Charlotte Moss on the Ideal Bedside Table

About a month ago, I visited mega-decorator Charlotte Moss in her Upper East Side brownstone to interview her for  R.Home magazine. What fun! She was lovely and incredibly schooled on design history. She made me want to lock myself in her library until I’d finished reading all of the gorgeous design books lining her shelves. Like most successful people, Moss has obviously done her homework in life. And she isn’t afraid to pull from the past — and admit she’s doing it. She takes her favorite elements from famous women of style and synthesizes them into something entirely her own, that’s elegant, detailed, and always comfortable.

I asked Charlotte to explain this nook in the bedroom she designed for the ”Designers Visions at The Laurel” decorator’s showhouse in which apartments were sponsored by magazines in The Laurel apartment building in New York. Moss decorated an apartment in the high rise for Veranda and it appeared on their cover in November. After hearing her answer, I think this photo is a great example of the level of detail in her work.

The Perfect Bedside Table
Moss sent a letter to all her clients asking them what attributes they like in a bedside table. She synthesized that feedback into this table. They wanted extra space on top so she created a pull-out slide for extra surface area. They wanted to make sure things wouldn’t fall off so she created a gallery ledge around the edge. A lower shelf is big enough for a basket to hold books and magazines. And, of course they wanted drawers, so she made drawers deep enough to hold a box of tissues, and all manner of remote controls. “It’s so nice not to have to have technology staring you in the face,” she says.

The Color of the Caribbean
As for the color palette of the room, Moss says the pale aqua blue with ivory combo felt right because of the glorious light in the apartment. ”The color to me is like floating up in a cloud in a high rise,” she says. The seagrass wall covering is by Phillip Jeffries. The four-poster bed is a Moss signature. “It’s like a room within a room,” she says. “People always say there isn’t enough room, but what you really do is sleep in this room so just because you have a small room you don’t have to sacrifice the bed of your dreams.”

Italy in the Living Room
The challenge in decorating this apartment, Moss says, was warming up a cold, contemporary space. She was inspired to decorate the living room with warm oranges immediately after walking in and spotting the terracotta church roof out the window. And she liked that the whole family of colors seemed to be sunny and warm and sort of enveloping.

“When you do a showhouse you always say, ‘who is this person? Who am I designing for. This, I imagined to be a pied a terre of a couple who got married in Italy and came to New York and walked in, like I did, and saw that terracotta roof.” The velvet on the sofas is by Schumacher and the paintings are of Venice, further bringing Italy into the apartment.

See the Whole Apartment
Check out a 360-degree video of the apartment here. You can also see the apartments designed for House Beautiful by McAlpine Booth & Ferrier Interiors, for the now-defunct O at Home by D.C. designer Darryl Carter and for Town & Country by Stephen Siegel.

Want more on Charlotte? Read my piece in R.Home. For a peek inside Charlotte’s own townhome, visit the New York Social Diary. See a recent Q&A with Charlotte at All The Best.

P.S. I couldn’t resist asking Charlotte what she thought about the Obamas’ choice of Michael Smith to decorate the White House. Here’s what she said:

“Oh I think Michael is a good choice. If I was going to decorate my own house, and I wasn’t a decorator, he would be in my top five because I love his work. There’s an ease to it and there’s intelligence and refinement without being overly done. It’s a great mix and I think that is really where they’re coming from. It’s about simplicity and it’s about that great mix. I hope it really reflects them.”

Breakfast Pizza of Champions

Let me begin by admitting that pizza is my desert-island food. I could eat it every day. But lets be clear, not that doughy, sorry excuse, Chicago-style, and definitely not with pineapple. Otherwise I’m smitten with that brilliant pie of my ancestors. So when I saw this New York Times Magazine recipe (adapted from the Big Sur Bakery in California), I jumped at the chance to make it for a crowd. The verdict: fantastico!
Hint: Save time and buy dough at your favorite pizzeria, then dress and bake.

Ingredients
Kosher salt
6 strips bacon
½ cup grated Parmesan
2 cups grated mozzarella
6 large eggs
Freshly ground black pepper
2 tablespoons minced
flat-leaf parsley
2 tablespoons minced chives
2 scallions, thinly sliced

1 shallot, minced.

