Raoul Textiles

One of the highlights from my recent trip to the California Coast was visiting the Raoul Textiles Showroom. We had used some of their fabrics for our den, and experiencing a glimpse of their world on a deeper contextual level was so fun. Part old-world, part bohemian, and part tried and true, I have long adored Raoul’s textiles and visiting their Santa Barbara outpost was a reminder of the beauty of travel — truly putting a place to a name while gathering more intel that helps shape the notion of a particular thing.

Bits & Bobs

Since this space is very much a place I use to muse and reflect, this particular post is doing just that.

I find myself particularly energized with the official arrival of spring, and looking forward to all of the exciting things in the works over the next few months, personal and professional. On a personal level, the winter season always feels like a cozy blur (which yes, sounds like a contradiction), but perhaps that’s the point. We shuffle back and forth from Rhode Island to Vermont to savor the snow which is wonderful for so many reasons but can also become exhausting, logistically and physically. Typically, around this time, I am ready for a change.

The spring always brings a little pep and promise — the grass is getting greener by the day, and my climbing hydrangea have their buds — and I find myself excited for spring travel and settling into the summer months in New England. Trade Secrets is around the corner, as is a special trip with the Design Leadership Network, and other inspired travel.

I wish you energized thoughts as we look forward to a glorious spring and summer!

Beauty on Block Island

I don’t think I’ve darted to our front door faster than last evening, to be in receipt of the long anticipated new book by Gil Schafer III. Nor have I ever incessantly refreshed the tracking details for any delivery. At last, it is here.

I have long admired this particular Block Island project (pictured below) Gil’s firm completed along with landscape architect Deborah Nevins, and decorator, Miles Redd (now Redd Kaihoi), ever since it was published in Veranda two years ago. The home presides over Block Island’s Great Salt Pond, a place I grew up visiting with my family when we’d take day trips or overnights by boat from Newport. The landscape also holds a special place for my husband and I particularly during our courtship, in addition to the fact that my husband has a project next door to this very property. Every time I tag along to his job site visits, I am subtly snooping next door.

For anyone that knows Block Island, it is nowhere near other isles like Nantucket or even the Vineyard. Certainly not the Hamptons. Fancy hotels and restaurants do not exist. No one is beach bound in designer labels. There is a certain rawness and palpable spirit to the island. Rightfully so, locals fiercely protect and defend from outsiders that might test these characteristics. Though this has indeed been challenged over the more recent years as some are priced out of summer destinations mentioned above, the general ethos of the island remains. In fact, The Block Island Trust works closely with The Nature Conservancy and the Block Island Conservancy to preserve nearly 50% of the island’s land for open space. Point being, anyone that is stepping foot on the island to build, develop, design, or in some way alter, immediately has a microscope on them. I think Gil and his project teams did a beautiful job of honoring the island while building a legacy home that will stand the test of time.

While there are so many wonderful spaces in this home, there is something so intoxicating about this living room — the multiple seating groups with inviting furniture scales, its textured pink grasscloth walls, and the space’s way of inviting you in for a nap, a post-beach cocktail, or a moment to admire the view, which extends over the pond and into the Atlantic Ocean. There is a certain elegance juxtaposed with a casualty, where one could enter with sandy feet and a caftan damp from the ocean’s saltwater. The room and home also demonstrates what I love so much about good design, it is that feeling where you cannot get an image of a room out of your head, and then revisit again and again to further dissect it.

A big bravo to Gil Schafer on this publication, and to all of the teams involved creating this home.

Striking a cord

This particular room I find myself attracted to for various reasons. First, I do love a good country house. This home decorated by Henriette von Stockhausen is no exception. One should see the classical façade, its grand hallway and grounds, however, I’m particularly taken by the cheerful sitting room. I love how the art is displayed (Robert Kime picture rails of course!), the gorgeous ottoman clad in a Jasper textile with its collection of books, the Jamb chimneypiece — it is all truly a delight for the senses without overwhelming, as some grand estates can.

To see more of this home, visit here.

Photography credit: Paul Massey

Interior Design: Henriette von Stockhausen for VSP Interiors