The Decorated Style

Pre-publication title: The heroic age of Gothic invention.

In her first book, interior designer Meg Braff presents the building blocks of a pretty, polished home. Everyone wants a house that is filled with grace and charm. Classic yet cheerful, Meg Braff’s style has a formality that is never studied, an elegance that is approachable and pretty. In seven chapters that cover the basics of her look, Braff shares advice on creating rooms that are both livable and attractive. In the first two chapters, she explores the key elements of her look—color and pattern—and how to employ them for maximum impact in your home. She discusses the essential elements of stylish bedrooms (hint: bring back the dressing table), explores the fundamentals of inviting baths and breakfast rooms, and gives tips on making chic outdoor spaces. Finally, Braff explains the importance of finishing touches, the little extras that elevate a room’s decor from good to great. All of her advice comes together in an overall theme of gracious living that will be warmly welcomed by readers looking to impart polish, color, and grace to their home. Lushly illustrated with vivid images of Braff ’s lively work, The Decorated Home is an inspiring, idea-filled resource that readers will turn to again and again. “Think Slim Aarons meets Technicolor elegance.” —Traditional Home

Thirty-Five years after the publication of Jean Bony's seminal work on the so-called Decorated style of English architecture ('The English Decorated Style: Gothic Architecture Transformed', 1979), this volume brings together a selection of groundbreaking essays by the most promising emerging scholars of English medieval architecture, together with contributions by two of the leading established authorities on the subject: Nicola Coldstream ('The Decorated Style: Architecture and Ornament, 1240-1360', 1994) and Paul Binski ('Gothic Wonder: Art, Artifice, and the Decorated Style, 1290-1350', 2014). The contributors revisit Bony's work and reassess the scholarly legacy of the past three-and-a-half decades. Drawing on a range of innovative methodologies, they then present exciting new insights into the nature and significance of English architecture in the period, focusing particularly on its broader European context. The essays are developed from papers delivered as part of a major seminar series at the University of Cambridge in 2013-14.

Ever wondered why your ceiling is shaped like the arches in a gothic cathedral? Or why your offi ce building looks so different from its neighboring counterparts? The ABC of Style invites you to explore the many different architectural and decorative interior styles from their ancient origins to the 1940s. Take a journey through history to see how the French aristocracy styled their palaces and castles to the simple designs of the Dominican monastic churches during the middle ages. Often, political changes implicate a stylistic transformation. Thus, the different European styles were frequently named after a sovereign or a historical period (Renaissance style, Medieval style). Until the end of the nineteenth century, the stylistic mutations of the time were generally based on the tastes of the royalty. Stylistic expression was, therefore, an affirmation of power.

English Decorated style flourished from the mid-13th to the mid 14th century. Although it is usually portrayed as a style of architecture, it is better understood as a fusion of architecture and ornament - paint, stained glass and sculpture - which created specific religious and secular effects.

How They Decorated illustrates some of the great rooms of the twentieth century, whose stylish residents influence our tastes today. Gloria Vanderbilt cleverly noted, “Decorating is autobiography.” Reflecting that truism, the interiors in this book capture the individual approaches of these icons of style: Bunny Mellon’s spare all-American elegance; Hélène Rochas’s refined sophistication; Vanessa Bell’s colorful bohemianism; Mona von Bismarck’s breezy opulence; and Georgia O’Keeffe’s earthy chic. Author P. Gaye Tapp analyzes each of her subjects’ refined way of living, how she embellished her residences (or left them elegantly stark), and the long-lasting effects on today’s generation of designers and connoisseurs of beauty. The book is presented in four sections that describe the aesthetic approaches that the ladies took in decorating their abodes: “The Fashionably Chic”, “The Unconventional Eye”, “In the Grand Manner”, and “Legacy Style”. Each interior illustrates the crucial aspect of the lady’s definitive taste. Some worked closely with decorating legends such as John Fowler, Albert Hadley, Billy Baldwin, Syrie Maugham, and Jean-Michel Frank. Others took to the task of decorating single-handedly—like Pauline Trigère, Sybil Connolly, Vita Sackville-West, and Fleur Cowles. The interiors of these trendsetting ladies defied their time and inspire and delight to this day. In How They Decorated, one can learn from the most notable style muses of the last century.

Hubsch's argument that the technical progress and changed living habits of the nineteenth century rendered neoclassical principles antiquated is presented here along with responses to his essay by architects, historians, and critics over two decades.