Monday, July 21, 2014

Modern Print Monday: Elsie de Wolfe's Lattice


Do a web search for images of lattice

We're living in a lattice revival, awash in variations on the Arabic lattice, the French trellis and garden grillwork.

Again we can thank Elsie De Wolfe, Lady Mendl,
who brought the French garden indoors when she decorated
New York City society's Colony Club rooms in the early teens.

The Trellis Room at the Colony Club 1913

Elsie's inspiration for an indoor garden room came from the grand houses of France.
Above is a watercolor of her home the Villa Trianon at Versailles.

"The lattice walls of this sun room are responsible for its striking character. Yet, reduced to its simplest terms, there is no part of the treatment that a local carpenter could not reproduce at a minimum expense in a small enclosed porch or breakfast room," wrote Elsie.

Or one could get a similar look with a trellis or lattice print

in the drapes


or wallpaper.


Above and below,
reproduction trellis or lattice prints.



Vintage Trellis Feedsack


All of which is why I have a lime green trellis rug on my deck.

Modern/Not Modern? More later.

Read a history of trellises at this blog post:
http://mycityisagarden.com/2013/03/12/lart-du-treillage-trellis/

Read about Elsie's Villa Trianon in her 1914 book The House in Good Taste here:
http://digicoll.library.wisc.edu/cgi-bin/DLDecArts/DLDecArts-idx?type=div&did=DLDECARTS.DEWOLFEHOUSE.I0025&isize=text

And another post on Elsie De Wolfe:
http://historicallymodernquilts.blogspot.com/2013/07/modern-print-monday-elsie-de-wolfe.html

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