Guestbook issue 6

Welcome to Guestbook, a quarterly lifestyle journal brought to you by

– a company that has been redefining city travel since 2010.

Our guests live like locals by staying in carefully curated and distinctive homes while the owners are out of town, enjoying a consistently high level of service, both before and during their trip. For hosts, unlike other companies, our impeccable service takes the hassle out of sharing their home with guests.

We look after an exclusive portfolio of remarkable homes, worth over $5bn, across London, New York, Los Angeles and Paris. More locations are on the horizon.

We’d love to welcome you. Book in for a onefinestay by emailing reservations@onefinestay.com or calling +44 800 612 4377 or US +1 917 383 2182. And, if you want to find out more about signing up your home, visit onefinestay.com/hosts.

Guestbook Issue 6 Editor Alex Bagner Art Direction/Design www.field-projects.com Copy Chief Sara Norrman Advertising/Production Manager Liv Stones onefinestay Co-Founder & CEO Greg Marsh Published by onefinestay www.onefinestay.com Cover illustration Guy Billout Words Liz Armstrong, Catherine Blyth, Luke Crisell, Hayley Fairclough, Chloe Grimshaw, Anne Hellman, Kristin Iversen, Alicia Kirby, Sara Norrman, Amy verner Photographers Randall Bachner, VĂŠronique Besnard, Heather Culp, Annabel Elston, Erwan Fichou, Stacy Kranitz, Milo Reid, Stefan Ruiz Illustrators Ken Fallin, Alice Tye Printed in the UK by Moore, a division of DG3. www.mooreprint.co.uk For all advertising enquiries or to order more copies of Guestbook please email: guestbook@onefinestay.com To read a digital version of this and past issues visit www.onefinestay.com/guestbook

EDITOR’S LETTER

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ere at onefinestay we’re nothing if not house-proud. You need only glance through our impeccable portfolio to understand why we like nothing more than cocooning at home, surrounded by creative interiors, ingenious architecture and characterful objects (turn to page 89 to see some particularly charming ones). That said, come summer when the sun’s rays start streaming through the windows, even we have to admit that it’s time to head outside. This issue of Guestbook flings open the doors, lets in the warm breeze and celebrates the wonders that exist in our cities.

From the visionary yet oh-so-pleasant hum that is coming from Brooklyn, New York (page 36), to the chic, bobo and fiercely independent enclave of Batignolles in the 17th arrondissement in Paris (page 78), we encourage urban exploration beyond the well-trodden tourist tracks. And, when it comes to Los Angeles, living the dream can literally be done in your backyard, as illustrated in California Dreaming (page 57) and in the incredible outdoor spaces chosen by landscape gardener extraordinaire Judy Kameon (page 65).

Like all the best urban explorers however, it’s only through getting to know the locals that you really get to know the city. This issue, thus, has us sharing morning bagels with the high-energy Philp family in New York (page 28), musing over the eclectic art collections of Christophe Clark and Virginie Pougnaud in Paris (page 72), coveting some of Liz Gordon’s vintage scores and demolition saves in LA (page 48) and entering the warm and witty world of the Hardings in West London (page 6).

Happy exploring, and do let me know what you find.

Alex Bagner Editor, Guestbook guestbook@onefinestay.com

CONTRIBUTORS …and where they go to think

Guy Billout Cover Guy Billout’s illustrations have appeared in The New Yorker, Time, The New York Times, Fortune, Vogue, Playboy, Le Monde, and Der Spiegel. In The Atlantic magazine he had a regular feature that lasted 24 years.

‘Nowhere in particular, and everywhere, from the bathroom, to the top of Mount Fuji.’

Catherine Blyth In Conversation With, page 6 Catherine Blyth is a writer, broadcaster and incurable Londoner. She contributes to publications such as The Times, Sunday Telegraph, the Spectator and Elle, and her books on conversation and marriage are published by Penguin US and John Murray.

‘Last year I built a hutch in my garden in which to think and write. Sadly my toddlers disagree.’

Annabel Elston In Conversation With, page 6 London photographer Annabel Elston has shot for Acne, Kvadrat, Alexander McQueen, T Magazine, The Guardian and World Of Interiors.

Her book Land was published by Steidl in 2013.

‘I go anywhere there is wide open space, Hackney Marsh when I’m in London, or our field by the sea in Cornwall.’

Erwan Fichou A Soujourn in Batignolles, page 78 Born in Brittany, made in Mexico and now based in Paris, Erwan Fichou’s work has been exhibited in Palacio de Bellas Artes, Mexico City, in the Witte de With, Rotterdam, and from this July in the Aperture Foundation in New York. His work has been commissioned

by The Guardian, Le Monde, Libération, Vanity Fair and Optimum magazine.

‘Last time I travelled by train we got stuck by a rail workers strike. I took advantage of a few hours alone to really focus on new projects.’

Anne Hellman The Brooklyn Diaries, page 36 Together with photographer Michel Arnaud, Anne Hellman is the founder of the blog Design Brooklyn. Their book, Design Brooklyn:

Renovation, Restoration, Innovation, Industry, was published in 2013.

‘Living in New York, I do my best thinking on the subway (with a cup of coffee) and walking around the city, because the movement of the train, the sidewalk, seem to help new thoughts move in.’

Kristin Iversen Cross Generation, page 40 Journalist and associate editor of Brooklyn Magazine Kristin Iversen has been published in The L Magazine, The New York Observer and Mommyish.com.

‘Without a doubt, my mind and body feel most at rest when I’m in the water. So if I don’t have ready access to the ocean or a lake or a lazy river, I take to the bath, or even a shower. There is something undeniably primal, or, I guess, foetal, about how pleasing and freeing it is to be surrounded by water. But I try not to overthink that aspect of it and just relax.’

Stacy Kranitz In Conversation With, page 48 With an unflinching eye for reality, photographer Stacy Kranitz surveys parts of the USA not often placed in the public eye.

She has had exhibitions in Moscow, Tokyo, New York, Miami and LA, where she lives.

Her work has featured in Dwell, Granta, People, Rolling Stone, Vice and Wired.

‘I think a lot in my car. I travel cross-country for my work, often living out of my car 3-4 months of the year. The car has become a wonderful space for contemplation. In Los Angeles, I am often stuck in traffic traversing the city and so I end up utilizing the time to think through my life and work.

Also I daydream.’

Alice Tye California Dreaming, page 57 A recent graduate from Camberwell College of Art in London, Alice Tye has already had work featured in Gourmand, Wallpaper* and It’s Nice That. Her work is influenced by modernist architecture and eclectic films.

‘I just go for a run in Brockley, southeast London – my local area.’

CONTENTS

6 In Conversation With

The Harding family, Percy Road VI, Shepherd’s Bush, London

Words Catherine Blyth

Photography Annabel Elston

70 In Conversation With

Christophe Clark & Virginie Pougnaud,

Square Desnouettes, Beaugrenelle, Paris

Words Amy Verner

Photography Erwan Fichou

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Eclectic Avenue On why London homes have a style very much their own Words Chloe Grimshaw

24 It’s A Wanderful Life

Alain de Botton on the adventures

of mind and place 28 In Conversation With The Philp family, Gates Avenue Townhouse, Clinton Hill, New York

Words Luke Crisell

Photography Stefan Ruiz 36 The Brooklyn Diaries

Travelling through time on the right

side of the bridge

Words Anne Hellman 40

cross generation Exploring family time in the varied areas of the Big Apple’s better half Words Kristin Iversen

48 In Conversation With

Liz Gordon, Brushton Street, Culver City,

Los Angeles

Words Liz Armstrong

Photography Stacy Kranitz 57

California Dreaming Homes where the wildest ideas are made reality Illustration Alice Tye

65 Guest editOR: LA

Garden landscaper and writer Judy Kameon

selects her personal onefinestay portfolio

of outdoor spaces in LA

Illustration Ken Fallin

a sojourn in Batignolles Keeping it real in one of Paris’ most local neighbourhoods Words Alicia Kirby Photography Erwan Fichou

84 Guest Editor: Paris

Alix Daulon, director at the Galerie

Frank Elbaz selects her personal, artfilled onefinestay portfolio in Paris

Illustration Ken Fallin 89 Objects of Desire

The tales behind our hosts’ most

beloved possessions

Photography Milo Reid 97

Spaces To Do It Change your surroundings, change your behaviour – these homes will up the stakes for good

106 Our Social Whirl

From the almighty seven-day long series of

festivities at Barry Avenue in LA to setting

up base camp in a shiny new London HQ,

find out what we’ve been up to in the past

few months 111 Introducing onefinestay Folios

Our curated portfolio of homes where to

work, explore, play and luxuriate 112 End Note

From Greg Marsh, Co-founder & CEO

IN conversation with

The harding Family

Percy Road VI, Shepherd’s Bush, London words Catherine Blyth photography Annabel elston

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bove one of two ovens in Nicola and Andy ‘I’m not sure I like it any more,’ Nicola says of a Harding’s vast kitchen sits a grainy black- bright Vietnamese portrait, bought on their eightand-white wedding photo. The groom is month ‘megamoon’ world tour. ‘But the damage in a top hat, the bride in ringlets – the epitome of caused when the Polish builder mixed cement on a 1950s country wedding. ‘Oh no that’s us, in the it definitely makes it better.’

East End,’ laughs Nicola.

So the painting is a dual memento, commemThis little surprise captures the Hardings’ orating the horrendous, first-phase renovation of quirky, quintessentially English spirit. He is an the house, bought as a bank-breaking, three-flat e-commerce whizz, she an estimable interior and wreck (they wanted ‘something big for children garden designer, and together they’re as witty to play hide and seek long enough for their and warm as their uplifting Victorian home in parents to make a considerable dent in the drinks Shepherd’s Bush, West London. cabinet’). Like its once gritty neighbourhood, ‘Watch Out’ warns a pink neon sign (a now so cool that Soho House is opening an 30th birthday present from girlfriends), and it’s outpost, the place is unrecognisable. Staircases, hard not to stare. Effortlessly the house absorbs chimney breasts, rot and plastic lean-tos have a family’s chaos, no style sacrificed: Portobello been swept away, and bigger windows put in.

