San Simeon: Refectory

The Refectory, or main dining room, at San Simeon is suitably grand for a captain of industry or even the King of a small country! Located behind the Assembly Room, the use of architectural salvage is the highlight of the enormous space.The room was modeled on a monastery dining hall. Notice the scale of the space: the 2 tour members seen above could walk right into that fireplace.The flags decorating the room are Sienese banners, I love the color they add.The estate was added on to many times over the years (1919 until 1947), indeed building started before the drawings were even complete and with constant changes. This results in a lot of odd spaces, such as this window which looks into one of the stair towers in one corner of the hall.A close up of one of the sconces which light the space between the banners. Some beautiful wood architectural salvage from a European cathedral.Hearst's art collection was legendary (mainly for its size) and ancient statues and artifacts dot every spare inch of space; more is more! Again more antique tapestries insulate the stone room. While dining in such grand surroundings, the food could be quite plain: this was afterall "the ranch". Paper napkins were always used and the condiments were laid out on the table: ketchup and mustard!

San Simeon: Assembly Room

Housed inside the Casa Grande at San Simeon (or "the ranch" as Hearst called it) are the main entertaining spaces. Each night, guests would gather for cocktails (weak and limited, apparently) before dinner in the Assembly Room.Despite an extremely grand facade, the interior floor plan is quite simple, without a cobweb of hallways and vestibules. The main entry leads into a small vestibule seen above, and then directly into the Assembly Room (the living room of the estate). I suppose this is an example of California outdoor living.Most of the estate is composed of European architectural fragments. The ceilings, doorways, fireplaces and really, every piece that you see, began life in another building.Above is the main entry to the room.

The scale of the room is enormous, definitely meant to impress Hearst's guests. You can glimpse a sense of scale from the number of people on my tour group, seen below.You could walk into this fireplace it was so large. Just a cozy little room for pre-dinner cocktails!The room is lined with ancient choir stalls, an interesting, if uncomfortable, choice for additional seating.All of the stone could feel cold, so antique tapestries were brought in to soften both the acoustics and add insulation.

It's hard to remember sometimes that this was a very modern getaway. Radios are hidden within cabinets and guests were here to relax and have fun, as evidenced by this card table with a puzzle in the middle of so much grandeur.

I'm not sure what the fabric is which covers the upholstered pieces in the room -anyone recognize it?

As I said, most of the ceilings throughout the estate are reclaimed from European castles, palaces and monasteries; quite a collection!

See the radio in the cabinet below? Also, a cocktail table for every chair.

Next up, the adjacent Formal Dining Room.

As with all of my San Simeon posts, written permission was kindly granted to post my interior photos of the estate on this blog. Please respect that and do not copy. Thanks!

House of Sweden

While walking home last night, I passed the House of Sweden along the Potomac right at sunset, when the building disappears into both the sky and river. As much as I love classical architecture, I have a deep appreciation for moden buildings such as these, especially when done right. Given the site, a classical building would have been highly out of place.

However, I'm not sure how I feel about the back. The use of lighting is odd (hello Vegas?) and the glass panels are actually patterned a faux wood. What do you think? Tomorrow I'll pick up on the tour of San Simeon that I dropped earlier this summer. Still so much to show there!

excuse the poor quality of the photo -again from my cell phone!

White House: East Wing

As I mentioned in a previous post on the White House, unless you are on official State business, you will enter through the East Wing, seen above. This allows for the extensive security to be hidden around the side and rear of the building.

The entire house was decorated for the holiday. I loved the red berries and ribbons in these iron urns decorating the porte cochere.

Inside the vestibule is access to the first ladies' offices. The wood paneling is beautiful and a handful of presidential portraits decorate the space.In the holiday decorations, I especially liked the use of these magnolia garlands.From this hallway, you enter into the east colonnade which was originally open when constructed in the 1902 renovation. It was enclosed in 1942 when the east wing was expanded.These transoms let light into the spaces adjacent to the colonnade which includes the family theater.

The length of the colonnade was decorated with these enormous beautiful wreaths, each made of a different fruit.

The east colonnade leads you though this archway into the Visitors Vestibule, decorated for Christmas with more uplit glittered branches. Centered on the archway is an enormous bronze bust of President Lincoln. I liked the playfully decorated trees in this area the best.

These spaces lead you to the ground floor Main Hall in the original block of the White House, off of which are the Library, Vermeil Room and China Room which I discussed last week.

I hope these photographs I've shared over the past weeks have helped you become familiar with the White House. If visiting Washington, I highly recommend trying to get a tour to see this lovely house, rich with so much history!

White House: China Room

The China room on the ground floor is now also referred to as the Dining Room. Architects McKim, Meade & White had designated the room a cloak room in the 1902 renovation, but in 1917, Mrs. Woodrow Wilson requisitioned the room to display the growing collection of presidential china. The room has a red color scheme based on the elegant 1924 portrait of Mrs. Calvin Coolidge, Grace. The shelves that display the china are red velvet, the curtains are red silk taffeta and the room is finished off with an early 20th-century Indo-Ispahan rug. The room has more of the salvaged wood paneling, which was again, painted under the Boudin redecoration. I love the regency style chandelier!

Before paneling, the room had smaller built-in cupboards which you can see below in 1948. I guess thats fitting as there was less china at the time! The cupboards were created more shallow however, after the paneling, and a few of the larger items could not be included. I call that a major oops!

This image below shows the Boudin Kennedy-era redecoration. The paneling was glazed grey with white details.

As the collection continues to grow, parts of it are housed in the corridor in pieces of furniture.

I loved the china of President Harrison, with the edge band of navy blue with raised gilt stalks of corn!

Included in the same case was President's Harrison elegant cut crystal.

White House: Vermeil room & library

When visiting the White House, unless you are on official state business, you will enter from the ground floor (yes, I've shown these posts in reverse order of my visit!). Located on this floor are a number of functioning spaces so much of it is closed to the public. However, one can catch glimpses of the Library, seen above.

Before the 1902 renovation of the white house, this was the official laundry room of the building until becoming the servant's locker room. In 1935 it was turned into a library. The space is used for small meetings as well as press conferences and houses over 2700 books on American life which are added to by each president. The current furnishings are from New York, circa 1810. The walls are painted paneling from timbers which, before the Truman renovation of the White House, were the structure of the building (replaced by steel). This paneling is seen in a number of rooms on the ground floor.The paneling remained unpainted until the Boudin redecoration of the White House, seen above in 1963. I love that blue painted ceiling!

The walls of the Vermeil Room above (so called after the collection of Vermeil displayed here, donated by Margaret Thompson Biddle in 1956) are currently the same green painted paneling as in the library but here house portraits of First Ladies. The room functions as a ladies sitting room and is where the First Lady often receives her official guests. After the 1902 renovation, architect McKim created this room as a ladies lounge as it was adjacent to the ladies restroom and it has retained that purpose. Above you can see the unpainted paneling in 1960.The walls were painted blue by Boudin's redecoration with a grained finish. Originally, these ground floor rooms were staff quarters and the vermeil room was, fittingly, the silver polishing room!

The carpet in the room is beautiful, an 1860 Turkish Hereke. Only a few rooms left to go -join me tomorrow to see the ground floor dining room!