Velvet & Linen

chicago and provence...

I know that "chicago and provence" seems like an odd title for this post, but my head seems to be in both places...

I am busy planning our trip to Chicago, and I want to thank all of you who left comments and sent emails about your favorite restaurants and sites to see. I'm taking a huge list and plan to fill our days visiting as many of your recommendations as possible.

I do want to let you know that I will be attending the Shop the Shed event organized by Joy Frey-Waltmire (savycityfarmer.com) and her daughter Angela Joy Reed (parisiennefarmgirl.com) on friday April 22nd. I will be there with my friend Mary Anne and hope to see you there!

Although our travel plans have been taking up a great deal of my time, I've also been spending a lot of time searching for more inspiration for our new home. With friends like Heather, I don't have to try to hard! Heather now calls the town of Arles in Provence her home and writes a beautiful blog called Lost in Arles. 

Heather is so thoughtful! During her recent trip to Vaison La Romaine she remembered my post on interior shutters and sent me these gorgeous photographs...

Heather noted that the shutters were left "unstained in the warmest shade of oak possible".
 

Heather also sent this fabulous picture of these exterior turquoise shutters. 

Heather sent several other images of Vaison that made me want to exchange our Chicago tickets for 5 tickets to Provence!

Ok, yes we are still very excited for our Chicago trip, but you must admit, Vaison is stunning!

To see more images, please visit Heather at Lost in Arles...

xo

Brooke

If you would like help creating the home of your dreams, email me about our design services. You can also purchase many items found here on Velvet and Linen as well as "to the trade" furnishings through Giannetti Home. Email Kelly about the details.

 To Subscribe to Velvet and Linen click here.

To Become a Fan of Velvet and Linen on Facebook click here. 

 

Please visit our Amazon page to pre-order our new book, Patina Style.

wertz brothers antique collective...

Steve, Leila and I spent a little time this afternoon walking the isles of Wertz Brothers Antique Collective here in Santa Monica.

I always enjoy seeing the unique displays created by each vendor.  

Next to a stack of hat boxes, a lovely mannequin with her long metal skirt sits on top of a steamer trunk.  

Vintage cameras and photos give a hint of a time long ago. 

A romantic vignette of old silver and a toledo scale sits in front of a set of aged shutters.

A variety of texture adds interest to a neutral display.

Mannequins seem to be quite popular at Wertz Brothers right now. 

I could use this cart in my garden to carry my supplies...

A large collection of glove molds have more of an impact than just a few... 

I always love the emotion of vintage portraits.

They have so much character!

I hope you had an inspiring weekend!

xo

Brooke

If you would like help creating the home of your dreams, email me about our design services. You can also purchase many items found here on Velvet and Linen as well as "to the trade" furnishings through Giannetti Home. Email Kelly about the details.

 To Subscribe to Velvet and Linen click here.

To Become a Fan of Velvet and Linen on Facebook click here. 

 

Please visit our Amazon page to pre-order our new book, Patina Style.

barn beams, glass, round windows and other details...

After writing the last several posts about our new home, I received quite a few emails from readers about various design elements we will be incorporating into our house plans...

One of the most frequently asked questions was about our glassed in mudroom. Were we really planning to use sheets of glass between antique barn beams? How would this look?

Although our mud room will only be one story tall, this is the feeling I have in mind, including some gorgeous vines, although the ones in my head are a pale pink roses. 

Image Source

Several readers had questions about the round window in the image below.

We plan to have several round or oval windows in our home. They will be placed high in the walls to allow light into the rooms.

We were inspired by this gorgeous window in my friend Penny Bianchi's Master Bedroom. 

Image Source

I hope to find antique windows that will be deeply set in the plaster walls. 

Image Source

After my last post about Carlo Scarpa, a few readers were concerned that we were planning to use concrete floors. Although I actually love concrete floors (we used them in our last home), we are planning to have rustic oak floors throughout most of the house, similar to the floor in the image below.

Image Source

Please feel free to ask questions about our design plans so far. I'll try to answer as many as possible.

In the meantime, our kids are on Spring Break, and we are getting ready to take a short family vacation in Chicago. This is our first trip to the Windy City, so I'd appreciate any recommendations!

xo

Brooke

If you would like help creating the home of your dreams, email me about our design services. You can also purchase many items found here on Velvet and Linen as well as "to the trade" furnishings through Giannetti Home. Email Kelly about the details.

 To Subscribe to Velvet and Linen click here.

To Become a Fan of Velvet and Linen on Facebook click here. 

Please visit our Amazon page to pre-order our new book, Patina Style.

 

patina farm modern inspiration: carlo scarpa

When Steve first dropped the "I'd like the design of our next home to have a contemporary influence" bomb on me, I was very nervous. Images of a concrete box of a house filled my head. Where  would I curl up to read a book? What about all of my French and Swedish antiques? Surely they would be replaced with leather cube furniture. When Steve saw the tears welling in my eyes, he introduced me to the work of Italian Architect Carlo Scarpa (1906-1978)...

I started to calm down when I saw the images of  the Museo Canova in Possagno, Italy.

The glowing plaster walls and the steel windows made me sigh...

I loved the juxtaposition of the clean architecture with the beautiful classic sculptures.


Photographer Peter Guthrie created these hauntingly beautiful computer generated images of the Museum.

Image by Peter Guthrie

Image by Peter Guthrie

I thought you might enjoy taking a video tour of Peter Guthrie's computer generated museum.

Museo Canoviano from Peter Guthrie on Vimeo.

I breathed another sigh of relief when I saw this image of the Galleria Regionale di Sicilia. Carlo Scarpa designed this renovation of the Palazzo Abatellis in 1954. Located in Palerme, Italy, this building is proof that contemporary design can blend beautifully with classical architecture. 

Image by Richard Bryant

 
After seeing these images, I could definitely imagine our home having a bit of a Scarpa influence. I started to see hints of Carlo Scarpa in many of my inspiration images.

Like Scarpa's Museo Canovano, this room has beautiful plaster walls, cement floors, and steel windows. 

 

 

Image from Essentially French by Josephine Ryan. Photo by Claire Richardson

Another one of my saved images shares the simple plaster walls with no baseboard as seen in Scarpa's work . 

Image from Essentially French by Josephine Ryan. Photo by Claire Richardson

Like the Palazzo Abatellis, this room combines clean plaster walls with a wood ceiling. The gorgeous paneled doors take center stage next to a rustic sink with a contemporary faucet.  

Image via Country French Antiques

After my discussion with Steve, I added photos of Carlo Scarpa's work to my Patina Farm inspiration file, and thanked Steve for his patience. He handed me a kleenex and thanked me for keeping an open mind :) 

xo

Brooke

If you would like help creating the home of your dreams, email me about our design services. You can also purchase many items found here on Velvet and Linen as well as "to the trade" furnishings through Giannetti Home. Email Kelly about the details.

 To Subscribe to Velvet and Linen click here.

To Become a Fan of Velvet and Linen on Facebook click here. 

Please visit our Amazon page to pre-order our new book, Patina Style.