“The House in Good Taste” By Elsie de Wolfe
ELSIE DE WOLFE Elsie de Wolfe, also known as Lady Mendl, was an interior decorator and a nominal author of the influential 1913 book ‘The House in Good Taste’. According to The New Yorker, “Interior design as a profession was invented by Elsie de Wolfe.”
PROJECT PROPOSAL The task was to read specific chapters of ‘The House in Good Taste’ and design a modern room based on recommendations and ideas presented by de Wolfe on A Light, Gay Dining Rom. The modern room cannot exceed 350 square feet. Give quotes and base your decisions upon de Wolfe’s facts.Include selections for floors, walls, ceilings, furniture and other interior elements as necessary. Illustrate your design through plan views, elevations, perspectives.
PERSPECTIVE VIEW
FIRE PLACE Fireplace always keeps a house warm and comfortable. In order to create a cozy space I added two loung chairs where residents can relax by the fire.
STOREFRONT WINDOWS Full length windows along two side will give the interior space natural lighting and balance the area with warm/cold environment.
Storage is necessary in modern homes. You d house to look cluttered so you pr
SHELF This is a wooden curved slab about 5’ tall. It’s a slab for adding decorations to create a lively and an energetic vibe in the room.
A GAY, DINING ROOM This is a ‘Gay Dining Room’ with a balance of bright and neutral color palette as de Wolfe prefers; “First of all, I think a dining-room should be light, and gay. The first thing to be considered is plenty of sunshinee”. She also mentions, “Remember that simplicity depends on balance and space. If the walls balance one another in light and shadow, if the furniture is placed formally, if walls and furniture are free from mistaken ornament, the room will be serene and beautiful. In most other rooms we avoid the “pairing” of things, but here pairs and sets of things are most desirable”. As you can see, I have placed my furniture in an organized manner, and every furniture is paired with a purpose. The lounge chair are placed near the fireplace where one can read with reading lights located on top of the side table. The room is balanced with enough light and shadow.
CHEST
do not want the refer to store it.
QUOTES “I think light tones, gay wallpapers, flowers and sunshine are of more importance than storied tapestries and heavily carved furniture. These things are all very well for the house that has a small dining-room and a gala dining-room for formal occasions as well, but there are few such houses.” “I like very much the Chinese rice-papers with their broad, sketchy decorations of birds and flowers. These papers are never tiresomely realistic and are always done in very soft colors or in soft shades of one color, and while if you analyze them they are very fantastic, the general effect is as restful as it is cheerful. You know you can be most cheerful when you are most rested!” I selected one main wallpaper and picked colours from them, this brings cohesiveness to the room and makes the room look simple. There’s a combination of muted and light tone colors in order to make the room cheerful as Elsie de Wolfe mentions. The blue and violet brings brightness to the room compared to natural tones that brings softness. Natural, monochromatic colours are modern and used a lot in the 21st century. Only the firewall has the Chinese wallpaper, this brings in one focus wall and I didn’t want to overwhelm the room with so many patterns. Thus, the walls next to this are plain and muted. The dining area is near, with muted colors, however towards the fireplace is where bright colors pop in, this is mainly because that area of the room does not have any windows and in order to make that area cheerful, bright colors take in place!
ELEVATION This wall is the entrance to the dining room. The frames on the wall emphasizes the Georgian Dining Room in the William Iselin House. I have placed a chest closet in the corner to bring in some movement to the room. This closet can be used as a storage to keep plates and cutleries for the dining table. I like how the chest plays along well with the frames. The turquoise wall is an arch wall, which brings coziness where the fireplace is and users can feel comfortable. The purpose of this room is to bring in different environement in one space and in modern homes a dining room is never just a dining room, there is always a dynamic twist with a mix of other element. The seats at the dining room are different than in the fireplace, mainly because I want my users to feel comfortable and relaxed near the fireplace, so its more welcoming and big. The terquoise wall is simple because of the dramatic movement on the other wall. Notice the change on the floor, the fireplace has a comfier carpet flooring.
DAY TIME PERSPECTIVE “You have a right to make your dining-room as fine as you please, so long as you give it its measure of light and air. But one thing you must have: simplicity! It may be the simplicity of a marble floor and tapestried walls and a painted ceiling, it may be the simplicity of white paint and muslin and fine furniture, but simplicity it must have. The furniture that is required in a dining-room declares itself: a table and chairs. You can bring side tables and china closets into it, or you can build in cupboards and consoles to take their place, but there is little chance for other variation, and so the beginning is a declaration of order and simplicity�. The neutral floor with neutral furniture allow the wall with frames pop. I wanted to emphasize that wall because I wanted that wall to be inspired from the Georgian Dining room. The Large windows allow maximum sunlight to pass through, creating linear drop shadows in the room. The layout of the room is simple, minimalistic furniture allowing users to breath in the space. The required furniture for a dining room is a table and chairs. Elsie de Wolfe says brining other form of furniture is fine to create a sense of variation. Hence I placed in a closet for users to store their cutleries. The area where the door is, is completely empty for circulation, I decided to keep it empty so users can move with ease to different areas of the room.
A GAY, DINING ROOM
Notice the ceiling is recessed so it gives the dining area more spacious compared to the fireplace area which is dropped. This recessed ceiling allows users to breath since its big and spacious.