Archive for October, 2007

Historic Design

Wednesday, October 10th, 2007

images.jpgSlump-stone bricks in the living room, a “negative space” that provided visual breathing room for patterns of light to dance with shifts in the sun.

He was master of scale and proponent of interior design. His influences ranged from the white rooms of Syrie Maugham in the 1920s to the simplicity and minimalism of Coco Chanel’s salon on

Paris’s rue Cambron. Every winter he would spend a month at the Royal Hawaiian in

Waikiki, communing with the interiors of his mentor Frances Elkins, whose maxim, “When in doubt, take it out!” he liberally applied.

But the interior designer’s biggest inspiration may have been his clients, with whom, as MacMasters points out, “there was always a love affair. He was fiercely protective of their interests.”

Taylor would sketch at night in bed on a big tray, the phone cradled on his shoulder, his end of the conversations going something like this: “Are you in your lovely canopy bed? There’s a beautiful pair of chairs I want to show you!” The next morning he would arrive at client meeting with dozens of fresh sketches.

The timelessness of Michael Taylor’s vision and his devotion to his craft are expressed by the house’s current resident, who, though she never met him, has found herself over the course of a decade restoring the original Italian raw-silk melon, lime green and orange pillows there. She describes her window screens as “beautiful, to die for, drop-dead” and confesses that she is extremely reluctant to make changes, even now.

“The integrity of the design was so pure,” she says of the masterpiece she inhabits. “You can’t replace the quality of Michael Taylor.”

Posted in 室內設計, Happy Feet | No Comments »