I never get enough of this luscious stuff. I wouldn’t dream of limit myself to historical restoration but it’s hard not to salivate when the opportunity to decorate a period themed party arises!

When I watch the food channel, Food Network Challenge (love) etc, I’m sometimes pretty inspired by the artistry that still exists. In the 18th century dining and especially dessert amusements were delectably extreme and this dessert table engraving from Francois Massialot (1740) illustrates the point.

When we were asked to decorate a dinner for Kensington Palace I was just a bit excited (!) Nicky knew just who to call on for some serious silver loans, and I got on the phone to my dear friend ‘the Dr.’. (Dr Melanie Doderer Winkler that is) who conveniently did her PhD on Eighteenth Century entertainments (her book is in the works!) We all headed to our various bookshelves, ideas and images flying, and we all agreed that we MUST do a silver dessert display.

Now these were the rather divine windows at Dior this Christmas but its quite fun to think about this type of luscious entertaining heading into spring, when it’s more unexpected and seems extra decadent!

This is a July photo shoot for example - and it’s pretty dishy. One could make it ever more summery if you wished.

Of course my summer 18th century fete would have to have a twist of the surreal. No one does it like Cocteau, though lord knows I keep trying!

And if you missed Thom Browne show this spring, I just loved it. I’m a new fan and I thought this was SO Peter Greenaway. So irreverent. The models did get up from the table and walk around by the way.

And speaking of Greenaway…The Cook the Thief His Wife and Her Lover may not be for the faint hearted (it begins with filth, lots of naked Helen Miram, and ends with cannibalism - you have been warned) but you can’t deny those sets!! Luscious!!

You know, when I see pasta like this…looking ever so much like passmenterie…I am reminded of its decorative merits. C’mon…tell us about your macaroni picture memories…

Mine certainly never looked like this. Arabella Boxer used to go to town with her Vogue ‘Food’ spreads.

Osborne and Little have been at the food theme lately with the March adverts in World of Interiors.

Then Nicky put this on my desk today…British artist Graham Lester….and for you international readers…the chocolate ‘Flake’ stick in it is a dead giveaway.

Paper sardines….my children better step it up!!

Yes London is abloom! I’m rethinking my wardrobe and moving on to greener pastures….CLEAR green, not those muddy soupy ones.

Grandville always makes me smile with his verdant surrealism. I could see Christopher Kane working something off ‘Les Fleurs Animὲes’

And the leaves at Kew Gardens are so full of chlorophyll you can taste it.

White strawberries with their teensy acid green pips are eagerly anticipated.

Along with thoughts of summer fetes, preferably on bare grass.

OR…an entirely grass room as envisaged by American artist Sandy Skoglund - this REALLY made my laugh. Brilliant.

We wear it well indeed, and yet this 60′s Vogue colour palette would translate to interiors with ease.

Mynott?? When can I move in?!!

Now, if spring has not yet made you hopeful….DO spend a moment with Nicky’s adored Deanna Durbin and I’m sure you will find you ‘Can’t Help Singing’ either….!!

Are peacocks common??? You know in the British sense of ‘common’…Must ask Nicky…

He certainly never balks when I throw some peacock in a colour scheme…its SUCH a brilliant accent colour.

Nicky’s friend Maggi Hambling breaks my heart with her expressions of water and movement…which I’m convinced are portraits of sorts.

She also happens to be the one whispering something naughty in my ear, making me scream with laughter, on my facebook profile picture.

Elsie knew how to work peacock blues, with abandon!

And do you remember it was HUGE in the 80′s!

And Vermeer…why does everyone look to 18th century interiors when 17th are often much more romantic?

Princess Kate is clearly, radiantly, the apple of William’s eye, but Wallis Windsor was the king’s peach….when I worked for American Vogue in New York I came across them from time to time. Once, most memorably, as I describe in my memoir ‘Redeeming Features’, the duchess and I were both early for a cocktail party at the Waldorf Towers so she insisted we hid for 20 minutes, laughing, in a corridor broom closet until some other guests arrived.

This was typical of the woman as I knew her…full of vim and vigor and completely unstuffy…an example is this Philippe Halsman ‘jump’ photograph of the couple, though as a detractor sourly remarked, ‘it looks more like they’ve been dropped by somebody’.

The duchess also had a very tender side. I have a letter she wrote to her friend and mentor, the decorating genius Elsie Mendl, from La Cröe, the Windsors house on Cap d’Antibes (and now Roman Abramovitch’s), in the late 1930s … “nothing could make me happier than to be alone with you at the Villa Trianon… to look at you, and all the things you have created”….and she adds… “tonight I go to play cards with Winston Churchill who is stopping with Max Beaverbrook”…so much for her being shunned by ‘society’.

Wallis’s style and chic are legendary, to say nothing of the famous jewels. Some of these were sold recently at Sotheby’s and Chairman Henry Wyndham asked me to co-host a lunch there before the sale. The idea was our guests would try on those huge historic rocks, but maddeningly they had all been sent to some Hong Kong potentate for a private viewing. So the nearest I’ve got to clamping on that vast ruby and emerald flamingo is one of the copies made by Butler and Wilson….and which my friend Hugo Vickers snapped up in readiness for his forthcoming book, ‘Behind Closed Doors’, a chronicle the duchess’s last tragic years after the duke died.

It makes harrowing reading, the poor woman bedridden and bullied…..tortured would not be too strong….by the ogreish female attorney Maitre Blum. I prefer to remember her as the epitome of elegance.

And fun…the first time we met, I mentioned a new group. “The Beatles!” she said. “don’t you just love ‘em?”