Market finds rub shoulders with heirlooms, Lesser souls would quake at such an undera naff blue loo is suddenly glorious under taking – much accomplished during Nicola’s an antique wooden seat. Serendipity is the pregnancy. But Nicola, who has worked for presiding deity here. Aptly, since chance restauranteurs and Queen Rania of Jordan, is brought the couple together one Sunday night in dauntless. (Current projects include a country a Westbourne Park pub, both fresh off long-haul house hotel, alongside legendary interior flights, unaware the next day was a bank holiday, designer Suzy Atkinson – Nicola claims she is free for play... the first of their many adventures. ‘starstruck’.)

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A tumbleweed army childhood, moving There is evidence of competing marital every two years, fed a restlessness that has seen interests, cleverly resolved. Sport-mad her conducting safaris in Botswana, but also technophile Andy’s trophies adorn his ‘marriagea craving for domestic permanence. ‘All I ever saving’ study, while his gigantic TVs are demurely wanted was a home.’ At university she wheedled hidden by fabric screens. The top floor, initially her father into handing her a lump sum in lieu rented out to help pay bills, is now Nicola’s office, of maintenance and bought a derelict Edinburgh a mutually beneficial arrangement. ‘Quite often flat on a 100 per cent mortgage, the first of many things come here en route to a client, but never properties she has flipped. quite make it, or the client has to wait rather a But after graduation, interior design did long time.’ So the sitting room hosts an evolving not appeal. ‘I didn’t care enough about scatter conversation of chairs, perfect for parties (Top cushions.’ Instead she went into gardening, Gun was a popular theme). helping friends do up houses on the side, until Both love cooking: hence the two ovens, the credit crunch inspired her to go out and prove and rival barbecues duelling in the garden. there is more to interiors than tasselled pelmets. Andy’s Heston Blumenthalish foodlab is As is evidenced in her home. Everywhere safely tucked away in the wine-filled larder, are objects to covet. Vintage lamps, cut-glass ‘everyone’s favourite room’. Meanwhile a roofdecanters, love-scuffed furniture – all invitations terrace vegetable patch is a work soon to be in to reach out, sit down, make yourself comfortable. progress. Envious? No wonder – we could all do Walls softened by panelling recall a library here, a with a dash of Harding inspiration in our life. ship’s cabin there. The sunny children’s bedroom just ought to be beside the seaside, overlooking www.onefinestay.com/london/percy-road-6/ the Hardings’ favourite holiday destination, the Isle of Wight.

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CABBAGES & ROSES FASHION . FABRIC . HOME

121- 123 Sydney Street, Chelsea, London, SW3 cabbagesandroses.com

FEATURE

Eclectic avenue London style breaks the rules and treads personal paths like none other.

Call it eccentricity, edge or eclecticism, but these homes from the onefinestay portfolio are full of design confidence that proudly eschews colour swatches and matching cushions

words Chloe Grimshaw

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rom a tram shed to a Georgian terrace, a city loft to an artist’s studio, London’s housing stock is vast, ageless and highly individual – matching up neatly with its inhabitants. The city buzzes with cultural and artistic institutions, offering up a palette of exhibitions and design which has helped form a uniquely quirky style and independent spirit.

But what is it that makes this distinct style so evident in so many Londoners’ homes? Is it the wide and historic housing stock itself that inspires radical and innovative renovations? Or the personal collections of vintage finds sourced at flea markets and antique fairs – the fearless mix of colours, ages and styles?

The answer is all of the above, plus a propensity for chucking both the rule book and the chintz out the window and relying on a creative gut feeling for a look that would be out of place in other cities. It’s all about humour, surprise and attention to detail – through the furniture, art and quirky touches. The homes are always welcoming and lived in, never forbiddingly pristine or austere, and they all carry the hallmark cocky sassiness that is pure London style.

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opposite: Stay in the epitome of the eclectic London look, with bare floorboards, original cornicing and mid-century design at Cornwall Crescent II. Book this home at www. onefinestay.com/london/ cornwall-crescent-2

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Old and new London may be a fast-paced modern metropolis but much of its housing stock is centuries old. The challenge of converting these historic buildings into desirable homes has inspired many unique and characterful ways of harmonising old and new styles. In East London, especially around Spitalfields and Shoreditch, many of the grand Georgian terraces have in the past 20 years been converted back into sought-after homes after decades of industrial use and decay. Built originally in the 18th century to house an influx of skilled craftsmen, they were eventually abandoned as the better off moved into the developing West End. The whole area remained in steady decline for the next couple of centuries and even in the 1970s the lack of interest meant these buildings were never demolished to make way for large-scale developments like in many other parts of London. All changed in the 1990s when a new wave of young artists took over the warehouses in the area and set about transforming Shoreditch from desolate industrial zone to the throbbing creative hub it is today. Alongside this gentrification, a few pioneering Londoners began to embark on the epic restoration of these Georgian architectural relics, turning them into contemporary, comfortable and deliciously atmospheric homes.

In the onefinestay portfolio there is the evocative 18th-century Princelet Street townhouse, where the architect owner has embarked on a 10-year painstaking restoration, including careful salvaging of traditional panelling and fireplaces. But within this ode to the past, sits a sleek and contemporary kitchen complete with all mod cons and entirely at ease with the rest of the house. Equally on Mare Street, the owner may have taken a design cue from early Georgians who favoured strong, dark colours for their walls with cornicing to match, but he has filled it with an unabashedly modern collection of furniture from the 1970s to the present day.

Of course, just as the lovingly restored historic buildings come to life when filled with contemporary quirks and design, the contrast works just as well in reverse. Modern homes take on an equally new aspect when populated with the warmth of antique books, paintings and vintage finds ­– it’s the juxtaposition that makes these homes so compelling to explore.

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below, from left: Modern furniture is juxtaposed with strong colours at Mare Street (www.onefinestay.com/ london/mare-street) Princelet Street is a 10-year restoration project, turning a visit to this derelict townhouse into a vintage treat (www.onefinestay.com/ london/princelet-street)

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Bohemian elegance above: A stay in the impressive Pembridge Crescent IV opens new doors to characterful living (www. onefinestay.com/london/ pembridge-crescent-4) next page: Personal paintings, drawings and photographs, many of them with frames sourced from nearby Portobello Market, line the walls at Pembridge Crescent III (www. onefinestay.com/london/ pembridge-crescent-3)

West London has long been associated with a certain upscale, bohemian vibe, which to a large extent has been created by Portobello Market. The bustling street’s location, snuggled neatly between the majestic houses of Notting Hill, has made it a lucrative place to sell wares since around 1850.

However, it wasn’t till 1945 that the ‘Rag and Bone’ men began to set up shop, kick-starting the renowned antiques market of today.

The road may have lost some of its street cred to gentrification and tourism, but it remains a treasure trove of vintage furniture, clothing and design. Stylish locals who live and work here (including Stella McCartney, Alice Temperley and Bella Freud) continue to find inspiration on this evocative road. And as a result interiors in the area tend to pack a punch with eccentric displays of collections and heady mixes of fabrics and textures, all results of Friday afternoons spent rummaging around the stalls on this renowned strip. Pembridge Crescent III has a wonderfully warm feel, with a Moroccan Berber rug in front of a huge picture wall of drawings, paintings and photographs in vintage frames. While on the same street, the formal antique dining table and chairs at Pembridge Crescent IV, are given a glamorous twist with a 1906 Maurin Quina le Puy poster of a green devil, illuminated by a black Gothic chandelier, and a striped monochrome rug.

FEATURE

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LONDON STYLE

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Raw warmth left: Camden Road in Highbury is a warehouse conversion adding infinite creativity to a city break (www.onefinestay. com/london/camden-road) right: Something of the playful spirit of Nile Street’s former life as a costume factory remains today in its open-plan space (www.onefinestay.com/ london/nile-street) below: The vast rooms at Queen Elizabeth Street are brought to life by the antiques and vintage finds collected by the owners and waiting to be admired by guests (www. onefinestay.com/london/ queen-elizabeth-street)

The industrial revolution may have been mainly attributed to England’s northern cities, but London’s significance as an industrial centre has shaped much of its architecture. The city in the 19th century was alive with scores of working breweries, stacked warehouses and bustling workshops. The banks of the Thames especially were a dynamic and key part of this urban heritage. The regeneration of these vast raw spaces has fallen to the city’s architects and designers who are now revamping them into sought-after living accommodation. But it is the creative city dwellers themselves that have taken on these pared-back utilitarian shells and turned them into highly individualistic and inspirational homes.

In Camden Road, a former tramshed has been transformed into a spectacular apartment, complete with metal trusses and iron girders. Yet it is the addition of pots and pans hung haphazardly along a wall and a cluster of framed sketches and photographs that make the space personal, warm and uniquely London. In Queen Elizabeth Street, dramatic furniture, original art and antique rugs bring this warehouse-conversion to life.

FEATURE

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bottom and far left: Enter the weird and wonderful world at St Margaret’s Road in Ladbroke Grove (www.onefinestay.com/london/stmargarets-road) below: A witty chalkboard cloakroom at Lilyville Road II in Fulham (www.onefinestay. com/london/lilyville-road-2).

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Touch of humour The vital ingredient in the bubbling London style stew is without a doubt humour. Whether it’s a wry cartoon snuck in among oil paintings in a Hampstead drawing room, or a giant neon sign lighting up a Bermondsey loft, that sense of insouciance is what makes this aesthetic what it is. From the whimsical to the surreal via the ironic, if there’s one thing that defines English humour it’s the sheer necessity to include it in everything.

