Tablescapes: Vicente Wolf

First, let me apologize to anyone who doesn't like the word "tablescape".  I know certain folks in the decorating world prefer to call them "vignettes" or some such thing.  While "vignette" is a very pretty word, I think that "tablescape" is perfectly suitable, precise and more meaningful when used to describe these table-top compositions!  It's what they are, after all - little "scapes" (a scene, or view) situated on tables.  The name makes perfect etymological sense to me!

A scene from Vicente Wolf's home in a Manhattan warehouse - notice his beautiful collections, arranged as tablescapes in the background.

Now,  where was I?  

I wanted to talk about Vicente Wolf's tablescapes.  In case you don't know, Vicente Wolf is a renowned Cuban-American designer and photographer (self-taught) who I could have sworn I blogged about but guess I didn't feel I had the authority to - he is rather intimidating! He is one of my most esteemed interior designers - despite the fact that I don't always like his rooms!  

I'm only kidding - I do like many of his rooms.  But although Vicente and I don't share the same taste even half the time, I admire him enormously and appreciate his rooms immensely.  They have a very particular look.  They're modern but not really minimal.  They look very clean but still have pretty traditional elements (often a traditional chair).  There is plenty of white, Asian elements, and a sophisticated, uncluttered but collected-over-time look with lots of worldly art and photographs.  Oh, and plants, lots and lots of tall plants and flowers!

Wolf has a very distinctive point of view, informed by his extensive travels and his photographer's eye for detail, color, shape.  I would love to go for lunch with him and spend the afternoon walking around town with him teaching me how to see the world the Vicente Wolf way (the title of his first book is "Learning to See").  We could all learn a ton.  Vicente, are you up for it?

But to get back to the focus of this post - Wolf puts together a mean tablescape!

His compositions are so worldly and elegant and recall far-away places.

Vicente's tables look like they've been put together by a cross between a well-travelled anthropologist and a slightly crazy child.  I've never seen tables quite like Vicente's for delivering a point of view.  For one thing, he always uses  giant, crazy-looking plant material.  I never see anyone else using houseplants, but Vicente has them!  And his plants and flowers are often tall and jungle-ish and totally suit the scale of the room.  He doesn't let the fact that they dominate the table bother him!  

Then he has a few odds and ends on the table (often very small things next to ginormous flowers or plants) like you've never seen before. There are never familiar things - instead these beautiful things all look like they were hand-hewn by some undiscovered tribe somewhere.   Everything has provenance and you know  that each little thing has a marvellous story.  

I don't think Vicente shops much at mass market retailers, but I could be mistaken.  Instead, his tables have an accumulated-in-our-travels, genuine look that I adore.  They speak of "life beyond these walls", and clearly say "to Hell with what everyone else is doing".

I love Vicente Wolf's tables - they're like the decorating equivalent of ikebana- precise, novel, a little weird, and utterly beautiful!

Another photo of Wolf's lovely warehouse home - his photography from his travels, as well as his collected works, is very beautiful, and he displays it casually on chairs (to facilitate quick decor changes).

If you're interested in reading more about Vicente Wolf, you can visit his firm's website here. For a very funny interview with Wolf and a photo montage from his fascinating home, you can visit New York Social Diary here.  Wolf also has a blog that can be accessed through his company website.  He travels a lot, so don't expect updates often!

(All photos from these sources)

Tablescapes

Tablescape: An artfully arranged collection of objects placed on a table (or other flat surface) for decorative purposes.

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I love "tablescapes" and if you're reading this, chances are that you love them too. 

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Since I was a girl, I've been arranging my things to look more beautiful.  Every little precious object that seemed unique to me was collected and arranged on my night table, dresser, or window ledge as a girl.  I was a self-taught stylist, arranging old things, my mother's jewellery and ornaments, and organic things from the outdoors (like leaves and branches).  I would photograph my arrangements with my little Kodak Disc camera (the one with the round negative), and change them around on a regular basis.  I was constantly "dusting my dresser" and re-arranging everything.  You'd think I would have realized sooner that I had a bona fide decorating addiction. 

I had a beautiful and very old pressback chair in my bedroom, from my Grandmother's house.  It was the nicest piece of furniture in my room, and together with an old orange crate my Dad gave me, it became the central player in many early tablescapes and roomscapes.  These dreamscapes were inspired, no doubt, by "Country Living", the only decorating magazine I could find at my local drugstore, and upon which my teenaged self was utterly dependent (along with Duran Duran).

Tablescapes have evolved from the wee collections girls (and some boys) arrange on their dressers.  Decorators everywhere create painstakingly perfect tablescapes of rare objects, arranged and rearranged with obsessive care.  But there is nothing more beautiful than a casual collection of simple things that doesn't look too contrived nor too carefully curated.  

A highly organized tablescape can look refined and elegant, even with simple elements.  Symmetry and tasteful flowers makes this tablescape all the more regal and formal-looking.

