Paris Hotel - Is It Old or New?

Irwin Weiner ASID - I wanted to share a few photos that I snapped during a recent shopping trip to Paris with a client. I came across this building near the Arc de Triomphe, just off the Champs-Elysees. It's the new hotel Fouquet's Barrière, on the corner of rue Quentin Bauchard and Rue Vernet.

The building is - at first glance - a typical neoclassical French building that is now a hotel. I loved it because the renovation respected the old architecture, but updated it with a twist.

The building appears to take the same moldings and details of the original old building and recasts them in stainless steel and poured concrete, then punctures the exterior facade with some asymmetrically placed rectangular sheet glass windows.

But here's the Big Surprise: the building's facade is

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Admiring Finds from Antique American Wicker

Irwin Weiner ASID - While we're putting away our outdoor furniture for the fall/winter season, we couldn't help thinking about what we're going to be putting out for spring next year! It's exciting to plan ahead, and we found a few "wish list" outdoor favorites we would love to have in our home during the invitation-only opening night preview of the latest Antiques, Art & Design at the Armory show this past September 21 at the Park Avenue Armory in NYC, co-hosted by Ellie Cullman, Jamie Drake, and Dr. Eva Andersson-Dubin. 

Immediate wish-list gratification came in the form of the Antique American Wicker display - always near the front entrance of the Armory shows. The Nashua, NH entrepreneurs Michael Donovan and James Butterworth are experts at curating beautiful and complete sets of wicker furniture, everything from dining room sets and seating (we think the seating in the top photo would look great on our farmhouse front porch - if the porch was perhaps twice its present size!) to lemonade sets and tea services (see the handsome tea table trolly above) and appropriate period-perfect antique lighting (see the 1890s mercury glass lamp below). 

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Edgy 20th Century Design at Mantiques Modern

Irwin Weiner ASID - We'll be showing you more of the favorites we saw during the invitation-only opening night preview of the latest Antiques, Art & Design at the Armory show this past September 21 at the Park Avenue Armory in NYC, co-hosted by Ellie Cullman, Jamie Drake, and Dr. Eva Andersson-Dubin. 

Ever since we walked by their West 22nd Street windows in Manhattan, we were drawn inside the Mantiques Modern showroom ... and spent time gawking ... at one thing ... that was more fabulous ... than the next.

If you'd like to take my taste and distill it in one dealer's booth or store, it would manifest itself as Mantiques. First, their eye for detail is amazing.

Second, they curate their design so it blends - industrial chic, sometimes just industrial, solid materials, sculptural design, unique one-of-a-kind pieces, and conversation starters.

Finally, there's a sense of humor and not taking themselves so seriously that we love at Design2Share. Who needs uptight design when you can display a real skull embedded in Lucite on your nightstand?

Click on the photos above and below to check out some of their inventory.

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Admiring the Luminous Artwork of Nina Maguire

Too Many Cooks ..., / Nina Maguire

Irwin Weiner ASID - We enjoyed attending the invitation-only opening night preview of the latest Antiques, Art & Design at the Armory show this past September 21 at the Park Avenue Armory in NYC, co-hosted by Ellie Cullman, Jamie Drake, and Dr. Eva Andersson-Dubin. 

Over 60+ dealers specializing in high quality art and antiques including:

French, English, Italian, Swedish and Continental furniture from the 17th century through mid-century modern ∙ fine silver including Early American, French, English, 20th century decorative silver including Tiffany, Italian, Jensen ∙ Russian antiquities and art ∙ rugs and tapestries ∙ Tiffany lamps ∙ antique enamels ∙ French Art Nouveau and French Art Deco furniture and objects ∙ art glass ∙ English and Chinese export porcelain ∙ pottery ∙ objets de Vertu ∙ whimsical objet ∙ antique wicker ∙ fine antique, estate and contemporary jewelry ∙ fine, modern, and contemporary art ∙ fine art lithographs and works on paper ∙ sculpture ∙ rare books and manuscripts ∙ canine and sporting art and much more.

One of the standout exhibitors for us was Cavalier Galleries in Greenwich, CT and Nantucket, MA. We were drawn to a wall of beautiful "new masters" paintings by award-winning painter Nina Maguire. Her work is delicate and expressive, using dreamy acrylic on canvas, sometimes with an incredible texture for her media provided by sekishu rice paper as in her Too Many Cooks ..., (top) and Opera Panorama - Intermission - Lincoln Center (bottom). 

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