12 May 2014

in praise of a Red Room...&

.

A Classic
Grace Dudley's Red Room
New York


Classics are always best.

I'm always intrigued by Trends. It makes a client-say: Is wallpaper Out? Does everyone have a chocolate brown room now? Are the 70's making a comeback?  Mostly -I say No, No NO! I focus on what becomes the client, the space, the things one wants to keep (there is always that), and regardless of what many may think-a budget. I can't be bothered by trends-because I am a designer and my clients are depending on me to give them many things -what they want, tempered with something that will be timeless.

Classics are best, yes colors can change-but if RED is IN at Your house-why not? Looking at the great red room of Grace Dudley, it's obvious the room is there-indefinitely and why shouldn't it be? I think if you get if right the first time-that's the last time. Over the years things will need brushing up-but the core of the room is there, always at its best.


Grace Dudley in Nassau photographed by HORST, 1971




Grace Dudley's good taste in Classics is evident in rooms at Grayclift she decorated more than forty years ago in Nassau. Cool pure white walls are accentuated by dark window moldings-and traditional furniture in the Dudley Drawing Room. Further making this very English room in the tropics a Classic-a pair of 18th century Chinese screens, family portraits, and pillows in paisleys and fur. Brimming baskets of carnations and mums add color to the room-while upholstered pieces are covered in pure white.




Just off the Loggias, Sharp apricot painted walls draw attention to the rough hewn ceiling and classic moldings painted in white.




A cool respite-the enclosed Loggia is filled with comfortable upholstered chairs- Chinese Chippendale chairs dot the room and beyond.  All of the upholstered pieces are covered in Brunschwig's Les Touches Cotton Print- though the Vogue July 71 article doesn't indicate so-I'd recognize it anywhere.



Les Touches-still available from the venerable firm of Brunschwig and Fils- 1971 and 40 years young, and so a red room.



Grace Dudley's Living Room from the book New York Rooms by Dominque Nabokov
Grace Dudley's Nassau home from the pages of my Vogue July 1971.



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2 comments:

  1. Gaye, so very true, the classics never go out of style. I look around my home and see such a mix of of the above, knowing I can edit any time I want, however; always love what I have collected over many years!

    xoxo
    Karena
    The Arts by Karena

    ReplyDelete
  2. love the loggia and it's gate ..dont know why people get so hung up on fashion in interior design..have what you like

    ReplyDelete

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