is now officially listed for sale. The home was originally built in 1854 and is officially known as the Captain Osborne Edwards House. Steven Gambrel collaborated with Timeless Homes Ltd. to beautifully restore the 5,200 square foot home from top to bottom with upgraded, modern amenities that anyone would be happy to call home. The price tag? $6.795 million.

A MARTHA’S VINEYARD CHARMER BY LILIANE HART

September 20, 2018September 20, 20185 Comments

I may have been born and raised in a suburb of Los Angeles but sometimes I feel like a New England girl at heart. I have traveled to the east coast on numerous occasions and each time I visit I fall more in love with the region’s classic coastal style. Maybe part of the allure isn’t just about the architecture or decorating style. It really is about a lifestyle – one where much of life revolves around that water. Anywhere near the water is considered to be one of my “happy places”.

The Martha’s Vineyard home I am highlighting today was designed by Liliane Hart, a designer that Traditional Home Magazine named as one of 2017’s rising design stars. The home was featured in a recent issue of House Beautiful magazine and I have included pictures from both the magazine spread as well those from Liliane’s portfolio. This also reminded me that I really shouldn’t wait too long to plan a trip to Martha’s Vineyard since it’s a place I actually haven’t been to yet but something tells me that I’m going to love it…

I’ve mentioned before that our home is designed around fairly neutral colors with not a lot of pattern since I tend to tire of things easily. However, if there is one designer that can convince me to step outside of my comfort zone and embrace color and pattern, it would be the talented Liliane Hart. She has a flair for color and a wonderful eye for mixing color and pattern with classic style. However, she also has her way with neutrals that are just as captivating. Many designers have a signature and while there is absolutely nothing wrong with that,

http://lilianehart.com/portfolio.html

COLOR STORY: BOLD RED STRIPES

September 2, 2018September 2, 20181 Comment

It always feels like Labor Day weekend marks the unofficial end of Summer so if I had to pick a pattern that was synonymous with the season, it would have to be the classic stripe. I probably should have posted this at the start of Summer but frankly, Summer 2018 has been somewhat uninspiring for me (hence the lack of regular posts). I’m fairly certain that it has something to do with the fact that it’s my least favorite part of the year. I was going through some old pictures when I came across this image of a children’s bedroom I took a few years ago at a model home (YT- Do you remember this?). It’s definitely not my style but it was the inspiration for this post and serves as a great reminder that sometimes it’s good to step outside your comfort zone.

When it comes to my own decorating, the color red is usually reserved for the holiday season but I really do love stripes. To mix things up a bit I thought I would put together a few examples of bold red stripes that have Reviving Charm’s seal of approval. Several of these images may not be new but are definitely still relevant…and that’s a sign of enduring style.

Red stripe beach towel.

Red is designer Alessandra Branca’s signature color. No one does red better than she does so I thought I would end the last 2 pictures in this post with her designs.

A Kennedy Carriage House Turned Cottage

August 26, 2018August 27, 2018Leave a comment

It’s amazing how the fascination with the Kennedy’s doesn’t ever seem to die down. The Kennedy name is synonymous with style so it’s no surprise that Architectural Digest recently chose to profile the circa 1904 Hyannis Port carriage house turned cottage belonging to Rhode Island congressman Patrick Kennedy (son of the late Senator Edward “Ted” Kennedy) and his wife Amy.

One of the things I’ve always found interesting about Patrick’s grandparents, Joe and Rose Kennedy, is that as wealthy as they were, they never overly decorated their home on Hyannis Port, or the “Big House” as it was often referred to. Maybe they realized that it wasn’t practical while raising 9 kids? Or maybe it had something to do with the fact that since most of their time on the Cape was actually spent outdoors, they felt that the interiors didn’t need to be overly lavish? Patrick Kennedy confirmed my suspicion by stating in the article that “…it was never about the big house, the ornate architecture. The house was just a location. My grandparents were obviously very, very wealthy, but they never, ironically, invested a lot building out a really fancy house,” he says. “They were never trying to impress anyone. It’s very understated. [Our house] is a very glorified bunkhouse, a crash pad that has very nice architectural aesthetics.” It seems that Amy and Patrick have carried on the tradition of creating a casual environment when turning their attention to the interiors of their own home on the Compound. They’ve created a welcoming beach house famously situated on one of the most idyllic settings on the bay.

Ranch Houzz Perfection

August 3, 2018August 6, 20184 Comments

I love a variety of different design styles that it often poses a challenge when trying to narrow down a look for our own seaside ranch house. Ranch homes are generally humble in nature and it’s been challenging to find images of a ranch home done right. If you’ve seen any, please let me know. My search led me to images of this Los Angeles, California ranch home on Houzz a few months back and later to the designer’s website. At 4,000 square feet, you can hardly call it humble in terms of square footage but you could definitely call it homey and quaint in terms of its overall aesthetic. It’s not overly decorated and looks collected over time. These are qualities I wish to capture in our own home. It’s a place I’d feel most comfortable coming home to every night. I’ve visited and revisited these pictures on many occasions studying each detail hoping to capture the same essence in our own home. Before I start vacillating back and forth on style, I should probably contact Mark J. Williams, the designer for this project, to help me jump start things a bit on our own home. I’m never too proud to call in reinforcement when needed.

Crystal Palecek’s New Office

July 16, 2018July 14, 20182 Comments

I had lunch with a couple of friends a few days ago. One friend was sharing details about the remodeling being planned for her home while the other, a recent empty nester, was talking about a redecorating project currently in process. Specifically, the empty nester was turning a bedroom into a new office and craft room. She couldn’t be more excited about it. I could relate to her giddiness because it wasn’t until we moved into the seaside ranch home that I was able to decorate my very own office space. Coincidently that evening I also read about the new office of Crystal Palecek, Co-Founder and Editor in Chief of Rue Magazine. Here’s a look at Crystal’s new office space but be sure to read the interview with her to learn more about the design, its inspiration and sources for her project. After hearing about my friend’s project and seeing Crystal’s new office, it made me start rethinking my own space. Uh-oh…can you see where this is headed?