Nicky haslam shop
The wit and joie de vivre of Nicky Haslam's Cotswold house
‘Did you know that the first public performances of Mozart’s Requiem and Haydn’s Creation in the New World took place in the newly built opera house at Rio de Janeiro? Dom João VI of Portugal had imported a German kapellmeister, who had worked with Salieri, and he brought the musical scores with him in his luggage. Isn’t that extraordinary?’ Nicky has an insatiable social curiosity, following Lady Diana Cooper’s mantra: ‘Say yes – you can always leave.’ He rarely does, since, as he puts it, ‘There is always something that can be winkled out of even the greatest bores.’ Subsequent conversations are a mixture of gossip, interesting facts and humour, and – rather like the rooms in his new house – full of wit and originality.
Three years ago, Nicky moved from the Hunting Lodge, a magical Tudor/Jacobean revival home in Hampshire, which, for the 50 years he lived there, he made distinctively his own. Deciding to downsize, in 2019 he held a sale of his possessions at Bonhams, divesting himself of years of accumulation. Months later, ‘beloved friends made the enchanting and life-changing offer’ of taking over a honey-stone pavilion on their estate in the Cotswolds and this is his new country love affair.
MAY WE SUGGEST: A gloriously exuberant London house by Nicky Haslam and Studio QD
He arrived with fairly few possessions, but, within two years, has created another Nicky Haslam world, furnished with pieces from nearby auction houses and local dealers, and objects that he has frequently transformed from their original purposes. For example, the library chandelier is made up of a cake tin, a plant support and a tin star with pods of an Indian oak-apple tree painted green, all hanging from a red plastic chain bought at a local agricultural store. The central light in his bedroom is an upturned Ikea fruit bowl; cardboard butterflies are silhouetted inside an outsize round paper lampshade in the hall; and painted corrugated cardboard makes a sensational dado in the library.
A large ceramic vase, marbleised in viridian green by the potter, stands under a console in the hall; it needed a top and by cutting in half and marble-painting a rubber ball that fits it exactly, Nicky finished it off with appropriate panache.
He has an extraordinary visual memory. ‘There are things you remember from other decorators in the past,’ he says. ‘When I was 17, I saw the work of Cocteau and Bérard in Paris and, in America, that of Tony Duquette, Billy Baldwin and George Stacey.’ Of the latter, Nicky recalls a room with brown satin walls that struck him as sensational. He does not mind pastiche and is not afraid of the fake – or of making mistakes, which he describes as a huge liberation. ‘People use clichés so much nowadays, for example, putting bookshelves on each side of the fireplace. Instead, you should put one there and one somewhere else, as a room should never look as if it has been thought out. The point of decorating is to make those who are in it look prettier and feel more at ease.
A room should make you want to smile without knowing it as you enter.’
Built in 2013, the award-winning gatehouse by architect Craig Hamilton has a central hall running the length of the building. The main bedroom and bathroom are at one end, with a small spare room and library to one side and, opposite these, a sitting room with french windows, looking out over a terrace and parkland. The sitting room is larger than any Nicky had in the Hunting Lodge and is ideal for entertaining. He has divided it with a central table – which always holds a vase of flowers and foliage – with a seating area along one side. An oak table positioned to screen the view of the kitchen beyond is used as a desk and buffet, and for ‘dreadfully cramped, I’m afraid’ dining.
Decorator Nicky Haslams London Flat
As a reader of House & Garden, it's most unlikely that you haven't heard of Nicholas 'Nicky' Haslam, interior decorator to royalty, pop stars, oligarchs and aristocrats. As a scanner of diary pages, you'd be aware of the parties he's hosted, created or attended.
You may own one of his compelling books, have bought a piece of furniture or fabric he's designed, have enjoyed his blog, or even have heard him sing. But what of the man himself? Where does such an inexhaustible polymath lay his head and with what does he surround himself?
His small country house, the ravishing, triple-gabled Hunting Lodge that once belonged to John Fowler, has been well documented, but this west-London flat is a new acquisition, and it's as multifaceted and surprising as its owner. An estate agent's particulars for the property would not sound promising. The apartment is a ground-floor conversion on the Cromwell Road, a ceaselessly busy thoroughfare feeding traffic in and out of the city. There is but the one modest yet lofty bedroom, albeit served by two bathrooms and a galley kitchen. Likewise, a description of the decoration might raise an eyebrow because most of the pieces of furniture are old friends and the rest are fakes, frolics and jokes.
But herein lies the genius of Nicholas Haslam; he can bring forth the silkiest purse from a sow's ear, and conjure rooms of elegance, comfort and wit from ingredients that others might overlook.
