There is no better way to experience a city than to poke around and discover a few interesting shops. A town’s colors, textures, and history reveal themselves and reward the eye with their touch. Those moments cannot be found remotely, and so Veranda encourages us to consider an adventure in the future by shining a spotlight on New Orleans as “Best Shopping City of 2020”. Thomas Jayne, a part-time resident of the city for several decades, shares 3 favorites (he could name many more!) along with 4 other designers with roots there.

His local “must-visits” are Decorations Lucullus, specialists in culinary antiques in its new home in Bywater, Nadine Blake’s French Quarter shop filled with an eclectic and personal mixture of furniture, decor and gifts, and M.S. Rau, dealers in the extraordinary whose shop on Royal Street teems with the finest antiques, jewelry and art. Over the years these places have been dependable sources of beautiful things to enrich our rooms and we encourage you to explore them as well one day.

Read the article here.

Above, Thomas in his New Orleans apartment. See more about the place on our site by clicking here.

At the start of what is usually the season of designer showhouses, 1stDibs has come up with an alternative to the bricks and mortar kind — a virtual showhouse. They chose 10 designers, asking each to select a room with historical significance to create a new vision for it. Their big “reveal”, now online, shares the resulting sketches and “mood boards” laid out with swatches, inspiration and, of course, plenty of images of beautiful objects and furnishings found on 1stdibs.

Our choice for this assignment is the Lansdowne Dining Room, a period room in the newly reopened British galleries for decorative arts and design at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. Originally part of a 1760s era house on Berkeley Square by the Scottish neoclassical architect Robert Adam, it served as the “eating room” in what was once considered the finest example of his work in London before being partly demolished.

This stunning and architecturally rich room was simply furnished in its day, and currently presented in the same spirit at the British galleries today. Suggesting a path, Thomas Jayne and Senior Designer William Cullum decided it was an ideal choice because, as Thomas notes, it was “a beautiful and important room that doesn’t rely on its decorative arts, but rather it’s architectural quality. The room is relatively ornate, but was sparsely decorated…we saw this as an opportunity to reinvent it as a great room with multiple functions”.

Their modern re-imagining frames that space as a studio for both lounging and dining without detracting from its iconic Georgian features. Thomas explains “it has personality and takes decoration well. We wanted to bring a joyful quality into a room with a lot of austerity, giving it an artistic, Victorian quality, as if the house had stayed in the family and matured throughout the years.” They filled it with a mix of period and craft objects found on 1stdibs from throughout the ages in both traditional and contemporary styles including a 1950s Maison Leleu sofa, circa 1900 bamboo chairs, and a flowery Minton garden seat for the living area and Leleu fruitwood chairs with tapestry upholstery and 1967 red-lacquer table by Otto Zapf for the dining. Rounding it out are curtains based on a 19th-century palampore hanging from India and a pair of Chinese lanterns. Together they achieve a delicate balance by emphasizing the “gentle relationships” between differing textures and forms.

And, lest things got too serious, they made a playful choice of lilac for the wall color. “It was a way to bring the room down,” says William, by relaxing the mood and letting the color serve as counterpoint to the room’s august tone and grandeur.

This new take demonstrates Jayne Design Studio’s “ancient and modern” philosophy, one that draws from the deep historical well of classical design and brings its best lessons (the primacy of function, quality, simplicity and comfort) into the present. As Thomas says, “Tradition is not about what was. Tradition is now.”   

Read Molly Bates’ of Susan Becher Public Relations press release on our room.

Click to see a little video of a moment during the scheming process.

Last, a stand alone view of our room description from 1stdibs’ site.

This special 10th anniversary list expands the group to 125 from the original 25, with a new stable of talent added to a continuing roster of “grand masters” and acclaimed designers from earlier years (we became part of the list in 2013).

Even after all this time, being included on this esteemed list remains an honor and a privilege, one that has greatly enhanced our Studio’s profile and reach. Congratulations to the new additions and old hands with special thanks to the magazine’s editors for their encouragement and support for the work that we do.

Visit the Elle Decor site for the slide show highlighting the listees. Our profile features an image of the Great Room of a family compound in Oyster Bay, which is shown at top and can be seen in depth here. It is worth an online visit — the house was designed expressly for the purpose of enjoying summer weekends, just to help put everyone in the frame of mind as we all embark on our own.

One of our earlier appearances on the A-List showed Thomas Jayne and Rick Ellis’s pink sitting room of their New Orleans apartment, which was also presented as a full length feature in the magazine in 2008. See our project page on the apartment here.

Our experienced team and 30 year history of creating traditionally inspired yet modern rooms provides us with the strongest foundation to keep on making beautiful rooms for today and the future.

Stay in touch with Jayne Design Studio with its newsletter, Instagram feed, and website home page, or reach out directly at info@jaynedesignstudio.com

Thank you for checking in with us.

Jacqueline Terrebonne of Galerie Magazine, asked Thomas to open the doors to his home and reflect on how he feels about it after these weeks of working there. His response can be found in “Love Letter to My Home: Thomas Jayne in New York – The accomplished designer sees the SoHo loft he’s shared for over two decades with his partner, Rick Ellis, in a new light”.

The loft, which he and husband Rick Ellis purchased more than 20 years ago, is in a landmark building built in 1900 in Soho’s Cast-iron district. It retains a great deal of its original architecture –including the 5 beautifully carved flights of wooden stairs to the loft door and lack of elevator. But the luxury of having windows on 3 sides and 2 skylights more than balanced out the inconvenience for them and has paid off in other respects. As Thomas notes, “staying here almost 24/7 lately, and largely in the daylight, has literally opened my eyes and allowed me to see where I live in a new light”.

In the piece, he relates how light and time affects the way we see things and plays on objects around the rooms. He describes:

As the sun shifts I continue to look at our treasures in the changing light. I have a confederate in this examination with Rick, who is, among other things, a great chef and food/interiors stylist. Besides dishing up great lunches and dinners each day, he constantly arranges our possessions in artful ways—often to catch the light as he juxtaposes the shapes, forms and textures of things. I like the analogy of our loft being a huge collage that he often rearranges in response to our bountiful light.

Read more to see how he has gained further appreciation of his surroundings and notes on how bringing in garden flowers (these found within an urban setting!) enhances a room.

House Beautiful hosted Thomas on its Instagram Live feed on April 14th for a “Personal Home Tour” of his Soho loft. The behind-the-scenes visit allowed him to share stories about his favorite objects and explain how he applies his particular approach to decorating within his own spaces. Click on the below video link to watch the tour.

You will see a few signs of spring hinted at about the loft — we offer a sampling here (the forsythia branches have a story behind them — see the video!).