Red House at Bexleyheath

In looking at the fabric and wallpaper designs of William Morris & Co, I became reaquainted with Red House.  It was designed by Philip Webb for William Morris, and is one of the great exaples of English Arts and Crafts architecture.  The photo above is the "classic" view of the house.  It is a view of the back of the house. The tower in the corner is the stair hall, and the little building with the conical roof is the well.  I found some other, less familiar photos in a Phaidon press book.  The photos are by Charlotte Wood.

The well

The well seems like it would be incidental to the house, but in fact is the focal point of the garden.

Back of the house

Front of the house

View from the orchard

I just love all of the roof shapes, dormers and chimneys.  The house actually has a very simple rational floor plan, but the massing of the house is beautifully complex.

Front door

The drawing room

This room is on what the English call the first floor.  To us it would be considered the second floor.  This was the most important living space in the house.

The stair hall

I find it interesting that the wall paper shows up in places that you wouldn't expect, like the ceiling of the stair hall. Interestingly, in all of the interior photos I saw, the patterning is mostly on the ceilings.

The dining room

The oriel window in the drawing room

William Morris and "The Beauty of Life"

"The Beauty of Life": William Morris and the Art of Design was a wonderful exhibit  at the Yale Center for British Art a few years ago. They had an amazing selection of drawings, paintings, fabric and wall paper.  The most interesting thing about the exhibit was that many of the most beautiful designs were actually created by the chief designer J H Dearle, rather than by Morris himself.  I had never heard of J H Dearle before that.  Later I found some more images of his creations.  The colors and patterns are just stunning.  I believe some of these patterns are available commercially through  Morris & Co.

The next few images are unfinished sketches of the designs.  It's fascinating to see the creative process in work.  It's really interesting to see how the design pattern is sketched out and then color is added.  I also love the little notes on the side of the sketches.

Chinoiserie

Fromental

Recently we were asked by a client to look at ways to give her rather traditional dining room, a more modern feel.  We added architectural elements such as paneling and a coffered ceiling, but with the owner's very traditional furniture, we knew we'd run the risk of having the room look a little frumpy and old fashioned unless we did something very different with the walls.  We came across a few images of dining rooms with chinoiserie wall paper, and we thought that's perfect.  It's formal, yet modern and young.  My favorite designs, because of their vibrant colors and fabulous imagery, come from the French company De Gournay and the English company Fromental

Nate Burkus

Cindy Renfret

De Gournay

Fromental

Fromental

Fromental

Fromental

Fromental

Fromental

Bilhuber

De Gournay

De Gournay

De Gournay

De Gournay

De Gournay

De Gournay

De Gournay

De Gournay