Axel Vervoordt Timeless Interiors

Seventeen homes demonstrate how Axel Vervoordt incorporates nature, art, and timeless interiors to create living spaces that encourage self-reflection, inspiration, and happiness. For a half century, Axel Vervoordt's vision has been defined by a continual quest for harmony, beauty, and the creation of interior atmospheres that are rooted in the past, connected to the future, and imbued with today's comforts. These eighteen residences--from an urban New York penthouse or Moscow apartment to a waterfront estate in New England, and from a Tokyo dwelling to a Bordeaux wine château or a Wabi-Sabi farmhouse--reveal how art complements architecture and the elements of nature in an alchemy of Vervoordt expression. Portraits of each residence--including the Vervoordts' own homes in Venice and Belgium--feature sweeping vistas of the surrounding landscape and a tour through the interiors. Each detail--from the materials used to the graceful placement of a well-chosen object--offers deep insight into the Vervoordt design approach and abiding principles for living and working well.

Following the best seller Axel Vervoordt: Timeless Interiors, this volume of twenty new interiors expands on the Vervoordt vision for creating exceptional homes that combine natural elements, antiques, and fine art. The art of harmonious living is extolled in this volume through twenty bespoke interiors designed by the Axel Vervoordt company. Each room incorporates natural elements—light, water, metal, wood—blended with a modern aesthetic and punctuated with fine art. The Vervoordt concept of the home is revealed through a refined balance between art and nature to create timeless living spaces. The range of featured properties includes homes by the sea as well as in urban and rural locations, demonstrating a breadth of styles possible within the essential Vervoordt design principles. Photography by Laziz Hamani brings into focus both the unique design details and the carefully constructed interiors that fuse to create each striking setting. These exceptional residences are rich with inspirational ideas to incorporate into your own home so that you can celebrate your living space in the singular Vervoordt style.

Eminent tastemaker Axel Vervoordt recounts the pivotal moments in his life that formed the foundation of his mindful philosophy and signature aesthetic. Axel Vervoordt is one of the world’s foremost tastemakers. Revered for his discerning eye in art and interior design through a career that has spanned more than fifty years, he is renowned for his captivating minimalist interiors. An iconic figure at the most prominent international art fairs and exhibitions, he incarnates a singular philosophy for how to live mindfully and with style. Axel recounts stories from the people who most influenced his life—his family, friends, patrons, artists, colleagues, clients, and unforgettable mentors—in this memoir that is personal, funny, insightful, and permeated with humility, wisdom, and lessons learned. He reflects on the key moments in his life—Rudolf Nureyev’s visit to the Vervoordts’ castle, Axel’s youthful acquisition (and subsequent sale) of a Magritte, his discovery of Japanese Gutai art, his legendary Venice exhibitions, and his experience working for notable clients and friends. He details his greatest successes and his personal regrets, while offering firsthand insight into the work that has forged his reputation. Axel is a larger-than-life and inspiring man, and this book offers snapshots from his life, painting an overall portrait of his guiding philosophy.

Interior design guru Axel Vervoordt shares his latest inspirations for the home. Axel Vervoordt’s intense curiosity has fueled his work as an interior designer, spurring him to explore and draw inspiration from cultures around the globe. He was first exposed to Eastern art and philosophy years ago, but today it has become the guiding principle in his work, particularly the concept of Wabi. Developed in the twelfth century, Wabi advocates simplicity and humility, the rejection of all that is superfluous or artificial. Through extraordinary photographs from Japan and Korea to Belgium and Switzerland, Vervoordt invites us to explore the elements that inspire him: natural materials and time-worn objects that evoke the essence of Wabi. Today, together with the Japanese architect Tatsuro Miki, Vervoordt carries the principles of Wabi into his remarkable interiors. As Vervoordt reveals how he infuses his current creations with a fundamentally oriental approach, interiors devotees will gain new insight from this tribute to the designer’s latest sources of inspiration for the home.

