GREEN—NATURE’S COLOUR

I think I am always writing about Decorators’ Colours—pink, lavender, aqua,  (as I am sure everyone of you readers know, Benjamin Moore even has a Decorator’s White!), but maybe I never write about one of my favourite colours of all, green.  

Green truly is the colour of Nature—here in South Florida, where it can be hot, hot, hot ! , green shade from leafy bowers and cool, tall trees, is what we are always seeking.

Society of the Four Arts
Palm Beach

Society of the Four Arts
Palm Beach

And when we can’t find shade, we make it and cover it with greenery.

Society of the Four Arts
Palm Beach

All of these pictures were taken in the Society of the Four Arts Garden in Palm Beach where you can see every shade of green imaginable, from the deep green of the water in ponds to the newest yellow greens of spring leaves (and variegated leaves all year long).

But, much as I love this spot—and I do and am always taking clients who are new to our area there, so as to show them the amazing diversity of South Florida—what I am talking about is green in decoration.

Green is restful—use it on the walls as in this charming attic bedroom by Tom Scheerer.

Room Design by Tom Scheerer

Use it in upholstery, a little (the way that David Easton did here on a rattan chair)

Chair by David Easton

or a lot, the way Mario Buatta is doing here.

Room by Mario Buatta

Be bold with it, although I will hesitate and tell you right up front that this is genius-class decoration here from the great Mario Buatta.

Room by Mario Buatta

Just look at the play between the different greens and then the contrasting pale coral!

You can be light with it as above or go for a darker, richer colour, and you will just not be wrong.

Room by Mario Buatta

You can be whimsical with it as in this fabulous bedroom, another room by Mario Buatta,

Room by Mario Buatta
Architectural Digest

or Semi-serious as Mark Hampton did in this dining room.

Room by Mark Hampton

Or just go on, get serious, and paint the whole damn place green as the great Alberto Pinto did in this 18^th century room in England.

Room by Alberto Pinto
Architectural Digest

I use green all the time, in Living Rooms...

Room by Leta Austin Foster
Photo by Edward Addeo
Farrow & Ball, The Art of Colour by Brian Coleman

and Dining Rooms

Room by Leta Austin Foster
Photo by Edward Addeo
Farrow & Ball, The Art of Colour by Brian Coleman

Room by Leta Austin Foster
Photo by Edward Addeo
Farrow & Ball, The Art of Colour by Brian Coleman

and even on the bed linens of this charming bedroom, which happens to have green woodwork, though you can hardly see it.

Room by Leta Austin Foster
Photo by Edward Addeo
Farrow & Ball, The Art of Colour by Brian Coleman

I love green.  XOXOXOX  LETA

Christopher Cope—A Very Talented Young Man 

About two years ago, a young florist came in to show me pictures of flowers and arrangements which he had done.  They were awfully, awfully pretty, and I asked him to do an arrangement for a photo shoot I was doing.  Since that day, I have recommended him over and over, and people always seem to really like him, so I thought I would show you some of his projects.  Always fun!

I guess I already knew about Christopher, because my dear friend, Carol Jankowsky, had already told me about him, but you know how it is.  Someone recommends someone, and you nod and say, yeah, why not? And then forget all about Said Person.  But Christopher followed up, and that’s why we really got together.  Morale of the Story: Follow Up.  Don’t say yeah and then forget about it.

Table setting by Leta Austin Foster
Palm Beach Illustrated Diamond Anniversary Issue

Now. Believe it or not, this picture shows how really talented Christopher actually is, because today, with flowers emphasizing, and rightly so, David Austin roses and lilies and eucalyptus seeds, Christopher was brave enough to do a 1960’s “do” of chrysanthemums and red roses, because the photo shoot’s subject was Jayne Wrightsman and her perfect house in 1960’s and 1970’s Palm Beach, so we were using the Luneville china and the embroidered cloth from Noël of Paris (all of which are still in fashion and thus sold in my boutique) and the flowers  (which are not still in fashion) needed to represent the period too.

