News

Aloha! My design associate Brinsley Matthews and I have recently returned to the mainland after  finishing up a week of decorating assignments on the island of Maui.

And believe me, I always find lots of decorating and design inspiration when I visit Hawaii.

Just announced by Pantone, Ultra Violet is the iconic company’s Color of the Year for 2018.

Every time I hear the color’s name, I think of the late French actress Isabelle Dufresne, who was known as Ultra Violet in her films for Andy Warhol during the 1960s.

Now, Pantone’s color honoree isn’t quite as avant-garde as Dufresne’s work was for the pop-art icon. But this grape tone can hold its own, in any case. It is a striking color, one that says intrigue, glamour and high style.

Jim Nabors, who died Nov. 30 at 87, was a delightful gentleman — and a true gentleman.

I met him through friend Caroline Hunt, who created the Rosewood Hotel & Resorts chain of properties as well as being a philanthropist in Dallas. She and her childhood friend, Carolyn Lupton, also of Dallas, were close friends of the actor and through them I visited Jim at his home in Hana on the island of Maui and at his other home on Oahu.

The Kips Bay Show House is iconic in New York City, and the designers who create spaces for the annual fundraiser are some of the finest in the business.

One of the designers, in my opinion, ranks among the finest anywhere — Susan Zises Green. In fact, Susan has decorated a space of honor, the drawing room, in the inaugural Kips Bay Palm Beach Show House, which just opened in a 1920s-era house off Flagler Drive. The proceeds benefit the Boys & Girls Clubs of Palm Beach County and the Kips Bay Boys & Girls Club in New York.

Attention, theater lovers, attention!

What a treat it is to see a great production of a classic play — and what an added bonus it is when the sets, the costumes and the lighting design are nothing short of perfection.

It’s pumpkin time, when glowing jack-o-lanterns greet scary goblins, as well as the trick-or-treaters who will arrive at our doors on Tuesday. The pumpkin is to Halloween what the evergreen is to Christmas, the egg is to Easter and the heart is to Valentine’s Day.

If I were to select my favorite stone for jewelry and for color, it would definitely be larimar.

Do you know it? It’s a gemstone of the blue variety, made of the mineral pectolite and mined only in the Dominican Republic. It’s found in the mountain ranges in Barahona, the southwest region of the country, and its distinctive coloration comes from the volcanic activity of the area.

Ocean blue, the color of the Atlantic outside many Palm Beachers’ windows, is perhaps the color of choice for the new season.

While hunter green, navy blue, claret wine and rich brown seem to lead the choices when decorating, might I suggest a wonderful alternative — ocean blue. That’s the deep blue-green you can see each day as you drive along South Ocean Boulevard.

What's old is now new in decorating.

I have found of late that while the traditional antique market is weakening, the popularity of original designs and color combinations from the ’50s and ’60s is exploding. You’ll find rooms today decorated with foil wallpaper and hallways boasting flocked wallcoverings — often in a white-on-black or black-on-white damask design— above white chair rails.

As children, my sister and I often went for a ride in the car on Sunday with our parents, perhaps stopping at a roadside stand for ice cream in a sugar cone. My favorite was always orange sherbet, while Vivian always selected strawberry.

Since we lived in a seacoast town in Nahant, Mass., the car ride generally took us along the shore to Swampscott, Marblehead or Manchester-by-the-Sea. Palm Beach and our coastal highways remind me so much of my early life that I often take Sunday off to see other villages and towns north of our Palm Beach home.

Those of you who saw the musical 'Sunset Boulevard' during its initial run on the Great White Way 23 years ago will recall the elaborate and decadent set, which brilliantly captured the over-scale grandeur of Norma Desmond’s 1920s-era mansion of Old Hollywood.

Or perhaps you have seen the 1950 film and you’ll remember those massive sets filled with Renaissance-style furniture.

When it comes to hallway design, I sometimes think of the subject as a decorating walk-a-thon. Or perhaps the headline would be: Decorating — the long and short of it.

I have been a decorator of hotel corridors, hospital corridors and cruise-ship corridors for many years, and I have learned a few visual tricks to give the impression that the hallway isn’t nearly as long as it truly is.

Who did what first? And who and what should get the credit for being the original?

Those questions, believe it or not, sometimes come into play in the decorating world, which recently has gone bananas over a tropical-theme wallcovering featuring big banana leaves on a white background.

There are several interpretations of the design, which was first popularized by hallway wallpaper at The Beverly Hills Hotel during World War II. Was the original design by my professional mentor, the late Dorothy Draper, or by the late Don Loper, who initially came to fame in the 1940s as a Hollywood costume designer? Here below is my take on the matter, as told to me some years ago when I first joined our firm in New York City.

Summer in Palm Beach is a terrific time to accessorize and decorate so that everything will be ready to welcome your guests when the season arrives — and it’s on its way, believe it or not. I can’t believe it’s nearly August.

From throw pillows to pen sets, to all those special fragrances and candles that fill a room with joy, Palm Beach has emporiums that offer the decorator, the tourist and the everyday shopper a variety of stylish choices.

The private place of a public face is often of the main attractions on a celebrity house tour, even if the celebrity has long since departed the world: Who wouldn’t want to visit Elvis Presley’s bedroom? What was the style of the boudoir of Marie Antoinette?

Whether occupied by a king, a queen, a movie star or even a politician, bedrooms pique our interest. And the curiosity isn’t limited to those with an eye for design. There’s also an odd invasion-of-privacy component of the desire to see where a celebrity sleeps.

Is this the world of the faux?  Or to use the word of the moment, the fake?  Fake news may have captured the world's attention of late, but decorators have focused on the fake for centuries.  Yes, we have fake flowers and fake diamonds and fake fur and fake grass carpets - and lots of other fake home decorations.  There is fake wood flooring, fake marble, fake malachite.  It never stops.

* It may be warmer, but if your home catches ocean or lakeside breezes, you can still entertain outside on the loggia, terrace or patio during the summer months. Try Island Home, 334 Worth Ave., for tropical-theme items with a restrained, elegant look. Shell napkin rings and other seashore-theme table accessories can make your table so inviting, whether the event is a Memorial Day barbecue or a July 4th fireworks-watching party. Tired of shells? Look for napkins with palm trees or hibiscus flowers that say, “Let’s have fun around the pool!”

A fashion designer nearly always is a decorator as well, and the Diamonds’ Palm Beach residence has reflected Regine’s artistic passion, creating a showcase for the best of Moroccan style. From the tiles, lighting fixtures and rugs, to the candelabra and banquette seating, the look would be perfectly appropriate in a Moroccan palace.

Maps remain a big decorating plus, even in an era when digital GPS mapping systems often have relegated paper versions to gather dust in the car’s glove box.

But as I travel around the world these days, I find that maps — where they chart land or sea — are finding their way onto fabrics, wallpapers and ceilings, as well as coffee tables and end tables.

If you visit President Harry Truman’s Little White House at Key West, you’ll find that Truman immortalized the rooster when he placed a pair of the white fowl with their bright red snoods on his living-room mantle. Truman — a Democrat, of course — certainly knew the history of the bird.