All White

If you don't have a subscription to Metropolitan Home, don't walk but drive (fast, faster!) to your nearest magazine shop. If you love the chic calmness of all white, if you cannot get enough of minimalist modern, you will want to see every home in this January/February 2009 issue. This is Metro's best issue to date.

Go! Be the Queen of Pristine!

And to All, Goodnight

Holiday hugs to you all!

Guess Who Came for Dinner

Red-tailed Hawk
Now he's got me wanting a new lens for my camera, so that I can get a better photo of him.

Tall Husband spotted this dinner guest sitting in our pecan tree at My Ranchburger this evening. Watch out little squirrels! I think you're on the menu.

Confessions of an International Maison Stalker

The photo is from Vivre Côté Paris Magazine Advertisement.
Click on photo to enlarge.

Some years ago, in the late 'eighties, I was watching television. ( Yes, I would occasionally watch T.V. until reality shows reared their ugly heads.) Elsa Klensch was interviewing Philippe Starck, the famous French designer-of-everything on her show, Style. (God, I miss that show and have not tuned to CNN since they canned Elsa.) Anyway Elsa was featuring a most unusual house that Philippe had designed. All I knew was that I had to see this house and that it was somewhere in or near Paris.

Through French design books and the Internet, which was rather feeble back then, I located the house, Maison Lemoult, on Ile Saint-Germain in Issy-les-Moulineaux, a short metro ride from our hotel in the center of Paris. So, one sunny November day, Tall Husband and I stood feasting our eyes on the Starck master piece. As the house sits between the Seine and a street, we saw it from the front and the back. I shall never forget the thrill of that day. The owners, Dr. and Madame Lemoult, were home and were nervously peeking out at us, which did not perturb us in the least. We did notice the new house next door and commented that it was a shame that such an ugly house was built next to the chic Maison Lemoult. We were later to learn that the ugly house was Philippe Starck's studio and home, which he had designed.

Now my fantasizing begins anew, as this wonderful house is on the market, according to an advertisement in Vivre Côté Paris magazine. You can see Maison Starck as long as this link is active: http://www.architecturedecollection.fr/starck/flash/home2.swf

French Internet lesson so that you may enjoy your house tour:

• precedent=previous
• suivant=next
• retour=return or back
• accueil=home
• loupe=enlarge (photo)

Oh, did I mention the price? 2 490 000 euros. Ouch!

P.S. I am thrilled to see that there is the same Italian floor lamp, Gilda, in the living room as we have. We got ours from Design Within Reach.

French Enamel Signs

These signs are on doors at My Ranchburger. I think they lend a touch of French wit. We purchased them several years ago from a tiny shop in Paris, Papeterie Moderne. The original owners, the charming Joseph and Jacqueline Bakerdjian, helped us choose our signs.

When Papeterie Moderne first opened, it was in the middle of the largest centralized food market in Europe, Les Halles. They sold string, paper wrappings and stickers to merchants who were selling poultry, meat , eggs, cheese, butter and vegetables to all of Paris. When the central market moved to the suburbs of Paris, Joseph and Jacqueline morphed their business into a sign shop to serve the small shops that sprang up around them. Their enamel signs became popular with tourists like us and Papeterie Moderne became known around the world for its French Enamel Signs.

Joseph and Jacqueline later sold their shop to Josette Samuel who is a potter. Josette renamed the shop Plaques et Pot and sells her pottery along with the famous French enamel signs.

Machine Lights: Sublime

Click on Photos to enlarge.

Photographs of all Maschinen Leuchten (Machine Lights) are used with permission of Frank Buchwald, the Designer.

Frank Buchwald's Maschinen Leuchten, Machine Lights, are exquisitely handcrafted and utterly magic. This is machine cum art. This is art that lights up the imagination. Here are timeless constructions: are we thrown back in time or thrust into the next century? Think of these light objects as you will, there is no denying that they are uber chic.

To learn more about the manufacture and history of these light objects and about Frank Buchwald, the Berlin designer, go to Maschinen Leuchten.