Somewhat recently my uncle made a delightful genealogical discovery on the maternal side of my family. My French Canadian great great grandfather, scandalously at the time, married a native Huron Indian and thus I am a not too distant descendent of their marriage. My dear friend Tom, upon learning of this, has had more laughs at my expense…so I send him this smoke signal…

Dear Tom,

How you have made me laugh….can we just agree that you obviously never got over Cher circa 1973 in her Half Breed video?? Anyway she’s half Cherokee not Huron all-right?

Your palpable jealousy is perfectly understandable…Nicky also dabbled in these dreams before turning to the gypsies for inspiration…

…and this talisman you’ve made…which I treasure…and the fact you took the trouble to superimpose my face on it…really got me thinking about this (that and your relentless laughing). I really SUIT this style, and you know my hair was quite like this for a while in the 80’s before we knew each other.

…and what IF my tribe comes to claim me like Audrey Hepburn in ‘The Unforgiven’…. (my favorite western by the way)

…you WON’T BELIEVE how beautiful it’ll be…

First of all my wardrobe…hot…

…REALLY hot…

…the Wigwam will be divine…all bark covered…you can sleep in the teepee when you visit.

I can still bring some NH fabrics into the mix, they look great with this pinecone fabric and bark covered chest of drawers…It’s going to be great Tom. Tom Tom…(get it?!)

What a pleasure to be awarded the Stylish Blogger award from Claudia Juestel at Adeeni Design Blog! Thank you so much Claudia. We are having such fun making new friends in cyberspace and we’re learning a lot too. Now, apparently we are to share 7 things….so just to be contrary I thought instead of doing the stylish thing…I would share some cheeky behind the scenes moments with you!

1. Although I blogged on pistachio, I didn’t mention at the time that Nicky writes all his business emails in pistachio text….regardless of content…its pistachio all the way.

2. Nicky frequently leaves notes on my desk to make me laugh….like this one which reads…’Who’d have thought Ozzie was a closet Dorothy?’

3. Now you may know that Nicky LOVES to sing…like this night at the Savoy…

But can I tell you how hard it is to get your hands on the microphone when he’s around??? He must really love Suzie to have given her this ‘moment’….

4. He Christmas’s in Palm Beach with his dear friend Terry Kramer. I love this pic of him and his friend Fritz von Westenholz…

5. Nicky is famous for hosting, decorating, and attending the worlds most glamorous parties…but you may be amused to discover that he once decorated and hosted a party (baby shower no less) in a moving van (!) for his long time star of a PA, Flora Connell.

6. When we first visited a client’s house in Ireland, where I took this sweet pic, we spent two days on site discovering the house.

….I heard my name being shouted and shouted, …I found Nicky in this little music room…’wait for it!’ he said smiling…and then threw his hands up in the air, out of which flew the little butterflies he’d been collecting in the window wells.

7. He may kill me for this pic…but we are both Pastrami worshipers and never miss a chance to indulge when in New York!

And lastly, we are to pass on the kindness, and therefore, first, as the young can be so inspiring….we nominate two beautiful bright young things who write at www.helenglory.com - pass it on Frances!!

And, since we are ever inspired by history…we MUST nominate this blog that our friend Dr Melanie Doderer-Winkler has just turned us on to…..National Trust no less! Beware, you may be lost for days…. www.nttreasurehunt.wordpress.com

I was fascinated to have been recently invited to have a sneak preview of the newly restored Strawberry Hill, Twickenham, as much to my chagrin I have never before seen it. This house, the project and creation of Horace Walpole is one of Britain’s finest examples of Georgian Gothic architecture. Horace bought the site in 1747 and at first transformed two small cottages into a ‘little gothic castle’ and these gradually grew into the fantasy ‘palace’ one sees today. Horace is known as a man of letters, as well as an avid collector of all things curious, in particular Cardinal Wolsey’s hat, a pair of gloves belonging to James I and the spurs worn by King William in the Battle of the Boyne.

During Walpole’s time spent at Strawberry Hill, the public could visit his property, and unique for those days, view the collection for a small fee. It was here that he also saw an apparition one night which inspired his gothic fantasy novel ‘The Castle of Otranto’ which in turn became the inspiration for Mary Shelley’s ‘Frankenstein’. Alas, I did not come away with a new idea for a novel, however one cannot fail to be in awe of this architectural gem, as well as the quality of craftsmanship which has been employed in the painstaking restoration of this wonderful property.

Our hosts for the day was the incredibly knowledgeable guide Raymond Daniel-Davies, and Cathy Giangrande from the World Monuments Fund Britain, an architectural preservation charity that assisted along with other donors in the funding of this project. As Strawberry Hill being so unique a concept, it is up there on a par with the Taj Mahal and the Chinese Palace outside St Petersburg.

Interestingly the WMF are also working on fundraising for Shobdon Church in Herefordshire, quite possibly one of the prettiest church’s to be found, and directly linked to Strawberry Hill though the Gothic revival style and used as a Christmas card from World of Interiors last year. I could bang on for hours about Strawberry Hill and the fascinating history of the place, and so would you once you have visited this marvel yourself. In the meantime I hope the following photographs will suitably inspire you by its restoration, design, ornament and glamour, and also perhaps inspire you to write a gothic novel.

‘Its a good thing’, as Martha (Stewart of course) would say…to pause and think now and then… so it was a delight to attend House and Gardens ‘Trend Report’ this morning and as usual, I learnt something!

