For me, design writing is a short story told with beautiful materials, sunlight and a very particular point of view.
Lady Bird Johnson National Wildflower Research Center
House Beautiful sent me to Texas to cover a wildflower center that is truly a national treasure. My most lasting takeaway: the environmentally sensitive construction. Plants were rescued, topsoil and limestone reused. Any piece of land not needed as a work path was cordoned off. Price tags hanging on trees stated their replacement value and reminded contractors that if roots were compacted or branches nipped, there were economic consequences. I think about this often when I see tractors under trees in my town.
Inner Radiance
I took a master class in color when I interviewed Pierro Castellini Baldissera about his Tuscan farmhouse. Pierro set himself a challenge: “I wanted the color of the walls and the color of the fabric to be enough.” Mismatched wing chairs have different tones of lavender, the lampshade is covered in fabric from a sari. “Sometimes it is more difficult to do something simple than to do something more decorative,” he acknowledged. From Victoria.
Homing Instinct
In reclaiming an asbestos-shingled farmhouse near his birthplace in Minnesota, antiques dealer Gep Durenberger became a student of sunlight. “For weeks I paced the property and moved yellow ribbons and stakes,” he said. “Every room is shaped a certain way because I was jealous of the light and the view.” He planned seating so people would be elbow to elbow at a dinner party— “the conversation is fabulous”—and took every opportunity to erase rectangularity with Gothic windows, triangular cupboards and decorative objects. From Victoria.
Curating the White House
Magazine interviews with White House curators, including Betty Monkman, above, informed my third book, Real Life at the White House, co-authored with my father, John P. Whitcomb. Real Life at the White House was unique in that it looked at 200 years of history through the eyes of 40 families, all of whom occupied the same house. Few liked the decor of their predecessors. Jackie Kennedy despaired at Mamie Eisenhower pink. Teddy Roosevelt took out the Tiffany stained glass screen installed by Chester A. Arthur. John Adams, the first resident, was the exception. The plaster was barely dry when he arrived and the furnishings were so sparse that Abigail Adams hung her wash in the unfinished East Room.
Universal Press Syndicate Design Columnist
For seven years, I wrote a monthly design book review column that ran in 200 newspapers across the U.S. Here’s an excerpt:
WHITE ON WHITE
There are those who dream of snow at Christmastime, and those who dream of a kind of white that never melts—the pale beauty of white interiors.
A color that symbolizes peace, calm and sophistication, white has influenced sites ranging from 16th-century Palladian villas to 1930s Hollywood movie sets. The reason is simple.
"It invites in light, tranquillity and space," says British style maven Stephanie Hoppen, author of White on White: Creating Elegant Rooms With Shades of White (Cico, $20).
Not only that, white is impervious to decorating trends.
"It never goes in and out of fashion," says Hoppen, who has designed with white for years. "It is timelessly classic and stylish."
White has another advantage that many people overlook: It's great camouflage.
With a can of white paint, you can make a marriage out of mismatched chairs. You can transform a hand-me-down dresser or add sparkle to an old mirror frame.
Invest in white slipcovers and you'll find yourself even further along the road toward a sophisticated, pulled-together look. …