Welcome to TGP Tidbits where we round up the happenings and our musings of the design industry each week. This week we take a look at Veere Grenney for The Lacquer Company, The Nordstrom Anniversary sale, and Sargent’s American Portraits at Kenwood House. Written by Natalie Aldridge.
Veere Grenney for The Lacquer Company
Leave it to Veere Grenney to make simple lacquered decor and furniture pieces feel like objets d’art. The legendary decorator, whose signature style is equal parts English restraint and jet set élan, has teamed up with The Lacquer Company to launch the Gazebo Collection and let us be the first to say we’re utterly smitten.
Born in New Zealand, polished in London, and seasoned by his Moroccan retreat in Tangier, Veere Grenney is no ordinary aesthete. A longtime fixture on Architectural Digest’s AD100 and House & Garden’s Top 100 lists, he has built a career designing rooms that feel timeless, tailored, and just a touch theatrical. Now he has turned his hand to furniture and accessories and the result is everything we’d hoped for, subtle glamour with an international soul.
The Gazebo Collection, produced in collaboration with skilled artisans, is a love letter to the lost art of lacquer. Each tray, bin, side table, and writing desk is crafted using traditional Son Mai techniques involving dozens of layers of hand-applied lacquer, each one sanded and polished to a jewel-like finish. The result is high-gloss pieces that practically glow.
What makes this collaboration so special isn’t just the craftsmanship or the colors. It’s the rare ability to make a simple everyday things feel chic, a tray feel transcendent, and a side table worthy of its own cocktail party. And that is what we call glamour with a purpose.
The full collection is available to shop here! We also recommend Grenney’s beautiful books Veere Grenney: Seeking Beauty and Veere Grenney: A Point of View: On Decorating.
The Nordstrom Anniversary Sale
While we don’t need much of an excuse to shop, the Nordstrom Anniversary Sale is officially here, and it’s every bit the retail holiday we wait for each year. Unlike your average end-of-season clearance, this sale is about fresh, new arrivals at prices that feel almost too good to be true. Think cozy cashmere throws, beauty essentials, and timeless pieces to carry you from the tail end of summer straight into fall with style, of course.
Running now through August 3rd, we’re eyeing up a number of goodies. Shop our #tgp approved picks from the sale!
Heiress: Sargent’s American Portraits
If you’re in London this summer, let this be your excuse to make a beeline for Hampstead Heath, a leafy, storybook corner of the city and one of my personal favorites. Heiress: Sargent’s American Portraits is now open at the exquisite Kenwood House and it feels like stepping straight into a gilded age fairytale. Running through October 5th, the exhibition brings together 18 luminous works by John Singer Sargent, the undisputed master of late 19th-century portraiture, in a setting as refined and romantic as the women he painted.
But this isn’t just a parade of silks and satins. These were American heiresses who didn’t simply marry into the British aristocracy, they helped shape it. Among the portraits are a wartime nurse, a helicopter pilot, and Britain’s first sitting female MP. Their stories shimmer just beneath Sargent’s brushstrokes, offering a glimpse into lives that were as bold and unconventional as they were beautifully dressed.
What makes the show especially captivating is that many of these works have never been publicly exhibited before. To see them housed within Kenwood House’s grand neoclassical interiors, Robert Adam’s architectural jewel nestled at the edge of the Heath, is completely transportive. It feels as if the women have returned home for one last debut.
For anyone who adores heritage, interiors, and the quiet power of a well-dressed woman, this exhibition is an absolute must. It’s best to make a day of it. Wander Kenwood House, meander through leafy heath, grab a coffee from the café, and if the sun is shining, take a dip in the historic Ladies’ Pond. It is London at its most enchanting and a secret corner of the world I cannot recommend enough.
Heiress, Sargent’s American Portraits runs through October 5th. Visit English Heritage for more information and tickets.
View this post on Instagram
Read our favorite articles of the week!
An early Victorian Townhouse in North London Sympathetically Brought to Life by Cave Interiors written by Evie Delaney for House & Garden UK.
Matthew Carter Brings a Bold, Playful Spirit to a Storied 1864 Kentucky Horse Farm written by Mario López-Cordero for Frederic.
Shop this week’s inspired finds!
x Natalie
Follow TGP on Instagram: @theglampad
Follow Natalie on Instagram: @natalieealdridge
