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" Is decorating dependent on the weather? It&amp;#039;s not an activity that&amp;#039;s often canceled on account of rain. Nonetheless, as the days get longer and warmer, we seem to long for spaces that are bright and airy. We may not go as far as the Victorians and roll up the rugs to take them out for a good beating, but there&amp;#039;s nothing old-fashioned about rethinking our rooms for the season, swapping out silk lampshades for lighter linen ones, adding some vivid pillows, making up the beds with more colorful sheets and quilts, or, at the very least, washing the windows to let the sun shine in.  Americans have always had a love affair with summer\u2014as Henry James once declared, the two loveliest words in the English language are &amp;quot;summer afternoon.&amp;quot; This issue is full of homes where we would love to laze away the long days ahead. But that doesn&amp;#039;t mean they are similar. In fact, two of them, in fairly close proximity, couldn&amp;#039;t be further apart in style. On Nantucket Island, young architect Rebecca Ascher has transformed the interior of a historic, weather-beaten shingled house on the beach into a vision of cool modernity and understated chic. On nearby Martha&amp;#039;s Vineyard, restaurateur Keith McNally has taken the opposite approach, conjuring a fantasy of simple, rustic island life, a mise-en-sc\u00E8ne that is as imaginative and lovingly detailed\u2014right down to the real live chickens on the porch\u2014as his acclaimed Manhattan bistros Balthazar and Pastis.  Even the two New York City apartments we feature, one designed by Celerie Kemble, the other by Steven Gambrel, embody the kind of pared-down luxury that seems so welcome at this time of year. And in Southern California, where summer lasts all year round (and where roses, which I struggle so mightily to grow in my own garden, flourish like weeds), Courteney Cox has created perhaps the ultimate Malibu retreat\u2014sleek and refined, but also totally easy. It&amp;#039;s the ideal spot to gather together friends and family and hang out\u2014and isn&amp;#039;t that what summer&amp;#039;s for?  All of us at ELLE DECOR hope that your next few months are filled with endless summer afternoons. Michael Boodro Editor in Chief  elledecormail@hfmus.com "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.elledecor.com/design-decorate/news/a3317/elle-decor-editors-page-julyaugust-2011-a-69992/>