I know it has been a long time since I have been on my blog….To busy and lots of PINTEREST pinning…

A lot to blog also.

First of all. I was till recently an avid magazine reader and then I realised that in all of them one sees always the same houses or the same kind of interiors. It became all so grey and beige, with whitewashed furniture and linen upholstery.With the same carpets, tables made of recycled items or wooden planks on a metal frame and lamps made from pieces of junk.In fact this is going on for years now.

Or when an interior is more contemporary, it is always filled with the same Eames chairs or chaise longue.With the same Swann chairs or the Jean Prouvé furniture and the Serge Mouille lamps…

Swann chairs by Alvar Aalto

Jean Prouvé

Serge Mouille

Or as one can see in the Spanish Architectural Digest an overload of vintage put together as for a publicity advert,really to much of the same, to be still enjoyable. And every month the same kind of Interiors…Without fantasy….

It is not that I don’t like it,but it is never inspiring.

For me, the interiors lack the personality as seen in the magazines from 20 and even 30 years ago. I still have American AD.’s from the seventies and eighties and Maison et Jardin with interiors of Michael Taylor, Kalef Alaton,Michael Schaible and partner Robert Bray,Mark Hampton, Thomas Britt and of course David Hicks, whom make me dream.

Michael Taylor. West Coast drama.

The inimitable David Hicks.

Kalef Alaton in Los Angeles.

Robert Bray, Michael Schaible in AD, July Aygust 1979. New York.

Thomas Britt.Palm Beach

I know, everything changes and nothing stays the same… But why has it to change for worse and not be an evolution for the better.

Nowadays you have seen one interior and you have seen them all…..You can’t see anymore if a house is showed that was build in Ibiza, South Africa or in Miami.

Everybody is copying and if people can’t pay the master they will do with copying his style, That is what is shown in most magazines nowadays. The best example for me of being copied is Axel Vervoordt who created a superb style in decoration that was copied all over the place, especially in Belgium and holland ,and which was never equalled.Yes, people call this inspiration….

Even my venerated american AD. set a step backwards and has sacrificed his spirit of showing great American and International homes ,to a level more approachable to people. And there goes the dreams with it…… It became flat since the former Editor in Chief of American Elle Decor, Margaret Russell took over from Paige Rense.

The only inspirational interiors are shown in the American VOGUE. Artistic and never fashionable homes. Houses where people live the way they intend to, not in a way  dictated by interior fashion and where sales management is taking over….

If magazines are crying for help, they have to thank themselves for it. Levelling downwards has never been a good idea.

Thanks for reading my post

Benoit.