I don’t think we’re trend followers especially, and I was distressed to hear the words ‘hotel design’ being bantered about since this is a personal pet peeve! I think hotel design FOR HOTELS has taken great strides in terms of design driven experiences, but Nicky and I positively rant when people make their homes look like hotels, we believe it’s a different approach, a different ethos entirely. So that tend is not for me particularly - but we move on to some thoughts that DO inspire me.

House and Garden editor Sue Crewe was an early proponent of the green design movement and should be proud of her Green by Design supplement. I don’t think of green design and ecoism as trends but I suppose they are…they also happen to be simply sensible and wonderful concepts. And of course sourcing locally and promoting British artisans is something that we do without thinking about the politics of it. England is so ‘giving’ in that way, and is replete with little shops and finds, only a few of which could be mentioned. (and on an aside, we always tend to draw on local resources and craftspeople wherever we are working - it often brings that ‘suitability’ element Elsie de Wolfe always talked about.)

London based Kate Malone has a serious side and a self confessed ‘silly’ side to her work. I hope she read our Spongebob blog…I covet this vase!

Jasleen Kaur, RCA graduate, is selling these teacups via Waddesdon Manor, who have a pretty switched on website I might add, complete with their own blog! Nicky and I are gift shop addicts and if one compares this type of patronage with the old days of polyester tea towels I think we can all shout hurrah!

Ecoism is another buzzword at House and Garden….I confess I had never heard of Vitsoe shelving which was invented by Dieter Rams in 1960 and is still going strong. Its a modular approach…fits anywhere, a bit simple for my tastes but I found this studio shot which is a great use of the product, and is helped along with this colour coded styling. It’s cool.

On the green front - the Little Greene paint and paper company is worth knowing about not only for their environmental approach, but terrific colours. I also learned Farrow & Ball have taken great strides to reduce their chemical content although they don’t brag about it on their website and I think they should.

The return of individualism, sustainable style, using new technologies, colour and patterns…you’ve seen it in the magazine, and these ideas will be the focus at House and Garden going forward in 2011. We’ll be reading!

A new project looming - wonderful sort of Mallet-Stephens-esque number on the island of Barbados….completely idiosyncratic to the region…in other words…UNEXPECTED!! Also rather unexpected is the Greek blue used on the shutters. What works so well in Santorini for example, does not necessarily translate quite as well to this island. Since we have not even begun our planning and schemes I can’t share those with you yet….but I had some further thoughts on Azure blue.

I adore this ‘map’ of the creative process. I wish it were easier for clients to understand just how much intellectual capacity and time goes into the creative process….and that’s after logistics, planning, contracts, staffing, budgets etc etc are in the works! But let’s get back to Azure blue….maybe I’m feeling a little guilty about eradicating it in Barbados because I’ve been thinking about how wonderful it CAN be.

Obviously anything by Yves Klein can make you a convert….the intensity and saturation of his works are especially alluring. I’m a fan.

Thinking about Azure interiors, of which I have been seeing several lately, reminded me of Roger Hiorns ‘Seizure’ a few years ago. This is the type of ambition I admire. An entire council estate flat was submerged underwater for weeks, bathed in copper sulphate, and azure coloured crystals grew on every surface. When it was drained it was an installation piece like I have never experienced.

That’s the end of the original tub peeking out.

Close up of crystals growing on a pipe on the ceiling.

Legendary interiors like Hearst‘s indoor pool represent the other spectrum.

Most interestingly of all, Nicky and I recently visited the renovations at Strawberry Hill where many of the windows are topped in Bristol Blue glass. Now we both would have sworn away from coloured glass probably but that day really converted both of us. Since only the tops of the windows (and we’ll post more on that later) are blue, it isn’t overpowering and bathes the rooms in the most pleasing of lavender-blue lights. Really worth thinking about.

My dreams will look much like this tonight…hope yours do too.

Evening Standard readers will be aware that Nicky recently had an operation…all hands on deck for the convalescence décor! Find director Chris Sweeney busy custom dying Schiaparelli pink pajama’s….Colette having an Elsie Mendl type red and white stripped bedpillow sewn lickety split….WITH side pockets naturally! (why are these impossible to find in the UK?? I thought this was the land of breakfasting in bed). Props ready, the glamorous Henrietta Channon whips out her iphone, naturally set to uber cool ‘Hipstamatic‘, to take this luscious shot of the patient. Nicky is now back on his feet I’m pleased to say, and in receipt of the all clear from the doctor (the equally glamorous Lord Darzi).

Elsie, of course, new how to do it right. Just LOOK at that bed tray, pockets for stationary, reading light, chintz bedpillow with satin back support…and of course Blue Blue…to keep away the blues. Don’t miss the gauze cap either (daycap??). Oh, and pearls, yes Elsie…good point.

I am and have always been a staunch believer in breakfasting in bed. I’ve just ordered one of these wicker trays because I’m realising I need to ‘up’ my glamour game especially as the children are now old enough to deliver.

Lesley Blanch…a fan never hurts…

Stephen Tennant…seriously a fan NEVER HURTS darling!!!! He shows off a bit of wrist action to David Hockney.

Diana Cooper of course always got it right. Nicky tells me her neck pillow was gauze, and she also wears sweetest nightcap and has a very proper (and by that read functional) bed desk set up beside her.

Maury Paul (aka Cholly Knickerbocker) got it really right - white jacket service naturally, and a bit of leopard print to go with it.

Iconic photo of Dame Edith Louisa Sitwell, as photographed by Cecil Beaton. This is SO right it hurts. Cecil famously worked in bed until noon each day, arriving for lunch here or there, fresh as a daisy. I do think one could devote an entire store to the art of breakfasting? Trays and trinkets, peignoirs and pencils, porcelain and picale….we would be happy to collaborate!!

