Syrie Maugham

Syrie Maugham (ne Gwendoline Maud Syrie Barnardo, 10 July 1879 25 July 1955) was a leading British interior decorator of the 1920s and 1930s and best-known for popularizing rooms decorated entirely in shades of white. In a career that lasted from 1922 until her death, Syrie Maugham became a legendary interior designer credited for designing the first all-white room. In the early 1910s, Maugham began her career by apprenticing in a London decorating firm to learn about furniture restoration, trompe-l'oeil, curtain design, and the mechanics of traditional upholstery. She established her own interior decorating business at the age of 42, Syrie LTD., at 85 Baker Street, London in 1922, and as her reputation grew, so did her business. She later opened shops in New York and Chicago, and designed homes in Palm Springs and cities all over America. Furniture was Maughams specialty. Syrie was born during the Victorian Era, a time characterized by dark colors and small spaces. Syrie rejected these norms to create rooms filled with light and furnished in multiple shades of white and mirrored screens. In addition to mirrored screens, her trademark pieces included: books covered in white vellum, cutlery with white porcelain handles, console tables with plaster palm-frond, shell, or dolphin bases, upholstered and fringed sleigh beds, fur carpets, dining chairs covered in white leather, and lamps of graduated glass balls. Maugham also started the trend of stripping and repainting French provincial antiques with a secret craquelure technique. This technique remains a popular treatment seen in many modern interior designs. Although it cannot be said that Syrie was in the first generation of interior designers, she did bring more freedom and creativity to the design profession. Elsie de Wolfe was quite formal, correct, and respectful, but Syrie drew from a various mixture of sources ranging from Picasso to baroque antiques. She reinvented classic furniture with crackled paint applications. She used strange colors. Maugham decorated the first all-white room, the living room in her London house, which she unveiled at a candlelit midnight party with great success.She is most well known for the music room at her house at 213 King's Road in London and the salon at her villa at Le Touquet, a society resort in France. The music room was actually the only room designed in all white, but many other rooms were primarily white with accents of color in the draperies or pillows. The salon was decorated entirely in shades of beige, relieved only by pale pink satin curtains. Although she made her fortune and fame with her white decors, by the mid 1930s she had largely given up the white decors to create interiors with baroque accessories and color schemes punctuated by bright green, shocking pink, and bold reds.Her best rooms were in town, or looked as though they should be.

Syrie Maugham
Syrie Maugham (nscut Gwendoline Maud Syrie Barnardo, 10.07.1879 - 25.07.1955) a fost o lidera printre decoratorii de interioare britanici ai anilor 1920 i 1930 i bine-cunoscut pentru popularizarea camerelor decorate n ntregime n nuane de alb. ntr-o carier care a durat din 1922 pn la moartea ei, Syrie Maugham a devenit un designer de interior legendar creditat pentru prima camera decorata in intregime in alb. La nceputul anilor 1910, Maugham a inceput cariera de novice ntr-o firm de decorare din Londra pentru a nva despre restaurarea mobilierului, trompe-l'oeil, designul draperiilor, precum i mecanica tapieriei tradiionale. Ea si-a stabilit propria ei afacere de decoraiuni interioare la varsta de 42 de ani Syrie LTD, la adresa Baker Street, 85, Londra in 1922, si cu cat reputatia ei crestea, la fel se intampla si cu afacerea ei. Mai trziu si-a deschis magazine n New York i Chicago, i a proiectat case n Palm Springs i in alte orae din ntreaga America. Specialitatea ei era mobila. Syrie sa nscut n timpul erei victoriene, o peroada caracterizata de culori intunecate si spatii mici. Syrie a respins aceste norme pentru a crea camere pline de lumina si mobilate n mai multe nuane de alb i cu suprafete aciperite cu oglinzi. Plus la suprafetele acoperite cu oglinzi, marca ei personala mai includea: cri acoperite n pergament, tacmuri albe cu manere din portelan alb, mese-console din ipsos de palmier-frond, coaj, sau baze de delfin, paturi capitonate i franjurate, covoare din blana, scaune de sufragerie acoperite n piele alba i lmpi de sticl gradata. Maugham a nceput de asemenea, tendina de stripare i revopsire a antichitilor franceze de provincie cu o tehnica secreta de a cracluri. Aceast tehnic rmne un tratament popular vzut n multe stiluri de interior design modern. Dei nu se poate spune c Syriea fost n prima generaie de designeri de interior, ea a adus totusi mai mult libertate i creativitate pentru profesia de design interior. Elsie de Wolfe a fost destul de formala, corecta si respectuoasa, dar ea a evoluat inspirindu-se dintr-un amestec de diferite surse, incepand de la Picasso si pana la barocul antic. Ea a reinventat mobilierul clasic cu aplicatii model de crapaturi din vopsea. Ea a folosit culori ciudate. Maugham a decorat prima camer decorata integral in alb, camera de zi din casa ei din Londra, pe care a prezentat-o la o petrecere la miezul nopii la lumina lumnrilor si care a avut mare succes. Ea este cel mai bine cunoscut pentru sala de muzic din propria ei casa din Londra i pentru salonul de la vila ei de la Le Touquet, o staiune din Frana. Sala de muzica a fost de fapt unica camer proiectate exclusiv n alb, dar celelalte camere au fost n principal decorate inalb cu accente de culoare aplicate pe draperii sau perne. Salonul a fost decorat n ntregime n nuane de bej, eliberat numai prin perdelele de satin roz pal. Dei ea si-a fcut averea i faima cu decorurile ei albe, de la mijlocul anilor 1930' ea a renunat n mare parte la decorurile in alb pentru a crea interioare cu accesorii in stil baroc i scheme de culori punctate in verde stralucitor, roz socant si rosu indraznet.Camerele cele mai bune ale ei au fost n ora sau aratau precum ca acestea ar trebui sa fie in oras.

Trompe-l'oeil - a style of painting in which objects are depicted with photographically realistic detail; also: the use of similar technique in interior decorating. To strip - to remove equipment, furnishings, or supplementary parts or attachments from. Craquelure - a network of fine cracks on old paintings caused by the deterioration of pigment or varnish. Shade - light diminished in intensity as a result of the interception of the rays; partial darkness. Curtain - material that hangs in a window or other opening as a decoration, shade, or screen. Porcelain - a hard, white, translucent ceramic made by firing a pure clay and then glazing it with variously colored fusible materials. Cutlery - utensils such as knives, forks, and spoons used as tableware. Vellum - a fine parchment made from calfskin, lambskin, or kidskin and used for the pages and binding of books. Carpet a thick heavy covering for a floor, usually made of woven wool or synthetic fibers; a rug. Shell - the material that constitutes such a covering; an external, usually hard, protective or enclosing case or cover; a framework or exterior, as of a building. Leather - a material consisting of the skin of an animal made smooth and flexible by tanning, removing the hair, etc. Typhoon - a tropical cyclone occurring in the western Pacific or Indian oceans.

With the strength of a typhoon she blew all colour before her. For the next decade Syrie Maugham bleached, pickled, or scraped every piece of furniture in sight. White sheepskin rugs were strewn on the eggshell-surfaced floors, huge white sofas were flanked with white crackled-paint tables, white peacock feathers were put in white vases against a white wall.

Cecil Beaton THE GLASS OF FASHION about Syrie Maugham