Thursday, January 13, 2011

Ah!




Ah! Le merveilleux d'une maison n'est point qu'elle vous abrite ou vous réchauffe, ni qu'on possède les murs. Mais bien qu'elle ait lentement déposé en nous ces provisions de douceur. Qu'elle forme, dans le fond du coeur, ce massif obscur dont naissent, comme des eaux de source, les songes...

Ah! The wonderful thing about a house is not that it provides warmth and shelter, nor that we possess its walls. It is rather that it has slowly deposited in us stores of sweetness, shaping, deep in the heart, a mysterious bedrock from which dreams emerge, like water from a spring...


Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
Terre des Hommes

Wednesday, January 5, 2011

Blue Home

Far from having a gloomy aspect, I can think of few rooms with a more festive case of the blues than those of M. Faré's apartment in the rue Faubourg St Honoré.
Decorator Marcel Bouhébent has used exuberant blues and mauves with subtle tones
of grey, stone, and yellow whose overall effect makes me think of the beauty of a brillantly colored butterfly’s wing.
The talent of the illustrator communicates iridescence.


What a welcoming place to come home.
The furnishings are covered in suede, the curtains lined with cream colored satin, drawings by Cocteau exhibit the graceful contours of the hand; this was the home of a maître gantier whose gloves were appreciated by the haute couture.


The jardin d'hiver is paved with pebbles, as is the adjoining terrace.
Its ceiling stretched with canvas to match the seating and recall the carpet of the other rooms.

Pour le plaisir des yeux.


illustrations by Pierre Mourgue
from Plaisir de France, 1943

Monday, January 3, 2011