over the top interiors....

Bergl, Duquette, Marchiori....sigh.....images of their work are always in my mind...

....influencing my own work and consultations I have with clients and decorators.

These first two images are from two rooms done by J W Bergl in the Schonbrunn Palace in Austria. Here is a link to see a panoramic view of the entire room.

This is the lacquered hall from the Hotel Claude in Paris....

Look at the scale of this classical motif salon....

...and the layers of trompe l'oeil fabric behind the bed....

Tony Duquette was synonymous with asian decor and high drama.

This is Duquette's drawing room at Dawnridge...

..more classic Duquette...

Carlo Marchiori, Venetian by birth, settled in California over a decade ago and brought with him the best of european decorative art.

Carlo not only built Ca 'Toga, but painted all interior murals as well....

His work stopped me in my tracks when I first saw it featured in a magazine I picked up in Venice.

Let me know who has influenced you with your decorating style..!

Road trip...

I have been working in south Texas for a few months with a client's home. The drive is between 8 and 9 hours long and includes a lot of what Texas has best...diversity!

There seems to be an imaginary line around Waco, Texas that once crossed, opens up into a network of small, diverse rural towns with lots of character and history.

Close to London, Texas is an outcrop of pink granite lining both sides of highway 377, the same granite that the state capital is built from.

Go further south on highway 83 to Crystal City, Texas and you will find incredible palm trees thriving in the "border town" warmer climate.

I was working just north of Crystal City on a ranch covered in flint, limestone and river rocks....

....forty miles south of the Frio River....

....... below the "hill country" near Kerrville....

...and where cactus is the main ornamental plant!

On my "paint breaks", I would head in to town (Uvalde)to shop. I found this souvenir pincushion from the 1906 New Orleans Mardi Gras in a local antique shop .....

...and rewarded myself with a piece of Virgins, Saints and Angels jewelry while visiting on each trip!

Shopping in Central and South Texas can be diversified as well! The Herb Farm in Fredericksburg, Texas provides 5 star meals and a gift shop full of candles, soaps and lotions made from herbs grown on the grounds.

I picked up this pretty brush holder from the Artisans at Rocky Hill gallery in Fredericksburg. They are under twenty dollars and have lots on hand if you want to contact them.

If you are in the area, the Hangar Hotel in Fredericksburg is a trip back in time. Located on the grounds of the actual airport, it is a new structure built to look like a quonset hut from WWII.

The hotel staff wear military uniforms, wool blankets are at the foot of each bed....

There is much attention to detail to create the illusion of the war era.

...and everything is painted in army green or battleship grey!

Jitterbug music plays in the lobby and you can ususally hear the billiards clicking in the Officer's Club a.k.a. clubroom.

Just outside of San Antonio is the small German town of Castroville. The Old Alsatian is worth the drive for black mussels in whiskey sauce or jaeger schnitzel.

I will close with a photo from Oktoberfest this past weekend in Fredericksburg....I had painted 12 hours the day before and five hours that morning and then made the three hour trip to Oktoberfest for the evening....the point is....grab life when you can and enjoy the ride!

The Midas Touch....

You don't have to tell the Parisians how to warm up a room....major restoration is now complete on the gilded gold ornament of the Opera, Ponte Alexandre bridge and the Fontaines de la Concorde.

Louis XIV, the Sun King knew how to warm up a room as well. Several thousand sheets of gold leaf were used in the Hall of Mirrors at Versailles alone.

Versace brought in Sherle Wagner fixtures for a power room in his Miami home.

From this extravagance, we can learn tricks to warm up our own environments. Vintage leather books with gilded spines glow when featured in a bookcase or stacked as a base for an object of interest.

Small scale items such as this gilded clock add warmth when grouped with other textures.

I gilded these fabulous door recently. It added the perfect balance to the entry of the home.

You can get away with gilded ceilings in small areas. This was done in a small study featuring a wall of paintings in ornate gilded frames.

How about gilding the edges of a built in cabinet? Very subtle and classic.

Textiles can add a hint of gold through beading or gilded thread.

Don't forget gilded mirrors!

This Fornasetti table was found on 1stDibs- a collection of many antique dealers with a variety of wares including many gilded sconces, candlesticks, consoles and chairs to warm up your home. Gold can be a great way to warm up your home. Let me know what your favorite gold touch is!

Things are Looking Up.........

What do you see when you look at your ceiling? It has been called the "fifth wall" and rightly so. The ceiling is many times overlooked in setting a mood for a room. I make a living interpreting people's dreams and giving them environments that nurture them after a hard day at work. This post is a series of ceilings I have painted for client's home environments.

The above is one of the most challenging requests I have had to interpret. This ceiling is a story told through twelve panels depicting travels made by my clients. It tells a story of european travels through France and Italy.

This master bedroom ceiling brings a smile to the client each night as they unwind from the day...it is based on designs in the fabric used for the room and is painted on a plaster ceiling.

(Thank you Beth for featuring me today on your blog-Chinoiserie Chic)

Detail of the chinoiserie motif.

This red study demanded an embossed and gilded ceiling to accent a wall of framed art. It really plays well off the light fixture original to the home.

Faux crocodile was the request for this coffered ceiling. The homeowners raise exotic animals and have a lodge feel to their environment.

This dome was given a nod to early Christian symbolism. The "stitching" on the groin lines is done in a "fish bone" design or "Ichthus". This symbol of Christ would be typically applied to the highest point of the profile of a building such as a bell tower or dome.

I had pure delight on this restoration job. These walls and ceiling were obscured with paint for over sixty years. I used Farrow and Ball organic paint and plaster to restore the stencil work originally done at the turn of the century.

Two wishes were incorporated into this living room ceiling. The subtle clouds were based on a hotel lobby they had stayed in and the corner motifs were based on carvings in the gilded french mantel.

This ceiling done with sepia clouds finished the illusion of an Italian villa.

Think about it...when you lay in bed at night, what is above you as you drift off to sleep? Is it a neglected fifth wall ? Even if a solid color is the answer for your room, consider a shiny venetian plaster or a simple flat lime wash.. Don't overlook this important "wall" when you are feathering your nest and making your home your personal environment!

Let's Organize....!

Being an artist, I am constantly trying to balance chaos and order in my environment. I like things to be functional, yet pretty.....take these great wooden cigar boxes. Stacked, they look great.

Each one holds an incredible amount of art supplies, chalks, pens, charcoals......I picked mine up from a local tobacco shop. They sell many of there boxes once empty.

Look at this fabulous laptop holder from Paul Smith..so different, functional, yet artistic.

                                                (Ullabenulla)

Need a daily reminder board? Step it up a notch and make this french inspired organizer . I made one for myself after seeing this one on Ullabenulla. I found a gilded frame with half of the ornament missing in a junk shop. Perfect for my needs.

What about your desk? There is always the sea of paperwork to deal with. Use this spiral holder available from the Museum of Modern Art.

Now that you have the file holder, get some graphic file folders. Think visual, I use one design for bills, another for clients, one for my blog, etc. You just need to enter the room and glance to the files to see the one you need!

There are many styles out there, from William and Morris designs to faux bois.

My last thought is also a quirky little art inspired item. These "paint tubes" are door stops! Just because we all have work to do and things to organize doesn't mean our environment has to be dull! Put some color and art into your life this week.