And nowhere is this more evident than in the wonderful world at St Margaret’s Road where a disco ball lights up the sitting room and wardrobe handles are made from mannequin hands.

In Lilyville Road II a silver toy car has been parked in the guest bathroom and at the ever-playful High Holborn an eye-popping wallpaper collage and pink freestanding bath is cheeky, challenging and, though perhaps not to everyone’s taste, it is unmistakeably London.

To book onefinestays in these and many more charming and characterful homes, visit www.onefinestay.com

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Opposite: Spend time in a joyous paean to pop culture at High Holborn in Covent Garden (www.onefinestay.com/london/ high-holborn)

interview

a wanderful life Travel tends to be focussed on heading to a new geographic location, so it’s easy to overlook how a journey can transport us in both mind and place. A new book of postcards, Places/Ideas, explores the intriguing relationship between location and contemplation.

Here co-author Alain de Botton explains how to go on an inner voyage

interview ALEX BAGNER

AB AdeB

AB AdeB

AB AdeB

AB AdeB

AB

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Was the idea for this book born from any place in particular?

For me a key moment was a visit to Amsterdam. It felt as if the whole city was a lesson in the virtues of equality and domestic housework – a couple of things I was very confused about in my own life at the time.

Have any important ideas of your own hit you in specific places?

Yes. Ideas about how art can help us cope with relationship troubles got a big boost on a train journey across the middle of England. A railway carriage might not be everyone’s idea of a holiday destination. But it has a lovely combination of cosy containment and a sense of adventure.

Where do you normally go to think?

I like going to a place with a big view, for example a bench on top of a hill not far from where I live. You can look out over water and islands. I often find it hard to see the big picture. I get bogged down in detail. So, the view is a reminder of the excitement of the wide angle. It’s also calming. Deep down fear is such an inhibitor of ideas. Lessening fear helps us think.

Is there anything that defines why a certain place can spawn ideas?

There isn’t really a typical characteristic of thought-provoking places.

It is really more about what we bring.

Can anywhere be thought provoking, depending on how you look at it?

GUESTBOOK

© School of Life

Yes. In fact, overlooked places – a freight terminal, a shopping-centre car park, a light industrial estate – can be hugely thought provoking because they show us a lot of life in its unvarnished state; going behind the scenes is always interesting.

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Do you think it is the familiar or unfamiliar in a place that provokes the best ideas?

AdeB AB AdeB AB

Alain de Botton

‘Overlooked places can be hugely thought provoking because they show us a lot of life in its unvarnished state’ 26

AdeB

For me, both can be great.

Can a place ever be detrimental to ideas? Have you ever experienced this?

For me, sadly, large libraries are deadening.

How can we derive true benefit from travel?

AdeB

We need to make sure that the outer journey aligns with, and reinforces, the inner one. Without anything mystical or woolly being meant by this, all of us are involved on what we can term ‘an inner journey’: an innate dynamic that exists within us to evolve constantly towards a better version of ourselves. We may – for example – be on a journey towards greater patience or wisdom, forgiveness or curiosity, playfulness or sensuality. So before going anywhere near an airport, we should get clearer in our minds where we are on this inner journey and then think very carefully about how we could match the inner destination with a place in the world.

AB

If a travel brochure sold itself not on the geographic properties of the destination but on the ideas the place gave rise to, what ideas would you match to London, Paris and New York?

AdeB

Thinking historically, I’d list them like this: In London, it’s the harmony of parts – how different bits of life that we fear have to be in conflict can actually rub along together. In Paris, it’s the grandeur of hope – the belief that government can organise whole societies very well, with elegance and style. In New York, it’s freedom and opportunity. Your life is not dictated by where you have come from. You can remake yourself. It’s in your hands.

At the right moment this can be a very exciting idea.

Alain de Botton is Chair of The School of Life, a cultural enterprise dedicated to exploring life’s big questions through a variety of useful ideas – from philosophy to literature, psychology to the visual arts. Places/Ideas is co-authored by Alain de Botton and John Armstrong and is available to buy from www.schoooloflife.com/shop. Get 15% off all events at www.theschooloflife.com with the code ONEFINESTAY (until 30 September 2014).

GUESTBOOK

IN conversation with

the Philp family Gates Avenue Townhouse, Clinton Hill, New York words luke crisell photography stefan ruiz

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ou know that house, in the neighbourhood where you grew up, where the door was always open, there were always kids coming and going, and where everyone just tended to congregate?’ asks John Philp, standing in the kitchen of his brownstone in Clinton Hill, Brooklyn, on a bright Sunday morning. Before he can continue, as if on cue, the front door (visible from the kitchen; the floor is open plan so one can make coffee and still hold court over the entire space) opens and two boys in football kits come in, joining the three who are already engaged in various activities, everything from painting to what appears to be robot construction, around the dining-room table.

‘I need food,’ says one, Jules, who at 12 years old is the eldest of the Philps’ three children (Edie, 7, is making art and Vince, 10, is reading - both within sight of the breakfast bar). ‘I think what you also need is a shower,’ says his mother, Lisa, as she gets some cash to send the boys back out to the local bagel shop with instructions to bring back enough for everyone – those present and, you imagine, those yet to turn up.

‘We’ve become that house, a little bit by default and a little bit by design,’ continues John,

who grew up on a farm outside Adelaide, in rural Australia. Turns out there’s some prescience to the design part: ‘As our kids get older and become teenagers, we’d rather have them down in the basement with their spotty mates than someplace where we have no idea where they are,’ he explains, with a grin. It’s no coincidence then, that that basement, decorated with classic Americana touches, includes a games room with a convertible pool-to-air-hockey table.

The house’s location certainly helps its destination status: situated on one of the more beautiful streets in one of the more beautiful neighbourhoods in Brooklyn, it features a large yard and a driveway, the latter being about as common in this part of town as a unicorn. It’s the kind of area where those people who really know New York City want to live, and wish they’d bought into a decade ago. The reasons for that are many: ‘It’s so protected, there’s no commercial space whatsoever,’ says Lisa. ‘But there’s plenty of street life,’ says John. ‘I can sit out on that stoop and the mind boggles at the amount of stuff that goes on, it’s crazy – in a five-minute span you can just see so much life out there. But it’s not that kind of mindless, head down darting to

GUESTbook

IN conversation with

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the subway and back, it’s interaction.’ ‘Oh that nothing is considered. Take the art in the yeah, absolutely. You can’t not say hello in this living room: floor-to-ceiling pieces ranging from neighbourhood,’ Lisa picks up. ‘If you live here, photographers such as Dan Winters through to you have to say hi.’ pictures of where John grew up, to their kids’ Meanwhile the bagels have been delivered drawings, which John shows me while fielding and, Lisa, originally from the Bronx, is spreading children’s questions and discussing his own thick helpings of cream cheese and handing them production company – he makes documentary out to reaching hands of various sizes. A small films, previous titles include Rudyland and Yoga cluster of children – Philps and non-Philps – Inc., and is developing some TV series. have gathered around a laptop in a bay window, On the second floor, oversize cushions lie working on predicting the outcome of the World around the place, ideal for impromptu beds: Cup. As we discuss Jürgen Klinsmann’s decision ‘When there’s a critical mass of kids,’ John says, to not bring the American veteran soccer player, ‘they’ll come hang out up here.’ The space is so Landon Donovan, to Brazil, coffee is poured, large one imagines they could also be probing the the front door continues to open and close, and back of wardrobes, looking for enchanted worlds. the chatter of children rises and falls. One child From the third floor a ladder that wouldn’t delivers a bottle of wine, a thank you from his be out of place on a yacht extends into an atticparents for a dinner party the night before. type space with beds, couches and tables, sun The personality of the house is very much streaming in through skylights. It’s the kind of informed by its perpetual use. The previous space where as a child you could spend entire owners renovated, modernising the four floors days, and, as an adult, you might write a novel and adding curvaceous walls that seem to make about a house like this, the one where the door the spaces flow together, and John and Lisa was always open. have left the changes largely intact. It lends the house a homeliness that befits its residents. www.onefinestay.com/new-york/ Nothing seems too precious, which isn’t to say gates-avenue-townhouse IN conversation with

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ESSAY

the Brooklyn diaries Design writer and Brooklyn immigrant Anne Hellman’s two decades-long residential voyage through the borough ties in with the area’s journey from forgotten badland to creative heartland

words Anne Hellman

Williamsburg, 1997 The building on the corner of Roebling Street and Metropolitan Avenue housed four levels of sweatshops plus one top level of freshly renovated loft space. My first landlord had painstakingly refinished the vast wood floors in the two 2,100 sq ft rentals and installed decent kitchens, bathrooms, and even a shared laundry room.

The west-facing windows framed a perfect Manhattan profile – glorious at sunset but truly magical at night, when the Twin Tower lights and rainbow hues of the Empire State glittered through the century-old panes.

Before I moved in to one of these lofts with three roommates, the fifth floor had stored the heavy, redolent wares of a leather dealer. The sweatshops below produced machine-sewn fabrics. Most nights, the last crack addicts to linger off Hope Street muttered in the stairwell.

They left us alone as we climbed, home from our just-out-of-college jobs in the city, crunching empty vials underfoot. I worked for a small design publisher then, my boyfriend as an artist’s assistant. He was an artist himself and he built a studio in our loft where he painted at night.

At that time in Williamsburg, and elsewhere in Brooklyn, artist-in-residence spaces – A.I.R.s – were plentiful. Firemen dropped in on occasion to ensure we were up to code but they kept our 36

status in mind. Most of our friends lived similarly, except for the few who settled in homier railroad apartments. We didn’t leave Williamsburg on the weekends. There was the L Café for brunch and bars like Teddy’s or The Abbey at night. There was even an art gallery off Bedford Avenue, Pierogi 2000, where every one of my artist friends aspired to show.

