Everything Old Is New Again

Dean Farris Interior Design

Just like my friend Jennifer Boles's new book, "In With The Old" my thoughts turn to the way fashion goes in circles...my old Parsons table, a gift from Albert Hadley, sits on top of Mario Buatta's new book- which is totally fabulous- I keep going back to it- especially since Patricia Altschul's Charleston house has appeared on BRAVO tv- (her son Whitney is the producer of the show called Southern Charm) and two of her homes in New York are featured in the Mario book.  The chair to the right in this shot belonged to Naples designer Holland Salley, who came to town in 1953, with his wife and two sons, to start his business.  He eventually bought the old Smith Furniture Company, and changed the name to Holland Salley, Inc.  When I first arrived here, in the mid nineties, Mr. Salley still had his Port Royal home, which he called "Salley's Alley".  Coincidentally, my friend and fellow designer, Kelli Smith, has now moved her design office into Holland's first location, on Fifth Avenue South.  The small tortoise bamboo table next to the chair, reminds me of another icon and inspiration, the late Angelo Donghia.  Angelo loved using the small bamboo chairs as accents in his east 70's townhouse...I do see all of this coming back into the whirl, since as we all know, what goes around, comes around.  Perhaps chintz will make a big comeback too- our friend, Pat Scharf, from Duralee, seems to think so, and Duralee recently acquired Bailey and Griffin, and have re-colored some of the old classics.  Enjoy!
DF *****