He knew that the Cromwell Road isn't just a route through London, but a road that is lined with huge houses that were once grand private homes with high ceilings and good plasterwork. And as for the interior, this decorator sees no virtue in buying something new when something old can be adapted or re-covered; he can make a virtue of a necessity and has the élan and self-confidence to hang his walls with fakes and faux marble.
Step into the hall of this flat and the adventure begins. The walls are lined with green bamboo canes and the floor is carpeted with a 'stretch cloth' strewn with Dalí-esque motifs. But the canes are an illusion because they're printed on wallpaper and the floor is a painted trompe l'oeil. From the hall, double doors lead into a remarkable room that combines elements of a gracious salon with a set for Alice in Wonderland. It's huge and is dominated by a vast Giacometti-inspired lantern (made from gessoed and bandaged plumbing pipes) and two great Swedish stoves on plinths.
But, of course, they aren't stoves at all; one hides Victorian pipes and electric cables, and the other houses a drinks cabinet and hi-fi equipment. Opposite the 'stoves' is a perfectly genuine, amber-coloured marble chimneypiece, but on the chimney breast is a panel painted in faux marble to match it. On this is hung an architectural print in a Jean Cocteau-like gilded frame. Above and below this artwork perch two porcelain falcons on plinths, which turn out to be a couple of plastic bird scarers sprayed glossy white.
The north-facing bay window is curtained with a silvery voile; a strip of halogen lights set into the floor makes this opaque at night and the oak parquet floor has been glazed white, which Nicky says has increased the light by almost 100 per cent.
In complete contrast, the walls of the library/dining end of the room are covered in grasscloth in a bespoke shade of deep blue taken from a portrait of a beloved friend. Trellis panels in the corners of the room are lined with white trompe l'oeil book wallpaper and conceal a muddle of real books.
Nicky considers an octagonal dining table to be superior to a round one and has had 12 guests seated at his - 'no side plates' is the secret.
Of his new abode, Nicky says, 'The decorative threads of a lifetime are finally drawn together. I've found the living space I've always desired - one huge ground-floor room, the ideal bones on which to put decorative flesh. I wanted the whole place to look light-hearted, almost transient, with nothing precious but rather frankly, fake.' It takes genuine talent to pull that off - and he has.
90,000 List of the best 2020: 125 Favorite interior designers Elle Decor (11-25)Axel Vervortt
Style VABI-Sabi VAU Clients Kim Ye, Robert de Niro, Bill Gates
Its legendary galleries art and antiques in Antwerp and Hong Kong.
Interior designer, antique dealer and art gallery owner, the Antwerp tastemaker is revered for his influential style, combining antiques and art with contemporary furniture draped in Belgian linen slipcovers.
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Instagram: @axelvervoordt
Beata Human
Style Bloomsbury through ScandinaviaClients Creators from the UK
Particular wallpaper, fabrics and much more in its online store
000. approach to interior design, Beata Human is known for her playful and original work. Human worked for Niki Haslam for nine years before opening her own studio in 2013. Her team strives to create beautiful interiors - no matter the scale or budget - with Scandinavian attention to detail and durability. nine0013
Instagram:@jeffreybilhuber
Brad Ford ID
STYLE Lovecraft
PROJECTS An exemplary apartment in the 53 West 53rd Jean Nouvel complex at the Museum of Modern Art in New York.
NEWS Field + Supply, its bi-annual manufacturer's fair in the Hudson Valley, New York, is now in its seventh year.
New York-based designer Brad Ford is known for his residential interiors that are both modern and warm, elegant and functional.
He founded his eponymous firm at 1998, and its craft and design fair Field + Supply brought together over 100 vendors and exhibitors.
Instagram: @brad_ford_id
Brian J. McCarthy
Style Luxurious elegance, honed in Parish-Hadley
News 9000 Awards 2020 from the New York Interier School
York City's Brian J. McCarthy draws inspiration from the culture and elegance of European life. This is evolving into eclectic spaces based on an understanding of history but implemented with an emphasis on functionality, comfort and luxurious materials. His book Luminous Interiors was published in 2013. nine0013
Instagram: @brianjmcarthyinc
Brockshmidt and Coleman
Style Classicism without web
Clients Literary elite, from John Michom to Julia Rid 9000
From New York City, Bill Brokschmidt and Courtney Coleman describe their clients as "inconspicuous writers and collectors" who appreciate their ability to match historical references with contemporary ideas.