It strikes me now more than it did then that we lived in the raw remnants of Brooklyn’s industrial past. As the manufacturing hub of the United States in the 19th century, the borough, with its lengthy waterfront and vast interior, for decades provided the space for new-industry buildings.

The sweatshops at Roebling and Metropolitan eventually moved out to make way for a tidal wave of urban dwellers. Rents rose, and those residents pushed further into the borough. In recent years, the same industrial lofts we used to call home have been revived for their original purpose, providing studios and communal workshops for designmakers and builders. The A.I.R. has become the design-build co-op.

The transformation that has taken place in Brooklyn has been well documented, and I cannot pretend that my experience living here represents all that has changed and hasn’t changed.

Brooklyn is the largest borough in New York

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Š Randall Bachner

City, home to more than 2 million people.

It comprises more than 90 distinct communities. I have lived in only four of them. And yet, when I take in the picture of Brooklyn’s ‘design boom’ (which I do often as a design writer), I see a familiar trail. The moves I made in my twenties and thirties mirror a design migration

that has occurred in Brooklyn from the waterfront inward. My own migration took me from Williamsburg to Boerum Hill to Carroll Gardens to Cobble Hill, just as the borough’s creative expansion made them fertile enclaves of inspired shops, restaurants, and public spaces I could find nowhere else.

Boerum Hill, 2003 Atlantic Avenue was still the antiques mecca of Brooklyn the year I moved to a narrow, 200-year-old apartment building on its second-busiest corner, although a few young designer boutiques had lately moved in.

One was the women’s clothing store Butter.

It was here, browsing the racks, where I first heard the whispers of what would happen to Atlantic Avenue. The shop owner had attended a community meeting the night before and, as I listened, she told a friend in a low voice about a shopping centre, apartment buildings, a Whole Foods(!). I couldn’t fully believe this. Stepping out onto the sidewalk, I saw a horizon line where the Atlantic and Barclays Centers would one day rise. This past December, Whole Foods opened its doors on the Gowanus Canal.

Atlantic Avenue changed slowly while I lived there (and then it shape-shifted rapidly with the completion of the Barclays Center in 2012). One notable newcomer then was Sterling Place, a shop that combined antiques with new design and where one could find beautiful handmade pieces, from furniture to tableware. I see this store now as an early sign of Brooklyn’s unique ability to bridge the old with the new. There are still antique shops on Atlantic today, but you are far more likely to encounter high-end fashion stores and refined restaurants. The French bistro Bacchus, one of the only places to truly ‘dine’ on Atlantic in 2003, has been joined by Rucola on nearby Dean Street and Colonie near the river, where Barney’s has also staked its claim.

Carroll Gardens, 2004 In my thirties, Carroll Gardens offered the perfect accoutrements for life as a first-time homeowner. Our apartment, all of 500 sq ft, was perched just off Smith Street – the ‘Main Street’ of thirtydom. Although tiny and dumbbell shaped, our home offered long-distance views west, which only got better from the roof deck.

We ate at Smith Street’s restaurants – the eclectic, Chinese-French one, Chance; the Italian Pane e Vino; the stalwart Bar Tabac; and Smith & Vine (which now encompasses a cheese shop named Stinky and an eatery called Jakewalk) supplied the wine for rooftop dinner parties. The bar Brooklyn Social provided the after-dinner speakeasy, so expertly restored you stepped back in time just by walking in.

We built half our wedding registry at a store called Barc, close by on Atlantic Avenue,

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and found hand-dyed pillows and natural-wood serving platters at shops like Swallow, on Smith.

I bought at least two generations of handmade totes for my laptop at Refinery, a design-maker pioneer in the neighbourhood. Brooklyn-made design budded in shops like these, where new residents like us began to nurture it. We came home from our wedding and unpacked the gifts of Brooklyn-sourced glassware, cookware, and linens, all of which would follow us to the larger nest we moved to next, our first child on the way.

Like Brooklyn Social’s luscious 1930s interiors, the borough’s knack for bridging the old with the new kept pulling us in. Eventually, Smith’s main-street qualities spread east into Gowanus, north into Downtown Brooklyn, and west into Red Hook and Cobble Hill, where we landed at last.

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Cobble Hill, 2014 Something of the ‘old’ came with me from Williamsburg, or maybe I followed it from neighbourhood to neighbourhood. The beauty I admired in that first stripped-down, industrial loft I also found on Atlantic Avenue, on Smith Street, and again on the close, landmarked blocks of Cobble Hill. The task of bridging the old with the new grew ten-fold when my husband and I, now with two children in tow, undertook the renovation of an 1850s townhouse. Although the interior required a gut renovation, the structure itself beckoned us purely because of its years.

We had to find a way to renew the house while keeping its history intact.

Renovations lasted a year, and I learned a whole other side to what it must have taken my first landlord to install those kitchens, bathrooms, and laundry room in Williamsburg. There was a moment, mid-construction, when ceiling joists and wall studs had all been hammered into place and the staircase, still original, dangled by a thread from the third-floor landing. The contractor urged us to replace it, but how to create a new staircase that still evoked the old? Our architects arrived at a solution: thin, rounded spindles, a classically curved banister, and wooden treads, the risers painted black for a modern feel.

Cobble Hill is by far the most familyoriented neighbourhood I have lived in. Our two sons attend the public school around the corner.

And, like the other communities I’ve called home, it also shows signs of the design migration.

In Red Hook, just across the Brooklyn Queens

Expressway, design-makers have resurrected an old shipping community where they live, work, and sell their creations out of shops along Van Brunt. On Court Street (our new main street) restaurants like Dover and watering holes like Congress carry on the tradition of bridging the old with the new, perhaps even more professionally than those before them.

The Brooklyn aesthetic was planted years ago, and its seeds have blown in from the waterfront to take root in communities like Cobble Hill. Our house is a culmination both of migration and of design – from our days in Williamsburg engaged with the artist’s life, to our stints in progressively more conventional settings, to a home where objects innovated in the warehouse spaces we used to inhabit find value and purpose.

As a writer, I leave Cobble Hill and head back to the waterfront, to the Brooklyn Navy Yard and to Industry City in Sunset Park, where design-makers are getting serious, establishing more efficient and environmentally conscious fabrication systems. It’s as if the industrious 19th century has reawakened to an all-new code for the 21st. Whereas my migration has led to a fulfilling residential existence, Brooklyn’s design migration has evolved to address some of the toughest questions we have about the future: How to create jobs? Extinguish pollution? Reuse space? Because what Brooklyn designers make and how they make it travels out into the international market, and from there, into the whole wide world.

{} Anne Hellman is the author of Design Brooklyn: Renovation, Restoration, Innovation, Industry (Stewart, Tabori, & Chang, 2013) and founder of the blog Design Brooklyn, with photographer Michel Arnaud

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in focus: NEW YORK

Cross Generation We all know that family time in New York is best in Brooklyn.

With easy access to Manhattan but equally self-sufficient, it’s here that juvenile fun during the day tumbles into an adult playground at night. But which neighbourhood is best for you and your brood?

words Kristin Iversen

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ong known as the ‘borough of homes’, Brooklyn is today full of young families, but still caters to the needs of parents who might need a night sans children. It might have been that mythical, bearded, tattoed creature, the hipster, who spawned the global movement towards Brooklyn, but it is the quaint family life mixed with big-city savvy that has endured in these charming enclaves. The wide brownstones and leafy backyards have been enticing Manhattanites seeking gut renovation projects for years and the tree-lined streets and open, green spaces are a way of life. Add to this some of the city’s most innovative eateries, neighbourhood bars, independent boutiques, revered and beloved cultural institutions and convenient subway access (approximately 20 minutes to Downtown

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Manhattan) and it’s easy to understand why so many have fallen for Brooklyn’s laid-back ways.

But where to stay? Well, the gifts of Brooklyn are (to paraphrase the borough’s most well-known poet, Walt Whitman) that it is large, and that it contains multitudes. No two neighborhoods are alike, each contains its own discreet charms – and we wouldn’t have it any other way. For those not in the know, it can be a bit overwhelming (that whole multitudes thing is no joke), so here’s a little guide to where you and your family might want to live like Brooklynites, if only for a little while.

Kristin Iversen is the Associate Editor at Brooklyn Magazine, a quarterly celebrating the borough.

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Brooklyn Heights Perfect for the family who likes to spend a lot of time outdoors, Brooklyn Heights is home to the brand-new Brooklyn Bridge Park, a waterfront wonderland. Add to that an abundance of bike rental stations and easy access to the Brooklyn Bridge (a walk over its expanse is a must) and your kids will be exhausted at the end of each day. The nightlife here is relatively sedate, but local restaurants are top-notch.

2 DUMBo Still think you should’ve stayed in TriBeCa? DUMBO then – with its many galleries, loft-style living spaces, and Belgian block streets – is for you. You’ll have easy access to the city, but even easier access to spectacular, postcard-worthy views in the local waterfront parks. Added bonus? Jane’s Carousel, a centuryold merry-go-round housed in a glass enclosure that sits right on the banks of the East River.

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Williamsburg While Williamsburg is not as well known for being a family destination as the other spots, we think that makes it an even better place to go. Why? Well, the restaurants and bars and clubs are better here than pretty much anywhere else in the city, making it the perfect place to go out after the kids are asleep.

But even during the day, you’ll be near the waterfront and McCarren Park, both places that kids and adults alike can enjoy.

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Boerum Hill Ah, so for the lit-loving family, Boerum Hill just might be the perfect place to stay. You’ll be just a stones-throw from the home of Martin Amis, but – more importantly – you’ll also be close to one of the best independent bookstores in Brooklyn, BookCourt.

5 Fort Greene Like film? Theater? Music? Dance?

This neighbourhood – home to the Brooklyn Academy of Music – is known as the borough’s cultural epicenter, and it holds up to its reputation. Countless cultural events take place here every week, from performances of Shakespeare to Philip Glass, and staying here will virtually guarantee front row tickets.