Kitchen tablescapes evolve haphazardly and can be beautiful too.  I love looking at the food and table styling in magazines like Cooking Light, to which we subscribe.  The patina of copper pots and a weathered countertop create a perfect backdrop for a tablescape of classic kitchen objects.

I like very lived-in tablescapes.   I don't arrange my house too carefully, except for my sideboard, which is the most static display space we have.  Even it changes every couple of weeks, but my other tablescapes change almost daily as I move things around.  I am constantly moving books, candles, and flowers, and switching decorative objects from one spot to another.  It is almost compulsive.  Even at 11:00 at night, I sometimes leave my bathroom for bed, carrying a little object to another part of the house. Please tell me that you do this too...

I don't like overly contrived arrangements, but when you have beautiful artistic pieces, it's hard not to let them hold court and have a surface all to themselves!  The problem is, a too-perfect tablescape doesn't invite real life - like keys and gloves, newspapers and our copious electronic devices - to share space with the decorations.  Life must be allowed in, even if it means forcing it into baskets, trays, and pretty bowls in strategic locations!  

Tablescapes are best when they evolve and are not-quite-perfect all the time.  

Which also leads me to think of the thousands of tablescapes and roomscapes that we all see but that no one else ever sees - the way the light falls across your newspaper on a Sunday morning, with your coffee grounds in the bottom of your mug, and your egg shell still sitting in your bowl.  For me, I notice that I like my house best on nights when we have dinner parties and the guests have gone home.  Then, I sit with my last glass of wine, listening to classical music in the soft spell of candlelight and look at the debris of a beautiful meal on the table and feel spiritually full!  There is something about partaking in a lovely meal with good company that makes the table and the house almost more beautiful after the meal than before, because now it is imbibed with experience.

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 I see these ever-changing landscapes in my home and they make me very thankful for the beautiful stuff of life that only I can see.  

Next time I will post about designer Vicente Wolf who is, in my opinion, a master of the artful  tablescape.

Thanks to Shoot Factory for all photos except the 1st, 3rd and 4th photos from House Beautiful.

~ A Paris Calendar ~

One of my favorite gifts this year was actually a gift I made for David!  

In September, we went to Paris for two weeks and had a beautiful vacation - walking, eating, shopping, and photographing our way around the city of light.  I lived in Paris as a student and forgot how it was one of my first loves.  It also rekindled my love affair with photography: a tumultuous romance I've had since high school!

In case you missed my Paris posts, you can see snapshots here, take shop tours and see the things we bought here and here.

For Christmas, and to commemorate our trip, I made David a calender!  I thought you might like to see the results!

January:  The Eiffel Tower was decorated to honor Paris's role as current capital of the European Union (the role rotates to different cities every 6 months)

February shows our day at the Arc de Triomphe:

 The view from atop the Arc is one of the most beautiful in Paris!

March honored our days visiting the Louvre and the Musee d'Orsay:

April showed some of our golden moments - inside the exquisite Saint Chapelle, atop the Eiffel Tower, and photographing the Pont Alexandre statues:

May is my favorite month. I made a luminous scene using photos of the ceiling inside the Conciergerie, a chandelier inside Notre Dame, and a candle scene inside the church of St-Paul in the Marais.

June featured our sunny day-turned-night visiting Notre-Dame:

My rarely-photographed office assistant, Biscuit:

Another Notre-Dame scene for August - this looks just like a pro calendar!  I shot this photo from the walking path along the Seine, peering up from under the bridge:

September commemorated our autumnal visits to Pere Lachaise Cemetery - we stayed in a hotel with views directly over the cemetery. One of the shots was from our bedroom window!  The cat was a common sight at Jim Morrison's grave.  The upper right photo shows Oscar Wilde's Art Deco-inspired grave, covered with lipstick kisses! 

October is another favorite - this is Napoleon's tomb:

Two shots of the Eiffel Tower, which we visited and re-visited:

Hope you liked the tour!  The missing pages are just photos of us...

~ These are a few of my favorite things ~

I planned to post more over the holidays since I have tons of ideas floating in my head, but I've been a little under the weather.  Since I didn't want to neglect you any longer, I thought I would put together a simple post of some *favorite things* I found in the Wisteria catalogue.  Plus, with the weather in Canada, I could use a spot of colour!

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I adore these very unusual flower vases, with openings for individual stems:

I like this simple, weathered grey dresser:

And these little crown votives are very Scandinavian:

These colour block canvases are a marvellous, low-cost idea that I fully intend to steal.  Imagine how easy it would be to do up a few blank canvasses in your colour scheme?  A set of 3 would also go swimmingly over a long console table...  

A simple office idea, perhaps using an old frame?

Options for bulletin boards are truly endless...

This zinc-topped table is humble and quaint - a lovely plant table for your country house?

A Gustavian settee for a child's room - never too young to start acquiring a taste for classical  furniture:

This pretty and romantic chest, in a muted shade, is welcoming in a hallway or a guest room.  And a striped cotton rug is always a whimsical choice:

And what child doesn't dream of horses?  I still do!

I promise to return to regular posts soon!  xo Terri