An Abstract Art Series

 As we’ve said before nothing brings more interest to an eclectic interior than pairing modern abstract art with traditional antique and vintage pieces.

 Contemporary artist Nicholas Adamko has recently completed this exciting series of six beautiful abstract oil paintings to be offered individually online through Knickerbocker Antiques and Vintage.

 At once calming and chaotic the energy and movement of the art creates endless levels of depth and dimension to entertain the viewer.

 A generous use of paint creates depth and texture when applied in the artists trademark free-form grid pattern of bold north-south and east-west brushstrokes that brings order amidst chaos.

 The artist originally developed this signature style over a decade ago while still an art student at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York City, and has continued to explore the myriad effects it can achieve.

 Paintings in the series span the saturation spectrum from a rainbow kaleidoscope of deep bold hues to more muted shades of grey and white.

 The heavy use of off-white paint mixing through and over the other colors creates an overall neutral effect that allows these works to complement and enliven any interior.

 The paintings also offer a variety of textures with some flowing more smoothly from hue to hue while others are especially rough and course, an effect controlled by the drying time allowed between layers.

 The time consuming process may take three or even four layers with each subsequent layer nearly covering the one beneath until the desired texture is achieved.

 Each work is rendered in oil on a canvas measuring 16” by 20”, the perfect size to display alone or in groups for added drama as seen here.

 Be sure to visit Knickerbocker’s online art gallery to see larger sofa-sized works by the artist as well as some of his more impressionist style landscapes.

Photos by KS&D.

Porches, Piazzas, and Verandas

 It’s been a while since we last posted on the elements of Lambertville’s Victorian architecture, so with summer in full swing why not take a closer look at the part of the house where Victorians spent much of their summers. 

 We’ve looked at porches before from soaring verandas to elegant loggias, but no one experimented with this architectural feature with more gusto than the Victorians. 

 Perhaps it’s because each of the individual parts of the structure, columns, balustrades, brackets, corbels, and roofs, each allow for endless opportunities for decoration and ornamentation. 

 This was after all an era obsessed with adding as much carved wooden gingerbread trim as their houses could hold, and the porch provided the perfect place to hold it. 

 Even a small entrance porch was an opportunity for ornamentation.

 Take this neighboring pair of tiny twin porches, one in white the other full color, likely added onto the earlier townhouses at a later date.

 All of that intricate trim made for endless surfaces to paint and the color schemes around town run the gamut. 

 Painted all in white the gingerbread looks something more akin to a wedding cake frosting. 

 The architectural styles are as varied as the color schemes including everything from this angular Eastlake.

 To this eclectic Queen Anne featuring an unusual slate roofline.

 But not every porch was awash in lacy trim work as the classically elegant fluted columns here show.

 Here clustered trios of simple slender columns rest atop heavy rusticated stone supports illustrating the later influence of Craftsman ideals over ornate Victoriana.

 This example of simple columns on masonry bases is adorned with classical dentil moldings giving a hint of the Colonial Revival.

 The advent of air conditioning along with the rise of the backyard as the main outdoor family space would spell the end of the golden age of front porches, but what better place to sip an iced tea on a summer afternoon than the porch of this classic American Four Square decorated with flowers and wicker furniture and shaded from the sun by cheerful stripped awnings.

Photos by KS&D.

Summer by the Shore

With the summer season officially upon us lets have a look back at the lost summer cottage of one of history’s first interior designers.

This most eclectic seaside mansion once stood in a line of grand summer villas on the dunes of Monmouth Beach, New Jersey, long since reclaimed by the sea. Built for Christian Herter of New York’s famed Herter Brothers design firm in 1881, while in the midst of completing his most celebrated project, designing the lavish interiors of William H. Vanderbilt’s triple palace on Fifth Avenue. The designer’s less opulent but no less intricate summer residence is a study in Victorian eclecticism with the wall surfaces alone including brick, cement, wood paneled, shingled, and clapboard treatments, all wrapped up with a tall woodwork trimmed veranda lush with foliage.

