door handles

Continuing on yesterday's opulent posting, today I bring you a bronze door handle from the Palazzo Grassi in Venice. My best friend Eric (ArchitectDesign's foreign correspondant) was recently there and sent me this photo for obvious reasons: it's gorgeous! Why have a boring handle with a view like THAT, afterall. Have you ever seen a more sunny or gorgeous day in Venice? Have a great weekend!

A beautiful lobby

Last night I had dinner at Ardour, located in the St. Regis hotel here in DC. You may remember I featured the bar of the hotel here, which is my local favorite. Well, this is probably my favorite lobby of any hotel I've seen. Inviting, cozy, beautiful but not overly formal; who doesn't want to hang out here? Sorry for the fuzzy pictures from my camera phone, but you get the idea!

The hotel was recently renovated with the interiors done by Sills Huniford ;Job well done I'd say!

Something new

Yesterday while walking along one of my favorite blocks in the city, I noticed this house for the first time. Clearly abandoned (as a few buildings are on this block suspiciously, which worries me about future development) it has seen better days. But what days they were! The arched window on the 3rd floor and the little Rupunzel tower with the onion skin dome in the attic! These are the things dreams are made of! In my dream- I'd have the top 2 stories of this house for my apartment with my bedroom in the eves and my blogger desk set into that corner tower. Don't forget to look up; even on familiar streets you just may spot something new!

House & Garden

I know many of us still mourn the loss of many of our state-side magazines, but don't forget that there are some great foreign magazines out there! While at the beach I had picked up a copy of the British July 2010 House & Garden which always is pretty fantastic. In this issue was the much talked about restored ancestral home of John Coote, Bellamont Forest, which he had put on the market (seen in these top 3 photographs). I especially love the main saloon seen in the top image -who knew I could like pink! I especially am into that ceiling and those yummy white slipcovered armchairs.

The front hall is only made better by the addition of the pooch :-) The article proclaims it as 'Ireland's most perfect Palladian villa' and I just may have to agree! Photographs by Luke White

If Bellamont Forest is the most perfect villa in Ireland, then a house recently restored by Russell Page in Normandy may just hold that distinction in France! Photographs by Fritz von der Schulenburg

The library / dining room is probably my most favorite room I've seen in a few years in any magazine. I could live in that room and never want to leave!

I was also intrigued by an article about antique glass and different uses for it in interiors. I'm not generally a fan of any chintz or overly floral fabrics, but I loved the notion of putting it behind VERY antiqued glass for a ghostly appearance as seen in these bottom 2 beautiful photographs by Adrian Briscoe.

I especially like this idea in a bathroom, as in the image above -just windex your bathroom clean! What do you think of this technique, I know it's somewhat unusual. Has anyone done this before themselves?