ELLE DECOR Editor’s Page: July/August 2009
What's up at ELLE DECOR
Karen Pearl, president and CEO of God’s Love We Deliver, with me at the organization’s Midsummer Night Drinks benefit; held every June, it’s the perfect kickoff to the season and one of my favorite events of the year. For information, please go to godslovewedeliver.org. Photo by Matt Carasella/patrickmcmullan.com.
Summer memories are often our most blissful. For instance, no matter where I might be, if I close my eyes I can instantly conjure the gentle roar of the surf and the scents of musky privet and salty sea air that have defined my Long Island summers since I was a small child. That kind of visceral connection to a beloved location is one of the reasons beach houses and weekend getaways never fail to captivate us at ELLE DECOR—such places always seem to have a happy-go-lucky quality that can’t be matched.
Vacation homes enable us all to relax and be carefree; they are where we relish time with our families, away from the demands of work (when we travel on business, it’s certainly not our offices that we long for). And it’s easier to be lighthearted and creative—perhaps more inventive and experimental with decorating decisions—in a house where we don’t have to live with our design choices full-time.
No wonder then that some of our favorite interiors this month are those that have great emotional resonance for their owners. In Southampton, New York, fashion-P.R. honcho Scott Currie infuses a neglected Victorian with his childhood passion for all things seaworthy, letting his love for sailing dictate the laid-back yet tailored tone of his rooms. Designer Martyn Lawrence-Bullard helps his friend Chris Cortazzo, a hotshot real-estate broker, evoke a safari-chic vibe at his Malibu Hills retreat, while the San Francisco flat of Monelle Totah expresses her globe-trotting lifestyle and international flair. On the South Fork of Long Island, decorator Ray Booth crafts the perfect showcase for the A-list artwork of collector clients, and Dan MacDonald and Gregg Kaminsky pair their eccentric assemblage of furnishings with humble fabrics and pale colors in a bucolic setting.
And Aerin Lauder Zinterhofer is a stylemaker who clearly knows her way around an antiques store. She admits to an obsession with chandeliers, and those she’s installed in her Manhattan apartment and East Hampton beach house are truly dazzling. Her keen eye and refined point of view are reflected in the coolly elegant homes she shares with her husband and two sons. Those spaces exemplify a sensibility that at once honors the legacy of her legendary grandmother Estée Lauder and celebrates the energy and enthusiasm of a young family.
Here at ELLE DECOR, we’re enthused about finally launching our official Facebook page. Produced by staffers Lindsey Nelson and Elizabeth Stamp, it’s the place to go to meet our team, send your thoughts and ideas, and stay in touch. I hope you’ll stop by and say hi.
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