Symmetry is always music for the eyes! Not only are decorative porcelains presented on top of this lovely English hall console table, but they are further enhanced by the display of additional porcelains, which features a pair of blue vases and a handsome antique Georgian cellarette (wine holder) in the center. A vision of divine loveliness!
Photo Source: whimsicalhomeandgarden.com via Pinterest
Learning from ‘the best of the best’ has always been an inspiring goal, and one that I advocate and strive to promote. For my public television series, my goal was to show masterpiece, privately owned houses. Similar to visiting a prestigious art museum or touring a notable palace, the time-honored decorative techniques and nuances you glean from the experience may serve to enhance your ability to decipher the difference between an innocuous designed interior, which is bland and trendy-trite, and/or a timelessly elegant interior, which is charming, inviting and memorable. Do you too agree that developing a keen eye for details enriches your understanding of what contributes to excellence?
As an advocate of buying in pairs for balance and symmetry, this vignette has it all! The pair of Chinese blue and white garden stools, perfectly placed underneath the attractive English table, can easily be used for extra seating too.
Photo source: Lusterineterors via Pinterest
Vignette designed by Rosa Bernal
One decorative element I discerned while filming an episode with Lady Henrietta Spencer-Churchill inside the Private Apartments at Blenheim Palace in Oxfordshire, England, left an indelible impression on me: utilize the unused real estate (space) under a piece of furniture!
If you watch the Blenheim Palace episode, you will discover a prime example of the technique of displaying decorative items underneath a piece of furniture. At the end of a long hallway (and there are many!), an elegant console table features a collection of blue and white porcelain, and below it, three large blue and white vases grace the floor and serve to enhance the vignette visually. The cherry on top? A grand portrait by Paul Cesar Hellau of Consuelo Vanderbilt, the Duchess of Marlborough, married to the 9th Duke, hangs above the table. The soft blue hues in her dress complement the blue and white porcelain collection. The entire visual, floor to almost ceiling, just sings ‘perfection’ to me!
Look around your house for some unused real estate under a table, console, sideboard, or highboy, and be encouraged to implement a decorative piece there! Here are a few decorative suggestions to inspire you.
a bust, statue, or sculpture
a Chinese porcelain footbath
a cachepot filled with plants or flowers
a stack of large coffee-table books
an ottoman, bench, or pair of benches, used for extra seating as needed
a cellarette, wooden wine holder
a collection of vases (blue and white or yellow)
Chinese garden stools (blue and white or rose)
In the hall, outside of our Hunt Room at Fox Hall, a bronze sculpture decided to trot underneath the antique American card table to join the horse painting above, by Edwin M. Fox.
Grandmillennial Tip:
If you have small children, or a rambunctious dog, heavy sculptures, benches, and books work well as decorative elements on the floor, in place of porcelain pieces, which can easily be tipped over and break!
One more thing….
Previous topics have alternated between manners that matter, classic interior design, and interviews with notably accomplished people. I am curious... which topics do you prefer? Kindly respond to holly@hollyholden.com. As always, I cherish your suggestions and ideas! Thank you for inspiring a new friend to subscribe.
XX Holly
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