This month we are starting a regular post titled “House of Details”. It focuses on the unique aspects of well designed houses. I would like to examine all kinds of houses, some of our own design, but also by other designer as well, both old and new. They will have several things in common – be an expression of the universality of the best design and rich with examples of great details.  

The first installment is a suite of rooms called “The Pasha” at Le Jardin des Biehns, a hotel I visited with the Design Leadership Summit in Fez.

Pasha Suite “Halka”

The building was originally built as a summer palace in 1906 by the Pasha Si Tayeb el Mokri, a prominent political figure, in the medina of this fabled Moroccan city—its 14th century core is now a world heritage site. After his passing in 1949, it remained in his family’s hand for several decades before being visited by Provencal antique dealer, Michel Biehn. He fell whole heartedly for the property and commenced negotiations with El Mokri’s descendents to buy it, in the process also helping to relocate 14 families who had come to set up home within it.

The result of this quixotic quest is amazing. Biehn, not a hotelier by training, filled his hotel with beautiful details, decamping from France with a carefully edited collection of Eastern antiques — nautilus shells with cameo-like engravings of Alexander the Great’s chariot, Syrian ewers, Ottoman ostrich eggs suspended from nets at the posts of a canopy bed – supplemented with Islamic textiles from the 18^th to 20th centuries. This place is a celebration of the exotic Middle East and expression of the richness of Biehn’s eye.  

Pasha Suite Bedroom

The most luxurious rooms at Les Jardin de Biehns is the The Pasha suite where Pasha Si Tayeb El Mokri himself slept under 40-foot ceilings with a halka, a roof opening to the sky. This suite includes a Moorish bath with two sunken soaking pools, one hot, one cold. It is arrayed with an amazing juxtaposition of colorful textiles, tiles and paneling. 

Above, Pasha Suite Bedroom details

I particularly admired the bed with a panel of old iron work and an embroidered canopy. There is also a group of Napoleon III upholstery in a sitting room finished in a bold black and white awning fabric. The furniture contrasts with the finely detailed geometry of the extensive original tile work around it.

Pasha Suite Sitting Room

In summary, the details are witty, inventive, handsome and sometimes over the top. They form a capital beginning for more well detailed posts to come…..  

Above, Pasha Suite Day Beds

Baths, The Pasha Suite

Most images by Thomas Jayne (except images 2 4, 5, 8 and 13)

Another good article on Les Jardins des Biehns

Lately, our clients have been calling us to help ready their porches and sun rooms for the upcoming season. They come now with high expectations, hoping to see fully developed schemes and plans. What used to be an afterthought filled with collections of matching wicker furniture bought from the local pool and patio shop are now handled like interior spaces, down to the accessories and decorative details. 

I always remember a story told to me by Rosemary McPeake, sales rep and fixture of the Schumacher showroom here in New York, as well as high school classmate of Truman Capote. Years ago, her previous employer, W & J Sloane’s Furniture had an efficient way of selling outdoor furniture in the Hamptons. They would load a truck with painted white wicker and drive out to Southampton to sell it off the back of the vehicle the week before Memorial Day weekend. They did quite well and for the buyers, it made getting ready for the season very easy.

Times have changed, but, in truth, there is still an inclination to buy garden furniture ensuite.  Yet, now there are so many more choices available for outdoors, so it is easier to create refined gathering spaces instead of just parking lots for sets of wicker and plastic furniture.

More than anything, I think it is the combination of pieces and introduction of antiques that lends these areas a more interior like feel. Adding mirrors, sturdy tables with interesting designs, floor matting and sophisticated outdoor fabrics make an outdoor room an inviting place to dine and socialize with family and friends. In other words, doing many of the things you would do inside, with an eye towards the practical and using things that can weather the elements. 

Below are several examples of porches and sun rooms that we have done over the last few years. Some of these, I happily note, are rooms that end up having usage all year round. That is partly due to the versatility of their architecture which allows them to be enclosed, but also because they are welcoming. They have just the right amount of comfort and style to become your second living room.

A porch in Point o’Woods with vintage and contemporary furniture. The blue color on the floors, sofa platform and window trims unify the design.