Later, we were invited to do a table for the Lenox Hill dinner in New York which was to have a springtime theme.  We chose Springtime in the Serengeti, for which Christopher made a fabulous centerpiece of a giraffe made from leaves and flowers  (the adorable little “leopard skins” were made by Zenon Toczek while the cloth was made by Ven Tran in West Palm Beach out of a perfect Quadrille fabric, "Nairobi” in spring green)

Table setting by Leta Austin Foster
Lenox Hill Dinner in New York

                                                                     

 Every Monday he brings a new arrangement to the boutique—you need to come in on Monday afternoon or on Tuesday, so you can understand how really perfect they are—always original, always beautiful.  And they are usually small, so you can see how much you can do with small vases—even bud vases

                                             

Christopher Cope Collection
Images from www.ChristopherCope.net

                                                               

You can see how lovely they are—and how different.  These flowers have done him a good turn, too.  He has gotten several customers from them—he already had clientele as varied as Mrs. Rudolph Giuliani and Tiffany’s, and now he is being courted by others.  But he still takes the time to do each bouquet himself and to care about all the details.

Christopher Cope Event Florals

Christopher Cope Event Florals

                                            

That’s Christopher for you!  XOXOXOX  LETA

Aqua--What Is It? Why Is It?

People are always asking me, “Do you like aqua?”  The answer is, “How could I not?” but maybe also, “How are you going to use it?”

Aqua can be a peaceful, soft colour, and I use it all the time.  Aqua curtains?  I love them.

Room by Leta Austin Foster

 Aqua printed fabrics?  I love them.

Room by Leta Austin Foster
Photograph Credit: Edward Addeo

 The checked fabrics on the sofa and the stool and the curtains are from Chelsea Editions while the printed linen on the walls is from Colefax & Fowler/Cowtan & Tout.  How could I not love these?

Room by Leta Austin Foster
Photograph credit:  Edward Addeo

 Of course, I love the old aqua paint of this lovely 18^th century console which was sold by N. P. Trent when he had his beautiful shop on South Dixie in West Palm Beach.  This is just my kind of thing.

Room by Leta Austin Foster

Here we used various tones of aqua in the upholstery to pick up the beautiful pale aquas in the wallpaper (Brunschwig & Fils) and from the usual colour of the ocean outside—the day that picture was taken it was, sadly, more of a blue, but that’s the nice thing about aqua: it looks good with other aquas, blues, greens, and wonderful with beige or brown.

Room by Leta Austin Foster

I don’t just use it in fabrics and wallpaper, but I paint with it too.  This little chest, one of a pair, was painted in the Swedish manner, using Farrow & Ball’s “Pale Powder” and “Pointing”, separated by a thin gold line, by Adra Brown, a remarkably talented (and beautiful, even though that’s besides the point) artist in West Palm Beach.

Room by Leta Austin Foster

Heavy aqua linen makes the most luxurious curtains, especially when they are embroidered along the edges and lined and interlined as these beautiful curtains done by Paul Maybaum were…and the walls are the same “Pale Powder” painted talked about in the blurb about the furniture above.  I consider that paint my neutral.   

Room by Leta Austin Foster

I have used the pale powder blue again in the picture above, this time in the Swedish painting on the walls, again by the very talented Adra Brown and James Garza, both of West Palm Beach, which made a small Dining Room cum Sun Room look bigger and more important.  We used glorious aqua curtains with the leading edges and bottoms embroidered by Michael Savoia, one of America’s great embroiderers (www.villasavoiainc.com).  With the beautiful fabric and the rich linings and detail work by Paul Maybaum, these truly are works of art.  The aqua colour scheme is picked up again on the chairs and even in the table linens.  You can peek into the room behind this room, another Sun Room, and see that I am carrying my aqua colour scheme on in the rattan chairs painted in aqua green, a la Nancy Lancaster.

Room by Leta Austin Foster

So do I like Aqua as a colour inside the house.  I love it, but with a caveat.  Don’t go too strong.  What looks great in a picture in House Beautiful may not be too livable in the long run.  Look at the two pictures below.

These rooms are just not livable—at least for an appreciable length of time.  Those blue-greens are just too! Too!  And they are just too cutsie.  And that brings me to my philosophy.  Houses are NOT fashion.  They are not done with tricks.  No matter how many cunning articles (“101 ways to Use Aqua in Your House” “Fun Tricks with Aqua as shown by a Master”), a house should be decorated to last a l-o-o-o-ng time.  Decoration, especially good decoration, is just too expensive to try and be fashionable.  I will never forget reading the “In” and “Out” columns of a famous fashion newspaper, and in November of one year, they said that the really “In” thing was to have all your linens by Porthault.  Only the following January, Porthault linens were listed on the top of the “Out”.  Might make good reading; certainly wouldn’t make happy readers.

But surely you won’t do any of those horrible things, not you, my loyal readers.

XOXOXOXOXOX  LETA