Holiday Decorating: Renaissance style

I always think the weekend after Thanksgiving is the perfect time to decorate for the holidays. For exterior decorating it's not too cold yet (hopefully) and it leaves the decorations up for the longest for everyone to enjoy!

Recently while in Old Town Alexandria, Virginia, I noticed the fan of fruit above the front door of the Bank of Alexandria Building  (1792) seen in the images above.  Commonly referred to as "Williamsburg over-door fans" these decorations actually date to the early 20th century thanks to House Beautiful magazine!

For the Holiday issue of 1926 House Beautiful encouraged its readers to decorate like Lucca della Robbia, an Italian Renaissance sculptor known for his use of fruit wreaths (see above for an example of his work). In the late 1930s Christmas decorating competitions were held in Colonial Williamsburg and many of the participants sourced House Beautiful and created these fruit decorations which would have been thought quite odd and wasteful in hard Colonial times!

The pineapple is often used as a sign of hospitality, perfect for the holidays.  These over-doors are also similar to the magnificent carvings of sculptor Grinling Gibbons who achieved ultimate realism in his carvings of fruit and flowers in early 18th century England.  What do you think -would you use fruit in your holiday decorating?

An ingenious solution

While reading through the April 2013 issue of House & Garden I came across an intriguing little project that I just had to share! When designer Roger Hall had proposed an addition to his 17th century listed house and had it rejected by the planning authorities, he decided to build a garden folly which would give him and his family the extra space they needed as well as provide a focal point to his garden.

He calls the space his 'Posh Shed' and it certainly is closer to posh than shed. What shed do you know of contains a kitchen, bath and working fireplace? The pavilion houses guest quarters as well as a studio for his work in an 18'x18' square; talk about small living at 324 SF (the size of the smallest studios found in NYC).

The pavilion matches the style of the main house which you can just glimpse in the image below including the same beautiful stonework and slate roofing. Behind the fireplace above are a compact mini kitchen and full bathroom for guests. I think I would spend all of my time out here and never go into the main house!

Above you can see how from the garden the pavilion looks like one small albeit tall room but when seen from another perspective 2 floors are clearly visible. I vote this is a clever solution to a problem that makes the end result better as a whole than the original proposed addition - what do you think?

Photography via the article by photographer Sarah Hogan