Top photo, porch at the Ford Plantation in Savannah. The room is fully equipped with side tables and consoles so there are places close at hand to perch drinks on.

A poolside porch in Palm Beach has antique rattan and lots of decorative accessories like pillows, trays and vases.

A dining porch in Maine has a buffet with gilt mirror (not visible) above it.

Another porch in Maine, this one with dining and sitting areas. Garden stools used as side tables and sisal matting make the space feel like an outdoor living room.

Photos:

Top: Maura McEvoy

3rd image: Jonathan Wallen

4th image: Ali Schwarz

5th image: Kerri McCaffety

6th image: Jonathan Wallen

The quiet of his room and the brilliance of the decoration stand as memorial to him.

I am working from home this afternoon, sitting on my bed. My book captions are due next week.  As I perch here, I am thinking about beds, especially those that tempt you to linger well past your wake up time or are inviting enough to work in. A capital model that especially stands out is Edith Sitwell’s bed, in which she was famously photographed by Cecil Beaton being served tea in a fine porcelain cup and wearing a turban like night cap.

That image has always stuck with me and inspired me to create this bed at the Ford Plantation in Savannah, Georgia. Incidentally, I composed  a caption for that photo today, describing it as an example of “Lowcountry luxury” and a take on old Southern beds with their great architecture and drapery. I also like its sheltering quality and the added touch of whimsy from the feather finials. It is definitely a place to write great things. 

Photos:

Left, Edith Sitwell photographed by Cecil Beaton

Right, Bedroom at the Ford Plantation, photo by Maura McEvoy

I am currently working on finishing an apartment here in the city, looking for those final details that will complete the rooms. During my search, I was reminded of the great value of including small works of art. A modest scale painting or print adds interest and quality, and its impact is often so much greater than its size and cost. They often add an element of surprise— their concentrated power having an immediacy that draws the eye. They attract in the way a gem or newly discovered treasure stands out and focuses your attention. 

I think about the value of small works of art often in my own home. In addition to some good larger paintings, we own some really high quality smaller pieces by artists such as Grant Wood, Philip Guston, Rembrandt, and Van Eyck (given that the last two are works on paper). I am always on the look out for new pieces, and particularly enjoy checking out the yearly “Unframed” events sponsored by ACRIA (Aids Community Research of America). They are a great source for small works by interesting contemporary artists, many of which can be purchased throughout the year on their online gallery. 

We recently purchased for a client several wonderful small paintings by Marianne Barcellona from her Egyptology series. She is also a noted photographer, and recently documented a series of excavations near the Great Pyramids of Giza conducted by Brown University. While there, she spent time exploring the Cairo Museum and was drawn by a group of small Egyptian figural sculptures. She wrote, “I became haunted by their poignancy, tenderness, vulnerability, and auras of benevolent calm. They felt alive and sentient … I later learned that they were probably created as reserve bodies for the soul, in the event that their mummies were destroyed.” These figures stayed in her memory, and upon returning to New York, she began painting them from recollection, only occasionally referring to her photographs. Instead, she allowed “each figure to dictate its own development through countless metamorphoses, sandings, scrapings, and re-applications of paint, until a ‘right’ presence finally emerges.” I can feel these intense emotions coming through in her work.

We bought several of these little paintings for a client’s study which we decorated as a contemporary take on an Egyptian revival library. The works we purchased will be quietly perched on the shelves of two matching Pylon-shaped bookcases, but powerfully present. While they were chosen to help underscore the Egyptian taste of the room, their color, texture and magnetism add so much more than just decorative charm.

These works have so impressed me that I asked Marianne if I could post several of her works on my page on Dering Hall. (You might also want to view some of our furniture and accessories designs there.) I hope this inspires you to consider starting your own collection of small, but great works of art. 

Photos:

Top 3 images: Thomas Jayne and Rick Ellis’ Soho loft

4th image: Egyptian Boy on Blue, by Marianne Barcellona

5th image: Egyptian Figure on Salmon, by Marianne Barcellona, seen displayed on a shelf at Jayne Design Studio.

Final Image: A favorite example of a display with small works of art - this one seen in a “liquor closet” at the De Menil house in Houston.