We got the February “Before and After” Architectural Digest issue today...(Long pause as we try to say something nice).
The cover, while showing what we might deem as the ugliest bedroom we’ve ever seen, does look different. The usually “more is More” mentality of A.D. has kicked it "down" a notch with some minimalist hot pink and blue. It is a nice change. (There. Our nice statement)
Now, we loves us some Before and After, but in typical A.D. style even the before pics seem stuffy and overly done… and that’s with the rooms empty (Rim shot, please).
We wont deny that the view from the Tuscan farmhouse is spectacular, or that the Tribeca penthouse is wonderful, but really, how can you go wrong with a Tuscan or Tribeca anything?
The magazine continues to prove what we always knew: small spaces have the ability to look magnificent, when really huge spaces always end up look like hotels or airports. Anyone disagree?
Is the sofa a Edward Wormley design from DUNBAR???
I think it is a 9 foot Chamberlain
http:///www.collectdunbar.com
Be good...
Annie
"aspiring design goddess"
http://www.interiorsearch.blogspot.com
The houses of the rich always look like hotels (or stores) because hotels are the nicest places they've ever been. A hundred years ago, private houses were far nicer than even the grandest hotels, but now, the newly affluent mainly go to hotels and resorts, not the country houses and family estates of the aristocracy (if such even exists).
So their standards of luxury are commercial and public, not familial and private.
It's the difference between ordering room service and ringing for the maid.
Also, did you notice in this issue, that, in like two or three, of the before and afters, the "before's" were just construction photos. How the hell is that a "before????" I hate that magazine and read it every month.
"I hate that magazine and read it every month"
Laughed my ass off at that one after I laughed my ass off at the posting...."ugliest bedroom"
Hell, I hate it too and also read it every..... well yeah.
I flip through the mag. every month to just reaffirm my love for my small space. Rarely is there ever a home that I say "WOW wouldn't it be great to live there." The one exception was a small converted carriage house they featured in their July 2005 issue, called the "Mouse House". Olga Hirshhorn's home in DC. Really amazing - 500 sq. ft. filled with art and furniture that had a connection and history with the owner. I'm done with these over-the-top homes that feel like they just threw money at a designer and all they care about is flaunting their excess in AD.
Funny Archtectural Digest tangent... AD actually featured a 510SF studio apartment in the '80s--mine! A few months after I moved into my first condo about 6 years ago, one of my neighbors (who was realtor and lived in the building on-and-off for 25 years) was attempting to stage a Homeowners Association coup d'etat and invited himself in to make his pitch. While we were making small talk, he said "You know, you're unit was in Architectural Digest..." Apparently the owners in the '80s were a rich doctor and his trophy wife who lived in Malibu, but wanted "a place in the city for when they partied." He explained that they were scenesters and liked the fact the building was a block above the original Spago and walking distance from all the Sunset Strip and Sunset Plaza 80s hotspots. So they hired some designer who decked it out in early-80s sleek contemporary Italian style. By the time I took ownership of it, it still looked cool but just a wee bit dated. But honestly, I kind of dug that the apartment felt like something out of Jackie Collins TV mini-series. Imagine my surprise when I found out that people like Joan Collins, Faye Dunaway, Alexander Gudonov (who died of alcohol poisoning in his apartment), Neil Sedaka, Ben Stein, Chris Noth and LA-billboard star Shuki (of Shuki Limousines) all lived or had apartments in the building. (Someone told me Axl Rose had an apartment there too; but I'm not sure if that's true.) The building was already notorious because Diane Linklater (Art's daughter) jumped to her death from the roof of the building in the late '60s. But in the '70s and '80s, the building gained a reputation of being party central and of being a place where rich men kept their mistresses. This same neighbor also told me that one of the studio apartment just had an oversized round bed in the center of the room and a small stage in front of it--which is funny and gross at the same time. At any rate, I have yet to find this alleged issue of AD. But I asked one of my other neighbors about it, and she remembered the piece running in the magazine.
So, I guess my point is... you can have the same kind of excess in small spaces, too.
Enrique - What a great story, thank you for sharing.
I do hope you find that issue!
I live in Venice and I just found out that my neighbors have photos from the 1920's of the original family who owned the cottages I live in.
I have not seen the photos but they are actually standing right outside in front of my unit. I was told that these cottages/bungalows were changing houses for the wealthy families that would take the train from Pasadena and they would use the cottages as weekend summer homes.
I wish there was a way to GOOGLE an address and be able to view an archive of location photos.
I am sure all kinds of "dirt" would come up on your home Enrique!
Turquoise. Wow, you live in THAT Venice neighborhood? That stretch of little cottages is so great. You need to do a house tour; I'd love to see more pics other than what you've already run here and what have on your website. It would be great to see some exterior shots, too.
Good idea about using google to find the "dirt" on my old place! I did it and this is what I found...
"As we rounded the bend on the Sunset Strip, Duncan pointed out Shoreham Towers near the super-sized Tower Records. The Shoreham is the high-rise where Art Linkletter's daughter Diane, thinking she could fly, defenestrated herself and fell to her death (acid-heads do the darndest things). I was fascinated to learn that the man -- one Edward Durston -- who was with her when she believed she'd rewritten the law of gravity also was in the company of buxom Carol Wayne (the Matinee Lady on Johnny Carson's "Tonight Show") when she drowned under highly suspicious circumstances in Mexico. Another former resident of Shoreham Towers was one-time Soviet ballet star Alexander Godunov, who defected to the United States, had a second career as an actor and finally did "Die Hard" there, ostensibly of end-stage alcoholism. Tabloid headlines suggested a more controversial cause of death." I guess the building is part of the Hollywood "Grave Line" Tour, which makes sense. Below are 2 more links with pics of the building's exterior...
http://www.findadeath.com/Deceased/g/godunov/alexander_godunov.htm
http://www.findadeath.com/Deceased/l/Diane%20Linkletter/diane_linkletter.htm
"I hate that magazine and read it every month"
I act like that so often that my husband coined a new term for why: "annoyment."
Definition: taking pleasure from the experience of being (once again) profoundly annoyed.
Given how seldom he speaks, he must have thought the concept was important.
Annoyment is a genius coinage! I think part of this phenomenon is that we need to remind ourselves that money does not solve everything, so we -and by we, I mean me- buy AD regularly and feel grateful that we haven't spent hundreds of thousands or even millions to live in a fusty, overdone mausoleum. It beats pressing my nose against the window of Moss and feeling despondent.