eeeek! not chic! this one is for the kids (and decorno)

maison21 had an absolute blast hanging out with the family over xmas- especially the "kids" - some of whom are no longer kids at all, but young adults making their way in life. my sister's kids range from 13 to 19, and my middle niece was just accepted into two colleges! yay! as the old cliche states: they grow up so fast! my brother's delightful kids really are adults, as my brother was in college when moi-self was just a baby...

late on xmas day, my sister and i were discussing my blog (i was delighted to find that she actually reads it), and she showed my blog to my 13 year old niece, who on viewing the below photo of pauline de rothschild peeking through a jib door into her fabulous bedroom, declared admiringly "that harry potter room is sick!". my sister and i cracked up, because we realized that pauline peeking through the door does look a little bit like severus snape sneaking around hogwarts! just goes to how design sensibility and personal taste really are filtered through one's own experience! maison21 views that photo and can't get over the incredible chinoiserie wallpaper, but to a 13 year old, it's a "sick harry potter room". love it! btw, for us old folks- "sick" is good.

my 19 year nephew spent xmas day rocking a faux louis vuitton print velour hoodie- he is heavily into hip-hop and likes to work a gangster rap meets so-cal skater look, but just a short while ago he was in a heavy-metal screamo band. aaah, youth... maison21 loved that his nephew cares enough to have a style that makes a statement, and it led m21 and his sister to reminisce about m21's own crazy fashion faux pas days. my niece asked me if i was a goth and wore eyeliner- i replied that i indeed wore eyeliner everyday in high school, but there was no such thing as a goth yet- just one lonely punk rock boy (and a couple of his new wave girlfriends) in a sea of preppy surfers at m21's beach-adjacent san diego alma-mater. it's amazing, though, how 25 years later, the fads of maison21's youth are now time-tested classic looks of alienation for today's kids. maison21 proceeded to explain to his nieces and nephew (with tongue firmly in cheek) how as a youth, m21 invented not only the goths, but punk rock, gangsta rap and the internets! maison21 was a very busy teen!

so to prove to my nieces and nephews that their bearded, stocky (but hopefully not stuffy), favorite decorator uncle was indeed once a cool kid, i'm posting a photo of myself as a teen. can you tell i was heavily into the cure and siouxsie? see kids, i really did invent goth! now do you believe me that i invented punk rock, gangsta rap and the internets as well?

the below photo is also in honor of my fellow blogger, the absolutely hi-larious decorno, who recently challenged her audience to post photos of their past decorating mistakes (12/22/07). i'm still looking for a photo of my ghastly, too-colorful, zsa-zsa gabor meets barnum and bailey bedroom, that i thought was too cool for about a minute in my 20's. so until i find one, decorno, you'll have to settle for a photo confession of my past sartorial missteps instead. actually, since i now make make a living by peddling my good taste in decor, i will probably never find a photo of said room, but i'm perfectly willing to embarrass myself fashion-wise to make up for it! any of my fellow bloggers care to rise to the challenge and post a photo of your own youthful indiscretions? m21 DARES YOU! (please? m21 doesn't want to feel like a misfit teen all over again- someone else out there must have been a fool for fashion in their deep dark pasts...)

portrait of the decorator as a young (new romanitc) goth:

peace on earth and good decorating to all...

have a very merry xmas, everybody- and if you don't celebrate xmas, have a most excellent and relaxing day off!

we'll try to get in a post or two next week, but we're planning xmas with the family in san diego and new year's in palm springs, while in between one of our oldest and dearest friends will be visiting with us here in los angeles, so with all that going on, if we aren't able to post, we hope you all will have a fabulous new year!

early morning reading (and another morning lost to the internets)

for some reason, maison21 woke up very early this saturday morning- not a very usual occurrence here at the maison21 atelier- maison21 is SO not a morning person. maybe he woke up early because of the incredible quality of the sunlight streaming through his windows this morning- today is one of particularly beautiful winter days in los angeles. we're having a cold snap- expected high of 64 degrees today (brrrrrrr) and it rained earlier in the week, so the skies are washed clean of smog and are the most intensely vivid blue, without a cloud to be seen. absolutely gorgeous- wish you were here!

anyway, as i was saying before i digressed, i woke up early and as i was waiting for the caffeine to kick in, i checked my blog for comments. none (bummer). i wondered if maybe no one had visited since yesterday so i checked my blog counter and saw to my amazement that i actually had a lot of hits this morning. actually a HECK of a lot of hits for 7:00 am on a saturday morning, and they were all referrals from the terrific design blog, desire to inspire. hopping over there to find out what was up, i found that the girls at desire to inspire had put up a couple of posts called "holiday reading" consisting of nothing but banners from design blogs. 52 of them (i counted). maison21 had no clue that there were 52 whole design blogs out there, so he wasn't surprised to find out he hadn't visited most of them! of course, he started clicking on banners, and before he knew it, had killed 2 hours of his morning. so a very sincere thanks for including me, desire to inspire, and a very sarcastic thanks for giving me 51 more reasons to sit inside in front of the computer on an absolutely gorgeous morning when i should be outside enjoying my day!

