When Are The British Coming?

My friend Mitchell and I always talk about what's next in interior decorating. How long can the Belgian/Swedish/French pale face trend continue? Or the Domino inspired girl world chic chick decorating?


We both love color and pattern and a layered look, so we think it's logical that some sort of return to English style or English country will be the next big thing.

Mario Buatta interior design

In the 1980's into the early 1990's I was a lady-in-waiting to Mario Buatta The Prince Of Chintz, who still does what he has always done, beautiful colorful rooms filled with pattern, and layered to the nines.

Maheshwar Stripe by Sanderson

But except for a handful of Mario Buatta's clients, there seems to be very few jumping on the chintz band wagon on this side of the pond.


The English never stopped loving wallpaper and prints, and tea cozies.

Holy Tea Cozy! Is English decor coming back?!

The look certainly has evolved and is more modern looking, almost in a Domino way.

Finches by Sanderson

Sanderson, a home furnishings company in the UK is celebrating 150 years of English decoration.

Lacecap by Sanderson

This is a momentous occasion for the oldest surviving English brand in its field. The Sanderson story spans many eras of changing tastes and styles, and the designs have moved with the times, always reflecting contemporary style and new technologies. The company has experienced both success and struggle across its fifteen decades, and is proud to remain today a prosperous British business with an international reputation for lasting quality and timeless style.

Ever wondered who produced the first coordinated collection of mass-produced wallpapers and fabrics in Britain? Or built what has been called the world’s most fabulous decorators’ showroom and invented the hinged display screens now seen in showrooms worldwide?




How about who was first with post-impressionist wallpapers, or even earlier, the sole source in Britain of the most extravagantly expensive French papers?

Early Tulips by Sanderson

Then again, what company – from the Americas to the Far East – is most closely associated with the English chintz style? And who received the first Royal Warrant granted to a wallpaper manufacturer? The answers to all of these questions and more are revealed in an exhibition celebrating the 150th anniversary of Sanderson, to run from 19 March – 13 June 2010 at the Fashion & Textile Museum, London.

Love this chic Chinoiserie by Sanderson

As Sanderson celebrates its 150th anniversary it marks this significant occasion, and introduces ‘Vintage Wallpapers’. Nine wallpapers offer a glimpse of treasures in Sanderson’s unparalleled archive. The resulting collection is a celebration of the creativity and diversity.



The shelter magazines in the UK have never stopped showing chintz in some form. And Tricia Guild is certainly true to keeping English style going in a huge glam way.

Tricia Guild - Pavilion fabric

Yet, here in the USA we shy away from wallpaper and floral prints, not to mention color.


And layering is now associated with he dread 'C' word: Clutter.


A small segment of die hard cottage style/shabby chic decorators hang in there, but there is nothing tempting us in the vein of the great Nancy Lancaster.

The great Nancy Lancaster HERE

What do you think? Will English style, in the form of the great English country decorators be rediscovered and be the next big trend?

Long Live The Prince Of Chintz

I have had a love affair with Mario Buatta since the 1980's HERE


His use of color and fabrics and furniture and the way he layers it all has always charmed and excites me. Some call his style English Country, but to me it's quintessential New York Style.



This month Architectural Digest (November 2009) features this Manhattan apartment recently done up by Mario.



All the touchstones are here: chintz, color, patterned Stark carpets, beautiful objects masterfully layered to create a home that feels comfortable and interesting.


It's the end of a crazy full moon weekend. The Cereus plant in my garden bloomed over a dozen times this Summer, and it produce six huge peony like blossoms right on time during the full moon lit night. We had a wonderful art show and party for Jack Mayberry this past Saturday. And then the ceiling came down (AGAIN!) in the store - the tenant's apartment above the store had a hot water tank fail big time. So we are reapiting and cleaning up, and the shop was closed on Monday and Tuesday.
But we're back today. More personal posts to come later this week.

In the meantime, here's an excerpt fro the AD article HERE. Pick up a copy, or check it out on line.

From Architectural Digest:

I think color is so important, especially in New York,” says designer Mario Buatta, gesturing toward the living room, which happens to be the precise apple green of his socks. “To come in from streets full of stone and cement to a drab apartment is just depressing.”

Drab and depressing are the last words anyone would use to describe this airy 7,000-square-foot penthouse, which Buatta designed for an investor and his wife who are passionate collectors of modern and contemporary art and photography. Everywhere you look, light and color give the visitor the effervescent rush of a glass of champagne.

Happy Birthday Mario Buatta!

