The Proustian effect of Job Jackets

We have a system here in the office of keeping job jackets which are basically just manila folders with plans, photos, cuttings, and samples of materials used in our decorating schemes glued onto them. It is definitely a super low tech system, but unlike high tech digital library systems some employ, it allows us to have a real sense of texture and an active record of color for our rooms. You definitely come away with a much more precise concept of how a room feels by looking at them.

I am starting to work on a project to document my own "finest rooms" and went back to look at a job jacket for a silk lined room I did a while back for the Town and Country Showhouse in Savannah, Georgia. After having looked at the same photos of the room originally featured in the magazine year after year, I lost sight of many of the wonderful details and looking at these jackets reminded me of many different nuances. This reinforced how valuable this form of record keeping is. I think the system and this room are worth sharing here. 

The design on the silk walls was created by Lucretia Moroni, an artist who runs a hand painted wallpaper and textile workshop called Fatto a Mano. She was a student of Renzo Mongiardino, the renowned decorator who created richly ornamented rooms that employed lots of gorgeously hand painted decorative surfaces. Looking at a sample of her painted silk brought me back to the time we worked together on the project; it reminded me of how she bought her own espresso machine from New York to the installation in Georgia because she simply could not survive without it...