9 Responses to Draper Double Take

1. Karena says:

   June 22, 2010 at 9:16 am

   Tobi I adore it and yes it is such a statement piece!

   Surprise on my site!

   Karena
   Art by Karena
2. mary tindukasiri says:

   June 22, 2010 at 10:34 am

   This is a great piece of chinoiserie furniture. Love the design of the top photo, but the second photo is too busy, distracting from the sculptural qualities of the side board.
3. Susie @ Maddie's Nest says:

   June 22, 2010 at 1:03 pm

   Love the Kindle Draper collections. This piece looks amazing but totally different in each of the images…I love how the background really pops in each image.
4. magnaverde says:

   June 22, 2010 at 1:29 pm

   The big, bold, high-contrast style that Dorothy Draper put on the map works best in big, bold spaces. In ordinary rooms, her over-the-top doesn’t really work, which may be why she seldom worked on a residential scale–it didn’t allow here enough room to create the striking effects she loved, and nothing is worse than a grand gesture done on the cheap.

   The room in Photo One references her big hotel projects, and its bright, punchy hues should work just fine in a big, bright suburban house, but it works mainly because, bright as it is, it doesn’t bite off more than it can chew, with the kind of overscaled moldings or aggressively patterned floor that DD liked. At the Greenbrier, such things are fine, but in a regular house–even in one of today’s Gigantor houses–they can come across as hyperactive & cartoonish. Fortunately, you can pick & choose which of DD’s trademarks you want to use. No one says that you have to take DD straight up. These days, even Carleton Varney himself has toned things down a bit, as evidenced in the Greenbrier’s lastest renovation.

   In a typical low-ceilinged modern apartment, the key to success may be watering down the intensity of DD’s typical hues & restricting the palette to just one or two colors. Picture Two shows a room that’s still recognizable as DD-inspired (the big cabinet is a pretty good clue) but which should be easier to live with on a day-to-day basis than a no-holds-barred DD scheme. The question of which approach–giddy & festive or sedate & soothing–is most appropriate under different circumstances reminds me of Thomas Hardy’s lines in “The Return of the Native”: Fair prospects wed happily with fair times; but alas, if times be not fair! Men have oftener suffered from the mockery of a place too smiling for their reason than from the oppression of surroundings oversadly tinged.

   Fortunately, like all good designs, these handsome DD-inspred pieces can adapt easily to different backgrounds.
5. magnaverde says:

   June 22, 2010 at 1:33 pm

   OK, so I’m dyslexic & got my numbers mixed up. Good thing I’m a decorator instead of an accountant.
6. Laura Casey Interiors says:

   June 23, 2010 at 6:37 am

   Love those! Gorgeous.
7. Tracy F. says:

   June 23, 2010 at 7:52 am

   Love both settings! The cabinet certainly pops against the blue wall.
8. Jürgen says:

   June 23, 2010 at 8:42 am

   It’s amazing how it changes the same piece in different environments. I prefer the first, clean simple and fresh.
   Greetings!
9. Nancy@marcusdesign says:

   June 29, 2010 at 1:08 am

   I’ve just come across your lovely blog, it’s wonderful! Incidently I did a post yesterday profiling Dorothy Draper, and included this piece as one of my favorite from the Kindel Collection! I would love to have this piece, and the ever-popular Espana Bunching Chest, it is my all-time favorite DD item!! Thanks for the great post.
   Nancy