During a recent trip to Washington D.C. I was able to spend some time at Hillwood Estate, Museum and Gardens. This is the home of the late Marjorie Merriweather Post. She was C.W. Post’s only child and sole heiress of the Postum Cereal Company which later became General Foods Corporation. The property is well worth a visit if you ever find yourself a tourist in Washington D.C.
The Dining Room features authentic French decor, including oak paneling recovered from an eighteenth-century Parisian home. Two of the room’s highlights are not, however, French: four large Dutch paintings of hunting scenes and a spectacular Italian table designed in 1927 for Mar-a-Lago, Mrs. Post’s home in Palm Beach, Florida, and requested in her will to be brought to Hillwood. When its six leaves are in place, it can seat more than thirty people.
Today, table settings in the Dining Room and adjacent Breakfast Room are rotated with selections of porcelain, glass, and flatware from French and Russian services.
The design of the Breakfast Room recalls the breakfast room in Mrs. Post’s New York City apartment that was built in the 1920’s. The bronze metal work is from the New York apartment, also. The gilt bronze and green glass chandelier comes from Catherine Palace, one of Catherine the Great’s favorite residences outside St. Petersburg.
I decided to include the kitchen and pantry in my post so you could see where the wonderful meals were prepared and where a lot of the dishware was stored.
Do any of you have a silver safe in your pantry? Since Mrs. Post’s death in 1973 no meals have been prepared in the kitchen. She requested it be retired.
I’ll close with this view from one of the pantry windows.
Please visit Susan at Between Naps on the Porch for more tablescapes.
Click on gardens and Russian treasures to see more of my posts on Hillwood Estate, Museum and Gardens. Later next week I’ll also post about the Russian Icon collection Mrs. Post acquired and my favorite painting in her home from 1883, A Boyar Wedding Feast.
Photobucket replaced all my photos with blurred out versions and they are holding my photos hostage until I pay them lots of money. I’m slowly going through all my posts and trying to clean them up and replacing some photos. Such a bother.
The Happy Wonderer ~ ellen b. 
What an estate! Lovely! I used to live in the area near D.C. but never, sadly, made it there! And what a kitchen! WOW! A silver safe! I’m so glad you included that, too!@
This is amazing. I’m so glad you shared this with us. It’s always wonderful to vicariously participate in all these lovely travels. A silver safe!! Well I can understand that. I would have lost my sterling in our house fire had it not been in the fireproof safe… But that was a huge one.. one can only dream 😉
Oh what a wonderful tour — what a shame that lovely kitchen is not being used — imagine all the creative cooking that was done there. Thanks for a lovely tablescape and a peek behind the scenes as well!
Wow!
No silver safe in my house – I make do with a very jumbled drawer!
Simple gal that I am; I love the pantry window the most. Makes me think of Grandma’s pantry.
WOW! What a stately dining room. I like the stemware. Do you know if they are French or Russian?
The tablecloth is Needlelace de Venise and was hand made in France. It is made using only a buttonhole stitch and picots. The buttonhole stitch is made over thick or multiple strands of linen, and even horse hair was used. The third picture down shows the intricacy of the details and gives some idea of just how many hours it would have taken to accomplish such beautiful needle ware. Because it was so labor intensive, I suppose it has become somewhat of a lost art.
Janet, Thanks for the details on the tablecloth. Are you one of the docents at Hillwood?
I meant to mention that along the border of the table, you can see animals (deer, horses?) and the medalions on the cloth overhanging the table suggest a hunt scene.
Somehow, I seemed to have replied to myself in the first post in response to Ellen’s message. Really just a lurker here…
No silver safe needed over here.
What an amazing place…full of treasures!
OH wow. ..look at those cabinets. .simply amazing. The tabelscapes are almost as lovely as yours. Truly a lovely place to see and to imagine the conversations about favorite cereals at the breakfast table.
What a beautiful dining room!! Wouldn’t you just LOVE to host a party there? Of course doing the dishes afterward would not be fun ;-O.
How are you Ellen B? Did you get my note in the mail yet?
xoxo cori g.
What a beutiful dining room…and all the storage for dishes in the pantry! Heaven for a dishaholic! Thank you for sharing…Blessings My Friend,
Thank you for giving us the “royal” tour. I had no idea there was a place in Washington so filled with Russian and European treasures.
that breakfast room looks like such a serene place to dine in!
kelly
OH WOW! I need to definitely need to put this on my list of places to visit! Thank you for sharing, great pics!!! It’s been forever since I’ve posted on TT, but I just finished up a tablescape for the Lewiston Tour of Kitchens tonight and I just had to share it with you and your readers!!! Hope you can make it by to see the finished product! 🙂 Would love to know what you think, you’re a master of these tablescapes, afterall! 🙂 xo,A
Thanks for sharing this, Ellen. What a gorgeous home!..Christine
The tablecloth is Needlelace de Venise and was hand made in France. It is made using only a buttonhole stitch and picots. The buttonhole stitch is made over thick or multiple strands of linen, and even horse hair was used. The third picture down shows the intricacy of the details and gives some idea of just how many hours it would have taken to accomplish such beautiful needle ware. Because it was so labor intensive, I suppose it has become somewhat of a lost art.
No, I’m not a docent. My father bought an antique table cloth and napkins for my mother years ago and I inherited it. I posted pictures of it on the fabric forum on eBay and they identified it for me. Once identified, I very carefully laundered it, air dried it and with the advice of the experts, ironed it with hot iron and heavy steam. They are very dense, heavy linens and it took me over five hours to iron half of it. Then I carefully folded it and wrapped in in a cotton sheet and will iron the other half in my dreams. Most are classical designed with cherubs dancing, latticino, romantic scenes, monogramed napkins, and are quite lovely, but not to iron.
Amazing! I am glad I don’t have to clean that chandy! Think of the great things and messes we could make in that kitchen! 🙂