A Fitting End - Rose Tarlow

You thought it could never happen, but it did -  I am at an end to my English Period.  I originally labeled all my magazines and saved images as English/Cozy, and I had lots of cozy to go before my next big design influence, but it's summer (so I'll save the cozy for autumn.)  In summer, everyone's thoughts turn to the beach, to the great outdoors, and to the islands which will be the subject of my next post.  Today's post is about Rose Tarlow and her oh-so English and timeless design.

Here is Ms. Tarlow in Melrose House, her shop in Los Angeles.

Exterior of Melrose House.

Another exterior view.

For all of you close enough to visit, seeing her shop may seem very mundane and everyday.  For me, it is a place I long to visit.  Love, love, love the screen behind the light in this image.

Another Google Image.  Another view of that coveted screen.

So like her accessories and of course that screen.

All photos above from Google Images

Rose Tarlow lives my fantasy.  She owns an apartment in London as well as her home in the States.  (Living in London, she does not my own my fantasy horses or barns or house in the Cotswolds. but I

could settle for Belgrave Square.)  Architectural Digest featured her home in their 1989 issue and I have been admiring it ever since.  

 "All you need are the right proportions, pleasing colors, and things you really love," says Tarlow.  Her flat on Belgrave Square fits her aesthetic.

The high ceiling in this room dwarfs our designer.

The Kangxi coromandel screen is so beautiful and is perfect behind her white sofa.  I even love the small tapestry atop the sofa.

"I like rooms of eccentric dimensions even if they're tiny, like the dining room," says Tarlow.  Tiny or not, the dining room is beautiful with such interesting accessories - note the bowl on the dining table and the Chinese dignitary figure to the left.  French doors leading to garden are perfect.

A seemingly casual arrangement of beautiful antique objects in the kitchen.

She wanted her bedroom to be "beautiful and serene."  It is her "little jewel."

This "English colonial commode of lemonwood and ebony" has always fascinated me.  Who besides Rose Tarlow could find a commode of lemonwood?  She says she seldom ever changes rooms or furniture because she buys only beautiful pieces.  And she does.

View of her London garden.

Now to her book, The Private House by Rose Tarlow which so many of us own.  The following favorite photos are taken from my tattered but well read copy.

She loves this corner vignette in her kitchen because it is so serene.  I do too.

More kitchen.

Wanting to emulate her tablescapes, I almost purchased just one bottle similar to those below.  It was more than I could justify spending on an accessory, but when I see these again, I wish I'd purchased it.  That's when I know I should have.

She does it so right.

Larger view of her kitchen.

In the same Architectural Digest where Rose Tarlow's London apartment appeared, the following view of Cher's Manhattan apartment also appeared.  Cher's design aesthetic is very different from Tarlow's.  "I don't know where people go to get that rule, 'Thou shalt be one thing and one thing only for thy entire life,'" says Cher incredulously.

Very off topic but interesting - Ron Wilson designed eleven houses for Cher and this one is beautiful but so different from Tarlow's.  Not to be negative, but which rooms do you feel are more timeless?

Now onto the last of my Plain English kitchens from their web site of the same name.  These images are of their Suffolk Rectory collection.  (Somehow, I feel Cher would not like this kitchen.)

And as I leave England and you for a time, I leave you with a favorite garden from English Herb Gardens, by Guy Cooper et all.

Till next time, dear reader, in Nantucket.
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