A Great City

Portland, Oregon is one of my favorite cities, so it was a treat to visit recently at the invitation of Parker Furniture in Beaverton. Parker is an exceptional furniture store, carrying an enormous array of beautiful furniture and run by the third generation of the Parker family. I stayed at the historic Benson Hotel, one of several old Portland hotels with exquisite architecture, furnishings, and old-time grandeur. The original Mr. Benson installed Benson Bubblers around the city---elaborate drinking fountains that not only still function today but look as classically lovely as ever. Portland's light rail system goes just about everywhere and is fast and efficient. Wonderful old buildings and institutions abound. It is a warm, friendly city built on two rivers and home to more micro-breweries per capita than anywhere in the country. If you are a beer lover, Portland is heaven!

TEAPOTS

I love teapots! They combine the functionality of a vessel with a shape that can be almost anything. A teapot needs the container, a lid, a handle, and a spout. The vessel can resemble anything as long as it has these basic elements.

Because of my passion for teapots, I was invited to the home of a couple with the largest teapot collection in the US. They "only" had a few hundred teapots displayed in their home; the others were in storage and awaiting a new museum in North Carolina. The teapots in their home were artfully and beautifully arranged, and varied from those commissioned by artists purely for art's sake to those that were mass produced and functional. They were all ages, from hundreds of years old to new and contemporary. The materials ran the gamut, from glass and ceramic, to fibers and metal. The collection was fascinating!

Insects

I freely admit I was less than enthusiastic when my wife and a friend dragged me to the insect fair at the Los Angeles Natural History Museum. I now realize that to have missed it would have been like missing a showing of the finest French impressionists. The displays were phenomenal, extraordinary, remarkable....and every other adjective I can use. The butterflies varied in size from larger than a man's hand to as small as a fingernail. They came in every color in the rainbow, with breathtaking combinations of color. Some were opalescent, others iridescent, and others translucent. Butterflies were my personal favorite, but there were also countless beetles, and like the butterflies, they varied in size and color. There were giant walkingsticks, huge mantids, and many exotic insects from Malaysia and South America. The visit was truly memorable and I look forward to seeing these incredible specimens again next year.

Contemporary Design

Current contemporary design has such divergent directions. In the world of architecture, straight lines of steel and glass typify most structures (except Frank Gehry's magnificent stainless curvilinear shapes). It seems there is a standard formula of colorless glass, steel and wood (or stucco, or both) that is repeated over and over again. However, in the world of interior design, upholstered pieces tend to be sinusoidal shaped sofas, chairs, and chaises....often in strong, bright colors.

What's going on? Is this the interior design community fighting back at the cold, angular exterior? Or is it the homeowner's desire to relieve the starkness of the structure they are living in? I haven't heard a clear answer, but whatever is happening a wonderful contrast is created between these two distinct styles of contemporary design.

Getty Villa

I recently visited the Getty Villa museum in Malibu, a magnificent reproduction of the Villa dei Papiri in Herculaneum that was buried by Mount Vesuvius' eruption in AD79. The museum underwent a nine year renovation and is now even more beautiful than when I visited it over twenty years ago. The structure is magnificent, the setting idyllic, and the antiquities displayed inside are beyond description. The museum itself has elaborate decoration and some of the finest faux painting I have ever seen (this art form was very popular at the time). The tile work is breathtaking, with complex marble designs on the floors, walls, and ceilings. The antiquities date from the Greek and Roman empires, ranging from hundreds of years BC to several hundred years AD, all in the finest condition.

Time Warp

Walking in my neighborhood a few days ago, I came upon an area that absolutely intrigued me. Accessed by one road, this area has about a hundred homes that were built in the 1950's and 1960's. Walking the area was like being in a time warp. The homes are in pristine condition and have stayed true to their original architecture and design. Although some had been refurbished, the upgrades were done in keeping with the original home. Refreshingly, there wasn't one MacMansion among them! It struck me that this neighborhood should be preserved as a historic area. It was originally a Boy Scout camp until the developers came in the 1950's, and it essentially looks today the way it looked over fifty years ago.

Area Rug Shopping

Not surprisingly, shopping for area rugs is similar to shopping for art. You don't really need either, but a beautiful rug, like a beautiful painting, can be a major addition to a room. I needed several area rugs to define spaces in my recently remodeled home. So off I went to Aga John, a wonderful rug showroom in Los Angeles. Having done business with Aga John my entire design career, I had high expectations of finding suitable rugs there. And I did! I found a deep red rug for the living room to convey the richness of the space and a small rug in the entry to pull out the deep blue of the adjacent drapery. I was thrilled when I returned home and put them in place....it was like adding the last pieces of a jig-saw puzzle.

Rug buying, like buying art, is typically a "love at first sight" experience. If you aren't sure it probably isn't the right rug for you. Continue to look and the ideal rug is usually right around the corner.