WHITE ON WHITE

SLEEPING IN WHITE

There's something about sleeping in a white room. Curling up on an eider down mattress and covering up with a pima cotton duvet is a golden ticket to a perfect nights sleep. I don't know if it's the symbolism of white: the billowy clouds or the softness of balls of cotton that relaxes every muscle and wipes out all our stress. I do know that there's a tropical seduction with a color so linked to the cold and snow. There's something about the end of winter, when the cold days seem to go on and on that wears me out and makes me yearn for a cozy pile of Egyptian cotton topped with a dollop of cashmere. Now if I can couple this with putting that white bed on the shores of St. Barth's, it certainly adds to the attraction.
Here are some places I could lie my head and dream dreams where I win the lottery and look like I'm twenty-three with the wisdom of someone smarter than all the GOP candidates combined.

Sometimes the white dream has a raftered ceiling with recessed paneled walls. Even the light from outside has relinquished its reflective blue and remains pure clear white.

The whiteness of some rooms seems to make them appear untouched and untouchable. As beautiful as this room looks I'd never let a pea get under that mattress cause I'd for sure wake up with a huge pain in my...back.

There's a big trend toward quilting and this white bedroom is a good example of why.  Hard surfaces become inviting when they're covered with tufted diamonds in dazzling white. With the beckoning call of the lapping ocean waves outside I could get used to a firm mattress and a ridged pillow.

Even a small room appears larger when you dress it in white. Add a slipper chair for sliding into your Manolo Blahniks and the room is perfect. Who wouldn't want to wake up here after a romantic evening? I'd just want to make sure I'd worn a pair of tighty-whities to go along with the room.

White is the kind of color that's going to work in a room whether the room is small or large. There are just enough curves in this space made of snow to soften a room that might otherwise have appeared too angularly intimidating. Even the arcs of light and shadow on the walls take away from the hard edges and surfaces making the space a must have.

It was summer in the mountains. A whisper of a breeze ruffled the curtains and made the crystals on the chandelier play a tiny melody. The sun was high enough to have topped the crest of the eastern mountains but it was too early for us to want to leave our nest in the clouds of white linen. We laid in bed the scent of pine adding an extra blanket of comfort to our morning sweet slumber.

When the one percent lay down in white it comes with amenities far beyond a synthetic foam pillow and a Wal-Mart polyester sheet. I would guess that this is a place where the people who lay here are not the same ones that fluff the comfort and fry the eggs on that breakfast tray. This is a perfect example of the adage money can buy happiness.

White is one easy way to give elegance to the room where most of us spend the majority of our time at home. It doesn't have to cost Mitt Romney's daily non-wage stock divident windfall. It can be as simple as a cotton sheet, a cozy duvet and a bucket of paint. The soothing quality of a white bedroom is my remedy for a good night's sleep.

A VALENTINE TREE

This is the result of someone with too much time on his hands.

Constructed from a coil I found in the basement, a broken branch from outside, some heart-shaped Christmas ornaments left over from the holiday and yards and yards of very thin silver wire this tree of love was a labor of love that I hope brings cupid to our store.













THE GALLERY

Le Baiser de l'Hotel de Ville, 1950
Robert Doisneau, photographer
Represented by Staley-Wise Gallery, NYC