Thursday, September 4, 2008

Chatsworth: The Oak Room

Impulsive buys. We have all had one, whether it's an expensive pair of shoes or a fancy stereo. Georgiana and William's son, Hart, the Bachelor Duke, was walking down the street one day with his friend when they found themselves in a auction house. Hart ended up buying all they had of a carved oak lot. He writes about how it was an unwise decision to buy so impulsively but the result of this buy can take your breath away.

The dark chocolate colored oak covers every inch of the room. Even the chairs and furniture seemed to have adopted the rich color of the room. The current duchess thinks the room to be bizarre. I believe it to be too beautiful to be bizarre but it is peculiar. The two doors force you to circumnavigate the room to see all it has on display. The two side walls are built to display the blue and white china which has a nice visual effect, standing out from the dark oak. The back wall contains a series of paintings of the family dogs, forming a border along the wall. In the center of the room, four Bernini-esque twisted columns hold the room up and create a central sitting area.

Before Hart got to this room it was a library. Now it would be the perfect place to cozy up with a good book. Complete with a backdoor to the gardens...in case the dogs need to go out, of course.

1 comment:

  1. I came to your blog just now, great stuff. You might be interested to see a project I undertook last year, relating to Gainsborough and his sitters....

    http://www.bischoffweiss.com/artists/_6/

    And my personal collection here.

    http://louisethomas.tumblr.com/

    I am a huge fan of Mary Graham! I spent months studying the restoration records of the paintings from the museums....truly wonderful

    All the best

    Louise

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