Tuesday, October 27, 2009

A beautiful room

I got this image out of a book all about C&F. Its one of my favorite images from the book and I have used it as a model for my own living room. It seems to be a very long and a somewhat narrow room, much similar to my own which I think must of been the ballroom in its past life. I live in a renovated townhouse in Chelsea. The house was built  in the late 1800'S, went through several owners over the years and was restored to its "Whartonesque stateliness" 12 or so years ago by Norah and Edward Burden before they sold it to its current owner, our fantastic landlord and friend John. My husband and I rent  the bottom two floors and our landlord has the top two. When we moved in I sat in the empty room for sometime completely at a loss as to what to do with it, there where so many possibilities yet so many restrictions.  The space  presented somewhat of a challenge for me. First we are renting so I was limited in what I could do structurally and financially. Second, although the room is huge, bright and beautiful it is an awkward shape, long and narrow with two doors on one side of the room two fire places on the other and two floor to ceiling windows at the front. I started flipping through mags and art books hoping for some inspiration when I remembered this picture from my FIT days. I went through my  boxes, dug out the book and as they say, the rest is history. When ever I get off track I just refer back this photo and it instantly refocuses everything for me. I just love the elegant but livable style of this room. Its an easy, breezy and playful room. Balancing the very fine line of not taking its self to seriously while at the same time maintaing a level of sophistication that I find empowering.  A room where one can entertain in black tie or tromp through in a old dusty pair of boots and put your feet up. I have not achieved the perfection that exists in the photo in my own living room as of yet but I am working on it and I am definatly on the right track.

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