"If you have an opulent room - and I think this room tends to be a bit opulent - you relax it with casual fabrics. You could take this same room and upholster it in silks and damasks, and it would have a very touch-me-not attitude."
Such was Antony Childs' description of his Georgetown living room and he was, I think, spot on. There are what used to be called "important antiques" dotted around but in this room and the rest of the house a good balance between display and hospitality has been achieved. It's unlikely anyone entering the front door got the feeling they first should have checked their personal liability insurance.
The most pleasing thing about these charming rooms is that they were created over twenty years ago yet are as fresh and classic today as they were then. Nothing has dated - well, maybe the skirted dining table a little, though I must say I've always been partial to a good skirted table. The grand dining room curtains are pretty restrained in comparison to many a drapery from the same time, and would not look out of place today. Other windows in the house, judging by photos of the living room and bedroom, are simply furnished with Roman shades, that most classic of window covering. The wooden furniture is grand but not repellant in its pomposity and the upholstery is sane and welcoming. I could go on about the contents of these rooms but they are visible in the photos. Unusual for the time there is no name-dropping provenance for any of the furniture.
I didn't know this man, but I like his light-filled, gentlemanly rooms. These are spaces to be alone in, kiss a lover or two, listen to Roy Orbison, read (the phrase curl up with a good book comes to mind, but I shall eschew it), trip a light fantastic, play with a Game Boy, wax poetical, opine on how the world's gone mad today, good's bad today, black's white today, and day's night today when most guys today .....
Antony Childs, who had been in practice for over twenty years as a decorator, died of AIDS in June 1994 at the age of 57.
Photos by William Waldron, from House and Garden, August 1989. Quotation from text written by David Streifield.
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These are lovely - and unassuming. I love the way they unfold into the the outdoor spaces.
ReplyDeleteThe genius of those photos is to make very small house seem passably large. (It sits just east of a much larger house once occupied by the late "Stillborn" Pell, D-RI. As a result, the entrance alley looks somewhat smaller than it actually is.)
ReplyDeleteAnd what sort of tricks did they use to brighten up that north-facing garden?
Houses like this are why I love Georgetown so much. Like you say - it doesn't appear dated at all but just like the lovely home of someone with impeccable taste. How I would love to go to a dinner party here - a small affair. It has that atmosphere to it.
ReplyDeleteThe bas-relief set in the brick wall reminds me of an image from one of my ancient history textbooks depicting a hoplite on the island of the dead with his face in his hands. Probably a funereal stone for a kid lost in the Sicilian expedition. The relief was similarly delicate.
ReplyDeleteWhat windows! You know I'm sure: I always scour your pictures for sculptures, might be a figure or an urn. Almost always there in every pictures. The white bust on the clear pedestal: chaperon and gracious hostess.
ReplyDeleteAnonymous, thank you. Childs' house been built, I think in the 40s, by a English diplomat for an overflow of guests. I must reread the article and check, you're right of course, that in Childs' time a Senator inhabited the larger house next door.
ReplyDeleterurritable, the bas-relief set into the wall is a fireback - a neat idea but I wonder how rusting was prevented.
Sanity Fair, you're right about these spaces being lovely and the approach to the front door is graceful. I cannot rid myself of the idea that the courtyard would have been nothing more than bug-ridden humid hell in summer.
Architect - I wish I could have gone to a dinner party there. I feel Antony Childs must have been a very civilized man.
Thank you, all.
Terry, my apologies, I had meant to reply to your comment ... I had not thought about the sculpture in the photos I chose. I realize that I have a personal taste that is very apparent in the choices I have made with regard to these decorators and Antony Childs is, together with Kalef Alaton, most representative of my preferences.
ReplyDeleteOh no, not another for your roll of honour. I love the balance of warmth and restraint in these rooms. Childs is my maiden name.. I am rather thrilled to share it with him.
ReplyDeleteGood morning, Rose. I too like these rooms for their apparent peace and quiet. I shared a surname with Cary Grant - imagine that.
ReplyDelete"I shared a surname with Cary Grant - imagine that."
ReplyDeleteScott? You knew Randolph Scott?
Oh, very droll, Anonymous, very droll!
ReplyDeleteThere are what used to be called "important antiques" dotted around but in this room and the rest of the house a good balance between display and hospitality has been achieved. It's unlikely anyone entering the front door got the feeling they first should have checked their personal liability insurance.
ReplyDeleteTo say nothing of the very good pictures. There is certainly no clutter, (which I like), and the "important pictures" really create the sense of grandeur here, and in any scheme.
Well, if this represents your taste, and this house is no longer available for an intimate, lovely dinner party as AD suggested, what time shall all us appear at your doorstep for dinner? I think a virtual dinner party of your regular commenters would be great fun by the way. The only requirement is that everyone would have to bring their A game to the table.
ReplyDeletehome before dark - I would love to give a dinner party for all y'all commentators. If everyone were not so spread around - London, Singapore, Kansas, Washington DC, etc., we could create a regular salon much like that of the Marquise de Rambouillet in the 18th century.
ReplyDeleteI met Tony back in the day, and had him over for a drink, he was very nice, not too chatty, and of course I loved his work, he did a beautiful decorator showhouse room one year, using only one fabric, the taupe colorway of Rose Cumming "Banana Leaves" - it was a sensation!
ReplyDelete