6 Cobble Hill For those searching for wellheeled albeit in a this-old-thing kind of way, this is the apex where upmarket Brooklyn (stellar coffee, designer boutiques and destination dining) meets brand Brooklyn (all flowering, tucked-away parks, antique shops and family-run businesses).

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Clinton Hill Fort Greene’s quieter neighbour is home to the renowned Pratt Institute, so life around here has the feel of a university campus – GUESTBOOK

if your university was particularly vibrant and contained some of your city’s best bars and most beautiful brownstones, that is.

8 PROSPECT HEIGHTS Home to the Brooklyn Museum, the Brooklyn Botanical Gardens, Prospect Park, and the borough’s biggest and best weekend farmer’s market, Prospect Heights is the perfect locale for visiting families who want to experience the apex of Brooklyn life.

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PARK SLOPE The Slope has a reputation for being solely comprised of young families, and while that isn’t entirely true, it is, well, almost entirely true.

But that’s good news! Because it means that almost every restaurant, coffee shop, retail store – and even bar – will welcome you and your family. And if they don’t? Prospect Park is nearby, so feel free to run wild there.

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Carroll Gardens A fine old pocket of brownstone Brooklyn, Carroll Gardens is very much still a Sesame Street kind of community. Children play baseball on neighbourhood corners, while local retailers and Italian eateries line its cheerful main street.

Not to say the area’s not been touched by Brooklyn’s cool candour of hip bars and boutiques, just that the old mystique and heavy dose of nostalgia is still reassuringly in place.

Š Tuukka Koski

in focus: NEW YORK

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Picked your hood?

Here’s where to borough down, and why

Brooklyn Heights Grace Court Sleeps 9-11, 4 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms Best for kids: This 4-storey spacious mansion has a lush garden out back, as well a kid’s den complete with home cinema, games, books and toys.

Best for adults: Upstairs is a cosy, comfortable space stocked with books, and filled with oil paintings, woven rugs and large windows that open out onto a back terrace. www.onefinestay.com/new-york/grace-court/

DUMBo Hudson Avenue Sleeps 3, 1 bedroom, 1 bathroom Best for the kids: A robust kitchen, large dining table and open-plan living space caters to family life, while extra beds and cots are at hand should you need.

Best for the adults: One of Brooklyn’s most treasured eateries, Vinegar Hill House, famed for its award-winning pork chop, is right across the street. www.onefinestay.com/new-york/hudson-avenue

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Williamsburg Roebling Place Sleeps 4-6, 2 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms Best for kids: This well-placed home has several parks within walking distance, including a playground on the doorstep. It’s also near to hands-down the best children’s store in the borough, Sweet William, at 324 Whythe Avenue.

Best for adults: The location offers a rainbow of options for ways to paint the town, be your destination Brooklyn or Manhattan. But equally beckoning is the ray-ready sun-deck with panoramic views of the Brooklyn Bridge. www.onefinestay.com/new-york/roebling-place/

Boerum Hill Dean Street II Sleeps 9-10, 5 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms Best for kids: If the large open-plan kitchen, living and dining room isn’t enough space for your active clan, there is a family room and play area downstairs with doors that lead out to a private garden.

Best for adults: For those who prefer some more sedate activities, this homes also offers the option of a game of chess, a tinker on the baby grand or cosying up with a novel by the marble fireplace. www.onefinestay.com/new-york/dean-street-2

Fort Greene Adelphi Street II Sleeps 6-8, 4 bedrooms, 4 bathrooms Best for kids: A white sheer bed canopy and circus banner add an imaginative touch before bedtime.

For the adults: A Jacuzzi tub, pinball machine and plush couches with infinite fashion and culture books at your fingertips cater for all types of leisurely wishes. www.onefinestay.com/new-york/adelphi-street-2

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Cobble Hill Cathedral House Sleeps 6-8, 4 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms Best for kids: A charming eat-in kitchen offers spacious dining, while after dinner, all ages can gather around the grand piano in the living room.

Best for adults: Ascend the impressive spiral staircase to the master bedroom, where you have a view of the second storey and your own gleaming en suite bathroom. www.onefinestay.com/new-york/cathedral-house

Clinton Hill Cambridge Place Townhouse Sleeps 6-9, 5 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms Best for kids: In the sitting room, the children’s table and chairs are creatively close to a stash of craft supplies. Upstairs, four children’s bedrooms are crammed full of toys and plenty of books for that bedtime story.

Best for adults: With a large double reception room leading to an eat-in kitchen, there’s plenty of space just for yourselves here too. www.onefinestay.com/new-york/ cambridge-place-townhouse

Prospect Heights Prospect Place Sleeps 3-7, 2 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms Best for kids: If the large back garden isn’t enough to run wild in, there’s the verdant 52-acre Brooklyn Botanic Gardens round the corner.

Best for adults: The outdoor workout area beckons for a session of Yoga or Pilates, followed by breakfast in the light-filled kitchen with stainless steel appliances. www.onefinestay.com/new-york/prospect-place

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Park Slope St John’s Place Sleeps 8-10, 5 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms Best for kids: Three large and spacious children’s rooms bubble with character and brim with entertainment, though the kids have to get tired of the trapeze in the living room first.

Best for adults: Feeling gregarious? Perhaps invite friends to dine at the wooden eight-seater table, beneath the golden glow of the antique light. www.onefinestay.com/new-york/st-johns-place

Carroll Gardens Hoyt Townhouse Sleeps 4/5, 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms Best for kids: Little ones will be enchanted by the room with a fantastic tepee, wooden slide, and colourful toy kitchen.

Best for adults: An upholstered platform in the back garden makes the ideal spot for a warm afternoon. www.onefinestay.com/new-york/hoyt-townhouse

For many more homes across Brooklyn’s neighbourhoods, go to www.onefinestay.com/new-york.

To book a onefinestay email reservations@onefinestay.com or call +44 800 612 4377 or from the US +1 917 383 2182

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IN conversation with

Liz Gordon

Brushton Street, Culver City, LOS ANGELES words Liz Armstrong photography Stacy Kranitz

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hen Liz Gordon says she one day in Chicago ‘happened to meet a guy in an alley,’ her story doesn’t end the way those stories usually do. ‘I was 20 at the time, wondering what the heck I was gonna be when I grew up,’ she continues, and when this man, a local flea-market picker, invited her to meet him in his enormous, pack-rat warehouse, she ended up buying him out. That loot included barrels full of vintage architectural and home interior hardware, and it spawned an entirely unique, self-made, 37-year career. She’s the Liz in Liz’s Antique Hardware, a legendary shop in Los Angeles’ historical Miracle Mile.

Her particular area of expertise shows in her home as well, outfitted in broad strokes as a late1950s Palm Springs-style modern entertainment pad. Close up, details like the thresholds, closet doors and fixtures, however, reveal ‘an artistic twist on things that are mundane objects in our daily life’, she says.

Much of what’s found in her house is comprised of original 1950s ornamentation, architectural salvage, vintage scores, demolition

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saves, surprises discovered beneath layers of paint or rusty plating, and hard-earned lucky finds.

The two sensual Italian light fixtures that glow and seem to hover like UFOs were both transported from the same home in Pasadena, 10 years apart. Her funky kitchen cabinet hardware was old stock from 1950 that had never been used, stashed in someone’s attic in Orange County. The appliances themselves came from an employee updating his kitchen. In the case of the enormous, abstract, Rothko-esque painting in the dining room, it was found on her way to piano class, ‘a gift from the planet,’ she says – ‘if you believe in that sort of thing’.

Mostly Danish and inspired by such, Liz’s furniture, she says ‘is actually not “important”.

It’s not big-name furniture any more than the house is. The house was built by the guy who lived here. A no-name house. No-name furniture.

It’s about the aesthetic appreciation and a certain feeling.’ This is a feeling of intentional vacation, in the midst of a very urban environment and just a 15-minute drive away from the city’s biggest museums, farmers market, or downtown.

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Besides the laid-back yet carefully curated interior, the uniquely architectural pool doesn’t hurt, and neither does the acre and a half of lush garden space. Here, vegetables flourish among the succulents and there’s an intimate, expansive view of the LA Basin.

When Liz Gordon moved her business from Chicago to California in 1992, she initially moved into the loft space above the store. But as the business kept expanding – stock four crates high became six, and a photo book emerged from all the meticulously sorted merchandise – so did her desire for living space. ‘All I really cared about was a pool,’ she says. ‘I didn’t care about the house.’ But then she found this 1950s gem with an oversize fireplace lidded with a copper shade that appears to have been squeezed out of an enormous pastry icing bag. And it had that pool, of course. Suddenly, a whole vision came into view.

As she knocked down walls, powder-coated chairs from the flea market and filled shelving with small bronze sculptures from galleries and friends, she says: ‘The house talked. When you

buy a house, and not a house that you’re creating new, an old house, it talks to you and says, “This is what I am. This is what I’m supposed to be.”’

And in this home, it isn’t about the process of transformation – it’s the watchful eye able to pick the details out of the detritus, and curiosity for what lies beneath. For Liz Gordon, it’s the small things that make the big picture. www.onefinestay.com/los-angeles/brushton-street

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Portfolio

California dreaming illustration Alice Tye

Interpreting our latent travelling wishes correctly can pose a bit of a challenge. As soon as we let our imagination roam freely, we rein ourselves in with ifs, buts and impossibles.

Close your eyes for a moment, and let your subconscious longing for adventure take over.