A young American couple brought me this Art Deco cicada pin when they came to stay at the Hunting Lodge. Instead of wearing it I pinned it onto a pleated lampshade in the sitting room.

The next day it wasn’t there!! Darling Jean, who looks after the house, thought the bug was real and had thrown it into the garden!

Since then I’ve been on bug watch and have found these little buggers in all sorts of places…

Francois Decorchemont’s vase at the Musee Des Arts Decoratifs…

These snails crawl over the cornice of a d’Ornano interior by Henri Samuel….

Iridescent scarab beetle wings, like the living one below, inserted into this Indian gold filigree embroidery are deliciously three-dimensional to the touch.

And here’s what is surely the apotheosis of buggery! Jan Fabre’s densely scarab encrusted ceiling in the Salon des Glaces, Belgium.

If ONLY I could wear this to the Oscars….very appropriate, as I’m going to have lunch beforehand with Leonard Stanley, who was Tony Duquette’s assistant for many years.

I’m pleased I didn’t heed my friend Robin Muir who gave me a proper elbow to the ribs when I posted about Beverley Nichols. It didn’t deter me from pulling ‘All I Could Never Be’ off Nicky’s bookshelf last time I was at the Hunting Lodge, in whose pages I discovered a positive GEM that has led Nicky and I on the most pleasant of chases. If you will all open your books to page 105 we can begin.

The Chateau de l’Horizon was built by American actress Maxine Elliott, who reined supreme over the Riviera through the 20′s and 30′s until her death in 1940. It stood sandwiched on a rocky thin strip of land between the Golfe Juan and the noisy/sooty coastal railway. ‘Some people described the Chateau d’Horizon as a triumph of mind over matter others as an example of sheer feminine cussedness, while there were some who shrugged their shoulders and said that it was proof of the power of unlimited money.’

Elliott was a great American beauty… wealthy, successful business woman, an actress/divorcee…and the once rumored lover of J.P. Morgan. She retired from acting in 1920 ‘as she wished to grow middle-aged gracefully’.

Elliott was both sumptuous AND savy, but credit for the brilliance of l’Horizon surely belongs largely to American architect, Barry Dierks and his British business partner, Eric Sawyer. (on an aside…Nicky has already placed a call to his tailor regarding this supremely chic suit). Dierks and Sawyer were both business partners and long term lovers. They would go on the build over 100 villas on the Cote d’Azur including their own Le Trident in 1926 where Pablo Picasso, Somerset Maugham, Beverley Nichols and the Duke and Duchess of Windsor would gather. In fact Villa Mauresque on Cap Ferrat was also designed by them for Somerset Maugham…but, we musn’t get too sidetracked, there is SO much to talk about at l’Horizon alone.

Dierks and Sawyer’s on the roof of their own home…Villa le Trident. According to Nichols, Chateau l’Horizon was their first large commission. Nichols writes of visits to Elliott….

”I used to clamber over the rocks with Maxine, discussing terraces and swimming pools. It all seemed somewhat too academic, because I did not see how it would be possible to build a wall high enough to shut off the railway, nor a terrace broad enough to sit on without falling into the sea. I kept my doubts to myself; others were not so tactful. Among these were Lady Mendl…”

MAXINE Well, Elsie dear, I always told you that this was the choicest spot on the whole coast.

LADY MENDL Yes, dear, you always did

MAXINE Why you never snapped it up yourself I can’t imagine

LADY MENDL Not quite quiet enough for me, Maxine dear.

MAXINE (snorting) Not quite quiet enough? What are you talking about? (Noticing Lady Mendl glancing over her shoulder to the railway) Oh - I see - the railway! Well, what’s wrong with the railway?

LADY MENDL Nothing dear, Just a little close.

MAXINE Close? Nonsense! It’s ridiculous, all this talk about the railway!

(At this point, a gleam comes into Lady Mendl’s eye, for she has heard in the distance the ominous roar of an approaching express)

LADY MENDL What did you say, darling

MAXINE (hastily, to beat the express) Ridiculous this railway talk

LADY MENDL I can’t hear dear. (the express hurtles by) All these trains!

MAXINE Only once a day.

LADY MENDL Only once what?

MAXINE (muttering sotto voice) She ought to use a trumpet. (At the top of her voice) Only once a day! The Riviera Express!

LADY MENDL Really? (a large flake of soot floats on to her plate) Really? (she pushes aside the soot, very ostentatiously, with the edge of her rusk) Really!

Dierks and Sawyer built gigantic walls on the very edge of the embankment, they designed immense windows filled with diamonds of sound-proof glass, and they coaxed every last inch out of the narrow rock. The fact that is was ‘gall and wormwood to many of Maxines dearest friends, who had prophesied disaster‘, didn’t deter all of European and Hollywood Royalty from making l’Horizon a favoured playground. And yes YES that IS a chute into the sea!!

Now when I showed this to Nicky to see what he could conjure he went immediately to the shelves and pulled out some ‘further reading’! ‘yes, yes…Churchill…Duchess of Windsor, Beaton…’!! Nicky’s pulling books by the minute. ‘Aly‘ by Leonard Slater proved especially fruitful, for he not only bought l’Horizon in the late 40′s, but married Rita Hayworth there May 1949.

