Tea at Trianon: Tour a 1920s Washington, DC Home

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Sunday, March 9, 2025

Tour a 1920s Washington, DC Home

From Architectural Digest:

The property itself helped to narrow some of the designer’s choices. It’s a semi-detached, 2,000-square-foot house built in the 1920s in a style that recalls the architectural vernacular of Provence, France, with stuccoed exterior walls and windows flanked by wooden shutters. While Feldman, an AD PRO Directory designer, felt the interiors should reflect this traditional European aesthetic, she also wanted to display a series of modern and contemporary artworks, some of them abstract, others in the realm of Pop art. “I’m so lucky to have this wonderful art collection,” she says, explaining that her grandparents were art dealers. “That gave me an opportunity to play with the tension of old and new in a really natural way.” In Feldman’s hands, this tension translated into the kind of laid-back glamour that many designers attempt but few achieve, with dramatic moments mellowed by rustic touches, and a nuanced mix of saturated and soft hues.
There’s undeniable drama in the dining room, where after much thought Feldman decided to use wallpaper instead of hanging any art. She found the perfect motif in de Gournay’s Mountains Above Clouds collection, depicting a Japanese landscape in brilliant shades of yellow and green. “I felt like it had a lot of energy to it,” she says. “My children call it the golden wallpaper.” Toning down the wall’s glitz is a rattan pendant and a handcrafted dining table with a matte walnut finish. Just steps away, the living room offers an airier atmosphere. Farrow & Ball’s Cabbage White (a white with faint hints of blue) on the walls and matching drapes provide a serene backdrop to Alex Katz’s Grey Dress, a striking portrait that anchors the space. The signed lithograph is surrounded by other family heirlooms, including marble-topped Baker cabinets and a set of Knoll Florence sofas, which belonged to Feldman’s grandmother. “She sadly passed away during COVID, at 94,” says the designer. “She’d always wanted to give me her furniture, and it’s the weirdest thing, it all fits really perfectly in my living room.” Before that, she’d been struggling to find the right pieces for the space, she says, and now it seems “beshert,” or meant to be. Feldman admittedly found it harder to make choices for herself than for her clients, yet she did lean heavily on her intuition and her knowledge about color. “I can feel the cadence of a space,” she explains. “That’s the first process for me, which rooms are getting density and which need levity.” (Read more.)