John Saladino, Curtain Master

John Saladino's Kips Bay Showhouse room.
Image from HOUSE BEAUTIFUL, October 1988.

Designer of furnishings and interiors, John Saladino is known for his Signature Look that mixes continental antiques with seating, tables and lighting of his own design, usually within a handsome architectural setting.  But Saladino is not necessarily known for his curtains.  Here is an example, however, where Saladino realized that the room absolutely needed some softness at the tall south and west-facing windows of this room and addressed the issue in a simple, classic way.


A corner of Saladino's Kips Bay Showhouse room.
Image from HOUSE BEAUTIFUL, October 1988.

This room was in a Park Avenue townhouse that was used as a decorator showhouse several times to benefit the Kips Bay Boys & Girls Club providing after-school and enrichment programs for New York City children; I think this particular event dates from 1988. Patrons at the gala opening are allowed to walk into the rooms, but the typical visitor only sees the room from one angle, at the doorway (unless it is a walk-through room) so the space is often furnished to be seen from just one vantage point.  But the room has to work during both day and evening opening hours. The existing paneling in this case could not be altered, making any special construction at the windows impossible.  Part of the solution here was a bottom-up linen shade that could be adjusted to diffuse the light as well as the view of traffic just below.  This allowed the curtain panels of unlined fabric to be fixed, pulled up to one side in the manner of the classical Mediterranean villas that still inspire Saladino.  The panels were silk, if I am remembering correctly, with inverted pleats giving a more tailored look, hanging from braided cords of the same color.


Saladino's Kips Bay Showhouse Room.
Photo from SHOWCASE OF INTERIOR DESIGN:
EASTERN EDITION, 1991, via
The Art of the Room

Can you imagine the room without the curtains?  It would not be nearly as successful without this relatively simple element.  Read more about this room in a post of The Art of the Room.  This is the third post in the not-necessarily-consecutive series on curtains with the others being able to be seen by clicking on "curtains" under LABELS in the right-hand margin of the regular web version of The Devoted Classicist.

Nancy McCabe: The Garden Designer's Own Garden

Vintage rubard forcers of terra-cotta
can also be used to protect other tender plants in the Spring.

Many outside the Northwest Corner of Connecticut as well as the adjacent Massachusetts and New York state may not be familiar with the work of garden designer, Nancy McCabe, but she has been the creative factor behind some of the most outstanding gardens in that area for over thirty years.  She is great friends with near-neighbor Bunny Williams, whose garden was featured here, and an influence of each can be seen in the gardens of both of them.

Nancy McCabe with her sons,
Sievert, then 5, and Wesley, 8.

When The Devoted Classicist first visited the Lakeville area, snow covered the ground all winter.  Although this can be a shock to a Southerner, the blanket of snow provided protection against damaging winds.  Global Warming has changed this, however, and now there are shrubs, especially, that are no longer suitable for the climate of the area.

The plan of Nancy McCable's garden in Litchfield County, Connecticut.

Nancy McCabe's garden has continued to develop over time, of course, but these photos (uncredited) from the June, 1989, issue of House Beautiful magazine, also date from a time when this writer was visiting the garden while working on a number of projects in the area.

A view of the left-hand side of the sunken garden.

The right-hand side of the sunken garden.

The new greenhouse was constructed in the traditional manner of vintage panes of glass.
This is the muntinless method of glazing, often mistakeningly called the mullionless method.

A collection of glass cloches line the potting shelf
and small pots and vintage nozzles line the narrow shelves flanking the door.

Nancy is known for her extensive use of planted containers.

Garden tools in the shed.

Nancy had been gardening as a hobby since she was ten years old and came to be noticed when she planted the area outside her husband Mike's bookstore in Salisbury, Connecticut, (now closed).  At the time, interior designer John Saladino had just purchased the handsome but neglected 20 acre estate in Norfolk, known as Robin Hill, and he asked for her help in creating new gardens;  when it was published, calls began coming in from others to enlist her help.  In addition, Saladino and Bunny Williams have recommended her for commissions. 

This and other private gardens in Litchfield County are sometimes open to the public to benefit The Garden Conservancy.  At present, the list for the 2012 participating gardens is still being put together, but watch the Open Days Program website for the announcement for sites nationwide.