in praise of a Red Room...&

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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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Screening Room I

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  from L Officiel, 1961.

 right now I'm thinking-what a perfect piece to use in a new project-the Coromandel Screen. I've written about the beauty of pieces done in lacquer with Chinese decoration often -and with good reason. There is nothing more powerful in a room than a Coromandel Screen-as attested to by Chanel in her classically beautiful Rue Cambon rooms.

CHANEL
Photograph by Lipnitzki. 1937.

HE had 1 too-
of course. 
...adding it to the required must haves for rooms with Baldwinesque Chic-

Billy Baldwin

She had 1 -in variation.

 Brooke Astor

Designers know when to employ them-whether the power piece in a room- Rose Tarlow,

 Or as an equal partner-Michael Taylor's rooms for Dodie Rosekrans,

 & never sell 1 short-
a screen loves to show off  in any room-Eliza Bolen's bedroom,

& in a second incarnation in her living room.

for Forever & a day-they've been appearing in fashion photographs- and portraits.

Balenciaga gown from 1954

photographer unknown

you often hear of the mannequins in these fashion photographs taking off with the clothes? the jewels? the shoes?

 Me? 

I'd be making off with the screen.

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Molyneux:the 1-2-3 Punch

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they always work
everyone should have these 3 pieces for a Knock Out
expertly done by Juan Pablo Molyneux

1

the skirted table

2

the Coromandel screen

3

the tapestry*

*this one circa 1550, Belgium. this might be cost prohibitive, but do get a good one preferably without people, get an old one, or get Lauren of Indecorous Taste to paint one!

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