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Jordan and I spent our first Thanksgiving in Dallas and, while we were sad to be away from our families, it was a really relaxing few days. We ran the Turkey Trot 5K on Thanksgiving morning then spent the rest of the day cooking and eating a feast à deux. One of my favorite parts of the day was setting the table with cherished wedding gifts – china, vintage crystal, and serving pieces from our nearest and dearest.

Hosting a dinner party, even if just for two, is a good way to test if you have the essentials to entertain on a larger scale. After setting my Thanksgiving table I made a little list of some of the things I’m still missing… a silver ladle for gravy, festive water glasses, a punch bowl (so fun for big parties) and a special tablecloth! It’s the tablecloth that really got to me last week. I LOVE the look of printed tablecloths layered with patterned china for an eclectic, collected vibe and the cream linen I used on Thanksgiving just did not cut it. I’m officially on the tablecloth hunt! Here are some of my favorites and how I would pair them with patterned china.

This pattern, Oriente Italiano by Richard Ginori, is my everyday china and it is so dang versatile. I’m a bit of a china fiend and have collected a few different patterns but if I could only have one, it might be this because you can use it all day, every day. I paired it with a block printed floral tablecloth from the AMAZING French textile company Simrane. Every Simrane print is perfection – see more examples below – but I love that the dusty rose of the plate is picked up in the cloth’s floral without being too matchy matchy.

Sacred Bird and Butterfly by Mottahedeh is a famed Chinese export pattern that was used in Charleston’s Nathaniel Russell House in the early 1800s. I think it’s the quintessential china for Thanksgiving. Here I paired it with another Simrane floral (you literally cannot go wrong with these) that adds a fun, festive element to the Thanksgiving table. Keep napkins simple, maybe in a light blue linen, and litter the table with leaved clementines and votives – DONE.

Dammouse by Haviland is my overtly feminine and floral china that leaves me giddy with love when I use it. It can read formal or even old lady – what can I say, I’ve got an 80 year old’s taste in interiors – so  to keep things casual I’ve paired it with a simple plaid tablecloth by Heather Taylor Home. My girl crush Amanda Brooks stocks Heather Taylor linens in her store Cutter Brooks (more on that gem here) and they’re carried at the lovely L.A. interiors outpost Nickey Kehoe. I think this combination is perfect for a summer soirée… just pass the rosé!

Royal Copenhagen = the chicest china on the planet. Beyond being my twin sister’s china (Dabs is super chic herself!) it’s graced history’s most stylish tables for over 200 years! It is beautiful on its own but here I thought why not make it live la vie bohème? It’s paired with a Simrane tablecloth that kinda looks like the batiked tapestry you’d find in a Deadhead’s dorm room…if that Deadhead studied in Paris and dressed in Heidi Slimane. I imagine it in a dining room painted in Farrow & Ball’s Mouse’s Back with the lights dim and a roaring fire nearby.

Old Imari by Royal Crown Derby can feel very formal and traditional. I brought the formality down a notch by pairing it with a peach gingham (also by Heather Taylor Home). Use these al fresco for one lovely picnic.

Two of my favorites girls use Mottahedeh’s Tobacco Leaf china so it has a very special place in my heart. I know it’s a busy pattern but I think it would look charming on top of a blue and white block print for a casual ladies lunch. This one is Les Indiennes.

Happy Pairing,
Laura

 

I have have quite a few favorite fabrics. Dabney and I store our fave samples in one big box at her house in Atlanta then trade them back and forth, putting together design schemes when we’re bored. [side note: does fabric scheming not sound like the worst kind of torture for our poor husbands, who are either with us during said scheming or can hear our endless phone convos? They are sometimes the center of our attention slightly deprived when we’re together.] Of all my favorite fabrics, one at the top of the list is Le Manach’s Palmyre.

Le Manach is a luxury French fabric house founded in 1829 and acquired by Pierre Frey in 2014. Le Manach fabrics are the ultimate in style and sophistication – proof: Lee Radziwill (Jackie’s sis and most stylish woman alive)  used Le Manach’s Mikado in several of her famous living rooms. Vibrantly colored chinoiseries, ikats, and florals are the brand’s calling card and all designs are historically based, some from as far back as the 17th century!

Palmyre is a cotton chintz that was first printed by Le Manach in 1931. Similar floral patterns were popular in the 19th century, one shown in the Ingres portrait below. Palmyre is Obama’s White House decorator Michael Smith’s favorite chintz because of its many layered colors. I agree – Palmyre’s twisting florals absolutely explode with color and make my heart happy.

I’d love to see Palmyre on the headboard of a girls room or mixed with wicker and eclectic antiques in a living room. I’d put it on a settee, cost be damned, and let it be the focal point. With a fabric so special, a room doesn’t need much more!

in floral heaven
-laura

 

I’ve been drooling over fashion editor turned farm girl Amanda Brooks’ new store Cutter Brooks and Co. on Instagram (@cutterbrooksshop) since it opened this summer. I’ll write more about the little slice of retail heaven that is Cutter Brooks in a later post but for now I want to share my current obsession, thanks to Amanda and Cutter Brooks: Atelier Vime.

My obsession began when Amanda posted this pic on Cutter Brooks’ Instagram:

Obviously I couldn’t get enough of the blooming branches, the faded, barely pink wall treatment and the matchstick blinds, but what really did it for me was the wicker pedestal and vase. It’s height! It’s shape! I can imagine it in so many spaces – in a bright sunroom filled with ferns, weathered by the elements on a covered porch, or as a pair in a dressy dining room for contrast. Pedestals are some of my favorite accessories as they add height and interest to unused corners – make them out of wicker and I’m literally LOSING SLEEP in love.

Atelier Vime (vime is French for wicker) creates the pedestal and vase of my dreams, among other woven wonders, from a crumbly hotel particulier in Vallabregues, a small village in southern France. [googled hotel particulier: a grand, free-standing private townhouse] During the 18^th century, 450 of 1,800 of Vallabregues’ inhabitants were wicker workers. The historic trade was extinct when Atelier Vime’s founders Anthony Watson and Benoit Rauzy purchased the home although they found wicker baskets literally strewn over the property. They soon started collecting important wicker and rattan from the 20^th century then hired designer Raphaelle Hanley to create original pieces using local materials and artisans. Et voilà! Atelier Vime was born.

It’s the Medici pedestal and vase I love most but I’m also enamored with their lighting.

I mean, just take a look at this spread from House & Garden UK featuring Atelier Vime shot at the founders’ home and tell me it isn’t PERFECTION. Crumbly walls, French fabrics, antiques for days – dying.

I did some Instagram detective work and discovered that Atelier Vime is being carried in Nashville interior designer Sarah Bartholomew’s new showroom @sb.sarahbartholomew. If that’s home for you, check it out and report back ASAP!

While I dream of a home filled with Atelier Vime, in the meantime here are a few of my favorite woven and rattan pieces to satisfy my case of wicker wants.

 

Au Revoir!
-Laura