A Tour of 66 John St

I'm spending some time in Newport, Rhode Island at my parents summer house before starting my Interior Design MFA at Pratt next month. So what better time than to give a tour of one of my favorite houses in the world, and a very inspiring renovation!

I've been coming to Newport with my parents since I was a little girl. We used to rent a condo at the end of Thames St for the last week of August every year and spend time touring mansions and sailing and drinking virgin strawberry daquiris at The Red Parrot. When I was a junior in highschool my parents bought a house in Newport, high atop historic hill on John St. in easy walking distance of everything that Newport had to offer.

When my parents bought it, 66 John St was a traditional colonial house, in that it bore the marks of more than two centuries of habitation, during which it had transitioned from a single family house to a two or even three family home before making its way back down to one. The renovation had some highlights: finding colonials shoes in the masonry of the fireplaces (a good luck tradition), and some major pitfalls: finding that the entire structure was so beset by beetles that it basically had to be entirely rebuilt. In the end, the house manages to respect its colonial origins while being livable, open, and breezy, in a way that the original structure never was.

I think that the real key to the renovation was the staircase (my suggestion). The existing staircase was narrow, steep, and windowless; and, curiously, there were windows in the narrow closet that flanked the staircase. By blowing out the closet walls we were able to expand the staircase and fill it with natural light from the windows; and instead of stopping at the second floor we kept on going expanding the staircase into the third floor attic which was previously only accessible via trapdoor.

The two deep narrow rooms that formed the heart of the house (and literally housed the two hearths) remain largely intact, serving as the dining room downstairs and as a living room on the second floor.

The color of the downstairs dining room is absolutely resplendent. It literally glows:

The artworks along the wall are three chinese watercolors that we had painted in Beijing (in the corner of the painting on the far right you can see I've tucked a snapshot of the artist at work). We felt that given Newport's history as a trading seaport that oriental art was particularly appropriate. The house is also full of nautical accents:


Directly above the dining room is a casual sitting room that connects the bedrooms of the second floor and provides a nice place for guests to read or gather before dinner.

There are many seascape paintings throughout the house, can you guess which is the Ash Smith original?There used to be a small second staircase here, instead we have this cozy breakfast room off the kitchen. A favorite spot to read by the fire in the morning.

The neutral color of the breakfast nook blends it seamlessly with the kitchen:

Most Exquisite Church in Moscow

Peeking through the gates of Red Square (even before you can see Lenin's tomb or the hulking edifice of GYM) you are mesmerized by St. Basils:

Flanked by the Kremlin fortress and the GYM shopping center it is anachronistic, an epithet Stalin hurled at it when threatening to have the "eyesore" torn down. Legend has it that a favored architect saved the building by threatening to commit suicide in its stairwell.

It reminds me of a gumdrop fantasy castle, no wonder it is a favorite backdrop for brides.

Entering the church, I discovered an interior unlike any I've seen (and I've seen a lot of churches). Climbing a set of stairs so steep it required both hands and feet, I was drawn upward by the haunting refrain of hymns. I entered into a startling narrow but enormously tall space. The acoustics were alarming, and unearthly beautiful.

This chamber was the heart of a honeycomb of other "chapels" all petite in circumference but with vast soaring ceilings.

Each chamber displayed an opulently decorated altar.

At night, they light St. Basil's so that it glows like a Faberge Egg against the never fully dark Moscow sky. It is a sight worth the 10 hour flight.

My Favorite Restaurants in Russia

I was responsible for picking out the restaurants where we would dine Moscow, so naturally I chose those known for having the most over the top interiors. There were two restaurants that really stood out from the bunch, Cafe Pushkin and Turandot. Only a few yards apart on the same street, the two restaurants share a single visionary: Andre Delois, a restaurateur who is trained as a builder/restorer. Both restaurants are amazing flights of fancy, transporting you to the 18th and 19th centuries, respectively.

Cafe Pushkin, the more famous of the two restaurants, is like stepping through time into a bustling 19th century eatery. It is open 24 hours a day, with a more casual and boisterous atmosphere downstairs, a refined dining room on the second floor, and a rooftop terrace which we didn't venture to (even in mid-June it's chilly in Moscow).

Like almost every dining room in Russia it was a two-tiered affair (the high ceilings are a ventilation blessing when everyone around you is smoking).

Also, like almost every dinner in Russia, there was live music!

Unlike every other dinner, there was a gentleman in period costume.

Andre Delois' other restaurant, Turandot, a little further down the street, is a lavish rococo fantasy.

Apparently Mr. Delois bought an 18th century palace that had belonged to a lover of Catherine the Great and knocked it to the down to build this over the top eatery at $50-75 million!

Of course we again saw the ubiquitous musicians at dinner, but here they are clad in period costumes! And staged upon a rotating replica of the Peacock Clock at the Winter Palace!

My Favorite Art in Russia

I just returned from an amazing trip to Russia. We spent 7 full days in the country, visiting first St. Petersburg and then Moscow. I had my camera glued to my hip the entire time, so I've got the photographic proof of many of my observations, which will take up the next few posts.

Part of almost every single day was devoted to a visit to one of the country's art museums and national galleries. The amount of art is simply staggering, your legs grow exhausted just walking around. It's roughly divided between 3 major categories, medieval religious icons, socialist realist paintings, and 18th century french/western european paintings. Strangely there is barely any socialist constructionist work, I found Kazimir Malevich's "Red Square" poorly lit down a barely frequented hallway.

Of the three categories of art displayed in all of the museums, I enjoyed the 18th and early 19th century western european paintings most. Generally from the Impressionist and Fauvist schools I saw a staggering number of Cezanne, Matisse, Van Gogh, Picasso, Gauguin even an exquisite Ingres facing off against a Delacroix. I'm not sure that Paris can even boast quite so extensive collections (although they surely have better quality).

In fact this comparison is not a frivolous one; many of the works curren

tly on display in Russia were undoubtedly of Parisian origin: the collections contain many 'spoils of war' seized from Nazi troops, who in turn had seized them from their rightful owners. Of course, not all of the collections are the fruits of pillage; Matisse had a long relationship with Sergei Shchukin his Russian patron, who I recall originally balked at "Dance I" (luckily he reconsidered).

In fact, I saw so much Matisse that it catapulted him into the running for my favorite artist.