Decorating in Antique Blues

Good morning, hope you had a restful weekend.

This gorgeous house in Houston we are going to visit gets its colours from antique items which are displayed in every room: soft blues and platinum grays from authentic tapestries and furniture take us back in time, even though it was built in the 1980s. The whole place has an American-in-Europe mood. Calmness, a serenity and a feeling of soul and grace and history.

The interiors were designed by Babs Watkins, her daughter Julie Watkins Baker, and Eleanor Cummings.



Louis XV carved-walnut front doors with traces of the original paint open into a foyer lighted by a gilt-edged Venetian lantern.


One of the many 18th-century French tapestries. Blues and earth colours on gently worn surfaces, lead the eye from room to room.


In the living room, French and Italian chairs work well together. Extra full curtains. A 1920s Oushak carpet, an Italian tole chandelier, and a Gustavian painted breakfront round out the mix of styles.



Silvery tones are the dominant note in the dining room, where Gustavian chairs ring a table set with antique Royal Crown Derby china. Floor to ceiling French tapestry.


A Swedish hutch, aging gracefully behind a Gustavian bench in a guest bedroom.


An antique onion-dome aviary frames the kitchen range hood, perched above a backsplash of 19th-century concrete tiles. Antique Belgian blue limestone countertops, cabinets built with wood from a Scandinavian dairy, and a vintage French worktable set off the stainless-steel Viking stove and Sub-Zero refrigerator.


In the library, an Empire chaise longue and a Louis XV flank an 18th century mantel from Aix-en-Provence. Shelves hold part of the client's collection of religious artifacts.


The master bedroom with a parquet de Versailles floor, an 18th century Buffet de Corps armoire, and a Louis XVI chaise.


A Baroque Italian mirror hangs above the powder room's antique basin.


Just right for informal meals, a massive Belgian blue limestone pedestal table anchors the family room.


In the master bedroom, a painted Italian ceiling panel hangs above a headboard made from a salvaged boiserie fragment.


Rich textures in subtle shades of blue and gray give the guest bedroom a luminous beauty. Embroidered throw pillows were made to order.

Photographs by Kerri Mccaffety

Produced by David M. Murphy

Stylist Gregory Bissonnette

All images and iformation from House Beautiful

Artist's House: Carlos Páez Vilaró

Artist Carlos Páez Vilaró was born in Montevideo, Uruguay in 1923.
He purchased a sea-front property on eastern Uruguay's scenic, then-desolate Punta Ballena, in 1958, building a small, wooden lodge that over time became "Casapueblo" ("House-Village"). The sprawling compound, a whitewashed cement structure reminiscent of Mykonos, was built in stages by the artist to resemble the mud nests created by the region's native hornero birds, and became his home, atelier and museum. Though he resided in Casapueblo - his "living sculpture" - by 1968, Páez Vilaró continued to add on the structure at his desire, at times adding a room for a particular guest. He later opened a section of Casapueblo to tourism as a hotel.

So, the first photograph here is his creation "Casapueblo" in Uruguay.



The following photographs are of his house called Bengala (after the Bengal Tiger) in Tigre, Buenos Aires in Argentina.


In the circular living room the light coming from the roof reflects on the bronze artwork above the fireplace.


This is the domed ceiling in the living room.


Behind the bar there is an inverted antique train part. I have no idea what you call it!


This hallway upstairs leads to the guest rooms.





The dining room table was made from a huge cable reel. The holes were left (or added) to place candles.


Two pics of the dining room for guests.


All the rooms are white except for this bedroom.








The bedrooms upstairs all lead to the same terrace.



All images from here.

Information and first photograph from Wikipedia.