A Clearer, but Sometimes "Separated" England

I may have mentioned before that my children are my harshest critics.  Yesterday, my daughter mentioned that she checked in on the blog and the pictures were blurry.  All of you were nice enough not to tell me how blurry the photos were, but my children tell the unvarnished, brutal truth.  Also today, my son who helps me join two pages of magazines into one complained that the result looked cobbled and amateurish.  (He insists that I need photo shop.  I insist that it is too much money.)  Hope today's blog will be clearer for everyone and not appear too unprofessional, especially for we-all-know-who .

Undaunted, I visit some lovely English hall ways and staircases.  Only the English seem to have homes large enough to accommodate these beauties, again from English Country Homes By Mary Gilliatt (1986).

Not to offend my bird-lover friends, but if I could have "photoshopped-out" the birdcage I would have.  Otherwise this is a great hall way.

So beautiful, so English.

Less grand, but no less charming.  I'm a real sucker for brick floors.

Also a sucker for leaded glass windows.

I would consider this room a den, but Gillatt explains it as a "living hall...very much a feature of grand houses in the nineteenth century."  Inviting - whatever we name it.

The master of all that he surveys.

Also a sucker for paintings and tall case clocks and wide-board wood floors.

I know all of these images are not about kitchens, but they are very English and very beautiful.  I just had to include them.

Onto an article that I tore out of a magazine long ago.  My apologies to whichever magazine published these beautiful pictures because I never noted its name. It is the home of Jonathan Vickers, a quirky individual and collector of - well, you will see.  His home in Kent is named the Old Vickarage, perhaps a play on his name.  Vickers, like Stanley Falconer from an earlier posting, also worked as a designer with the Colefax and Fowler firm.  Later in his life, when he partnered in an antique business, he still remained friends with John Fowler.

The dining room above, formerly the kitchen, still retains the black leaded stove.  The table is stained with a green varnish - a bit "quirky."

Below is a collection of his creamware jelly moulds.  Enjoy these photos - unfortunately they are about as kitchen-y as I get today.  The lemon and banana are Chinese carved ivory.

More of his blue and white collection.  The article mentions an anecdote about a night that Vickers entertained - one of the guests commented on how beautiful a piece of his china was, and Vickers generously gave it to her.  The next day, he asked for it back.

Below is Vickers's sitting room, the walls of which are painted with a trailing design of Kentish hops.
(This is the kind of joining of separate images that drives my son crazy.)

The landing in the Old Vicarage.

Very Colefax and Fowler.

Vickers's Chinese bedroom.

Another of those separations that annoy my son, but until I buy photoshop, he's going to have to just get over it!  Hope you can enlarge the smaller images on your computers.  The bedroom on the top left is so sweet.  Actually, I love all these rooms.

Thus ends the home images of Jonathan Vickers.  Sadly, he died young and the contents of most of his rooms have been dispersed.  "Such is the ephemeral nature of interior decoration."

Onto the last home for today, a very British one with a very contemporary feel.  All photos are from House and Garden, May 2006.  See what you think. 

The exterior is very beautifully what you might expect in Sussex, England.  (Adore the name "Sussex")

But inside, it reminds me of my posting on Lauren Sara's home from "Still in Pennsylvania but forward Twenty Years."  See what you think.

Unlike Sara, this owner uses few antiques in her home.  Only the beams reveal the age of the house.

Eleanora Cunietti, one of the home's designers.

Gatehouse of the home.  Through it, we see a glimpse of a "well-tended" garden.

Again only the beams reveal its age.

And finally, my favorite room in the house - the kitchen, of course.  Don't you just love the chandelier?

Another chapter on England's influence on my aesthetic ends, but more is to come.  And you thought my Pennsylvania influence was endless!
Till next time,
b

Oh, to Be in England Now That April's Here

Words from Robert Browning's poem seem especially significant this April day in upstate New York.  After many days of sun and warm temperatures, today rain has finally fallen - all day - and there's a real chill in the air.  I'm not complaining; the parched earth needs this rain, and it seems a great day for me to sit snugly warm and dry and organize another post.  As I hear the rain ticking on the window behind my computer, Browning's words have real significance, for today, dear reader, I will be completely on task - in England, showing many kitchens, and feeling cozy.

The following home and its images are from Cote Ouest's 1995 Spring issue.

See, whenever I decide to have a Japanese garden or one Zen-like and composed of only sculpted boxwoods, I think of these gardens.  What is one to do?  I really need about five fantasy gardens to accompany my five fantasy houses.

Water - such a lovely addition to any garden.

May I present Shepherd's Close, the home to which these gardens belong, in the village of Chipping Campden in the Cotswolds.  Yes, this wonderful place actually exists.  "Chipping Campden," "Shepherd's Close -" sooo British.  Can you stand it!

Needs no words.

Sweet primroses.

And spring also inside.

In the same issue of Cote Ouest, this sunny, springy kitchen appeared in a different home, one west of London.

Perhaps, because of their frequent lack of sunshine, the owners of this home brought the sunshine in with the cheery yellow of their kitchen.

And the spring dining room in same home.  (Sorry for the center blur.  I need a larger scanner.)

More kitchens.  (Ahem, ahem- who is staying close to her blog's name and focus today?)  The following kitchens are from Mary Gilliatt's book, English Country Style, published in 1986, a book which I remember studying very carefully while in my English stage of design.

The basket above and the "margarine" platter below appear in many kitchens today.  Everything old does become new again.

Love the window below.

Another sunny yellow kitchen. 

Very British Aga range here.  Wonder if the master of the house caught this fish.

I will return to more of Gilliatt's book in future posts, but now let's move to the present, to designer Malcolm Kutner's beautifully restored row house in London.  The images below appear on narratives.co.uk. and appear very small, but we can still get the idea.

His black door is so great next to the brick - even the black drain pipe is black.

Black door seen from the inside with black painted diamonds on floor.

 A proud Malcolm Kutner.

Such a beautiful room.

Another lovely room above or do we call it the sitting room.

Love all his touches of black.

Red's always so inviting in a dining room.

And now to his kitchen, which I really "have loved," every time I've seen it.

More touches of black and a kitchen fireplace.

Woops, sorry Elle Decor.  This image is yours and I love it.

Kitchen's dining area.

Well, didn't I promise I would be on task today?  Talk about kitchens!  Talk about England!  It was all here today.  (Sorry about some of the more blurred images.  Perhaps narraive.co.uk didn't want them reproduced.  I hope that is not the case.)

Till next time, my friends, and more of my England.
b