Directions
1. Preheat the oven (and pizza stone, if you have one) to 500 degrees.
2. Fry the bacon in a large sauté pan over medium-high heat until crisp. Cool on a paper-towel-lined plate; roughly chop.
3. Dip your hands and a ball of dough into the flour. On a lightly floured countertop, pat the dough into a disc with your fingertips, then drape the dough over your fists and carefully stretch it from beneath to form a 12-inch circle.
4. Generously dust the surface of a large sheet pan with flour and place the stretched dough on it. Sprinkle the dough with half of the Parmesan, mozzarella and bacon. Crack 3 eggs over the top and season with salt and pepper.
5. Shake to make sure the dough is not sticking. Carefully lift any sections that are sticking and sprinkle a bit more flour underneath. (If using a stone, slide the pizza directly on in one quick forward-and-back motion.) Bake for 8 to 10 minutes, rotating after 5 minutes. When the crust is golden, the cheese is melted and the egg yolks are cooked, transfer the pizza to a cutting board. Sprinkle half of the parsley, chives, scallions and shallot on top. Let cool for 2 minutes, slice and serve immediately. Prepare the second pizza in the same way. Makes 2 (12-inch) pizzas. Adapted from The New York Times Magazine, adapted from Big Sur Bakery.

Ed Trask Shows Graffiti and Grit in Farmville

Deep tones, conflicted skylines, graffiti and grit play into the paintings of prolific Richmond artist, Ed Trask. We caught up with Trask while he installed his current show at Farmville, Va.’s j fergeson Gallery. Here he is with the largest piece in the show: a six-panel painting (depicting Route 5 near Rockett’s Landing in Richmond) that he originally made for an exhibit in L.A.

He broke it down for us:

If you’re familiar with Ed’s work you might notice that he’s been doing something interesting to with his skies and telephone wires lately. He says he’s felt re-energized about painting now that he’s experimenting with these linear elements. 

“I just feel like for every man made right angle, nature has a reaction,” he says.

This is where the painting began. Ed started by painting this angel-like figure, a Buddhist symbol which is said to lead believers to the next life. But something about that didn’t feel right.

“I realized I’m not Buddhist,” he says. And changed direction.

So back to the art around him: The work is set less than a mile from Millie’s Diner, where Trask works on and off, and depicts the coal-carrying trains that run through Richmond. He painted the tags of famous graffiti artists on the train cars. The small box on the yellow car is in the style of international tagger Space Invader.

 If you can’t swing the $12,000 for this 96-by-180-inch “Flowers and Bones,” there’s more to choose from.

These were two of my favorites in the show. LEFT is a long-gone Dairy King and RIGHT the Lucky Strike tower (now condos) behind Millie’s on the James River downtown.

 

And this one, “Trapt in Pursuit,” has a particularly awesome sky.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

While we were at the gallery, Trask was preparing a paint-by-numbers drawing for visitors to participate in during the show’s opening. Fun idea. 

 

 

And here it is in action at the opening. Trask has experience with the format: He often teaches mural painting to kids in much the same way.

 

 
If you miss this show at j fergeson gallery, smaller works by Trask will be on view at Richmond’s Quirk Gallery in March.

Your Fluffy Valentine

If licking and cuddling from a four-legged friend is the only love you’re getting this Valentine’s Day, enjoy it! And celebrate with art.

Sherry and John Petersik, who write This Young House, a great blog about their adventures in decorating, are creative beehives. They’ve developed this cute line of pet silhouettes in sweet, modern colors. And since the silhouette’s are in white verses the traditional black, they have a fresh, mod feel. And $20 for an 8 x 10 will run you not much more than a box of chocolates. Although if you’re hanging with the pooch this V-Day, treat yourself to some Godiva.

(If you’re in Richmond, Quirk Gallery carries the line.)

Random History:Silhouettes came about in the late 18th century in France as an inexpensive way to have a portrait done and are named after Louis XV’s finance minister who was notoriously cheap.

SCAD President Shares Design Secrets of Eccentric Southerners

Last week I was lucky enough to attend the Richmond Academy of Medical Alliance Foundation (phew!) luncheon at The Jefferson Hotel with guest speaker Paula Wallace, the founder of the Savannah College of Art and Design. I’m not sure how one goes about starting a college, but in 1978 she did, and now it’s the largest art and design school in the country. Amazing!

 Here’s what’s happening at SCAD: 

Designer Isabel Toledo (recently of Michelle-Obama-inaugural-suit fame) is coming to the fashion school’s fashion week this year; last year “The Wrestler” premiered at its film festival; through its Working Class program, students actually design for major corporations (they do the photography for the West Elm catalogue, for example); they have an amazing shop of student work called Shop SCAD; and an incredible campus in the medieval town of Lacoste in the south of France. I don’t know about you, but I was totally blown away.