From Robinson Crusoe’s cave to Henry Selwyn’s hermitage, the domestic interior tells a story about "things" and their relation to character and identity. Beginning with a description of a typical middle-class interior in America today—noting how its contents echo interiors described in literatures of the past—Julia Prewitt Brown asks why certain features persist, despite radical changes in domestic life over the past three hundred years. The answer lies, Brown argues, in the way the bourgeois interior functions as a medium, a many-layered fabric across which different energies travel, be they psychological, political, or aesthetic. In this way, objects are not symbols but rather the materials out of which symbols are made--symbols that constitute the very soul of the bourgeois. In a wide-ranging analysis, moving from works by Daniel Defoe, Jane Austen, Charles Dickens, and Henry James to those by Virginia Woolf, Ingmar Bergman, John Updike, and W. G. Sebald, Brown shows that what is at issue is less the economic basis of class than the bourgeoisie’s imagination of itself. The themes explored include the middle class’s ever-increasing desire for more wealth, as well as Victorian women’s identification with the domestic interior and the changes that took place when they began working outside the home. Brown also examines the ambivalence of economically determined objects both as repositories of memory and dreams and as fetishized commodities that become detached from everyday reality. Does the bourgeois possess the interior and its objects, or do the interior and its objects possess the bourgeois?

For a half century, Axel Vervoordt's vision has been defined by a continual quest for harmony, beauty, and the creation of interior atmospheres that are rooted in the past, connected to the future, and imbued with today's comforts. Here, the designer reveals his guiding philosophy and pursuit to uncover the profound sense of well-being that a home can evoke. These eighteen residences from an urban New York penthouse or Moscow apartment to a waterfront estate in New England, and from a Tokyo dwelling to a Bordeaux wine château or a Wabi farmhouse reveal how art complements architecture and the elements of nature in an alchemy of Vervoordt expression. Portraits of each residence including the Vervoordt's own homes in Venice and Belgium feature sweeping vistas of the surrounding landscape and a tour through the interiors. Each detail from the materials used to the graceful placement of a well-chosen object offer deep insight into the Vervoordt design approach and abiding principles for living and working well. A home should be an oasis, a haven that fosters a sense of well-being and joy. Axel Vervoordt demonstrates how through the creation of timeless interiors a home can convey a spirit of generosity, love, and emotion to all who cross the threshold.

Provençal houses are true homes. Warm shades of ochre glow from the walls and roofs, weathered doors shine, and reflections glance off glazed ceramics and strike printed cotton tablecloths. This volume showcases the architectural diversity of Provençal houses and their interiors, gardens, and decorative art traditions. Images of gold-hued walls, iron balustrades, leafy terraces, and painted shutters inspire thoughts of balmy days in the sun. Aromatic lavender in terracotta pots and almond trees casting shade over cobbled courtyards evoke the magic of Provence-style living. The reader wanders up a stone staircase, past brightly painted walls and across tiled floors, through a variety of rooms ranging from a sun dappled kitchen to an ornate drawing room and shaded bedroom. From plain rustic benches and beds to delicate walnut armchairs and elaborate dressers, all the painted and polished accoutrements of a Provençal home are featured. From tableware to what lies beneath, to traditional flowerprint fabrics and intricate quilted textiles, the decorative florishes of Provence provide boundless inspiration for the home.

Provence is a way of life. Its gardens are visions of paradise rediscovered, its houses--whether looking out over sea, forest, the countryside, a shady terrace, or a patio full of flowers--reflect a secret harmony between interior and exterior. Today's architects and interior decorators have in no way renounced Provençal tradition, but rather have drawn tried and tested knowledge from it. They play on the purification of lines, the fluidity of spaces, the rhythm of volumes and the refinement of details. A house in Provence can mean a cardinal's palace, the showcase for a contemporary art collection, or a simple cabin screened by trees. What is important is the spirit of these places, which reflects the gentle way of life that is the specialty of the Midi. This book features sections on gardens, interiors (including contemporary houses, village houses, farmhouses, log cabins and lodges, and historical buildings), and useful information on restaurants, hotels and guesthouses, and best sources for authentic decorating in the Provence style.