Vintage Garden Rooms

House & Garden's Complete Guide to

 INTERIOR DECORATION

It is so interesting to look at what my readers really enjoy.  

To date my most popular post is

Love American Style:  the decorating episode

 which includes the inclusion of iconic 20th Century art
 from the likes of Jackson Pollock and Jasper Johns

and work from the Prince of American decorating, Billy Baldwin!

 In this post, these wonderful decorating images come from a favourite book entitled

 Decorating American Style by Jose Wilson & Arthur Leaman, published in 1975.

It seems you are all as fascinated as I am with vintage style and vintage books.

This reinforces the fact to me that we love to see classic ideas from the past, and we also enjoy seeing where certain looks and styles originate and how they are reinvigorated and rehashed

 in a contemporary post modern world.

These images also illustrate to my mind how important the addition of greenery (real please) makes to the life and vibrancy of any interior.

I hope you enjoy these 'Outdoor or Garden Style Rooms' I have selected from

 House & Garden's Complete Guide to Interior Decoration 1970.

This lovely edition has this handwritten inscription on the first page:

I wonder where you are now?


words 
J Watson-Evans


posted by
The Decorator


images 
House & Garden's Complete Guide to Decoration 1970
Simon and Schuster

Saturday Morning Vintage

I think you all know how much I love my vintage decorating books.  I just love to flick through and caress the pages of these wonderful finds. 
 I get truly inspired by these books and marvel at how much the styling has been rehashed and revitalised over the years by some of the world's leading taste makers.  
And it goes to show that good decorating, design, 
and styling does not have a 'use-by' date.

It is hard to believe that some of these pages are in fact,
 getting to be around 60 years old.

Thank goodness there are people who truly look after their books.  It is wonderful to think that these same books have somehow made their way into my life, across the seas and through the air, all the way to my library shelves.

 I really love the 'look' of some of the photography from this period.  Is it because they were all shot on 'film'? 
 Indeed I was interested to recently read in one of my favourite shelter magazines, London's seminal 'The World of Interiors',
 that they still to this day shoot their work on film.

However, with time does come progress. This morning after taking some photos on my digital Canon G11 and uploading them,
 I found myself fiddling with the special effects editing.

This photo of my sunny sitting room which is where I enjoy my morning espresso each day with my husband, and often find myself flicking through one of my aforementioned tomes, has had the treatment!

This started out to be a 'sunny Saturday morning snap' and has morphed into something which looks like it belongs in one of my old books.

What do you think?

Before

Before

After

After

These pics also fit into the 'Yellow Makes Me So Happy' category. 

 I must thank my lovely friend Julianne for sending me the very 'sunny' bunch of gerberas which really were the impetus for this little story today.

images by J Watson-Evans

The Decorator

Love American Style - The Decorating Episode!

This wonderful book was published in 1975 and I find myself often flicking through its slightly yellowing pages.

I get so inspired when I see some of these interiors that feature incredible museum quality 20th Century iconic art, like the pics from the Scull Pop Art Collection and the interior by

  Billy Baldwin which features works by Jackson Pollock, Kenneth Nolan,

 and Helen Frankenthaler!

By the way this apartment was owned by S.I Newhouse Jnr, media tycoon and Chairman of Conde Nast!

Wow! Oh for the privilege of working an interior around such modern masterpieces!

Please enjoy the following images from "Decorating American Style" by Jose Wilson

and Arthur Leaman!

The Scull Pop Art Collection featuring the James Rosenquist and French Provincial Dining

Jasper John's "Flags" with sculpture by Claes Oldenburg

Pumpkin Vinyl walls with black and white floor by Richard Ohrbach

Billy Baldwin interior for SI Newhouse featuring the Jackson Pollock, Kenneth Nolan and
Helen Frankenthaler

Michael Taylor all white interior with tv and red abstract!
Adore the white artwork to the left!

Mickey Mouse bedroom by Arthur Leaman

Jasper Johns "Target" and lifesize George Segal sculpture owned by Henry Geldzahler

Scull collection with Andy Warhol faces of Ethel Scull  and Roy Indiana painting with "Stove" by Claes Oldenburg

Wall to wall red Kartell storage units 

Interior with Morris Louis painting

David Eugene-Bell blue and white extreme!

Sublime Michael Taylor all white room

70's does thirties interior with cactus by Richard Himmel

Shades of Grey by Barbara Darcy of Bloomingdales

The cover of Decorating American Style by JoseWilson and Arthur Leaman