 Maddox had long harbored ambitions to own a surrealist house - suggesting spaces filled entirely with bricks and rooms furnished with life-sized chess pieces as possible decorative schemes.When a property was finally found in Autumn 1946 a less ambitious, though still eccentric, design featuring a giant loom, mandolins and wallpaper hand-printed on an adapted washing mangle was adopted.Weekend parties drew in a wide variety of unconventional attendees from well outside the core surrealist circle.