Before and After: Designing a Home in Darien, Connecticut (Part 1)

Three years ago, I was asked by my clients to visit this home with them in Tokeneke (Darien) Connecticut. With a very distinct architecture, and gorgeous sprawling backyard, this was the perfect setting for their growing family once they would decide to leave Manhattan, and move to the suburbs to raise their children with more space and comfort.

Tasked with making this feel more like a young family home, we decided early on that there needed to be plenty of color and patterned papers and textured elements to help achieve that very desired end result. We needed to take into consideration that for now, this was to be their second / weekend home, and for that we needed to be considerate of making as many cosmetic changes that were necessary to make it feel like home, without taking on the bigger more structural renovations such as the Kitchen and Bathrooms which we would tackle once the move to the burbs was a more imminent decision.

I thought it would be fun to share with you some of the Before and After shots of my interior design for this home, to show just how much can be achieved with the direction of an interior designer on your project. 

Beginning in the Kitchen and Great Room, we knew that we wanted to complete a total gut renovation in this space, but for the time being, as the family used the home we decided that simply giving it a fresh coat of paint, including the island and bar area would help tide us over until we were ready to make that final decision.

Not a modern kitchen by any means, I was very happy with this compromise.

The original home owners used this room with a very different layout. However, we wanted to maximize causal seating for great TV viewing and eating all centering around this Great Room.

Again, we wanted to respect the original architecture and maintain some of those elements in the design even if only for the time being, but still allow for the family to make use of the views to the gardens from every window and feel very child friendly.

With an eat in kitchen. living combination.. this room allowed for the family and friends to be together while entertaining throughout both the winter and summer months.

We included the desk area off the kitchen with the same tones of yellow, 

so that all the areas worked together and became one happy room!

From the desk, you would walk through into the Dining Room ..

With some vintage finds, such as the crystal chandelier which was taken from the Waldorf Astoria Hotel before the remodel of this landmark began .. two sconces and my favorite pieces in this room, the pineapple alabaster lamps that we found on a trip to an antique store in Stamford.

The antique rug was a perfect fit from ABC Home and brought in many colors that we needed to soften the existing wood floor which would otherwise be slightly overwhelming and not provide the "beachy" feeling my clients desired.

Not to be forgotten.. the Powder Room is another key area, albeit small, that we had some fun in.

We were able to use the existing wainscoting and fixtures, but by adding this Cole and Son wallpaper, we brought some color and playfulness to this powder room.

I hope you enjoyed Part 1 of this Before & After series of my clients home in Darien, Connecticut.

Please come back in a few days, when I will take you upstairs into the bedrooms to share some more of the fun we had here.

All images: John Gruen - Styling by Raina Kattelson

BlogTourNOLA ~ In Love with New Orleans

So for those of you following me here and on Twitter and Facebook, you will have seen that I have arrived to New Orleans with the great group of bloggers on BlogTourNOLA with Modenus.

We are here, in part to showcase the beauty of this special 'melange' of a city as well as to attend KBIS later on this week. Today, as I arrived a little early I decided to let my feet guide me as I explored the city without any real agenda or destination in mind - and ended up in the French Quarter.

I am mesmerized by the amazing mixtures of colors and how they change from street to street. I have wanted to see these homes for myself, always finding images on Pinterest and the like as a great source of inspiration but was worried about what I would see as the city is still recovering from Hurricane Katrina.

I feel so much at home here as I walked around just taking in the strong European roots in the architecture and styles of homes .. where the fusion of cultures, and the tensions that is created with the lack of that fusion between old and new, is truly invigorating.

No, not Lisbon! 

The scars of a town ravaged by the force of Nature are still evident, and make me wonder on the comparisons to what we are feeling still back home in New York as so many still recover from Sandy.. and it is humbling to think that less than 8 years on, and still the city is in such need of help. While this is true, the energy and buzz from below the city streets, are very much a part behind the resilient force reestablishing s strong footing on the world of art, antiques and most of all music.

More to come in the next few days, as I explore New Orleans.. so make sure to follow along on all fronts!


Thanks as always to the amazing sponsors that are supporting Modenus make this trip possible.









*All images are by me, from New Orleans. Feel free to share them (everywhere!) but please don't forget to link back to this post! Thanks.

The History of Public Bathing with Mr Steam & BlogTour London

As many of you know, I spent many years living in Portugal - a country deeply steeped with the rituals of baths, especially with the fine thermal waters running throughout the country, and many spas of today still take advantage of these areas to establish specialized treatments and care centers based on the unique qualities of these waters.

In Lisbon, part of the local tradition for the locals weekly baths would create scandalous rippling of gossip across the city as the people descended the steps of the Praça do Comércio to bathe nude in the river.

