Blog Archives

Let's Talk: DECOR

06 April 2011

For those that don’t know, my husband is an architect with his own practice, Brechtel Architecture. He recently completed a 7800 sq. ft. looker in Bel Air, California in collaboration with Belzberg Architects, and I’m so excited to share it with you! The house boasts panoramic views toward Santa Monica, Malibu and the Pacific, 5 bedrooms plus maid’s quarters, a screening room and TV room, a library, a pool, a gym, a wine room…um, quite the pad, wouldn’t you say?

Brechtel Architecture Bel Air House

Brechtel Architecture Bel Air House: pool

Brechtel Architecture Bel Air House: living room

Brechtel Architecture Bel Air House: screening room

Brechtel Architecture Bel Air House: kitchen

Brechtel Architecture Bel Air House: stairs

Brechtel Architecture Bel Air House: library

Brechtel Architecture Bel Air House: master bath

Brechtel Architecture Bel Air House: girl's bath

Brechtel Architecture Bel Air House: guest bath

Brechtel Architecture Bel Air House: living room

Brechtel Architecture Bel Air House: firepit

There were some rooms that did not get photographed, so I threw in a few shots from the scouting visit (hence they are low-res, and uh, a wheelbarrow in one of them?). But anyway, you get the jist…big budget + big-time Hollywood dude = big fun.

…xoxo

Photographs by Art Grey Photography

Keep talking ...

Let's Talk: ART, PLACES, STYLE

3 comments

24 January 2011

Slumming it with Slim Aarons

I’ve got a bad case of leisure-envy

If you haven’t been able to travel as much as you normally had in the past because of either A) you’re having babies, B) the downturned economy, or C) both, let me give you a piece of advice: don’t even think about purchasing and/or flipping through American photographer Slim Aaron’s Once Upon a Time, A Place in the Sun, or Poolside with Slim Aarons. These three gloriously glamourous coffee table books give us just-a-peek into a world we’ll never be a part of, and boy, it blows…big time.

Slim Aaron books

Throughout the 1950′s to 1980′s, Aarons made quite a prolific career for himself out of “photographing attractive people doing attractive things in attractive places” — sounds rough, doesn’t it? There are archives upon archives of his photographs of jetsetting socialites, royals and celebrities in sumptuous surrounds, but I’m digging some of these right now for their colors, composition, and overall “life-of-luxury” vibe in which I too would love to indulge:

Racquet Club Pool, Acapulco, 1968

Lord Lichfield, 1970

Britt Ekland, 1969

The Jourdans, 1969

Beach at St. Tropez

Dimitris Kritsas, 1961

Having A Topping Time, 1959

All Mine, 1968

Kaufman House, 1970

My all-time favorite? His Poolside Gossip (1970) taken at Neutra’s Kaufman House in Palm Springs. I don’t know if it’s the lazy afternoon, the iconic architecture, or the cocktails in hand shared with good friends, but it looks like a lovely memory I’d like to make one day with my good friends. Care to join?

Poolside Gossip by Slim Aarons, 1970

…xoxo

A little bit of trivia: the apartment in Alfred Hitchcock’s Rear Window (in which Jimmy Stewart plays a photographer) was modeled after Slim Aaron’s own Manhattan apartment.