And if VCU’s art’s school isn’t jealous yet: SCAD just stole VCU associate dean Joe Siepel, widely recognized as the secret to VCU no. 1 ranked sculpture program. After hearing all that’s going on at SCAD, I can see what attracted him. I wonder if he’ll take me with him.

Paula picked up the antique dressmaker’s mannequin at a French flea market and cleverly paired it with a student’s triptych painting of a clothes line and placed them in the stairwell on SCAD’s to-die-for Lacoste campus.

But let’s talk design… 

Wallace is an educator and designer and her husband, Glenn, an interior designer, has renovated and decorated many of SCAD’s historic buildings around Savannah.

In her talk, Paula outlined her six principles of successful design:

1. Start with Art. ”Art can give your house surprisingly magic.”

The Wallaces began their upstairs hallway decor with four, regal and serious portraits, then kept adding to their collection with less important works and all of a sudden an incredible installation was born. Paula even said they have fun at dinner parties coming up with stories behind the characters. 

 2. Follow your Bliss. 

“Don’t be afraid of color, use it and enjoy it.”

In this Atlanta dining room the ice-blue walls are trimmed in black and a faux-regal border is painted around an antique screen. A park bench and mis-matched chairs welcome all to the table.

 

 

  3. Listen and Talk to the Architecture.

4. Be Eccentric. Express yourself and have fun.

The owners of this coastal South Carolina home hang a hurricane cross above the bed to ward off ghosts (not storms). The modern glass lamp is an unexpected contrast to the antique Italian daybed panels.

 

In their Savannah loft, the Tenenbaum family (yes, those Tenenbaums) hung a bold nude in a warm and textured room.

 

 

 

5. Create Your Own Art Installations with Collections. Wallace used an example of a homeowner who covered a wall with cuckoo clocks: One clock is German granny, many are fun!

In the Wallace’s former beach condo they used old recipes found in an old family home and decoupaged them all over the kitchen table. Children’s life vests are used as curtain tie-backs and a student’s art adds pop to the wall.

6. Make Friendly Spaces. With pools of light, round tables and intimate gathering areas. 

 

Several of the homes she discussed were featured in “A House in the South,” the charming 2008 book Paula co-wrote with interiors writer, Frances Schultz. Each home in the book embodies Paula’s love of fun interiors that reflect their quirky Southern owners. And from her talk, it’s obvious she belives that expressing your personality – and hopefully eccentricity – should be at the forefront when designing your space. Amen to that sister!

Accidental Tourist: Boatman on Brown’s Island

Usually when I’m on Richmond’s Brown’s Island it’s with thousands of other people for a concert or festival like the annual Richmond Folk Festival each October. But riding bikes there this Sunday on this sunny, 60-degree January afternoon, I saw something I’ve never noticed before. 

This sculpture, “Headman” by Paul di Pascuale (same artist who did the controversial Arthur Ashe statue on Monument Avenue) commemorating the African-American  boatmen whose skills helped downtown Richmond develop.  Also in the above shot is Richmond’s Federal Reserve Building to the right and the still-being-built, blue-glass Mead Westvaco building. (The paper packaging company just announced last month it was laying off 10 percent of its global workforce but construction on its headquarters looked to still be a go.)

Here’s another view of the bronze-wood-rock sculpture with the former Ethyl Corp. headquarters on the hill in the background.

Father and Son Shoot Kin

With cameras, that is.
In the current show at Page Bond Gallery, photographers Emmet and Elijah Gowin explore the same subject, a beloved aunt at the family homestead in Danville, Va. The photos are magical and sweet, taking us to a time and place where women wear housecoats and clothes are hung on lines. Do people really live like this? And if so, can we come over for some pie?

Father Emmet is a well known black-and-white photographer who’s been a mentor to Sally Mann (her son is named after him). His photos of Aunt Maggie were taken in the ’70s, like this one above. A similarity between his work and Mann’s can be seen in their everyday subject matter and the fact that there’s often some peculiarity lending the average scenes some intrigue.

Son Elijah, who just won a Guggenheim Foundation fellowship, takes a more magical approach to his work. He took pictures of Maggie 10 years ago, putting her in strange hand-crafted scenarios he created with salvaged materials (like ”Maggie and Orbs” at top).  In the past he often digitally enhanced images he found online. His last show at Page Bond, “Watered,” in October 2006, featured images of baptisms he found and manipulated. The half-submerged subjects were startling and exciting. Were these people being drowned or saved? 

Another series of his work which inspires the same unsettling emotions is “Of Falling and Floating” from 2007. And in our post-9/11 world it’s hard not to think of the World Trade Center jumpers, yet there’s something joyful about them, too.