Tom Britt the Mix Master

One thing that I admire about designer Tom Britt's work is that it is usually loaded with personality. No where is this more true than in this Long Island home that Britt decorated back in the late 1960s, a house that in fact possessed many different personalities. Ignoring the generally held belief that a house should be a sum of like-minded rooms, Britt gave each room its own arresting color palette. Bright yellows, pinks, blues, and greens were used throughout. What unified the home and kept it from seeming schizophrenic were the red painted floors and white walls that were found throughout the house.

The most interesting twist to this house, though, is that Britt employed the same three fabrics throughout the house, though he used them in different colorways for each room: in the living room, a palm tree and animal motif print appears in both a pink and white colorway as well as in a stronger pink and yellow version; in the master bedroom, a punchy floral print was used in what appears to be a warm orange color, while in the guest bedroom, it shows up in yellow; in two guest rooms, the same plaid fabric was used in both a green and a blue colorway.

If you want to do as Britt did and use the same fabrics multiple times but in different colors, you might want to consider using some of Quadrille's prints for a similar effect. But, I do think that giving each room its own unique look is something that should be done with caution. I personally think it's easier to decorate your home's rooms so that they're all on the same page, but then, I'm not Tom Britt.





The Master Bedroom




A Guest Bedroom which had the same fabric as that in the master bedroom, though here it was used in the yellow version.




A Guest Bedroom with a green and white plaid print...




...and another Guest Bedroom with the blue and white version.



All photos from House Beautiful, July 1968, Faulconer-Fenn photographers.