From this book I quote:

Pg 127 – Aly had kept in mind the house he and Tommy Burke had visited, ignoring barbed wire and mine fields, after the invasion of Southern France. The Chateau de l’Horizon, designed by the American architect Barry Dierks, for the American actress Maxine Elliott was unprepossessing from the highway, but intimate and charming on its sea side. Big windows gulped in the view; a broad terrace, with gardens at either end, stretched across the beige rocks; below that was another terrace supporting a giant swimming pool, and below the pool, as below a ship, lapped the sea.

Aly bought it from Miss Elliotts heirs for only $87,000.00 bidding for it anonymously.

It was not the grandest estate on the Riviera; it was of another sort entirely from the stately villas of La Belle Epoque with their mirrored Louis XVI décor and formal gardens. It was modern, informal, and spectacular. It caught the sun like a tilted mirror and Aly loved to lunch on its terrace, stripped to the waist to enjoy the winter sun. And he loved l’Horizon’s size. With ten bedrooms and seven baths, it was possible to have a houseful of guests without their bumping into one another in the halls.

Actress Rita Hayworth and her husband Aly Khan sharing a table at their reception at Chateau de l’Horizon with Aga Khan and his fourth wife.

Pg 152 – to impress Rita, Aly ordered a quick Potemkin-village transformation of the haphazardly run Chateau. He hired a new chef, brought down his best china and silver from his country house outside Paris, and bought new table linens.

The luncheon at the Chateau….Jules, the bar manager of the Carlton, was to be in charge of the bars at the Chateau. He promptly created a new cocktail, the Ritaly; two-thirds Canadian Club, one third Italian vermouth, two drops of bitters, and a cherry.

Pg 171 - At the Chateau, everything was ready; thousands of fresh flowers had been wired into the ivy to embellish the garden; two hundred gallons of eau de cologne had been poured into the swimming pool, in which floated two giant floral wreaths in the shape of an A (for Aly) and an M for Margarita. ( Nicky informs me…Rita’s real name was Marguerite Cansino).

As soon as Rita and Aly arrived, Jules offered each of them a Ritaly cocktail. “They each took a sip,”he recalls. “I made over four hundred of my drink, the Ritaly, that day. The guests didn’t drink much but the journalists, especially the Indian journalists, oh the Indian journalists,; they drank, some of them seven or eight of my Ritalys.

Image by © Bettmann/CORBIS

29 May 1949, Cannes, France — The wedding reception of Prince Aly Khan and Rita Hayworth was held at the Chateau De L’Horizon. Here they pose for photo.

Of course it wasn’t a perfect happily ever after…

‘His whole life was so different” Rita explained, “it was too difficult for me. I wasn’t prepared for it and , who knows, he probably wasn’t prepared for me”.

She was baffled and discomfited by the international set. The gossip was about people and places she didn’t know, and often in French. Although Aly hired a tutor to teach her the language, she found it slow going. Often she realised with a pang that guests at the Chateau knew the house better than she, and felt more at home there. And so many of them were women, sophisticated women, the kind that always made her fell ill at ease.’

Strangely…alluringly….just this weekend the Chateau l’Horizon was mentioned in the Telegraph’s Princess de Polignac obit. She stayed at l’Horizon in 1947 with her hostess Rosita Winston. Great gossipy tales abound in Life Magazine Nov 10 1947 issue and yours for the googling….because alas…we have written too much already!! (for today…)

The chunkier the better….nautical rope like these hardy reels in Monaco are positively inspiring…

Oliver Messel’s terracotta tiles on the kitchen floors of Fustic are essentially one dimensional cable knit. Really ravishing…not to mention practical.

Last winter Benetton had these cable knit props which got me thinking about WAYS to use cable knit…obviously looking for the less obvious.

An early pic from my digital library (hence unidentified)…this clever artist was doing some charming things with knits - do let me know if you can identify it!

Then in the fall Nicky and I spotted this Tricot Knitting Effect wallpaper by Koziel which comes in grisailles and sepia.

Anthropology has been on the knit wagon this year too so you may be familiar with their knit candles…they are a delight. Alas it’s all a bit trendy but I DO find a good knit hard to ignore.

For many years I have thought needlepoint and more specifically its finer baby brother petit point, the most relaxing and enjoyable pass-time. An especially good place to work at this more intricate version used to be on a longish day flight, as the clarity of that high air gives the best light, but now even those almost blunt needles are wrenched away from one at ‘Security’. But whether petit or gros, the point is to see one’s designs come alive by such an undemanding process, and spurs one on to fill in the ‘dull bits’, background etc with dogged determination, not to mention patience. And when the thing is completed, not only have you created a unique and personal gift, it’s the knowledge that it will give the recipient a special pride and pleasure. The following two pictures are examples of petit point I inherited from my parents. The dog is Victorian and the mat is Georgian.

My cousin Loelia, Duchess of Westminster was the most notable needle pointer of her day, she even used strands of her own dark hair to create shadows on her canvasses and was inordinately proud that the backs of them were as perfectly neat as the front.

I can’t pretend to be anything like as good as Old Lil, but I gamely follow in the footsteps of needlemen from William Morris and royal dukes to Kafe Fasset, whose patterns and designs are now famous the world over.

I recently worked a pair of petit point slippers for my great friend Bryan Ferry as a birthday present and had them made up by Fiona Dreesman of myslippers.co.uk who is preparing a book on needlepoint called The Gentlemans Slipper.

Bryan’s are a dark blue and silver-gilt thread version of a pair I worked for myself eons ago, red, and emblazoned rather showily with my family coat-of-arms in gold!

And in fact the first pieces I ever worked myself were slippers of pale blue with silver rococo tendrils inspired by my initial visit to the Amalienburg in Munich.