here are some images from the first new-to-him banner that maison21 clicked on this morning, contemporist (we loved this blog because it has lots of lots of pictures and few of those pesky words that get in the way. maison21 needs to take a clue from them, and quit yapping so much).

loving this futuristic steel clad house from artist robert bruno! maison21 loves architecture that makes a statement (though we wouldn't necessarily want to live in it- it's heck to decorate around curved walls and asymmetrical windows and stuff):

and we wish we knew where to get this cat bed by designer christian ghion, for richard, maison21's resident fabric durability tester:
last, we though this modern bookcase by william earle was very sculptural and cool:

maison21 is learning new things on the internets (and decides to use a big word to impress you)

maison21 likes to think of hisself as a pretty hip and knowledgeable decorator, but when he reads other blogs that are actually informative and insightful, he feels more than a little retartet. here i am blathering on and on about bedazzled zebras, while other design bloggers are actually delivering posts of substance! in the last few weeks, things that inspire posted a treatise about palladian windows; habitually chic had a great interview with tony duquette biographer wendy goodman, a bio on willy rizzo and explained the art of kiku (!) to us; studio annetta has been knocking herself out with all sorts of great designer bios- zaha hadid, tom dixon, marc newsom, jacques quinet, and on and on; and the peak of chic has blown maison21 away with informative posts on kazumi yoshida, van day truex, and and the one that really hit me over the head: the mysterious jib door. like i said, i thought i was a fairly knowledgeable guy, but i had no idea that there was even a name for the concept! did i ditch architectural history class that day? i thought a jib was something to do with sailing! seriously, and this is sad- i referred to them as "secret doors". thank god i don't think i ever called them that out loud, or anything...

if you haven't read peak's awesome post, here's how peak explained a jib door to befuddled wannabe designers such as moiself:

For those of you who may not be familiar with them, jib doors are basically disguised or concealed doors. The doors tend to be flush with the walls around them and lack any surrounding architecture, thereby creating a continuous plane. Many times the doors even have concealed hinges to further add to the disguise. Jib doors are usually given the same treatment as the rest of the walls in a room- paper, fabric, mirror, etc.

and here is one of the many photos peak used to illustrate the concept (again, muy helpful to peeps like me who's head hurts when reading lots of words and stuff):
so in honor of my erudite fellow design bloggers (and to not look like even a bigger fool in their company), maison21 is making a vow to every once in a great while attempt an educational post or two, and explain a big, important designer-y word or concept. not to worry- maison21 doesn't have the chops to pull this off more than occasionally, so you can look forward to lots more talk about pretty animal statues, and cute little shops in palm springs, but i feel i must at least try, so here we go! (god, i'm hoping this ain't too lame). today's word is bouillotte.

a bouillotte lamp (pronounced boo-yot) is a multi-armed candelabra lamp with a shade. the term bouillotte refers to a card game popular in france during the revolution, and these candle lamps were placed next to the players to illuminate their cards while the shades protected one's eyes from the glare of the candle flame. the traditional dish form on the bottom of the lamp was there both to prevent wax from dripping on the game table, and to give the players a spot to store their game chips. the dish is optional on the modern electrified versions, but a shade (or shades) and more than one candle post are standard features for the lamp. (a single candle post is usually simply referred to as a candlestick lamp). the shades are traditionally tole (painted metal) so as not to catch fire from the candle flame, but modern versions can be all sorts of materials, most commonly paper or fabric.
there are also chandelier versions:

maison21's favorite interpretations of the bouillotte lamp were designed in the 1950's by his hero, tommi parzinger, (the brass stiffel lamps are also a design attributed to parzinger):


thus concludes todays's brief design lesson. whew! tomorrow, back to animal statues and stuff...

eeek or chic?

maison21 feels like he's finally arrived on the design blogging scene! no, i'm not referring to habitually chic's gracious post introducing me to the readers of her fabulous blog (though i loved that- it was crazy going from 11 hits one day to hundreds the next- i'll always be grateful, chic!). what i'm refering to is my first hate email- well, i guess hate mail is waaaay too strong a term for a comment left on a recent post that begins "Maison, love you darlink", but it was the first negative comment left on my blog, and i loved it! maison21 has arrived! he has haters!! i knew the post on my love for a bedazzled zebra would befuddle some readers who wouldn't "get" the statue, and i was proved right: here are the comments left by "anonymous":

Maison, love you darlink, but you're better off without the zebra. I'll incur the wrath of all the zombie Wearstler devotees here for saying this, but somebody has to address the elephant in the room: Hollywood regency is over! And all this animal shiz is seriously tacky. Get over your addiction!

