Soane Britain

Stripes and citrus via Soane Britain. Also mildly obsessed with their rattan console.

Chef's Table at Long Meadow Ranch

Sunday was spent at Long Meadow Ranch's Farmstead Restaurant with Chef Timothy Mosblech for his Chef's Table Experience in St. Helena. The meal married the property's organic produce and grass-fed beef with wine pairings and an olive oil tasting. The afternoon began with a tour of the grounds which were lush with citrus trees, vegetables and rose bushes. We sampled unusual black beauty peppers, verbena and Mexican cucumbers whilst sipping wine. Out back, the property has a custom built smoker that was smoking ribs and pork shoulder which had me weak in the knees.

007 Meets the Swiss Mountains

On the release day of the new James Bond film, I thought it was only fitting to showcase the piece in the NYTimes that features Thomas Flohr’s home, a real life 007 hideaway in the Swiss mountains of St. Moritz. As the founder and chairman of VistaJet (subscription-based plane service that singlehandedly revolutionized the aviation industry), Thomas built the company from the ground up with visions of one day having a home that could be shared for generations to come. The home, once a 1960s chalet, is now a seven-story hideaway, a labor of love, and one with no shortage of luxury and allure. The six-acre property is a stone's throw away from where Thomas grew up skiing. Thomas enlisted Ivana Porfiri, a Milan-based interior designer to transform the structure into a contemporary mountain retreat, one that is truly invigorated with a James Bond fortress feel. Read on, here.

Italian Gothic in New Orleans

Anyone that knows me well knows that New Orleans holds a special place in my heart. It is a city so deeply rooted in history and culture, and where my Grandmother Gertrude was raised and met my Grandfather, whom she married after three months of knowing each other.

I absolutely love Sara Ruffin Costello's garden district home as featured on One Kings Lane. The home, as Sara describes is "formal, yet informal" hence the ping pong table in the dining room that looks unexpectedly chic, or the exposed brick in the kitchen juxtaposed with a sleek Bulthaup island and lucite dining chairs. I particularly love the use of the green trellis inside, decorated with a bounty of magnolia branches and meyer lemons foraged from the back yard. The home exudes comfort and style without compromising the architectural integrity of the 1868 home. Dreamy.