could u live in a house like that?

[PAVLOV]

Many of the Imperial Palaces contained clutter and sentimental rubbish, but I have also seen old photographs of rooms that were lived in, and were not cluttered at all. I dont think there was much difference in taste then or now.
I have friends who live in houses and apartments filled with thousands of dust collecting objects.

The Palaces of the Yussupov and Paley families did not look like Alexandra's little "nest". Perhaps it was a matter of good and bad taste. We all have our own opinion of taste. I find bad taste quite amusing actually, ( Hello Elvis Presley ) but its "no taste' like Alexandra's that I have a problem with, and to think of what she had at her disposal !!!

I think ones taste is a reflection of oneself. And if her horrid rooms at the AP are a reflection of what went on in her head, well.
 
But I could still live there, now that all the rubbish has gone.

I pray to God that they dont find any of those Maples things, and bring them back. What a horror that would be, after all the trouble they have gone to restoring the rooms.!!


   

[Clemence]

Many of the Imperial Palaces contained clutter and sentimental rubbish, but I have also seen old photographs of rooms that were lived in, and were not cluttered at all. I dont think there was much difference in taste then or now.
I have friends who live in houses and apartments filled with thousands of dust collecting objects.

The Palaces of the Yussupov and Paley families did not look like Alexandra's little "nest". Perhaps it was a matter of good and bad taste. We all have our own opinion of taste. I find bad taste quite amusing actually, ( Hello Elvis Presley ) but its "no taste' like Alexandra's that I have a problem with, and to think of what she had at her disposal !!!

I think ones taste is a reflection of oneself. And if her horrid rooms at the AP are a reflection of what went on in her head, well.
 
But I could still live there, now that all the rubbish has gone.

I pray to God that they dont find any of those Maples things, and bring them back. What a horror that would be, after all the trouble they have gone to restoring the rooms.!!


   

Kuchumov, the former director of the palace museum, said that the fabric gave the room a funereal feel, with the beds placed like a bier in front of the ikon wall. This was certainly not the Empress's intention. For her the room had the look of a bright English garden or a tent decorated for a June wedding.

http://www.alexanderpalace.org/palace/bedroom.html

talking of bad taste ...

[Eddie_uk]

Not "bad taste" but "her taste" IMO. If Alexandra felt comfortable in these rooms then why not? They are her rooms after all. Not having been bought up in Russia it must have been reassuring, interesting & sentimental to have a little bit of Hesse & England introduced into her rooms, all the pictures and furniture tell a story (In fact did Alexandra suffer from home sickness I wonder?? I must find out). I just love "dust collectors" so interesting to look at and fires ones interests, I love looking at my things and wondering where they where a hundred years ago and who owned them etc! & I can't stand modern minimalistic taste, so souless and without character or individuality. As the Empress Frederick wrote "One loves ones possessions, one caresses them with ones eyes" can't do that with a peice of junk from Argos.

[LauraO]

didn't nicky have a tendancy to be a bit of a neat freak and alix was a clutter bug? i wonder if that DOES reflect personality? i can't remember where i read that, so maybe i'm wrong, but it may well have been on here somewhere, about there being a clash in personalities (yet again) because she tended to be quite messy and he like to keep things neat?
i completley agree that it was HER room so, y'know, its easy to analyse everything after and wonder what made her keep blue tissues instead of pink, i'm sure anyone could do that for any bedroom and make a million wrong assumptions.
if you go to many british statley homes they are like major clutter-fests, sandringham is brimming with clutter and as for other estate homes, its literally ridiculous, i went to one in norfolk, not far from sandringham and there was at least a 3 foot pile of junk on top of a rocking horse, and i can only imagine that in victorian times it would have been 100 times worse, even my grandparents house seems to be really cluttered compared to the younger generation. It was just a massive piece of english culture i find. i was actually talking to my grandad about this (born in 1922 in ukraine) and he said that his parents and grandparents house weren't overly crowded, but when he came to england he was like omg, what is all this stuff?
also i think its awful to attack alexandra for how she chose to decorate or fill her private rooms. I have no objection to people having a go at her political decisions etc because there is, given, a lot to criticise, but i think the line has to be drawn at attacking someones taste, she had no idea people would be analysing how many trinket boxes she had 100 years later, i'm sure if we analysed any of our own rooms they wouldn't be to everyones taste and that wouldn't make us bad people.
i think what we need to remember is that we are analysing alix based on what we already know about her as a person, and kind of forcing it to make sense in relation to her way of decorating etc, it might well turn out differently if we didn't know who she was and were just told to analyse the room.
and as far as living there......no...big houses scare me

[LondonGirl]

Monochrome photos don't do the rooms justice. In fact, for the time, many of the rooms were considered to be a little too 'modern' for many of the contemporary aristocracy to stomach, lol. Colourised pics give a way better idea. I think some of the rooms look pretty homely, frankly.

[Selencia]

What is the question? If we could live in the room of a dead person, or do we find the rooms to our taste? Most royals have to live in houses where a whole lot of people have died due to their age. As to if the rooms are too my taste I can't really say. The rooms of the Romanovs that I have seen I have no idea which palace they actually were located at.