Of course bad taste is better than not taste. Yada, yada, yada. But don't waste tears on that zebra. Ugh! I shudder to look at it. That thing looks like it belongs in the Reverend Ted Haggard's apartment.

OMG, I just saw your tiger (cub?)! Yikes! I'm thinking you need a design intervention. [cue Amy Winehouse] There's gotta be a Promises in Malibu for animal tchokes addicts.

where to begin? first of all, anonymous, i'll let you know when something is over! maison21 is THE DECIDER in matters of style! but seriously, much as maison21 hates to be compared to the reverend ted, or to amy winehouse (ouch!), maison21 must admit that "anonymous" does have a point after a fashion- while far from over, the hollywood regency look has been over-exposed, and frequently over-done, as well, but over-over? hardly- not in this decorator's opinion anyway.

maison21 has never been in favor of the hollywood regency label to begin with- it's a little gimmicky and evokes costume-esque connotations. he prefers the style he favors- a mix of chinoiserie, 70's modern, some french 1940's, a little rococo, a dash of deco and a hint of safari exotic- just be labeled "eclectic", though a decidedly glamorous version of "eclectic".
as for the "over-ness" of hollywood regency as a viable decorating style, recently a spread in a national publication featured a home vaguely reminiscent of the style of maison21's own, but not in a good way. the feature caused us to have a crisis of decorating confidence and literally think about getting rid of everything we owned. the crisis passed, thankfully, because after all, it's just decorating- and it's fun! we love what we love, and don't really care to change it because others are using a similar point of view, albeit somewhat less tastefully than we would like. styles of decor fall in and out of fashion, just like everything else and as things become more popular, people without a lot of taste or vision will jump on the bandwagon. but just because someone else is working a similar style, but at a different level of taste, doesn't make everything associated with that same style bad. the current hot trends in decor will change and evolve, and we will all evolve along with them, while along the way we'll learn what to to keep and what to pack away. right now, most of us think ms. wearstler's uber-hot "trellis" fabric & wall paper (above) is absolutely gorgeous, but i betcha in 10 years, we will probably be looking at it and gagging. some people though, will continuously use "trellis" and when it comes back into style in another 10 years, they will be hailed as visionaries, while those that turned our backs on it will look foolish. see what maison21 is getting at here? things go in and out of fashion but style remains, just not always the same style at the same time for the same person. a timeless classic to one person is stuck in a time warp to another.

as to anonymous' admonition "And all this animal shiz is seriously tacky." once again, there is no right or wrong opinion here- that's why we have both modern home and country home publications on the newsstand. this is a situation where you either "get it" or you don't. no right or wrong, no tacky or tasteful. it brings to mind jeff koons' "rabbit"- maison21 thinks it is true genius, a work of transcendent beauty at once both ironic and profound, tacky and sublime. in his fantasy career as an art collector, it is the one sculpture that maison21 would pay anything for (if a koons balloon heart sold recently for $23.6 million, what would a bunny go for? 50 mil? maison21, fantasy billionaire art collector, might even have to sell his private 747 or english country estate to afford a bunny, but he'd do it in a heartbeat- he loves it that much). maison21 can also see the point of people who just don't get the bunny- "it's an inflatable toy cast in steel- big deal". it's pretty easy to miss both the irony and beauty, and just see a toy bunny. not their cup of tea, and they won't be the fool paying 50 million for it.

so when "anonymous" doesn't get maison21's "tiger (cub?)" (sic), m21 doesn't think she's wrong, but that she doesn't have the same frame of reference to appreciate the darling cub (i know, an italian porcelain cheetah cub figurine and a koons' bunny ain't exactly in the same class of "art", but i think you can easily draw a line from one to the other). m21 thinks perhaps ms. wearstler, being approximately that same age as moi-self, probably gets both the irony and the beauty of the cub, which is why she's used similar statues in her interiors (see below). she probably gets the koons' bunny too. as a child, maison21, watched "valley of the dolls" on the late, late movie and thought it was super-chic, only to grow up to discover that it was more campy than glamorous, but still, the aura of glamor of the period can't be denied. and i remember thinking a giant porcelain tiger glimpsed at gump's while visiting san francisco, was the coolest thing i'd ever seen, only to find out as an adult that it was probably aimed at a market with more money than taste. but knowing the tiger is a little tacky doesn't take away it's glam factor, just adds another layer of nuance and appreciation- it's valued for it's beauty and craftsmanship as well as it's slightly dubious origins- the irony is part of the appeal. that might not make sense to some people, but maison21 gets it, and kelly wearstler gets it, and so do many, many, others. "anonymous" doesn't get and that's ok too- anonymous just has a different frame of reference for her design sensibilities, maison21 might not "get" her look either. maison21 says to each their own chic!

and thanks for the comments, "anonymous"- maison21 hopes you'll keep 'em coming!