Do you want to leap from bed to beach in one bound, star spot from the living room, lay a track in a private studio, keep a horse in the garden or just be a prince of Bel-Air? In these fantastical onefinestays in LA you can. Let the reverie begin‌

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Go for a surf before breakfast Malibu Pier, Malibu

Star spot under the twinkling night sky from the living room Kubrick House, Santa Monica

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Be a prince, of Bel Air Mulholland Drive, Bel Air

Portfolio

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Ride the resident horse around your grounds Old Ranch Road, Brentwood

Record your own track in a state-of-the-art recording studio Via De La Paz, Pacific Palisades

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GUESTbook

Guest editOR: LA

Judy Kameon Guest editor Judy Kameon is a landscape gardener in LA specialising in creating outdoor rooms. Her latest book, Gardens Are For Living, celebrates life in the great outdoors, whether it’s a small backyard or a mansion garden. Here she talks about flavours that bring back memories, urban garden inspiration and painting with flowers, and curates her favourite onefinestay homes with tempting possibilities for outdoor life

interview SARA NORRMAN portrait ken fallin

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SN

Did you always see yourself as a gardener?

JK

Not at all, my road into gardening was unplanned. I had a degree in fine art and worked as a fashion stylist when I bought a derelict plot of land next to my house, and set to turning it into a garden. The house was tiny, so the garden became the one place I could entertain on a large scale, which I love to do.

SN

What was it that got you hooked?

JK

I guess it’s the painter in me that got a creative outlet, and one that was fragrant and edible to boot. I got obsessed with all aspects of gardening, the plants, the colours, the textures.

SN

Where are your favourite urban gardens?

JK

There is plenty of garden inspiration to find in cities like LA, London and Paris. The Huntington Botanical Gardens in LA are fabulous, as is the Botanical Garden on the other coast, in Brooklyn. I’ve visited plenty of grand gardens in England, like Sissinghurst, but a walk across Hampstead Heath this Christmas was wild, sprawling and romantic. The Parisians can have a very formal base, like the Tuileries, topped with exuberant colour.

SN

What does your perfect city scenario look like?

JK

Coming across whimsical places in Paris, where there might be a live jazz concert, or people sailing boats in a pond, is something I adore. It’s great how locals there inhabit their parks and green spaces, and how these places become interwoven with real, everyday life.

SN

What does your own garden in Los Angeles look like?

JK

It is quite wild, it climbs up a hill with terraces that I use for different things ­­– different outdoor rooms for dining, or just little nooks for relaxing.

We cook outside most of the year, and I love entertaining al fresco.

SN

What do you serve guests?

JK

When I was a child my mother used to treat the neighbourhood kids to orange slices and ice-cream sandwiches in our backyard. The flavour of my garden is probably lemons, we have trees and pick the citrus fruit to use in popsicles, tarts, pickles and pasta sauces.

SN

Why did you select these particular homes?

JK

I picked these onefinestay homes because the gardens invite to such an array of activities and are suitable for different constellations of people to spend time in.

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Rosewood Avenue West Hollywood

www.onefinestay.com/los-angeles/rosewood-avenue ‘This would be great for a pool party, sharing time with friends for some laid-back relaxation’

Barry Avenue Mar Vista

www.onefinestay.com/los-angeles/barry-avenue ‘The classic kidney-shaped pool and picnic tables and benches outside, and the midcentury family feeling inside, makes me want to invite hordes of children for watery playtime’

Guest editOR: LA

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McKinley Avenue Venice

www.onefinestay.com/los-angeles/mckinley-avenue ‘Leave the kids at home for this one, it’s a completely grown-up getaway for a few romantic days’ 68

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Sunset Crest Hollywood Hills

www.onefinestay.com/los-angeles/sunset-crest ‘This feels very Palm Springs, in the middle of the city. Grab the girlfriends for cocktails around the sparkling pool at night’

Marrakesh House Culver City

www.onefinestay.com/los-angeles/marrakesh-house ‘Perfect for a retreat, yoga or meditation, with plenty of homegrown fruit, freshly squeezed juice, just-laid eggs and ceremonies in the teahouse. You can travel in your mind here, rather than in body’

For more bright and airy homes in LA visit www.onefinestay.com or contact us at reservations@onefinestay.com Guest editOR: LA

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IN conversation with

Christophe Clark & Virginie Pougnaud Square Desnouettes, beaugrenelle, Paris words Amy Verner photography Erwan Fichou

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GUESTbook

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aris is magical for many reasons but largely because you are often tracing over the lives of renowned historical and cultural figures – many of whom have left written or visual records behind. From an apartment in the complex of buildings at Square Desnouettes in the 15th arrondissement, for example, the impressionist painter Antoine Villard captured the decommissioned railway, now known as La Petite Ceinture, in several canvases over a number of years during the 1920s. And it is within this same complex that we find Christophe Clark and Virginie Pougnaud, present-day artists who have made their loft into a cosy live-work space.

The couple moved into the home five years ago, thinking that Christophe could use the main level gallery to stage photo shoots and Virginie could retreat to the mezzanine to construct her maquettes, which appear in many of their combined series. Their previous apartment was also dual-purpose; but as Christophe tells it, they did not feel at home within the reinforced concrete building. This one, by comparison, dates back to 1912 and exudes unmistakable charm thanks to its warmer wood foundation and excess

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light. It also seemed auspicious to them that the two previous tenants were an opera singer and an artist. Creative output breeds good karma.

Christophe and Virginie admit that they have done little to the 125 sq m apartment by way of renovation. But their eclectic sense of decoration and knack for surface detail means that the bells and whistles are more personal. Tacked to the alcove beside the west-facing window is a pair of small disco balls. When positioned just so, the setting sun ‘sparkles the ceiling with chips of light’, says Virginie. At the opposite end of the apartment, in a nook below her studio, a garland of dried orange slices is interspersed with festive lights. The effect: a natural amber glow. Costume hats are propped atop a mirrored easel; sometimes these get used in Christophe’s shoots. The two portraits from another era were not just culled randomly from a garage sale; they are Virginie’s great-grandparents. Every vignette comes with a story.

The painted statement walls used to delineate areas of the home – soft Bordeaux, grassy green, cloudy blue – were not selected by chance. Each hue corresponds to the backdrop

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used in presenting the couple’s work. But It helps that Christophe’s brother specialises the most important wall of all is painted white, in vintage furniture at one of the city’s best its statement provided by the Tour Eiffel, visible top markets, the Marché aux Puces de la Porte from the landing of the longitudinal clerestory de Vanves. window. Every hour after dark the sparkling Despite – or in spite of – the small kitchen, tower is in plain view.

Virginie says she loves baking cakes and does so At this point, the subject of location becomes throughout the year. She lists off the varieties inevitable. While those determined to stay in the – carrot, lemon, matcha green tea with fresh gilded heart of Paris might remain unconvinced, raspberries – and mentions how she typically there is something compelling about being based serves them with fresh lemonade or ginger tea. from a spot that is equal parts connected and Here, something is always being made, from removed. The closest métro – mere blocks away – artwork to afternoon treats. Memories get made is one of the prime lines and within six stops, you here, too. find yourself within the bustle of Saint-Germain.

The apartment is also within close proximity to www.onefinestay.com/paris/square-desnouettes a number of parks including La Petite Ceinture, which was recently reopened as a pedestrianonly promenade. As Virginie says: ‘When you’ve spent the day shopping and wandering around and you need some rest, this is perfect. We feel like we’re in an eagle’s nest on top of everything.’

An eagle’s nest that, to be sure, boasts all sorts of scavenged treasures – from a pale purple Pierre Paulin Mushroom chair to a mix-andmatch midcentury dining table arrangement.

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ts biggest selling point is that there aren’t any tourists and it’s great for kids,’ says resident Alice Quillet, one of two female chefs that run the acclaimed Le Bal Café.

Located on the ground floor of a photography centre and bookstore, Le Bal Café does great we e ke n d b r u n c h e s a n d happens to serve some of the best coffee in Paris, supplied by the city’s hottest coffee roasters, Belleville. Quillet continues: ‘If you want to see a typical Parisian neighbourhood and experience the real Paris, Batignolles is ideal.’

The pretty, tree-lined area is one of the newly fashionable neighbourhoods popping up around the peripheries of the city, an enterprising patch popular among young Parisians for its location (a 10-minute walk to

Montmartre and a 10-minute hop on the bus to the centre) and with a highly personal, laid-back village feel.

This verdant corner of the 17th was not always such a glossily manicured affair. Once on the seedy side and blighted by crime, like other fringes of Paris currently undergoing rehabilitation, Batignolles has scrubbed up and been successfully repackaged as a picture-perfect, family-friendly pocket of Paris – proof of its self confidence is the new Palais de Justice that opens in the area in 2017, designed by the studio of architect Renzo Piano and slated to become one of the tallest buildings in Paris.

For the discerning residents of Batignolles, good foodie options are as essential as they are bountiful. Each morning, a stream of

clockwise from top: Children play in one of the many family-friendly playgrounds, like here in Martin Luther King Park.

Streets are full of character and green initiatives, such as Square Deux-Nethes.

Innovative architecture is springing up everywhere left: Parisian provisions from the organic market right: Inside Coretta restaurant, with views of Martin Luther King Park

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left: Pastries and cakes at La Fournée d'Augustine right: The contrast between urbanity and nature is blurred in Batignolles

immaculately dressed matriarchs head down to La Fournée d’Augustine for its awardwinning fresh baguettes. The family-run bakery is also popular for its savoury tartes or the pistachio pain au chocolat that packs an early morning punch. A food market on rue des Moines caters to daily grocery needs but an impressive organic food market each Saturday draws crowds from across Paris. Stalls provide a vivid rainbow of high-quality fish, meat, foraged goods and even kale – a rarity in Paris where the healthy and en vogue vegetable has not yet caught on.

Aside from food shopping, retail options are rife and a cluster of well-curated independent shops provide a breath of fresh air from the identikit chains of central Paris. There are numerous design, fashion and children’s boutiques on and around rue Legendre, including Mobilhome for rare vintage furniture and accessories that cater to the more eclectic interior styles of the residents. A few remnants

of the area’s past life as a centre of commerce for craft in the shape of the odd upholsterer and frame-maker remain but also contemporary takes on these local, artisanal skills, like the atelier of talented leather worker Maïté Wustner. On the cobbled side street of rue Héléne, the young and friendly Wustner, who previously worked at Céline and Hermès, sells a wide range of leather bags and accessories to discerning shoppers from across Paris.

