San Simeon: Library

Located above the assembly room is the main guest library of the estate. Here guests could borrow a book or spread out and work during their free days visiting Hearst.This was not Hearst's private library, but rather another public space for his guests. He chose this wood paneled room to display his collection of ancient Greek pottery, housed along the top of the shelves. Before entering the library ( #1-3 on the map above) you first enter the hall or lobby.

Again paneled in wood, this area is reached by the winding staircases on either side of the Refectory.

After the grand spaces on the first floor, this large room feels positively cozy with lower ceilings and all of the wood paneling.

Below you can better see how some of Hearst's extensive Greek pottery collection was displayed. The view out the windows is onto the main 'square' of the hilltop estate and was a great meeting spot for guests.

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

Miami, here we come!

If you read Habitually Chic, you've probably seen that Heather and I are going on another adventure together in a few weeks. This time however, it's to a place I thought I would never venture; A Cruise to Nassau in the Bahamas!

I think what convinced me this would be a fabulous trip, other than the fun company of course, is that Oceania cruiseline bills themselves as the cruise line for people not into cruises. With tons of luxe amenities and celebrity chefs, they pride themselves on being their guests home away from home with a small boat size and each room being a deluxe suite.

After our cruise, we decided to spend a few days in Miami. As we haven't made any arrangements yet, I would love to hear your recommendations; Hotels, restaurants, shopping? The only thing I know of and have to see is the famous Vizcaya mansion, seen above. I hope to have lots of great experiences and share them all with you here!

San Simeon: Morning, Billiard and theater rooms.

Located behind the Refectory or Dining Room (#3 on the floorplan below) are a series of 'smaller' rooms which house a variety of functions.

Directly attached to the refectory is the morning room. The heavy Spanish influenced style doesn't neccesarily strike me as typical of the light and airy space typical of a morning room but it is sun filled with large french doors out to the patio.The reclaimed woodwork throughout this main section of the castle is extraordinary. I loved this zigzag pattern in a vestibule ceiling.

Below is the vestibule out to the patio.

The walls are square cut stone with these really interesting doorways: not sure if they were created for the site or were reclaimed. Are those the symbol of the Prince of Wales above the doorways -the 3 ostrich plumes? Our tour guide didn't know. Notice the radio on the sideboard: in this 'museum' like setting, people were living, having parties, curing hang-overs while drinking their morning coffee.

Behind the morning room lies the billiard room, no 'fancy' antique looking pool tables for Mr. Hearst, they're more appropriate to a pool hall! I loved the polychrome ceiling in this room and those gilt chandeliers.

Last is the theater which could match any grand movie palace of the day, #7 on the floorplan above. After dinner, Mr. Hearst would screen the newest movies from his movie studio, Cosmopolitan Productions, which frequently featured his long time mistress, Marion Davies.

Marion Davies acted as hostess here at the 'ranch'. She started out as one of the famous Ziegfeld Girls of 1916 before quickly becoming one of the first movie stars. Her later career as a major film actress existed mainly because Hearst created his film studio to feature her movies. She appeared in 29 silent movies for the company as well as 17 'talkies'. It has been rumoured that her 'niece' was actually Hearst's and Marions daughter, but I haven't heard of that has been proved. While never married, she was clearly the love of his life. Davies suffered from alcoholism and died 10 years after Hearst's death of cancer.

My Napolean complex

No, not what you're thinking, although at 5'-9", I'm not much taller than Napolean was! Rather, I treated myself to this bust of Napoleon that is currently on sale here at restoration hardware.

The surprise was how big he is and a bit out of scale for my bookcase as planned. Thankfully he's not very heavy, hollow terra cotta, and he moved around several times in my apartment last night.

For now he'll live in my entryway - bonus is that he makes an excellent bookend!

On another note, this past weekend I had the pleasure of seeing the celebrated soprano, Renee Fleming in a recital at the Kenney Center. One of her encores was a crowd pleaser and I've attached a clip of it here: O mio babbino caro by Puccini.

If you ever have the opportunity to see Ms. Fleming perform, I would highly recommend it. This was the 7th time in 10 years I've had the priveledge and she never disappoints!

A grand instrument

In 1903, Roosevelt had a very grand piano commissioned from Steinway & Sons for the East Room. Steinway commissioned noted Aesthetic artist Thomas Dewing to paint the inside of the gilded case in a patriotic theme which he entitled America receiving the 9 muses.

In the painted scene, women in colonial revival gowns representing art, music, poetry and learning pay homage to America, the new steward of western culture, as represented by the seated woman. The piano now resides at the National Portrait Gallery, but I think it should be brought back to the White House, don't you?

DCOTA WinterMarket 2011

Join me, Heather Clawson of Habitually Chic, Brooke Giannetti of Velvet & Linen, Jennifer Boles of The Peak of Chic and Gaye Tapp of Little Augury as we discuss Redesigning Design with moderator Allison Mezzafonte from Elledecor.com at the Design Center of the Americas. If you live in the Ft. Lauderdale area or plan on attending Winter Market 2011, we will be discussing how we think the internet has changed the design world at 2:00 on Tuesday, January 18th. Hope to see you there! Many thanks to Elle Decor for the opportunity!

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!