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Instagram:@brockschmidtandcoleman
Interior design Bunny Williams
STYLE Patinated luxury
NEWS Bunny Williams
new line of home furniture planned for fall, all about classic comfort and all about classic comfort. Her rooms combine fine European antiques with mirrored walls and intrepid artwork. She is equally adept at using rich colors and delicate patterns. Step into the Park Avenue apartment designed by Williams here. nine0013
Instagram: @bunnywilliamshome
Carrier and Company
Style Positive
Cooperation
Jesse Karri and Marara Miller and Marara Miller and Maura Miller are a confident combination of timeless and modern design, both familiar and fresh. Always refined and refined, light and airy, their spaces range in style from elegantly traditional to luxuriously minimalist and glamorous bohemian. nine0013
Instagram: @champalimaudesign
Charlotte Moss
Style Noble and traditional
Clients Crowd in the upper East-Side, Hampton and Palm Beach Cooperation Metal plants in pots or in the frame with Tommy with Tommy with Tommy with Tommy with Tommy Starting her career on Wall Street, Charlotte Moss is equally in tune with the principles of classic decor and the needs of the modern home, and is inspired by women travelers and explorers who push the boundaries.
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Instagram:@charmossny
Commune
STYLE Handcrafted and Integrity
PROJECTS Ace Hotel Kyoto
New Craftsmen Steven Acklon-Angeles California Associates From homes to hotels to product design, their work embodies respect for craftsmanship and an almost archeological sense of place.
Instagram:@communedesign
Corey Damen Jenkins
Style Motor City playful
Cooperation Lighting of the Hudson Valley, Leather Furniture
Projects Ladies Ladies in the Kips Bay Decorator 2019
An through line, connecting all the works of Jenkins is an impeccable traditionalism saturated with color and Up. . The Detroit native, who also has an office in New York, made a splash last year with his highly publicized women's library at the Kips Bay Decorator Show House. nine0013
Instagram:@coreydamenjenkins
Cullman & Kravis
STYLE Soul of the Company
NEWS Lincoln Center Club Renovation for girls Alice KeepB Decor and Kitchen ELLE
Brooklyn-born Ellie Kallman (her family owns the famous Peter Luger steakhouse) is the recipient of the New York School of Interior Design's Albert Hadley Lifetime Achievement Award and founded a legendary design firm known for its trendy and contemporary designs.
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Instagram: @cullmankravis
Dan Fink
Style New Old Soul Clients
TechnologiesLain Lain on the Sea Club in the Miramar club in Montesito, California.
A favorite among tech giants, Dan Fink. He started his career in Silicon Valley and is known for his whimsical modern aesthetic.
Instagram:@danfinkstudio
Daniel Kolding Design
STYLE Artful, cozy potpourri
PROJECTS Keeps Bay Townhouse, Avenue Heights duplex
Danielle Kolding, best known for starring in HGTV's "Shop in This Room," names the homes she creates , skillful and comfortable. Never stuffy, she loves to create a space around a client's heirlooms, art collection, and trinkets so that the room is always a reflection of the individual.
Instagram:@daniellecoldingdesign
(according to Elledecor.com)
List of the best 2020: 125 Favorite interior designers Elle Decor (11-25)
Escries from the socket - PBWM.
ru She and her friend. A friend lifts the needle, sets a fragile black record on the player, returns the needle to its place, and with these gestures Her whole life is transformed. The trumpet enters first, against which the pianist extracts several notes. Then the double bass joins the action, and all together they pick up the melody, gentle, nocturnal and romantic, ambiguous, but exciting. After listening to the song twenty times, She leaves the house and goes to New York in search of the famous jazz composer and pianist. nine0013
The melody was Thelonious Monk's Round Midnight, and the woman who gave up everything for the musician under the influence of this music was Pannonika Rothschild. She grew up in Tring Park in Hertfordshire, "the nest of the Rothschilds," as Hannah Rothschild, the great-niece and biographer of the Baroness, described her life from Gormenghast himself. “She was never alone. While eating, a footman stood behind her, and at night a governess was on duty near her bed, she was not even allowed to take a bath alone.
Meals, for which the best European chefs tried, took place exactly on schedule: “You always knew how the day would begin, how it would end, what would happen in the morning, afternoon and evening. Hell for free spirits. nine0013
Hannah and I met at another aristocratic estate (even though it has the best gift shop in the county) Blenheim Palace, where Hannah was speaking at a literary festival about her book The Baroness, which followed a documentary about Nick. Here, a classic quadrangular building with spacious lecture halls and a courtyard is connected to the main building. At one corner, a staircase with a pea-green carpet that evokes memories of grandma's house leads to a lounge where we sit and enjoy sandwiches. nine0013
Adventures of the Baroness
As a child, no one told Hanna about Nick, because this woman once left her aristocratic French husband and five children for several years of chasing a black jazz musician, and all this time she did not even see him. For her relatives, this was enough to erase Nika from their lives in disgrace.