In many ways, Wustner impersonates the spirit of the whole area – independent, E free-wheeling and proud to have created such a personal zone in the Paris megapolis.

above: Chefs at work at Coretta restaurant right: Leather artist Maïté Wustner outside her accessories shop at rue Héléne left: Fresh herbs from the organic market

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left: Pastries and cakes at La Fournée d'Augustine right: The contrast between urbanity and nature is blurred in Batignolles

immaculately dressed matriarchs head down to La Fournée d’Augustine for its awardwinning fresh baguettes. The family-run bakery is also popular for its savoury tartes or the pistachio pain au chocolat that packs an early morning punch. A food market on rue des Moines caters to daily grocery needs but an impressive organic food market each Saturday draws crowds from across Paris. Stalls provide a vivid rainbow of high-quality fish, meat, foraged goods and even kale – a rarity in Paris where the healthy and en vogue vegetable has not yet caught on.

Aside from food shopping, retail options are rife and a cluster of well-curated independent shops provide a breath of fresh air from the identikit chains of central Paris. There are numerous design, fashion and children’s boutiques on and around rue Legendre, including Mobilhome for rare vintage furniture and accessories that cater to the more eclectic interior styles of the residents. A few remnants

of the area’s past life as a centre of commerce for craft in the shape of the odd upholsterer and frame-maker remain but also contemporary takes on these local, artisanal skills, like the atelier of talented leather worker Maïté Wustner. On the cobbled side street of rue Héléne, the young and friendly Wustner, who previously worked at Céline and Hermès, sells a wide range of leather bags and accessories to discerning shoppers from across Paris.

In many ways, Wustner impersonates the spirit of the whole area – independent, E free-wheeling and proud to have created such a personal zone in the Paris megapolis.

above: Chefs at work at Coretta restaurant right: Leather artist Maïté Wustner outside her accessories shop at rue Héléne left: Fresh herbs from the organic market

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BEst bits of the neighbourhood

l'Etabli A recently opened wine shop and bar, this is an intimate, cosy space that plays vinyl and sells top-class charcuterie and cheese. Great for after-hours drinks and nibbling on filet mignon smoked over beech wood.

2 rue Lamandé, +33 01 44 90 05 04

Blou A design shop that also sells men’s clothing.

Find contemporary homewares and furniture from tastemaker brands such as Scandinavian Muuto and Marimekko.

77 rue Legendre, +33 09 81 21 98 14 www.blou-paris.fr

Atelier Maïté Wustner Handbags and totes so stylish they attract fans from across Paris. Have a look at the colourful Tropiques range, sporting parrots.

17 rue Hélène, +33 01 83 87 53 96 www.maite-wustner.com

Parc Clichy-Batignolle Martin Luther King Originally built to be part of the 2012 Olympic Village until Paris lost the bid, the vast green space is part of a larger project to transform the former freight land it is located on. It will continue to be extended until 2015, but already includes a skate park, playground, basketball, tennis courts and extensive community gardens.

Le Bal Café Part of an exhibition space, Alice Quillet and Anna Trattles’ restaurant was recently named by Le Monde as the best museum restaurant in Paris.

6 Impasse de la Défense, +33 01 44 70 75 51 www.le-bal.fr Coretta This new neo-bistro has a casually elegant dining room that offers a great view of the Martin Luther King Park. Named after King’s wife, expect dishes such as smoked eel and raw veal rump or homemade foie gras with pomelos.

151 rue Cardinet,+33 01 42 26 55 55 www.coretta.fr Le Vin en Tête This wine shop supplies the city’s best restaurants and bars with its extensive selection of vins naturels. Attend one of its wine courses or weekly tastings to mingle with locals.

30 Rue des Batignolles, +33 01 44 69 04 57 www.levinentete.fr

Marché Biologique des Batignolles (every Saturday) One of Paris’s two big organic food markets, it draw crowds from all over Paris each weekend.

Boulevard des Batignolles www.marches-bio.org Mobilhome For vintage furniture and rare design objets, pop into Mobilhome for a chat with the friendly and knowledgeable founder, Pascale Sgarzi.

106 rue Legendre, +33 01 58 59 10 01 www.chezmobilhome.com

For more host-recommended places and homes to stay in in Batignolles, go to www.onefinestay.com/ paris/batignolles

opposite, top: Le Bloc is a popular brunch place for leisurely locals left: Chefs Alice Quillet and Anna Trattles photographed in the library at Le Bal Café. Parisians enjoying a demitasse or two outside the café

in focus: PARIS

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Guest editOR: PARIS

Alix Daulon The director at the Galerie Frank Elbaz, one of Paris’ most progressive contemporary art galleries, talks about the burgeoning local modern art scene, picks the artists worth keeping an eye on and curates the onefinestay homes in Paris with her favourite collections and design features

interview ALEX BAGNER portrait ken fallin

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AB

At what age or moment in your life did you decide you wanted to work in the art world?

AD

When I was just 16, and I then started my career at Christie’s in the Old Master Drawing Department and worked my way up. My other posts have included the PR department at Sotheby’s, project manager at the National Association for the Development of the Fashion Arts, and most recently at the Centre Georges Pompidou. I started at the Galerie Frank Elbaz last year.

AB

Why do art lovers head to Paris?

AD

Many come because of the grand museums with world-renowned pieces, but there is also a prolific contemporary French art scene.

AB

Which modern French artists are making waves in the art world?

AD

Lots of young local artists are beginning to get international recognition, as they are getting better at promoting themselves abroad which is essential in this global world. This is the task of galleries and institutions as well, we are now working on it and making progress. Keep an eye out for names like Davide Balula, Francois Morollet, Xavier Veilhan, Camille Henrot, Claude Lévêque, Loris Gréaut, Martin Barré and Sophie Calle.

AB

Where do you go for your art fix?

AD

My favourite art place in Paris is Palais de Tokyo. At home, we have a mix of 18th-century old master paintings, modern art and photos on the wall.

AB

What made you choose these homes in particular – was it a particular piece of art you liked, or a general mood?

AD

I picked these onefinestay homes for a variety of reasons; from how the art had been arranged on the walls, to the personality of the owner’s taste and how it is expressed.

Galerie Frank Elbaz represents artists such as Mladen Bizumic, Rainier Lericolais and Kaz Oshiro.

In 2014, the gallery was part of Frieze Art Fair New York, Art Basel Miami Beach, Paris Photo and Fiac. The next major exhibition is Unknown Data by Sheila Hicks, 6 September – 18 October, featuring the American artist’s renowned 3D woven works.

66 rue de Turenne +33 01 48 87 50 04 www.galeriefrankelbaz.com

Guest editOR: PARIS

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Rue de la Faisanderie Trocadero

www.onefinestay.com/paris/rue-de-la-faisanderie ‘I really enjoyed the juxtaposition of paintings in the corridor, the artworks in all the rooms and the fabulous antique cabinet with inlaid stone’ 86

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Rue Monsieur Saint-Germain-des-Prés

www.onefinestay.com/paris/rue-monsieur ‘Because of the vibrant yellow colour of the walls and some exceptional pieces of art’

Avenue Emile Deschanel Eiffel Tower

www.onefinestay.com/paris/avenue-emile-deschanel ‘This apartment houses a very beautiful mix between contemporary, modern and old styles’ Guest editOR: PARIS

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Rue Sainte-Anne Louvre - Palais Royal

www.onefinestay.com/paris/rue-sainte-anne ‘The design here is so supremely sober, sleek and elegant’

Quai des Grands Augustins Latin Quarter

www.onefinestay.com/paris/quai-des-grands-augustins ‘This home reflects a real personality of the owner and a great deal of taste’

For more art-filled and elegant homes in Paris visit www.onefinestay.com or contact us at reservations@onefinestay.com 88

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Portfolio

Objects of desire photography MILO REID

During a onefinestay, you surround yourself with the home’s art, furniture, toys and books.

Many things will pique interest and raise eyebrows.

Why have the owners saved that? What is the reason for displaying this?

Here six London hosts share their most precious pieces and the stories that raise them from inanimate objects to soulful heirlooms

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Treasured by the host at Campden Hill Road, notting hill

Treasured by the host at Provost Road, Hampstead

Treasured by the host at Princelet Street, Shoreditch

Treasured by the host at St Mark’s Rise, Stoke Newington

Treasured by the host at Chalcot Road, Primrose Hill

Treasured by the host at Bromfield Street, Islington

Iranian box This was a present from my brother, about 20 years ago.

He’s a journalist and was a Middle East correspondent at the time. The box is from Iran, where he went twice a year for what were always very tough and stressful visits. His way of relaxing while he was there, was to find out-of-the-way shops selling handicrafts. He’d come back laden with gifts, and now he says how fun it is to visit our house as it reminds him of all those shopping sprees. The box sits in pride of place in our living room as it reminds me of my brother’s adventures. It’s also where I keep all our ballet and concert tickets, so every time I open the box it’s in anticipation of a great performance.

Treasured by the host at Campden Hill Road, Notting Hill Great-grandfather’s effects These are a few items from my great-grandfather who I’ve long loved the idea of. He was Spanish, and an ambassador. He also had the most fantastic name, Don Jaime Montero y Madrazzo, and was positioned in very exotic locations in the early 20th century – Havana, Tangier, Montevideo, Buenos Aires and Melbourne.

He was a liberal and apparently a great reader and avid smoker.

In retirement he would spend most of the day engaging in both, strolling around his large overgrown garden in Madrid in his silk smoking jacket. When my last great-aunt died I brought back to England his various personal effects; including his Diplomatic Honours, reading glasses, and pipe (unfortunately no smoking jacket).

I treasure them as they evoke a man and world I never knew but would have liked to.

