LARGE FLAT SCREEN TV: an alternative to monopolizing living rooms

Many of us feel slightly uncomfortable at the thought of a "loads of inches" plasma/LCD TV as the focal point of our living room. Even more so when it usurps the very spot traditionally reserved to one's favourite mirror or painting, above the fireplace.
At the cost of sounding like a broken record, interior design is - among other things - the art of compromise. The clever people at AUTON in California provide us with just the compromise for our TV conundrum. Want a big screen and have nowhere to put it other than above the fireplace BUT don't want a plasma taking over your living room? Hide it! say the people at Auton. Other companies have reached that conclusion in the past and effective mirror fronts have been created for the purpose. This solution however looks at home in an up market bathroom or in a high tech office. In a living room a painting or a large photograph may look more at home. This can be achieved with a completely custom made solution but, as of 2006, Auton's Shadow Trak and the In-vis-o-trak provide a much cleaner solution. Ask your designer to contact Auton direct (as they have no distributors in the UK at the time of writing). Also, ensure your building contractor has been correctly instructed as to how to prepare the wall or chimney breast on which the track will be fitted.

VINTAGE LEATHER ARMCHAIR: one of the "musts"

Trendy as they may be, vintage leather armchairs need to be comfortable. Open the debate: do we sacrifice looks in the name of comfort (i.e. go for a reproduction) or do we make no concession to our nether regions and stick with the weathered and sleek look of an original early 20th cent. specimen (ideally a vintage Vanity Fair armchair by Potrona Frau)?

As always, there are added complications: repro is not only a concept to be avoided at all costs but it often fails to guarantee the very comfort in the name of which we sacrificed our design integrity!

Lets look at some figures to better understand the options available. At the time of writing the cheapest repro (top picture) could be bought for approx. £300 on the internet. Poltrona Frau were selling their Vanity Fair (new, as shown above in red) for ten times as much. I doubt a good vintage specimen of the Vanity Fair would cost any less. Time seems to have failed to alter the design as well as the price tag of this classic.

On that basis the sensible solution seems to be, as always, the most time consuming: finding an importer of French originals who is willing to work with you on therestoration process. Hopefully this will ensure the chair is re-sprung and restored where necessary and a gorgeous leather can be chosen if complete re-upholstery is required. Interior design: the art of seemless compromise...

Note: if money and time are no object you know what to do.

EISENSTAEDT'S PHOTOGRAPHY AT MICAHEL HOPPEN'S GALLERY (ended 1/8/07)

We nearly missed it! If black and white photography of the first half of the 20th century is your thing.... you might want to stroll down to Michael Hoppen's gallery on the Kings Road. Margaret Bourke-White aside.... Alfred Eisenstaed has got to be one of the best American photographers of the period. Get all the necessary info at http://www.michaelhoppengallery.com/

CONSERVATION: hurdles and concepts

Listed buildings, houses within a conservation area: issues one deals with repeatedly specially when working in central London. However, at least in my case, it is true to say that one is often guilty of not addressing the "concept", simply aiming at the "result". For some reason, a Chelsea mock-Georgian house has allowed me the time to notice my shallow approach. I've been trawling the internet and talking to people about the whole idea of conservation boundaries. Picket fences around buildings deemed to be of note (often by non-specialised professionals who possibly are unsure about exactly.... which note). Electric fences around sections of somebody's home which, therefore, they only partially own. More like a person whose destiny one can never totally control, than like a house - a material possession which can be moulded around wishes and made to conform to our plans.
An article* by Julian Holder points out how distinctly anthropomorphic are most of the concepts applied to buildings by conservation enthusiasts. "Can a building really be 'compromised', its 'integrity' questioned, its 'character' altered?" He adds that "to accept the[se] concepts ensures that all the participants are already treating buildings as people, as living breathing beings, whose fate we care about, and not simply as bricks and lime mortar. At its best it is a linguistic slight of hand....... At its worst it is a transparently bullying misappropriation which fails to impress the hard headed and leaves conservation looking distinctly amateur".
I must confess that the house which started this whole thought process is, indeed, one of those houses one would describe as "honest". Clearly not in the human sense of the word; more so to describe its simple declaration of intents. My view is that remaining identical to oneself is not necessarily the ideal state for man-kind. I therefore doubt this can be ideal for a utilitarian, perfectly coherent, teen ager (if house years are worth half as much as dog years) of a residential property.

* The Building Conservation Directory 2001 http://www.buildingconservation.com/articles/pdf_concept/concept.pdf
General descriptions: listed building and conservation area. http://www.buildingconservation.com/articles/conplng/conplng.htm

PROPERTY MARKET: conditio sine qua non of interior design

This might not be an interior design link as such but, then again, most people obsessed with interior design are also interested in the property market. After all... you've got to buy it before you can decorate it! So, if you want to be up to speed with property related news and gossip, you might do a lot worse than starting right here: http://theratandmouse.co.uk/