[LondonGirl]

I'd like to add that I think the AP's setting really adds to it's liveability. Especially the near circle of small and intimate lakes. Both in the snow and in the height of summer it looks pleasantly elegant rather than 'bombastic', compared to its near neighbour across the park.

[Sunny]

I must confess. Not only i could live in a house like that, but i'd like to!
Alix's style is very similar to mine - maybe excessive, but very personal. I feel at home. I feel protect thanks to my memories in the shape of photos and paintings. I really would like to have my own Mauve Boudoir!

[Olga Bernice]

Exactly, Sunny! I'd love to live in the AP. Alexandra's style was sort of like mine - I have to admit, I might want to clear it of some of the chairs and tables, but as for the live-ability, oh yeah! I'd absolutely LOVE to live there! Mauve is a really pretty color, IMO. But if I could choose, I'd have *mine* a royal purple color. Gorgeous!

But anyway, Alexandra's rooms were her own. If she liked mauve, and if she liked that sort of cluttered look, then so be it! IMO, she shouldn't be criticised for her own likes and dislikes. Sure, some of us would make a few changes . . . but nobody's right or nobody's wrong, of course.

[bestfriendsgirl]

The thing that gets me is the gazillion icons in the bedroom. I mean, I'm Catholic and I'm all about religious imagery, but good Lord (pardon the pun)! I can't imagine doing the wild thing with all those saints and angels staring out from the wall.

[Olga Bernice]

Yes . . . at least Alexandra found solace in religion, not something else (especially not something worse!).

[Sunny]

The thing that gets me is the gazillion icons in the bedroom. I mean, I'm Catholic and I'm all about religious imagery, but good Lord (pardon the pun)! I can't imagine doing the wild thing with all those saints and angels staring out from the wall.

I'm Catholic like you and can understand ^^ But remind that for Orthodox is very important to have his own collection of icons, a big amount of them near the bed. It was not only Alexandra's mania! Orthodox believe and have Faith also through images because Holy Ikons are a piece of Heaven on Earth, they are the touchable symbol of a God who made Himself  human for humans (Othodox members: if i'm wrong, please, correct me. I am interested in othodoxy, but i'm not so keen. If i've uinderstood wrong, please correct me! I'm a theologian, maybe my words are wrong; i really don't want to insult anyone, on the contrary, i respect and love Orthodoxy very much.)
For those who, like you and me, are Catholic, sounds a bit strange. We have images, but we don't use them SO MUCH. For Orthodox people it is different.
Remind also that Alexandra was born Lutheran. As far as I know, Lutherans don't worship holy images or ikons, so i guess it has been very strange for Alix at first. Orthodoxy should have seemed another world to her!
Like above: Lutheran members, if i'm wrong, please, correct me!

[Leslie.R]

Greetings,
     I feel Clemence you must keep in mind many things. I spent the first 5 years of my life living in a castle and every summer since. Alix's room would not have seemed strange to him at all. As I do not feel those room are strange. He was raised in them. Another thing is you must remember those rooms are huge and have windows to match, meaning there is tons of natural light coming in which would change the rooms appearance greatly. Plus the Czar owned all the palaces, but it is like staying in your grandmothers house, you. There are things in there from a range of different time periods and he would not have been able to change much.

[Vanya Ivanova]

At the AP the Imperial couple had to adapt the existing rooms to their taste, as a result there was inevitably an element of compromise. At Livadia however they were able to design exactly what they wanted. Also its the only one of their homes that has survived relatively intact and would still be recognisable to the them. As we can see these rooms in colour ( the palace website has wonderful 3D tours on line) you can get a much better understanding of what the Imperial couple's taste was like. The rooms at Livadia have been altered quite a lot and without the furniture and fabrics from the time of the Imperial Couple one can only get a partial idea but its still the closest representation as to how they actually lived.

IMO its the Empress's rooms at Livadia, especially her cabinet room and sitting room off the private terrace/balcony that are the most delightful in the palace. The venetian window and delicate iconic columns set off by the gorgeous colour of the wood in the sitting room are really lovely. These rooms are also not that large, certainly smaller than the private rooms at the AP. The views and setting simply stunning. Another thing to remember about the Empress's style was that the rooms would have been filled with flowers all the time.

My own personal experience of large rooms is that minimalist style and too many 'clean lines' don't work especially if the ceilings are very high. Large rooms with high ceilings need and can take quite a lot of furniture, they literally echo without it. I live in an old townhouse and so the best/largest room is the sitting room on the 1st floor at the front. It has 3 large windows along one wall and a very high ceiling. I love this room but I don't think I would want to live in a house with rooms exclusively this size or larger, I find you do just rattle about a bit. As the Empress seemed to do in most of her rooms you need screened off cosy corners when a room is especially large. So in answer to the question, no I would not want to live at the AP, IMO a home that has mostly modest sized rooms and just a couple of larger ones for entertaining etc are the most comfortable. I wouldn't be adverse to holidaying at the Livadia Palace though! ha ha

[Vanya Ivanova]

I meant Ionic columns!