Treasured by the host at Provost Road, Hampstead

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Toy dog I picked this dog up 20 years ago for my kids at the local Spitalfields market, the same market that is still going strong on Thursdays.

We lived on Fournier Street at the time and have moved around several times in the area. However the dog, since named Ben, has always come with us. The children are now all grown up but we still keep Ben in the sitting room as a reminder of having the kids around and them being young. It’s also, somewhat surprisingly, become a real friend to our two cats, Truman and Stella.

Treasured by the host at Princelet Street, Shoreditch Cockerel I’ve long collected cockerels in any shape or form. I’m fascinated by their shape and colour and how they’re interpreted differently in art and graphic design. My son bought this one for me when he was 10, from his own pocket money. It was when we lived in Lincoln and he bought it from the market there. He was a chorister at the time and the ruff is the one he wore then, and for some reason it’s always been here on the cockerel and reminds me of him. The robin was a present from my husband, my son’s father. We’re no longer together but we’re still very good friends and the robin again has just always lived on the rooster.

The three objects sit on my dresser and I love how they’re a kind of quirky family portrait.

Treasured by the host at St Mark’s Rise, Stoke Newington

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Rabbit My mum bought this for me when I was very young, and it’s now part of my collection of Beatrix Potter figures – there are 11 of them. My mum and dad bought them all for me slowly over a few years, they were always on my windowsill in my bedroom as a child. They remind me of my happy childhood.

I want to pass this memory on to my triplets and have them grow up with the collection. Every time I take them downstairs in the morning and after their lunchtime nap I stop at the figures (which are on a windowsill on the stairs just outside their room) and show it to them. They don’t understand at the moment as they are only 12 months old but it will end up a memory for them over time.

Treasured by the host at Chalcot Road, Primrose Hill Jacques Tati film poster This poster belonged to my father, who worked in advertising and was a photographer – among other things he shot record sleeves for artists including Fleetwood Mac. He was also a great collector, especially of antiques and vintage posters, many of which were sourced from the shops in Camden Passage, north London. I grew up in Islington, not far from my home now, and out of all the posters he had this particular one always struck a cord with me – maybe because of the image itself, which I love, or the modern but still vintage style which suits me and my home. Today, my father is unfortunately no longer with us, but I have all his film posters up in the hall so that my children can grow up with them too.

Treasured by the host at Bromfield Street, Islington

gallery

Spaces to do it Procrastination is a land of many a hesitant native, waiting around for the right moment to ask the question, learn the skill or bend the rule.

An easy way to break for the border is by changing surroundings, shedding old inhibitions and finding courage as you go.

Here is our selection of homes that will take you from comfort zone to brave new world‌

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www.onefinestay.com/new-york/west-75th-street

West 75th Street, Upper West Side, New York

Compose a symphony

www.onefinestay.com/paris/rue-du-louvre

Rue du Louvre, Louvre-Palais Royal, Paris

Host a soirĂŠe

www.onefinestay.com/los-angeles/buff-and-hensman-house

Buff and Hensman House, Hollywood Hills, LA

Make a splash

www.onefinestay.com/london/queens-mansions

Queens Mansion, Hammersmith, London

Pen your first novel

Our Social Whirl Los Angeles: food for thought In Los Angeles, the best-laid plans are formed at well-laid tables – a city where ladies lunch, families brunch, and business is conducted over bento. It was imbued with that spirit that our LA team, together with Kitchensurfing, hosted a week-long series of foodie festivities in a home from our portfolio, Barry Avenue in Mar Vista.

As any Angeleno knows, no Saturday would be complete without a dose of ‘downward dog’.

And so it was that the proceedings opened with a morning of yoga hosted by How You Glow, followed by avocado toast and grapefruit-mint mimosas from Pressed Juicery. With Laurel & Wolf’s artful objects adding to the home’s zen, stretched limbs were complemented by stretched minds as morning meditation turned into midday musing.

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Conversation was of a sustainable nature at The Honest Company’s poolside lunch, where discussion about the best chemical-free toothpaste took place across wholesome dishes. Social innovation start-up Hawkins Makita also chose lunch as their launch pad. The ever-innovative ladies of designlovefest threw a girls’ night, with mini-appetisers served by the spoonful, and Geri Hirsch’s al fresco dinner was topped off with gastronomical s’mores, ganache-filled marshmallows.

Laurel & Wolf’s evening affair had guests dancing long into the night fuelled by sushi and pinot noir. After one week of bounteous breakfasts, lush lunches and decadent dinners, it’s safe to say our LA team, as well as the attendees and event hosts, were left more than satisfied. And while we’d always suspected as much, the conclusion of the week was this: in a onefinestay home, no two days (or nights for that matter) are ever the same.

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SPONSORED FEATURE

capital gains

Professional property finder Nicholas Finn discusses how to buy the right home in London

W

hen first considering living in London capital investment projects are underway in the multitude of options available can London which are set to transform many parts of seem overwhelming. London is one the capital. Crossrail is due to begin full operation of the most culturally diverse cities in the world in 2018 and will open up many parts of London consisting of a series of micro-markets, each with superb travel connections, which in turn will with their own distinct characteristics, types of affect property values and demand for different housing stock, social demographics and transport locations. connections.

Regardless of the reasons you may be One of the first steps is to understand the attracted to buy in London, for many, life in the differences in areas and focus a property search capital surpasses expectations. Key to a successful to a location that will serve your needs, whether purchase is careful research, planning and the that be led by lifestyle, schooling, business or right advice, to ensure you make a well informed transport connections. purchase.

Being realistic on budget is essential.

London’s micro-markets command sales Garrington work on behalf of private and/or values from £125,000 to over £100 million. corporate clients who want to buy, rent or invest Understanding property values is essential from in property throughout London and across the UK. If you are thinking of buying a property the start of a property search.

Making a good purchase in London requires and would like further information on how good local knowledge. Property values can vary Garrington can assist, contact Nicholas Finn: from one side of a street to another, by over 10%.

Understanding hidden factors such as tube noise Tel: 0207 099 2773 can be critical. Equally don’t just buy a property Email: info@garrington.co.uk based on the location you see today. Massive www.garringtonlondon.co.uk

London: welcome home At the end of February, with every last piece of linen boxed and every last toiletry item tagged, we gathered our onefinestay troops and relocated to a new, larger office space for our HQ. And with the help of some strategically placed fairy lights and candles, we transformed our bare new home into an atmospheric party venue, fit for the most heartening of house warmings.

Joined by our London hosts and their curious comrades, Annie Bea’s live jazz music carried into the rafters, and party-goers enjoyed lashings of champagne and artisan chocolates.

And while celebratory fizz and half-full boxes were a nod to housewarming tradition, in a break from the customary takeaway served canapĂŠs cooked in our boardroom by the epicures at Urban Kitchen.

Our Social Whirl

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New York: two’s company On 20 May our spirited New York team proved that two isn’t always terrible, filling their Downtown office with candles and cocktails in celebration of two fruitful years in the Big Apple.

Joined by a jovial crowd of hosts and friends, as well as the talented bartenders of The Wayland, drinks and hors d’oeuvres flowed as freely as the conversation, with spirits coming courtesy of host-owned The 86 Co. As the evening reached its conclusion, the team proved once more that they’re anything but camera shy, resurrecting their photo booth for a series of comical candids, with fake moustaches and oversized sunglasses on hand to complete the picture. And after a rousing speech by co-founder Evan, attendees began to contentedly spill out into the spring night.

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BROWSE OUR FOLIOS Home in on a bespoke stay Sometimes the reason for travelling is as important as the destination. The business traveller is in search of a big enough work space, the large family a big enough garden. Sometimes you want to chart unexplored urban waters, sometimes indulge in a luxury experience that goes above and beyond. Our Folios will guide you to the perfect onefinestay

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Places that welcome kids with open arms: www.onefinestay.com/folio/family

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Showcasing the very finest of our hosts’ homes: www.onefinestay.com/folio/prestige

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Bases off the beaten track from where to explore: www.onefinestay.com/folio/explorer

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These homes are the business, with room to spread out: www.onefinestay.com/folio/work 106

END NOTE

Particular Importance If it’s the idiosyncratic, quirky, even absurd that we cherish about our homes, don’t the same rules apply when we travel?

words GREG MARSH CEO & Co-founder of onefinestay

I

’m 25 foot underground sipping a Mai Tai from a plastic coconut amid the genteel ravishes of a fake tropical thunderstorm while a floating band wearing leis plays Santana covers. I could be almost anywhere but Tonga.

Built in 1945, so defiantly kitsch is the ‘high concept’ Tonga Room Bar and Restaurant, pickled in ersatz aspic in the basement of San Francisco’s landmark Fairmont Hotel, that management was forced to back down in the face of concerted local opposition when they tried to close the place in 2009.

Local opposition. Yet there’s not a local in sight.

Because it’s different when we live somewhere. Like a loved one, in time place infiltrates us, and that subsumption nurtures an intense pride.

All judgment suspended, we prize the uniqueness of our locales not for their merits but for their idiosyncrasies.

This can backfire, of course. Protectionism can deter innovation when unchecked, and stasis is on the interstate to entropy. But without that same reflex conservatism, the pyramids would have been recycled for fortress ramparts, every iron gate made into shell casing, and no view of the dome of St Pauls saved from the tangle weed of modernity.

When nuanced, that localism, the need to celebrate and defend those features of our homes which make them ludicrous, is precisely what makes travel so worthwhile – and why we fear the supreme efficiency of Starbucks, and its encroaching ubiquity.

We take pride in our hometowns not because we live there – we would have them upgraded on that account – but because we are of them, their eccentricity a true reflection of our own asymmetry, and its evanescence.

It is not Formica that threatens civilisation, but homogeneity. Wonder dwells in the absurdity of things – things like my half-full plastic coconut.

Which is why the world is a better place for the Tonga Room.

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