The gap in the family tree intrigued Hanna, and she became intrigued by the Baroness's secret identity, her tastes, her thoughts, and how she managed to escape from the "oppressive, stuffy golden cage." nine0013
However, before her fateful infatuation, Nika's life was by no means devoid of adventure. Despite the fact that she had to change one candy-corset aristocratic lifestyle of the young Rothschild for another, already as the wife of Baron Jules de Koenigswarter, whom she married in 1935, Nika took part in the events of the Second World War. According to Hanna, the Rothschilds were among the first on Hitler's list, as befitted rich Jewish bankers, so Nika and her husband, having received information from the ubiquitous Rothschild informants, left France on one of the last departing ships. “She wanted to join the British army, but they didn’t accept her because her husband’s last name, de Königswarter, sounded too German,” Hanna says, “but the French accepted her, after which she went to Africa as part of the Fighting France"".
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“It was an exciting and dangerous period - she crossed the African continent from west to east, managed to be a decoder, an ambulance driver, fly Lancaster bombers, although I can’t prove the latter. She spoke on the radio, and then made her way across Europe to Berlin shortly before Hitler committed suicide, ”says Hanna. Post-war life promised to be boring and too safe for the new ambassador's wife, and so it turned out. Later in an interview, Nika admitted that she was unhappy, and her words were recorded by Hannah in The Baroness: “I was in Mexico City, and there I learned all the torments of diplomatic life and the nonsense associated with it.” But the last straw was the composition Black, Brown and Beige by Duke Ellington, performed by one of her acquaintances. “I received a signal that I belong to the world where this music comes from. I spent a lot of time cut off from him. It was a real revelation." The revelation had a distinctive jazz flavor. nine0013
The fate of one family name
Would Nika have been able to get carried away with anything at all, if not for Round Midnight? After a long pause, Hanna says in a low voice, “I think she definitely had marital problems,” but that doesn’t make the story of Round Midnight any less strange: “Usually when we listen to a record, we like it or not, but from home we we're not leaving.
Of course, there was a hidden reason, but this moment finally defined Nicky's lifestyle. The meaning of her existence was Monk, and only he. nine0266 Perhaps this absolute passion was predetermined. Baroness Rothschild was fond of hunting, and she owns the phrase "If the heart is thrown over the fence, the horse will follow it." Hanna believes that Nika has adhered to the same principle all her life, and Monk was no exception in this regard.
Hannah Rothschild was born two generations and about 40 years after Pannonika in a family with the same surname, but with a small fortune compared to her great-aunt. “In the end, the family capital decreased markedly during the world wars and due to the fact that before my father there were no Rothschild entrepreneurs. During this time gap - from 1900 to 1960 - not a single entrepreneur appeared among the Rothschilds, although there were very competent persons, ”says Hanna. The entrepreneurial gene, she said, came from her father, the 4th Baron Rothschild, and from her brother Nat, a regular in business and tabloid headlines.
It was Nat who introduced Hannah, a former director before the book, to Peter Mendelsohn, the character in her successful 2010 documentary covering several campaign months. “I was very lucky with Peter Mendelsohn. Just then, a newspaper came out in which he announced his return, the one where he is depicted on a pink background with the inscription “Love me! Love me! Love me!". And although I met him thanks to my brother, I didn’t know this person and didn’t believe that things would go well.” The result is a film about a violent egoist, an incorrigible loner, a political prince, ready to dislocate his jaw, but swallow his prey whole. nine0013
The Evolution of Feelings
Considering all three of Hanna's documentaries - about Nick, about Mendelssohn and about Nicky Haslam - what attracts her in all these extroverts? In response, Hannah chews her sandwich more diligently than usual: “These sandwiches are very useful: they give me time to think about the answer,” she laughs.
– These people are extroverts, but, on the other hand, deep down they are very lonely. On the stage Mendelssohn is surrounded by sycophants and special advisers, but in my heart I feel that in reality he is alone. Nicky Haslam is a welcome guest at every party, but he comes home alone.” Nika was also an insatiable socialite, but she returned home alone. “This mixture of loneliness and social activity captures me,” says Hannah. nine0013
With all her curiosity, sense of humor and no hint of prudence, she researched Nika for twenty years, and none of her older relatives helped her. Hanna's work has resulted in a radio documentary, a film, and now a book. “When I wrote the biography of Hanna, I always tried to present the events of those years through the prism of our days. They didn't talk about much then. "Feelings" came from the era of Oprah Winfrey, right? she laughs. “If you were to invite Sunny Marlboro to talk about feelings, he would…well, it was a different generation.” nine0013
In the Pannonian era, it was not customary to show feelings.
