The Grand Salon

Previously known as "The Informal Entertainment Area" (which doesn't roll of the tongue with any elegance) the room between the foyer and the loggia has been renamed The Salon. The name salon comes via the French from the Italian Salone, meaning a large hall or reception room, and was also used to describe a  gathering of fashionable, like-minded people for discussion and entertainment - "to please and to educate".

So I think it is only fitting that the largest reception room of our house which is to used for the gatherings of fashionable people should be named The Salon. Peter and I discussed the pronunciation for a while and decided it had to be Sa'lon as in felon, not as in Ceylon.

Peter, Willoughby and I had previously chosen the carpet for this area (after much searching) only to be told by the manufacturer that there were only 5 metres left in the country and that they had no plans to make any more. Thus, we decided then and there that we had had enough of searching and would continue the marble of the foyer through the salon as well as through all the upstairs common areas. 

This we are sure will prove a practical move, as the salon will be a high traffic area, and it will contain a bar so spills and scuffs will be inevitable. 

The hard flooring may push the ambience of the room away from the cosy entertainment area that we were trying to create towards a cooler, larger feeling, echoing space. We are going to try to keep the room as warm and personable as possible by grouping the furniture around rugs on the floor, leaving the marble exposed for 'foot traffic through routes'. We want it to be the sort of room where a couple could sink into the comfortable arm chairs and have an intimate little conversation in the corner over an evening night cap.

Below: The Classic club-look that we were hoping to achieve with a carpeted space.

We have found some pictures which illustrate how we might try to create a comfortable ambiance in a large marble-floored space. Breaking the room up with furniture and a clever use of inviting textures and colours seems to play an important part...

Above and below: Back to back sofas are a popular way to separate large rooms into separate spaces.

Above and below: Almost all of these rooms seem to have a fireplace in them, which our salon does not. But their stud heights are also much taller than ours (the standard stud height in NZ is 8 feet. Ours is 12 feet. Some of the rooms in these photos have about 16 feet studs).

Above photos from Tumblr and Pinterest

Mixology...

I am very much looking forward to our cocktail party tonight. 

There will be a lot of liberal mixing and generous portions, unlike a recent experience at one of the local bars in Dubbo...

I had gone into town one evening after work to what I was told was one of the better public bars in the area, 'The Milestone'. I was meeting a colleague for a drink and tete a tete. The moment I entered the establishment my heart sank, on a scale of 1-10 it failed to register for its lack of ambiance  Trying to be good sport and not judge it on its first impression I went up to the bar and ordered two G&Ts from the very pleasant girl behind the bar.

What followed was gob smacking. She took out two glass thimbles (they were an odd shape and wouldn't have held more than 150mls. She then proceeded to very accurately measure a nip of gin into each before well over-flooding both with tonic water from a post-mix dispenser. I grimaced. It had been a stressful day and a glass of soft drink was not what I had been looking forward to. It would have been bad enough if the story ended there, however any trace of gin that may have been left in the glass was soon to be displaced by ice liberally scooped into the vessel with an Archimedeal effect. She smiled sweetly and asked me if I would like a slice of lemon with it. Feeling that any remonstration would be completely lost on her, and remove any possibility of enjoyment from the evening, I stopped grinding my teeth, smiled, and forced a "Yes, thank you" from my lips. 

Having finished the insipid mixture I thought I would head for the wine list. Surely One couldn't  stuff-up pouring a glass of wine. Oh, but evidently One can. Having chosen two glasses of a promising sounding Shiraz, I then watched the same girl get out an old kitchen measuring cup, dribble into it an aliquot from the bottle and the tip it into each glass. My dear readers, over the years I have refrained from using my blog for complaining, complaining is borish and seldom makes for an interesting read, but the sheer dismay of this experience has compelled me to expurgate the memory through writing!

So, now you may understand just how much I am looking forward to a charming cocktail party such as we are throwing this evening. We shall be mingling away till the early hours, when we have to leave to catch our flight to Sydney, and thence on to Malaysia.

Addendum: Cocktail Party Photos...