I also made the covering for a large footstool in the sitting room at the Hunting Lodge. It’s a trellis pattern with the silhouette of the house facade repeated round the border, and I’m somewhat ashamed to admit I resorted to ‘help’ in filling in the background colour.

There is a great charity called Fine Cell Work , an organisation that teaches prisoners to create cushions, rugs etc in needlepoint at which they are extraordinarily skilful. The charity asks leading designers to contribute patterns for inmates to make up, and mine is a slightly scaled-down version of Dragonfly, one of my carpet designs created for The Rug Company.

Also I see that the Stylebeat blog are mentioning needlepoint with wonderful ideas on how to design and make your own pieces. Whatever the scale and whatever the design, there is almost nothing so satisfying as pushing the needle into, and pulling the wool through, that last little square of bare canvass.

I had to laugh…when I saw this beautifully executed room by Stephen Sills in last months Architectural Digest. Two years ago when my Canadian cottage was photographed I had a bit of a last minute panic when I realised I had forgotten to plant acres of Martha Stewart type cutting gardens. What was I thinking?? Well the horticultural perils of the Canadian shield had something to do with it but whatever!! And not a florist to be found for MILES!!

My whole life weekends were spent driving to and from the city-admiring the bogs along side the highway in which grow fields of bullrushes. I wondered were they too twee to use in the shoot - and yet really i thought they were terribly chic if you put aside visions of dry Victorian assemblages. Was I crazy?? Luckily Nicky was only a text away. ’Do you think there is any merit in bullrushes?? They ARE chocolate velvet after all‘ I send. He texts back to say ‘That is SO weird. Coming back today I saw bullrushes by the road near Odiham and thought must get some for round the lake. And remember the bullrush wall lights at Villa Corrine.’ So I was off! Terrified in the bogs… I quickly cut the bare minimum…sadly I also didn’t have a decent vase so they ended up in this rather pathetic enamel jug. Stephen outdid me on presentation without a doubt. Live and learn.

Since then I’ve been collecting everything with bullrushes (spelt bulrush in the UK), the symbol of faithfulness and humility.

This divine font spotted on a sourcing trip to Belgium has been on my wall for years - sadly we didn’t have a place for it at the time.

Bullrushes on turquoise majolica! This is a cachepot I would definitely not leave behind.

And for all you crafters out there…you might whip up some of these miniatures…wouldn’t they be incredible as match sticks!!

Petticoat of white silver tissue, trimmed at the bottom with a deep silver fringe, headed with a wreath of bulrushes; festoons of the same tied up with silver tassels. From Regency Fashion.

Now I am not well versed enough in Regency dress to verify…but i am told that this dress features rosettes of bulrush-I hope its true…how wonderful.

And these shoes by Indecorous…are you kidding me?? I could write a PHD on these - plastic, cellophane, bullrushes…..darlings I’ve tried to write to enquire, to no avail. DO contact me wont you?

And brilliant readers….you know this interior from Suzy Menkes book. The Mill for the Duke and Duchess of Windsor. I have it in my head that John Fowler painted this. Did I conjure it?? Well it’s delightful in every way. Heaven.

Sunday finds me in London, a rare treat since I’m usually in the country….the sun is shining so of course it’s off to the local farmer’s market. And oh heavens, I’m not even there yet when I’m deliciously distracted by La Fromagerie, and its special ‘cave’ of rare mature cheeses beckons. There’s a massive selections of sheep’s cheese, so much better for one than dairy products, so I’m in heaven….but even more so when I notice that the textures of their surfaces…..some snowy white plastery, some almost metallic, some with textured hides, are like a gallery of works by Giacometti or Brancusi!! I’m in there, having a ball, let’s face it, Chevre or Brie would make mouthwatering names in a collection of wallpapers.

All of the merchandising is so well done, from the unfinished planks to the ropes and simple utensils. I pick up some Violet Liqueur and admire these wonderful dyed fishnet carrier bags before stopping on my way out for a flame grilled pancetta and gruyere cheese toastie. What a lovely way to spend the morning.

I need a press shot done…so I’m off to see Philip Colbert, the clever genius behind The Rodnik Bank label…can I call it a label Philip? Or is that insulting to your work…IS it work, IS it art?? Philip, who has been touted by Andre Leon Tally as the greatest thing since Andy Warhol has gone undercover for the last couple of years to recharge/rethink his next moves. Thank goodness he is about to relaunch with a flash of sequins at next months Fashion week, February 18th. I am seriously pleased. If I ever decide to do a PHD I think I will do it on Philip…I don’t even know him very well but we share the same devotion/fascination with Duchamp, Warhol, De Chirico, etc etc - surrealist fantasies. Sometimes it’s like he’s making the clothes that I meant to make in my other - fantasy life.

You can imagine the look on my face when I saw these trousers. Hello??

He is hand painting all the shoes in white fish scales. I’m trying to convince him to paint the floor of his studio fish scales…I’ll keep you posted.

At fashion week it’s going to be all about The Rodnik Band’s ‘wearable art‘ collection. You can see a sneak peek hanging on the wall behind the girls. Dresses are executed in hand stitched sequins and beads…these are also works that will show in various art galleries AS art. Peggy Guggenheim where are you??

Sunflower dress.

I CAN-NOT-WAIT to see this….thanks for the sneak peek Philip!!

