If you were faced with decorating a Victorian townhouse, what you do? Back in 1973, Michael Taylor decorated the San Francisco living room of Mr. and Mrs. Warren Clark, and the result was a room that Mark Hampton once deemed "the prettiest Victorian room ever seen." Victorian is definitely not my look, but if all Victorian looked like this, I might become a convert. It's also interesting to see Taylor's version of Victorian, especially in light of his later, California cool look.
The living room is a sea of pinks and greens in both pale and bright shades. Inspired by 18th c. Chinese wallpaper, Taylor commissioned a muralist, Garth Benton, to hand-paint wallpaper with leafy trees and birds in flight. The green moire sofa supposedly once belonged to Greta Garbo. I like the shape and tufting of the sofa, although I could do without the white bouillon fringe. The chair to the right of the skirted table was slipcovered in a cabbage rose chintz. And note too the straw rug, which prevents the room from skewing too sweet.
On one side of the living room was a bay window. Two blackamoor jardinières stood guard over the bay, while a pale yellow silk sofa was placed within the niche. The tassels on the front of the sofa were an interesting touch, although I believe that I've seen a Syrie Maugham sofa that featured similar tassels. Speaking of which, the Syrie Maugham armchairs here were upholstered in dark brown cotton velvet.
I guess the moral of the story is that not all Victorian is doom and gloom.
(All images and Hampton quote from Michael Taylor: Interior Design
And it is a good cheerful message. I am forever walking past Victorian pieces because they are too foreboding and imposing though I will look more deeply in the future now...
ReplyDeleteHostess- Everytime I visit my sister in San Fran and I drive past those Victorian homes, I always think what a chore it would be to decorate them. After seeing these photos, I'm going to start looking at Victorian in a whole new light!
ReplyDeleteAnd, not a frightful ball pillow in sight.
ReplyDeletePatricia- I never got that ball pillow deal in the first place!
ReplyDeleteThe rooms and interior is beautiful, but I wouldn't call it anything near Victorian. The green couch is fab, and of course the chinoserie wallpaper. Thanks for posting! :)
ReplyDeleteSeriously, deliriously pretty. Which the world needs more of, don't you think?
ReplyDeleteThis is a pretty room, Victorian in the sense of the house and architecture itself. Of course all the tufting speaks to a Victorian detail. All these pieces will translate to any room. I have always thought lots of V. furniture would be well done painted or not in a massive chintz and repeated on every piece. I use to mentally redecorate all my grandmothers Victorian this way! LA
ReplyDeleteIt is a pretty room; when did pretty become such a dirty word??!!
ReplyDeleteI love it! We could all use some fresh, pretty interiors in our lives! Mark Hampton and Michael Taylor understood beauty in all things! What a great legacy to share!
ReplyDeleteThis is a pretty room, but I like the dark wood accents- sord of grounding, in a way.
ReplyDeleteHi Jennifer-
ReplyDeleteThis is a wonderful and provocative post.
The house was Victorian--which in many ways would be hideous and impossible for Michael Taylor. The clients must have been charming-or dear friends.
I commend him for taking on this project. The long narrow dimensions, inelegant proportions, tiny rooms, and inevitable bay windows (and often elaborate plasterwork) can be stultifying and impossible to make look chic. Note the other impossible aspect--light only from the bay window at one end.
Best thing: MT used very fresh light colors --pink and acid green were very edgy for 1973-- and lots of white to mitigate the lack of light. He made it look like a gazebo. The flowers--most likely overly styled that way be editors for House & Garden--are rather frou-frou and 'arranged'. MT preferred simple monochromatic flowers.
Note also sisal or seagrass matting, a favorite of Taylor's, and very avant-garde at that time in a chic city house.
BALL PILLOWS--Patricia and Jennifer, these are Chinese in origin and are therefore appropriate and were a fresh note in San Francisco decor in early seventies. However, in MT's large hands, and with his great love of 'overscale' they are all too often too big and are visibly jostling aggressively on a sofa or chair. They also became his cliche.
Jennifer--how to make a Victorian chic: paint the interiors all white, lose the pattern, keep windows simple to let in light. Come and visit us out here on the edge of the Pacific soon. www.thestylesaloniste.com
It's all very green and bright. Very lovely.
ReplyDeleteIf Im not mistaken Mark Hampton went on to apply the look of this room to the decor of his sister's house (Rachel Hampton Blank) outside of Chicago in Winnetka.
ReplyDeleteAny room with huge bay like that is OK with me. Otherwise I'm speechless.
ReplyDeleteIt may be a Victorian house with tufted furnishings, but the decor is all Edwardian charm. The flowers, the chintz and the soft light colors are very Syrie Maugham and Elsie de Wolfe! I hope I'll have a room someday where no one will object to this level of "prettification"!
ReplyDeleteI love the colors and the Chinoiserie wallpaper. I plead guilty to the sin of pretty rooms.
ReplyDeleteIn its very own way, it is an "iconic" room design since it captivated more than a few stylish people back in the day, was painted and analyzed by Mark Hampton nearly 2 decades later~ and here we are gazing at it again, in wonderment. If ever there was a masterful synthesis of styles, this one takes the prize.
ReplyDeleteAbout those flower arrangements~surely a reference to Constance Spry, and quite deliberately so?
Nice room, but it looks SOOOO much like a room Billy Haines did a few decades earlier--I'm surprised no one has picked u p on this yet. See the huge lovely coffee table book titled CLASS ACT about the life, career, designs and rooms of William (Billy) Haines.
ReplyDeleteAnon- What an interesting observation. I'm going to consult my Haines book this evening to compare the two!
ReplyDeleteJennifer,
ReplyDeleteFANTASTIC post on MT.
Best,
Randy Powers
J, One of my all time favorite rooms... I always think of "The Picture of Dorian Gray" by Oscar Wilde when I see this one. It still looks "modern" ...
ReplyDeleteDean in Naples (FL)
Hello. Love Michael Taylor. I was fortunate enough to see his work up close and personal, though his work with Dodi Rokrans, recently sold home in San Francisco' Pacific Heights. So amazing. The interiors were done in 1980 by Michael Taylor, and essentially remained untouched until the sale a few months ago. So amazing, all the original upholstery was in tact. I have the Steven Salny Book - MIchael Tayor - Interior Design, which features the house - such a treat to see everything as it was. Such style and so many iconic pieces of furniture. I was fortunate to get some unused drapery panels from her Palazzo from the grand canal in Venice. I'm ga ga over this fabric, and because the windows were so high and wide 15' x 6/8 feet wide - lots to work with. I can really go nuts in my little condo. Drapers, headboard, bedskirt, slipcover for sofa and cushion covers for cane backed side chairs opposite the sofa. I'd love to post picture as you all would really appreciate this fabric, with a tinge of jealously. Let me know if i could post the images.
ReplyDeleteBest,
Keith
Keith, Email me at jennifer@thepeakofchic.com and we'll figure out a way to post the images!
ReplyDelete