Another favorite ...

... from WoI. Photography by Vincent Knapp.

This exquisite room belongs to designer David Collins and to me is one of the most lovely rooms I've ever seen.  I realize that color choice is immensely personal and I like the whole tribe of blues, lavenders, lilacs - all the way over to the blue-greens like the Tiffany blue - so its a given that this room would catch my eye and I'm glad to say it goes beyond reaction to stimulus. This room is erudite but reticent, scholarly in its own way, conscious in its choices with nothing left to chance yet not so tightly controlled serendipity cannot play a role - some of the qualities I look for and this room has them in spades. 

The bedroom curtains are made of lavender and blue satin over white linen sheers, the two buttoned chairs are an elegant Egyptian revival, what appears to be the headboard is blue lacquer, the closet doors could also be lacquer but the palest of blue/grey whites matching the walls. The chest of drawers depicting Palladian architecture, by Fornasetti, smokes the ethereal color scheme with a touch of black, as does the artwork above it and the wood of the chairs and the foot board add a flash of warmth. 

The whole one-bedroomed London flat is wondrous in its luminosity. Rooms need surfaces on which light can dance and skitter: objects that, like the silver globe vase on the Fornasetti chest, seem to hold the light and glitter it back. The gold frame above the fireplace plays the same role as does the glass, the crystal, the metals, the marble and the mirror. 

In the second of the two views of the living room (above and below) the white lacquer panel inscribed with text written backwards and when viewed in a mirror it reads "I don't give a fuck what you think if I don't think you give a fuck."

The dining room floor, not visible in the article, is navy blue leather. How beautiful must that be?