I was recently interviewed by Ronda Carmen for her blog All The Best (www.allthebestblog.com), stylebeat (www.stylebeat.blogspot.com) and Canadian House and Home (www.houseandhome.com) and was asked what my favourite possession is. Without wishing to sound too gushy and sentimental I kept the answer simple and honest, a fan letter from the doyenne of interior decoration, Nancy Lancaster.

Nancy wrote to me to congratulate me on the decoration of a village hall for a wedding and I treasure the correspondence card with the telephone number of Great Milton 360, if only people still answered their telephones in such a manner nowadays. Nancy Lancaster became business partners with John Fowler who set-up Colefax & Fowler with another matriarch of interiors and society Sybil Colefax. Nancy and John ran the shop from Brook Street and it was during this time that John Fowler bought the Hunting Lodge, which has been my country bolthole for the past 30 years.

Another treasured possession is John Fowler’s address book as it reads like a Debretts of the now sadly deceased great and the good. Each entry written in pencil and the below shows John’s entry for Nancy, it is quite remarkable what a humble address book can say about a person, with Johns well thumbed torn pages, personal notes and amendments and even the Butler’s name (essential!).

When residing in London John Fowler lived on the Kings Road, Chelsea but sadly the house has long gone, a victim of 1960s planning and was where the Chelsea Fire Brigade are now housed.

Almost directly opposite John was Argyll House once owned by none other than Sybil Colefax who having a severe aversion to the colour of the property (feeling the house was too brash in its prominent location) employed two perfect strangers off the street to wash the house in a mixture of soot and water to tone down the brick.

Now that is positively Shabby Chic!

My house in the Hampshires is already blanketed in snow as white as white can be - and my two black Pekinese look too cute in the snowscape. I’m always astonished at how, no matter how-ever deep the snow, cold the winter and frost, plants survive. And some plants, like the Pentstemon, don’t seem to mind how cold it gets, they just keep going…leafing and growing - even thought the ground is frozen solid.

I’ve got nobody coming to stay this year, so I’m not cooking. (Just as well as I’m on the Cambridge diet to lose some weight before I head to Palm Beach and Mustique in the new year.) It is a quiet one at home, appreciating the snow that has seemingly brought all of the UK to a standstill.

To everyone in the fascinating blogosphere, I wish you a magical Christmas and endless joy in 2011.

Love,

Nicky

It was hugely flattering when the Financial Times’ ‘How to Spend It’ asked me to contribute to their ‘Diary of a Somebody’ column last week on the FT blog.

Since launching the NH Design blog a couple of months ago, Colette and I have had such fun writing snippets of things that amuse and inspire us and this seemed like a natural extension of what we’ve been doing here.

For ‘Diary of a Somebody‘, I submitted my memoires from the previous day each morning and what a week it was with the cabaret at the Savoy and races at Newbury! Not bad for an old croc joining the 21^st century technocrats, huh?

One thing I (almost) never do is use tassels for tiebacks. For me, it’s a bit too expected. That aside, any chance discovery of some pretty gathered thread of a swingy thing does make me smile.

My latest Topman acquisition obliged for example, as they sport chic black leather tassels. (Yes, ‘The Girl hunt Ballet’, tasseled loafers!)

I also find them in the most random places such as this divine 18^th century wooden box which is edged with carved tassels and swags.

Line Vautrin the genius jewel of a maker was not opposed to a few ‘cordons et passementerie’s herself despite working in gold plated bronze. Now we’re talking!

And of course if all else fails, 17^th and 18^th century portraiture is choc-a-bloc with ideas since nary a man or women was seen without at least a few, or indeed a million, woven into their finery.

Where is your favourite tassel located?

I was absolutely thrilled with today’s feature on my Lucian Freud picture in the Evening Standard - did you see it on the tube on your way home? If not, click here to see the full article. The shoot for this article was done at the newly refurbished Beaufort Bar at The Savoy.

Here is a photograph taken while I was being shot by the ES. The bar is so chic with gilded and niches and an art deco bar to die for.

I have been asked by The Savoy to perform two nights of cabaret at the end of the month to celebrate in style the reopening. It will be a memorable evening and I am thrilled to be joining the likes of Noël Coward and George Gershwin who have performed in this room.

Inner romantics indeed…I’m weak in the knees for this topic.

One of my most charming personal effects is a delicious ruination I display on a mahogany shelf, and which was dug up after years spent in the depths of the French countryside.

It is an 18^th Century buried treasure box, surely a woman’s, lined in Mauny wallpaper. It was lovingly created and I suppose would have held important documents etc, as it was wrapped in lead before being buried during the French revolution….or this or that war. Whoever found it brilliantly and carefully pealed back the lead, but kept it relatively in tact so the box remains nestled within the furls.

Similarly, Bouke de Vries creates modern works from the shattered remnants of broken porcelain…and Meissen was creating broken patchwork painting on their porcelain back in 1740 - Positively delightful.

Don’t miss Vanessa Garwood‘s exhibition this November at Aretha Campbell Fine Art in London’s Soho.

Vanessa is one of the bright young things surfacing on the art scene right now…not to mention a delightful quiet beauty. She painted my portrait recently, which was a joy!

Many congratulations, Vanessa. We are all so excited for you.

Colette’s description of her bold childhood room yesterday got me excited and I thought I must share with you mine.

A view across the wheatfields of Great Hundridge Manor in Buckinghamshire, where I was born. My bedroom is the first attic window on the right.

My childhood room was a small square one in the attic at the house where I was born, Great Hundridge Manor, in Buckinghamshire. Two of the walls were low till child height then slated in-wards to the ceiling, so the light from the dormer window came flooding in to cast strange cubistic shadows.

