Last month, my husband and I took a most astounding trip.  Eleven days in the Tanzanian bush on safari with our wonderful guide, Ray Wankyo.

There aren’t enough adjectives to describe the trip.  It is so much with me yet, that my days and dreams are still filled with the images of our experiences.

I could talk about the dozens of animals and birds we saw; the cycle of life before our eyes every second; the beauty of the Baobob trees; the hysterical warthog families running by…but you can read National Geographic and get the big picture.

Because interiors are my passion and business, I am compelled to talk about the amazing lodges we booked – with African interiors that will inspire me for eternity.

Before we left, I didn’t do much research on the resorts, although I see now that they all have beautiful websites.  I wanted to be pleasantly surprised, and trusted the instincts of our trip coordinator to put us in relative comfort.  I was happy to rough-it if I had to.  All we really required was running water and something a step above a port-a-potty…

As it turned out, every resort we stayed in was more interesting and luxurious than the next.  And the resident chefs seem to all be French- trained to perfection, offering variety and ingredients that delight.

When we landed in Kilimanjaro, we were whisked away to Legendary Lodge, which is outside the city of Arusha. 

Lucas, Manager, greets us at the homestead

It is a thriving coffee plantation, with buildings from the early 20th century that are the height of colonial charm.

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Indulging my fascination with Luca Guadagnino’s “Desire Trilogy” films, I most recently enjoyed seeing his 2017 release, “Call Me by Your Name.”  Again set in a 17th c Italian villa in Lombardy (northern Italy), this movie is all about happiness and love – of nature, of each other, of food, and of wonderful old houses that offer comfort and nurturing.

Apparently Guadignino (“G”) had dreamed of buying this villa, as he told Architectural Digest Magazine, but found his Milan apartments and changed his mind.  “I knew this was where I was going to set the action of the film – this place with faded, aristocratic charm, that a professor and his wife might have inherited but can’t quite keep up.”

The parlor

To help him create the authentic interiors, G. recruited Violante Visconti di Modrone, an Italian duke’s daughter.  G. says “She’s a genius and really has an understanding of how a family like that would live.  She’s not a set designer but she knows the environment – furniture with heritage and a family without money.”

Al fesco dining at the villa

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You’ll recall that in my last blog, I described Luca Guadagnino’s love of interiors with his three “Desire Trilogy” films that put characters and action in parallel with their surroundings.  I featured the beautiful Villa Necchi as the star of “I am Love.”

In his 2016 “A Bigger Splash,” G. (Guadagnino) has chosen Pantelleria, an Island off the coast of Sicily, as his backdrop.  The house where the action takes place, the Tenuta Borgia Estate, is actually famous as a luxury rental property.

The Tenuta Borgia Estate buildings

But as a movie set, it is dressed as an extremely happy, carefree house with colorful, crazy shapes and furniture.  Almost as if the sinister quality of some of the actors can be laughed off in this heady atmosphere…

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Is it just me, or do most people really look closely during a movie at the house and furnishings that have been chosen in every scene?  I am so personally affected by interiors, whether real or staged, that they highly influence everything I feel about the actors and action.

I’m launching into this subject because I recently re-watched a movie by Luca Guadagnino, who is the master at creating houses with as much character as the actors.  I follow his directing religiously, because he is so very good at what he does.

Born in Palermo, Guadagnino has given us movies such as I Am Love, A Bigger Splash, and more recently, Call Me by Your Name — all of them set in a magnificent Italian landscape with interiors that beguile us throughout.

In 2016, New York Times writer Dana Thomas interviewed Guadagnino in his own home, a 3,200-square-foot apartment on the second floor of a 17th C. palazzo near Milan.  What the filmmaker says about interiors during this interview adds to the authenticity of his movie sets and explains his thoughtful approach…

“I hate the concept of beauty for the sake of it.  It is overrated.  Environment is essential.  I like anything that has to do with form and space.  But I am also a humanist with a very strong love and attraction for character; that’s the mixture.”

When Guadagnino (referred to as G. hereafter) bought his apartment, it had been empty for 40 years.  the renovation took six months, and G. was onsite daily.  “I am a director.”

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We’re on the 3rd floor of the Field Museum.  It’s Members’ Night, and a chance to see behind the scenes of one of my all-time favorite places.

I can’t really describe much about the 3rd floor – I’m no expert on workshops.  But this is a unique workshop that produces beautiful displays over and over again, each year, for all of us to enjoy.  So I’m just going to feature a lot of photos, some with captions to tell where we are, and some to exclaim about what I’m seeing.

Otherwise, this is a wordless blog about an amazing interior..

Seems like things haven’t changed much in decades.

Any and all questions are welcomed.

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I’m all for personal spaces where you can enjoy your collections or hide your guilty pleasures – “man caves” full of trophies and sports “stuff,” “she sheds” for sipping tea or painting or whatever you have space to do in them…

Not everyone has a big enough area to express themselves.  Yet, I know some women who have hidden little “dressing rooms” or vanity rooms that work quite well in closets and attics.  The spaces are charming and fun and don’t cost a lot to create.

One friend I know had a back porch off her bedroom that was a total wasted space.  She invited me over recently to show off her new “beauty room,” as her husband calls it.  She couldn’t be more pleased.

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It was originally painted battleship gray, a fate of so many porches.  But she worked with the gray and left it at eye level up to the rafters, and used a bright white for the rest of the room.  Incorporating all white furniture – some antique, some utilitarian – worked well with the new white plantation shutters, too.

The tension between the rough porch boards and the delicate crystal chandelier is so perfect.  And Etsy original artwork marries the two paint colors beautifully at eye level.

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When I saw Rachel Brosnahan win a Golden Globe for Best Actress, I’d never heard of her OR “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel.”

But now I’m three hours into streaming this Amazon gem, and I might stay home tomorrow to finish it!

The formula of this show is a total win for me:  ’50s New York, terribly chic women, The Village and its early comedy clubs, an appearance by “Lennie Bruce,” and a script with laugh-out-loud lines scattered around.

Oh, and did I mention a gorgeously furnished, pre-war apartment on the Upper West Side?

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