Book Club: The Iconic Interior by Dominic Bradbury

The Iconic Interior 1900 to the present does exactly what it says on the tin. This book takes you on a journey through some of the worlds most iconic and mesmerising homes and interiors belonging to the best and brightest artists, designers, fashion personalities, artisans, architects and set designers of the past one hundred years. This book treats you to an awe-inspiring expedition of the most beautiful homes in the world. If you’re contemplating the idea of redecorating your home but are in need of some inspiration and ideas, purchasing this book is a sure-fire way to kick start a design project as it is filled with a stream of innovative and magical interiors for you to be slowly hypnotised by. If permitted I could talk endlessly about the houses in this book, but I have enforced some will power and have chosen my favourite four homes to share with you.

First is the Sowden House in Los Angeles built in 1926, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright Jr. This house was commissioned by painter and photographer John Sowden and takes its main inspiration from Mayan and pre-Columbian culture.

The property looks as though it’s been teleported from another world, or a forgotten time and beautifully encapsulates its sources of inspiration, creating a miniature enchanted land. It looks like the secret lair of a bond villain that belongs deep in the heart of a jungle instead of Los Angeles.

 

Remaining in Los Angeles for the second home on my list of favourites is a house designed for Tony Duquette. The house, called Dawnridge and built in 1949, is a beautiful clutter of clashing patterns and textiles, shapes and styles, all creating a whirlwind of surprising tranquillity.

The phrase ‘ordered chaos’ comes to mind when you’re looking at the interiors of Dawnridge, everything seems both a stylish muddle and systematically ordered in a way that would be hard to replicate.

 

Artist Piero Fornasetti’s home in Milan is featured in the book, and it’s a creatively perceptive modern take on an Italian palace. Fornasetti’s home is reflective of his style as an artist, and just like a beautiful painting, the apartment is a work of art.

The interior flows seamlessly as though it is in a surreal dream-like state, and as Dominic Bradbury, the author of the book writes “the house reveals the deep inventiveness and rich imagination of one of Italy’s most original creative talents, often dubbed the ‘designer of dreams’.”

And lastly, we take a trip to Istanbul to the home of designer Zeynep Fadillioglu. Her home is enriched with an old-worldly atmosphere and is embellished with ornaments and furniture that exuberates luxury, whilst contrasting with the rustic walls and foundations of the house so as not to portray a feeling of decadence and excessiveness.

If you’re looking to get lost in a mesmerising and romantic story of architecture and interiors then get yourself a copy of The Iconic Interior and spend a few hours indulging your imagination and redesigning your interior wish list.

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Book Club: A Living Space by Kit Kemp

Fantastic interior designer Kit Kemp’s book A Living Space takes you through a magnitude of her beautifully executed interiors, and will really help to guide you through your own home and experiment with the spaces that you have, and perhaps inspire you to go bold with your designs.

 

 

Kemp’s approach is a contemporary take on the classic English style, dressing up rooms in a chic but relaxed way, which makes them perfect for all types of homes, from a town house to a country cottage.

She uses playful and colourful components in her work that show how a sophisticated and elegant home can have of hints of fun and spontaneity in its interiors, and these themes can be seen throughout all of her designs. Kemp has said of her own work as producing “elements of intrigue and curiosity that create a sense of adventure and fun”, which sounds like the perfect recipe for creating a beautiful and exciting home!

 

With ten lovely chapters, Kemp takes you through making your home perfect for you, and it’s all about the little touches of detail to make a space complete. From using artwork to textiles to organic materials, Kemp shows how to make a house your home, whatever your style or taste preference.

Much of Kemp’s work are beautiful hotels around the world, but with her innovative touch the rooms she creates look less like hotels and more like beautifully modern but welcoming rooms in a beloved family home.

The chapter titled Dogs, is one of my favourites in the book, and is the essential guide for decorating a home that every dog-lover needs.

 

This artwork of a Scottie dog’s silhouette filled in with a map of Scotland is one of my favourite pieces in the book, along with these colourful cow sculptures below, that proves sophisticated style comes in all shapes and sizes (and animals!)

 

So whether you’re looking for inspiration for your own home, or just fancy looking through some beautiful interiors and maybe picking up a few ideas along the way, A Living Space is the perfect book for you.

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Book Club: Geoffrey Bennison – Master Decorator

If you’ve ever looked at a picture of a Geoffrey Bennison styled interior, you might be forgiven for thinking that perhaps you have time travelled to the past, into a home fit for no less then royalty. In the new book Geoffrey Bennison Master Decorator, which celebrates the life and work of Bennison, you can truly find yourself getting lost in his magical creations.

 

 

It’s plain to see that Bennison was no fan of the understated or subtle; in fact his interiors seem to grab flamboyance by the horns and magnify it over and over. His is a world where everything is eccentric and everything looks perfectly in place. Like a well researched period film set, the interiors you’ll find in this book are immaculately devised, looking like a fairytale of the luxurious and the lavish.

 

 

If you want to indulge yourself in a book full of wonderfully decadent and spectacularly theatrical interiors, then this is the book for you. Often, we buy interior design books on the basis that we will use them to help us with our own style or our own decorating needs. In some respects this book can do that for you, but for me however, this book is more in line with the book of an artist, for which you use it simply to admire the beautiful masterpieces.

 

Master Decorator walks you through fourteen of Bennison’s best commissions, including three of his own homes. From London and Paris to Marrakech you get a sneak peak into the homes of royalty, with interiors you can only dream of. My personal favourite, perhaps because of my soft spot for my university town, is Bennison’s seaside apartment in Brighton. His interiors in this beautiful flat are ones that I could have only conjured up for my student accommodation. Bennison deliciously mixes up every pattern and every texture into a whirlwind that invites you to spend hours pouring over the details.

 

 

Though Bennison died in 1984, his masterpieces live on and so do his designs. Bennison Fabrics continues to create fabrics and wallpapers based on Bennison’s vision. If you are looking for quality, traditional English country style interiors then look no further.

 

 

Though a little more introverted, they still retain the beautifully elegant disposition of Bennison’s original interiors. So sit back and feast your eyes!

 

 

 

 

 

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Colour me happy

Every so often I feel the need for a little inspirational pick-me-up (this time, I put it down to the unseasonable weather) and currently, the book that is doing it for me is Jonathan Adler’s witty tome, My Prescription for Anti-Depressive Living. This hard –back interiors inspiration is a riot of colour from start to finish, and takes no prisoners in the acerbic asides department, which of course is right up my street, but what really makes me love it is that it is written in an intensely personal style. For me, this book is a delight from start to finish (and I have read it from start to finish) and although I don’t agree with all his black and white statements on what makes a good interior, his audacity and honesty most definitely warm my heart.

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