Indholdsfortegnelse for November/December 2025 i Veranda

PARTIES ARE LIVE THEATER. Marie de’ Medici’s triumphant visit to Amsterdam included a waterworks show, trumpeters, and a make-believe island floating in the middle of the Amstel River. Henry III’s entrance into the Lido of Venice was heralded by an arch decorated by Tintoretto and Veronese (Palladio designed the structure). Louis XIV famously promenaded his guests through his gardens at Versailles using a complex whistle system that signaled fountain engineers to activate water features. And then there was the food: The famous medieval cookbook Le Viandier lists banquet favorite coqz heaumez, a roasted chicken seated atop a piglet wearing a shining helmet and carrying a teeny-tiny lance. Read that again. Celebrations should be unions of art and imagination, with guests joining the stage as both actor and audience. And I…

HAVE YOU EVER BEEN IN A space that feels like someone just shut you into a tanning bed? Or perhaps like you’re on an operating table being prepped for surgery? I’m not sure who started the trend of loading ceilings with high hats (those pervasive recessed can lights that show up everywhere and seem to be spreading like gremlins in a typhoon), but I blame that person for the hassle of not only having to rip them out of almost every renovation project I’ve ever encountered, but also for having to ask clients to spend their money to do just that. I could have put it to much better use: buying a fantastically beautiful painting, for example, or really anything else that brings joy and holds value. This contagion of glaring…

FEEDING THE FUTURE LAUREN BUSH LAUREN I WANT TO BE THE FIRST female president of Rwanda,’” said a little girl to Lauren Bush Lauren during the FEED Projects founder and CEO’s visit to the East African nation. “She had huge hopes and dreams,” says Lauren, who, as the granddaughter of George H.W. Bush and niece of George W. Bush, is acquainted with the office. It was as a young woman herself, when she made several trips as a student ambassador to Africa with the United Nations World Food Programme, that Lauren first witnessed severe hunger and food scarcity. The experience changed the course of her life: In 2005, while still an undergraduate at Princeton, she designed the now-iconic FEED tote, each bag stamped with the number of meals its sale…

STAR POWER In a 19th-century Manhattan townhouse, designer Michael S. Smith (p. 110) artfully incorporates the owners’ passions throughout their interiors. In the library, for instance, a 1940s-style pendant by David Duncan depicts zodiac figures encircling the cosmos, a nod to the wife’s lifelong interest in the celestial world. BEAUTIFUL DISCOVERIES Pages 34–35 Striae votive, Icy Martini crown, Hussar bartender jacket, Pink Elephant bottle wrap, Cigarette lamp, and Tracy Glover Twist compote, Houses & Parties. BROADENING THE HORIZON Interior design: Lucien Rees Roberts and Erin Fredrickson; rrp.nyc. Architecture: Steven Harris and Peter McInish; stevenharrisarchitects.com. Landscape architecture: David Kelly and Matt Jarrett; rrp.nyc. General contractor: Naramore Construction; naramoreconstruction.com. Pages 92–93 Paint colors: Willow Creek (walls) and Iron Mountain (roof edges) by Benjamin Moore, benjaminmoore.com; Off-Black by Farrow & Ball (chimney), farrow-ball.com.…

A DRAMATIC DINNER PARTY IN THREE ACTS METALLIC TEXTILES AND WALLPAPERS THAT DAZZLE AFTER DUSK A SHINING MOMENT FOR ARTISANAL LIGHTING SHOWSTOPPING BLOOMS THAT COME ALIVE AT NIGHT DIAMOND JEWELRY FOR DECADENT AFFAIRS THE LATEST HIGH-FASHION TIMEPIECES…

FROM HER DINING ROOM TERRACE, or her living room, or just about anywhere in Terri Henning’s sleek glass box home in Charleston, she can gaze out over the endless green marsh. She can see over the Ashley River to the City Marina and the skyline she knows so well—better than most, having lived for 14 years in the penthouse atop the tallest building on the historic peninsula. “There it is,” she says, pointing across the marsh to the Peoples Building, where she—ever gregarious and generous—frequently hosted charity benefits, dinner parties, and other gatherings against the backdrop of 360-degree views. That penthouse’s lofty vista looked from on high upon the city below. Henning’s new home, with an equally expansive and breathtaking panorama, offers a more grounded, serene perspective—fully enmeshed in the…

TO SIT DOWN AT LAST IN THE GARDEN at the end of a long day of weeding and pruning is true contentment for Louise Ness—husband and dogs beside her, a glass of wine and a plateful of homegrown produce at hand. The allure of far-flung adventures is not for her. Home is where she is happiest, and from an early age, she says, “all I have ever wanted to do is garden.” Louise’s roots run deep into the soil of the Isle of Wight, a roughly 150-square-mile island off the southern coast of England that is blessed with a mild climate, plentiful sun-shine, and a postcard-perfect rural terrain. She grew up here and met her Scottish husband, Derek, while working at his company on the island. In 2002, they moved…

NEVER—too hot in all the wrong ways! Designers know better than to say “never.” Except, it turns out, when it comes to red bed-rooms. Quite a few A-listers, including Jan Showers, agree that red is beyond the pale. The Dallas-based designer came to that conclusion after acting on travel inspiration that turned out to be—ahem—a bit of a red herring. “I made that mistake years ago in our own Dallas high-rise,” she says. “We had just been to Madrid, and I was inspired by the colors there, but it didn’t work at home. It was repainted within a week.” While Showers’s red-hot feelings stem from a sense of place (or lack thereof), other designers oppose red in the bedroom altogether—regardless of local design tradition. “I would never even consider…