Describe this room in 3 words:
Decadent, luxurious, and ever so slightly lurid.
What was the inspiration behind this room design?
For me, my design process often starts with reference images. I love to revisit great rooms or details from the past. This bedroom started with Betty and Francois Catroux’s old bedroom where they had a very simple platform bed and a coromandel screen hung on the wall behind it and around the room. It’s a great room and iconic image for me.
Please share a fun anecdote about the design process?
Fun anecdote: Finding a bed that was the right proportion for the room was really hard, so we actually just made the bed out of plywood and I took the leftover carpet from our carpet install and wrapped the bed with it. The room, despite how it feels in the photos, is actually not super large, so we tried to play with proportion a bit. Keeping the bed pretty low in front of the taller screen helped the room feel bigger.
What is your favorite thing about this room and why?
I love the Coromandel screen behind the bed. It took us ages and ages to find one we liked, and could afford. I love the quality of the lacquer, the sense of history, and also the glamour of it.
Three tips for decorating an interior you always follow:
Proportion, Proportion, Proportion! Proportion and scale for me are super important. I think it can really make a room feel different than it is. It can make small rooms feel larger or rooms with low ceilings feel taller.
I also really think you need to think about how people live in a space. It should feel comfortable. Easy to move around. Design is only as good as someone feels in the space.
Third, I really like to approach each space with a sense of collection. For me, spaces feel more alive when they feel personal. When people can say, oh, we bought this great silver vase on vacation here or we bought this ceramic on that trip there. I try to encourage people to take time and learn about things and begin collecting on whatever budgetary scale that means to them.
