Remains of the Day

I've been thinking.  Writing up the playroom project made me ponder.  

There are rooms I go back to again and again.  I study them.  I notice different things depending on where I am in a project or problem.  Oddly, it doesn't have to be a design problem, it can be any old run-of-the-mill problem; the rooms take me out of it.

Mulling this over, this habit of drawing inspiration from iconic rooms, I wondered what will stand out as the defining work of our generation?

Who is creating the rooms that we will be pouring over twenty years from now?

Have we already seen rooms that will be identified by shorthand like, "de Rothchild's living room" or "the Money Room" or "Chanel's salon?"

I am just a fan.  I didn't want to proclaim, I wanted to learn.

So I asked around.  While I am just rambling on with my crazy stream-of-consciousness, I have made a few friends who know things.  Really know things.

Over the next week I'm posting thoughts on lasting design from a few bloggers who make a point to reference design history with a few cameos sprinkled here and there.  I've learned a lot and I've gone back to re-examine a fews rooms as well.  I bet we'll pick up some more ideas along the way.

From top, Nancy Lancaster's "buttah" yellow room from Influential Interiors, Suzanne Trocme; drawing room by John Fowler, also Influential Interiors, Coco Chanel's Paris apartment, House & Garden, January, 1986; first floor bedroom of Madeleine Castaing's apartment in Paris, Influential Interiors; Billy Baldwin's apartment, Billy Baldwin decorates; Pauline de Rothchild's sitting room by John Fowler, Influential Interiors; Library and "Money Room" of Mrs. Vincent Astor by Albert Hadley, Albert Hadley: The Story of America's Preeminent Interior Designer.