Mario Buatta has been my BFF like forever. At least in my mind's eye. It's not that I haven't met him in person, talked to him, etc., because he and I are party people, and our paths crossed when I lived in New York City. He was the first professional decorator to form me (the non pros were my mother and my grandmother).
Known as the Prince of Chintz, he was certainly my Prince Charming. The way he used color and piled on so many beautiful things in a room captivated my over active imagination.
He taught me the word topiary, and God I made a ton of them for my business, and a ton of cash too! I fell in love with English dogs because of Mario, and have owned three, a Corgi and two Cavs. He made me smile with his witty needlepoint pillows, and I still have one that says TONIGHT on one side, and NOT TONIGHT on the other.
Mario was born in Staten Island, New York in 1935. I really don't what month or day, and could not find that tidbit of information anywhere. If any of you know, please tell me. I like to celebrate a birthday all year long, until the next one comes along, hence, Happy Birthday Mario Buatta!
He started collecting antiques at the ripe young age of eleven, his first acquisition being a little 18th century lap top writing desk. It took him twelve weeks to pay it off on the layaway plan, and he really didn't know what it was. When he brought it home, he father asked why in the world he wanted this old second hand piece of junk, and Mario told him he didn't know, he just thought it was pretty.
There is a wonderful interview on You Tube where he tells this story and many others. I don't like to put You Tube on my blog because I get those hideous gray boxes, and I also think it slows down opening up the page (along with all the other cool widget crap). So this is the link HERE
He went to London as a student in 1961, and it changed his life. He started Mario Buatta, Inc. in 1963. I went to England for the first time as a young person, and it changed my life too. I started Valorie Hart Designs, Inc. in 1984.
He has been influenced by his Aunt Mary, the home of Nancy Lancaster, and the decorator John Fowler. He and I went to the same schools: Pratt and Parsons. He also went to Cooper Union, whose entrance exam I flunked. He thought about becoming an architect, but found the math and drawing too hard (I also hated and struggled with my Architectural Drafting courses).
This is Mario at home. He is famous for saying "Dust is a protective coating for fine furniture." He also says that interiors evolve, they don't "simply appear overnight via a department store showroom."
There are many articles about Mario out there, but I give you the link to one HERE if you care to read more about him.
I would like to ask him a question: Mario when are you going to write a book about your great body of work? I can help.
I love that Mario says that there is nothing new.
Here is my Mario inspired living room in New York City. You can't see it, but there is a black wool rug with pink roses on it, in a very chintz looking pattern. I mixed it all up, dog paintings, flower paintings, fabrics, antiques and reproductions. Chinese export stuff, Victorian bird taxidermy, stripe-lattice-ivy wallpaper. It was just great!
I'm sitting with my friend Danny, who was such an Anglophile that he changed is name to Trevor Hadley. He took me for to visit Castle Howard in England where his friend was the art curator. It was during the height pf the PBS series Brideshead Revisited, filmed at Castle Howard, and we were kids in the eye candy shop.
I still love chintz. This is a curtain panel in my New Orleans kitchen now. Because of a somewhat open floor plan, I have the same wonderful fabric in my library, which is my office. They say chintz is making a come back. It's been said for at least three years now.
For many of us, it never went anywhere. I love this chair, don't you?
Modernists are checking it out too. The chair above is from Pottery Barn. It comes in leather, but they also offer this chintz for it. I'm glad younger ones are discovering chintz and English style. My young designer friend Mitchell says English Country is coming back. He says it's been out too long, and the price of English furniture is more affordable, and people will discover it again soon.
I think he's right. You can already see a smattering of it coming through the Last Century smoke machine fog. This room is from Home to House HERE, a terrific site from England, where of course chintz has never been on the outs.
Here's another nice example of chintz in a more contemporary way. The chair has rather clean lines, and the openness of the print makes it feel vibrant and not fussy. The black chair and black mirror really have pizazz on the chintz wallpaper.
Here's another nice image from the UK site House to Home, combining French toile and English chintz.
And I couldn't write about chintz and not mention the modernist Queen of Chintz, Ms. Dorothy Draper.
Darling of the present day Hollywood Regency trendsetters, she used traditional chintz in a modern and American way from the 1930's until her death in 1969 (you can read a nice little bio HERE).
Her show place and laboratory was the Greenbrier Hotel in West Virginia. It has been around since 1778, and is distinctly American.
This is another great Draper living room. I don't have to tell you how current it still is, and how many decorating tricks we all do because of Dorothy Draper. All that needs to be updated is the floor, perhaps dark hardwoods, or bamboo (and maybe get rid of the skirted tables).
I leave you with one last image of the dining room at The Greenbrier. I have always wanted to take a little vacation there. It would be fun to organize a get-together with all of you there! A convention of decor bloggers woooohooo! I could do this for you all!
So long live the Prince (still with us), and the Queen (sadly passed on), and The Realm of Chintz (here forever)!!!!