Posted by Kate Johnson, July 9, 2009 in Books
While fact-checking an upcoming story, I had the opportunity to check out Billy Baldwin Decorates from the library. I'm sure many of you own the book or have read it at one time or another, but if you haven't flipped through it in awhile, it's worth another look. Baldwin is a font of sensible decorating advice that still inspires 40 years after it was first published. Here are some especially good passages:
"A client has no one but herself to blame for a sterile, uninteresting house if she hasn't the gumption or self-assurance to assert herself. Ruby Ross Wood once took me to visit one of her clients who lived in a beautiful house with superb furniture and lots of lovely little objects and flowers around. But the woman was frantic. 'I'm going out of my mind,' she said. 'Someone has given me this little box, and I don't know where to put it." Ruby snatched the box from her and thumped it on the first table she came to. 'Put it there,' she said. The woman had become so afraid of her own room, she felt everything had to be in an arrangement."
"I've actually heard people ask, 'May I bring up this chair?' This is absolutely awful. Chairs should be in the right places—where they are needed. Sometimes people have a pair of perfectly beautiful antique chairs set against a wall, but if they see you going for them the look you get is lethal. Well I don't think those chairs should be there. If they are not meant to sit on, they should be in the hall."
"Quality is always essential whatever the price. I resent spending large sums on mediocre furniture that lacks both the mellow charm of a lovely old piece and the freshness of the contemporary. I would rather use for the time being an unpainted table with a long cloth—or a table my client already owns and loves. My fellow decorators often attack me for this. 'How could you possibly allow that terrible table?' they'll say to me. I tell them I couldn't possibly not allow it. I know that in a year or two, perhaps, my client may very well realize the table can be improved upon, and that is the time to change it. Meanwhile, it hasn't cost a cent to use a table she already owns, and that table has contributed far more flavor and personality to the room than some table you see everywhere."
"When I'm really enthusiastic about a job, and have a pleasant rapport with clients, an added intangible element pervades the entire operation. I become part of my work and sometimes the results are highly unconventional ideas that suit my clients perfectly. Some of the ideas are departures they would never think of, or if they did might be afraid to try themselves … With or without a decorator, it's just this kind of pizzazz that every room needs to become alive. In a house that steers clear of the happy medium, even casual visitors can sense that something is going on. They may rave, they may applaud, they may laugh, they may be shocked. But they'll never, ever yawn."