Széchenyi Baths in Budapest,

Not only true of Portugal, but throughout Europe, the natural thermal springs such as in Bath were first discovered by Prince Bladud around 863BC, who was cured from his skin disease after bathing in the waters.

The Spa of Trenčianske Teplice in Slovakia, is one of the most visited and the oldest spas there, from 1397 with spring water at 37-40°C (98-104F) and with a chemical composition of sulphur-calcium-magnesium-thermal-hypotonic mineral waters, also known to cure many ailments and diseases.

While the Széchenyi Baths in Budapest, is the largest medicinal coeed bath and one of the largest public baths in Europe still today.




In Portugal, many of the older public baths based on the thermal natural waters, are now being rehabilitated and remodeled, such as the recent $20 Million investment renovation of the very well known group, Banyan Tree, and the Estoril Wellness Center in my very own "home" town..

1/ Thermal Water of Geres 2/ Hospital Thermal Bath (Caldas da Rainha)
3-4/ The new Thermal Banyan Tree Wellness Center - Estoril

But the use of public baths was not only common place in Europe and Russia,oh no...
In New York City the Asser Levy Public Baths from 1908 as reproduced here, were not only an area for cleaning but for leisure.

Asser Levy Public Baths (E 23rd St)  - 1908
Click here for a Simon Fieldhouse gallery.

Heating water of course was a challenge before contemporary plumbing was available, and although most hot springs are often found in volcanic areas made it possible to enjoy the pleasure of soaking, while steam rooms or saunas became possible by heating where in areas such as Portugal they used red-hot stones to make steam baths.

Russian Venus by Boris Kustodiev

Throughout history, and across the globe, many cultures and civilizations such as the "Banya" (a steam bath with a stove) in Russia, . Nowadays any type of bath or sauna is usually called banya in Russia and other former USSR countries.

The word banya is of Greek origin - “cleansing of a body with the help of steam.”, but some linguists believe the word takes roots from the Latin balneum — “something that makes pain and sadness go away.”

However similar they were in theory, the layout & overall designs of banya and/or hamam and Roman bath are different. In a classical hamam, there is a chimney which runs under the floor and heats the room & in the shape of an octagon with consists of three basic, interconnected rooms: the caldarium - hot room; the warm room (tepidarium), which is the intermediate room; and the cool room (frigidarium). 

Artists have used this ambiance for many backdrop to their art, being able to conjure up so many emotions and symbolic simply by setting the scene within one of these bath houses... 

exotic, sensual, primal, vulnerability, friendship and social interaction, luxury and exuberance. 

traditional hamam - painting via

The power of the location and what it stands for, and how we ourselves have somehow come across one of these situations ourselves is so evident simply by juxtaposing these two artistic expressions against one another.

Patrick Dallard & Santo Magonza @ Ice Hotel "Somewhere between dream and reality, ‘Hammam’ contrasts the cold, dry elements of the Arctic with the warmth and comfort of an early Arabic bathhouse"

Yet, today not much has really changed, as Michael Boodro Editor in Chief of Elle Decor Magazine  pointed out at a conference at the D&D Building I attended a few days ago (more on that later), the true definition of luxury for any one individual is unequivocally to have their own private "Spa" within their own home.

This overwhelming response defining clearly what they consider to be the defining element of "True Luxury" as shown with over 70% responding, in a poll of many interior designers & architects.

The Palms, The Drift Spa & Hamam - Las Vegas

So until you are able to recreate these types of spaces for yourself at home,

The Standard Hotel - Hamam, Miami Beach

So, why not indulge!?

Why not create a little luxury for yourselves at home? Don't forget the enormous health applications that a great Steam Room can provide for you ... as it serves to draw out toxins and soothes the skin...

The team from Mr Steam, while visiting their site, within a few clicks you can get an idea of what is possible to create within your own personal space by simply filling out their easy "size and selection form" and, voila!, they will help you build the home spa of your dreams and this could be you!

and if that is too much, then give them a call or write them an email 

Customer Service Hotline at 1-800-76-STEAM (East Coast)

 or 1-800-72-STEAM (West Coast) or email hello@mrsteam.com at any time.

A little more reading on the history of steam bathing ->

Steam Bathing Culture from Around the World 

via Steam Therapy. 

From Rome, to Japan; Turkey and Morocco to Russia; the Spanish Spas and Native American Sweat Lodge; and finally Mexico's traditional sweat bath.

Make sure to visit the Steam Therapy site, and Mr Steam for much more inspiration and information on all the products available to renovate your home today and create your own private steam spa.

Thanks again to all the sponsors, and Modenus for this amazing journey.

Tomorrow's post, I will continue on the theme of bathing, but perhaps making it a little more private!