Photo via American Country Houses of the Gilded Age

Decorating with Houseplants

The pair of unexpected cacti in our last post got us thinking about houseplants and how much life and interest they bring to a room, especially when paired with antique and vintage pieces.

 

The big marble coffee table in our loft is styled with a trio of Phalaenopsis or Moth Orchids potted in Spanish moss, bringing some much needed height and vertical drama to the otherwise horizontal display of trinket boxes, small porcelain accessories, books, and sculpture scattered around them.

A column makes for a chic and elegant plant stand that can fit just about anywhere. The fluffy looking plant happily perched near this sunny window is known as a Ming fern, though oddly enough it's a relative of the asparagus and not a fern at all, while the vintage birdcage on the windowsill keeps company with a sweet African violet cheerfully basking in the sun.

The little sunroom through the French doors to the left is packed to bursting with all kinds of plants, palms, and vines. This tiny high ceilinged glass room could be thought of as sort of giant walk-in terrarium, but its come to be called simply the plant room, as it’s proved a perfect spot to winter palms or rebud orchids, including the pink and white ones in the first shot.

Antique Baltimore chairs flank a juniper bonsai tree atop on a Moroccan style accent table in this eclectic vignette. Produced mainly in Baltimore from 1820 to 1840, this style of chair incorporates Classical influences, like the curved back of the ancient Greek klismos chair as seen on the left, and elaborate hand painted and gold gilt details that result in a fantasy of the ancient Greco-Roman world by way of early American folk art. In its more heavily distressed condition, the chair holding the mandolin harp with its elegant deer-like legs and graceful gold gilt details almost resembles a relic from ancient Rome.

Many of the plants featured here including the orchids, Ming fern, and even the cactus that got this whole topic started have been purchase over the last few years from the Parkside Orchid Nursery in nearby Upper Bucks County, our favorite source for orchids that often carries other interesting houseplants as well, and definitely worth a visit if you're in the area.

Styling and photos by KS&D.

Shop the newest items and many of the ones pictured  here in our online shop.

A Victorian Marble Topped Dresser

We’ve always had a thing for marble topped furniture.

So when an entire bed and breakfast full of antique furniture was closing a few blocks away we couldn’t resist bringing home a marble-topped dresser, as there were so many to choose from.

The heavy drawers with wonderful carved and inlayed wood detailing all stuck once filled with clothes, but after a little rubbing the bottom of the treads with a bar of soap they now open and close like new.

The entire mirror is easily removable if desired, but the molding around it has a bold almost baroque architectural influence that we played up by draping with antlers, one holding a charming vintage Bavarian boy’s hat.

On the smooth white marble top an unexpected pair of potted cactuses lend some texture and interest alongside a classical bust draped in beaded jewelry and a tiny antique child size shoe mold.

Photos and Styling by KS&D.

Shop New Spring Inventory Now!

With the spring antiquing season in full swing we are pleased to offer an amazing selection of eclectic antique and vintage finds while they last.

Shop HERE now for a carefully curated selection of unique and one-of-a-kind curiosities and works of art from industrial and religious artifacts to elegant salvaged architectural fragments and primitive folk art. Let us help you find the perfect accessories to add to your home décor be it traditional, rustic country, romantic Victorian, Mid-Century retro, or shabby Bohemian chic.

Photo and styling by KS&D

The Great Gatsby Movie

        “The windows were ajar and gleaming white against the fresh grass outside that seemed to grow a little way into the house.

A breeze blew through the room, blew curtains in at one end and out the other like pale flags, twisting them up toward the frosted wedding-cake of the ceiling, and then rippled over the wine-colored rug, making a shadow on it as wind does on the sea.”

- F. Scott Fitzgerald

An interior shot of Tom and Daisy Buchanan’s Long Island mansion from Baz Lurhmann’s much anticipated film version of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s 1925 masterpiece, and our personal favorite book The Great Gatsby, finally set to open Friday May 10^th.