My bed was a nondescript affair, where Belinda, my beloved rag doll, reined among many floppy animals, stuffed and real, as my mongrel Annie and Poodle Pablo at night would sleep there day and night.

Also a upright piano where I practised with my music teacher, a chest of drawers with Aertex shorts and shirts neatly folded by my devoted nanny Teresa, whose room was identical next door.

I had a wind up gramophone, with needles that had to be changed every few records, on the floor, and lots of paints and papers lying around. There must have been a chair, this I don’t recall it: and the curtains were short and striped. I most remember a luminous Scottie –dog lamp that had come with me from my nursery.

Now, share with us your childhood room!

Came across this photograph of Sir Clough Williams-Ellis in a 1969 Vogue.

He is the architect of that fabled Welsh village Portmeirion which musician Jools Holland covets, and he was also the architect for all the additions to my parents home Great Hundridge Manor as mentioned in my autobiography ‘Redeeming Features’.

I wish I had been old enough to have known him, and to see for myself how chicly dressed he was with his white ‘slip’ waistcoat and spotted handkerchief.

And that pipe!

An almost forgotten decorator, Paul Anstee died at the end of August.

I knew him when he had a shop in Pimlico with Adrienne Allen, the ex-wife of actor Raymond Massey, and his clientele were very much stage and movie stars. Dainty good taste for the likes of Vivien Leigh and none the worst for that.

Rest in peace, Paul.

Craig Brown‘s imagined diary entries for the Daily Mail always gives me a good giggle. I thought I’d share his imagined diary entry for me with you:

October 25, 2003 Nicholas Haslam

Interior designer

Pugs are common, and so are labradors, King Charles spaniels, terriers and dalmatians.

When I last met Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother, she mischievously whispered to me that she thought corgis were awfully common. She giggled uproariously when I promised not to pass it on. I thought it best not to mention that giggling uproariously was common.

When she died, a quarter of a million people marched past her body. It’s terribly common to allow a quarter of a million to march past your body. Chairman Mao did the same, which proves my point.

And also:

November 17, 1989 Nicholas Haslam

The Book Of Common Prayer. The title says it all.

Craig, sorry to burst your bubble, but I attach a photo of Bertie, our office Pug. The rest of the dogs on your list? Frightfully common, I’m afraid!

Read the full article, and have yourself a good giggle too, here.

I was rather amused, and quite flattered, to have the set of the Radamisto English National Opera production described as a “Nicky Haslam acid trip” in a recent review on The Arts Desk.

Hot pink’s been in my life since way back when - evident on this Bazaar cover I did in 1965 with Richard Avedon.

To me it is reminiscent of a matador’s cape. Passion.

And I’ve always maintained that everyone should paint the insides of their lampshades pink - it will make you and your room look gorgeous.

The latest issue of the Financial Times features an article by Nicky where he talks about the most hallowed havens of all - the British drawing room.

Hallowed haven

If an Englishman’s home is his castle, the drawing room is the inner sanctum. Alongside the Black Amex, the drawing room has become a luxury commodity in current financial times, only used on high days and holidays. But when available, the drawing room is the room in which we take most pride, it being the main area for entertaining, relaxing and to display our rather grand photographs on the less than grand piano.

Read the full article here.

I just cannot stand wire hangers. And I cannot think of any excuse for using them. Can you?

In fact, I dedicated my column in the September issue of Beauchamp Estates’ newsletter to a lamenting session about the dreaded things. You can view the full newsletter here.

Have you found a wire hanger useful? Ever?

After the most bountiful spring for years, the garden at the Hunting Lodge, my house deep in the Hampshire countryside, is a cornucopia of flushed pink roses and raggedy-petalled pinks. The scent of nicotiana and rosemary drifts over pools of shimmering blue lilies into an indoor-outdoor room where I’ve just installed a carved rococo fire-surround below a naive C18th portrait of the man who wrote the words of Rule Britannia. Hard to tear myself away to fly with Fares and Tania Fares to their hometown, Beirut. Once-war torn, its now a buzzing, rebuilt, hive of art and fashion…Vogue editor Alexandra Shulman was amazed to see clothes London will wait seasons for in the dazzling new department store Aishti.

I bought some intricate cedarwood place-settings from designer Nada Debs, and a wonderful fake beaten-gold cuff for two dollars from a souvenir seller in Baal’bek. It turns out that immense temple complex was originally dedicated to thunder and lightening, and three hundred or so years later rededicated, by the Romans, to the Sun. Maybe this signifies cyclical warming, as evidenced by Ian Plimer in his brilliant book Heaven and Earth which pretty well proves the much-heralded global catastrophe is bunk.

Next week I go to New Orleans to work on a new project for my friends Rodney and Frances Smith. A secret, and immensely rich, figure has insisted on buying the house I did for them a decade ago. I’ll stay at the Soniat House hotel, the most romantic in that most romantic of places, the French Quarter, eat oysters Rockefeller at Galatoires and get legless on Sazaracs, the original of all cocktails. From there I go to New York to correct the proof copy of my memoir “Redeeming Features’ which will be published in November. A. N. Wilson has already written ” this…evocation is indeed a masterpiece’.

I’m pretty sure the film on me that Hannah Rothschild has been making over the past year will be a masterpiece as well. Anyone who’s seen her latest, “The Jazz Baroness” knows how brilliant Hannah is. She’s spending August cutting me down to size for airing mid-November. Beautiful Kirsty Young kept me in stitches while recording my Desert Island Discs. It’ll be broadcast on Sunday the 2^nd of August on BBC 4…..put on your dancing shoes!