WINDSORS: At Home

Duke and Duchess of Windsor, (and pugs) Horst

How great to spend time at home with ones dogs- this Horst image is a great example of the adage, "one picture is worth a thousand words..." DF

REFRESH: Lanai

Seat cushions (reversible)

Amazingly, today I was able to go into two brick-and-mortar stores -one
was Home Depot for paint and the other was "big lots" for outdoor chair seat cushions.  I selected the new paint for the floor of Mary's lanai and then I also found these seat cushions for her existing dining chairs very inexpensively -thrilled !  A quick refresh...DF

VERANDA: Naples

Celerie Kemble, VERANDA May/June 2020

It was fun to see that a Naples house got the cover of the new Veranda magazine -it's an understated Barbados style house not far from where I live -painted a lovely shade of pink.  Kudos to Celerie! DF

TAXI!: Jed Johnson

Jed Johnson

Part of my 15 minutes of fame was riding in a taxi in Manhattan with the late designer, Jed Johnson  as my friends Arthur Dunnam and Scott Lalley were working for him- and I was working in adjacent offices for the late Raul Morillas, of Robert A. M. Stern Architects.  Serendipity brought beautiful and glamorous Jed and I together as we shared a cab uptown...sadly, he was killed in the TWA flight 800 crash off of Long Island in 1996- the same year I left NYC for Florida.. perusing the Victor Bockris bio of Andy Warhol recently, I realized that poor Jed was also with Andy when the artist was shot several times by the deranged Valerie Solanas.  What a horror that must have been.  May Jed and Andy rest in eternal peace.  DF

COZY: Living

DFID (c) 2019

One of my first inspirations very early on was a small house in North Carolina that I was taken to by a good friend.  Gail Dewar was living with her sister, Joan - who was a very talented decorator.  Joan had tons of style- she even made her own clothes- For example she would buy a plain taupe
colored linen, make a simple shift from it and then accessorize it with a ton of gold jewelry -she also wore quite a bit of make up and blown out hair (streaked with a bit of silver) in a word she was sophisticated and stylish!!!

Joan's house, which sat up on a hill,  backed up to a large estate which was owned by the Gray family and was called Graylyn.  What struck me about Joan and her house was that she obviously loved it and took great care of it -her sense of housekeeping was extraordinary.  It smelled like a combination of lemon oil and furniture polish.  Imagine the chic of a camelback sofa upholstered in a  textured yellow fabric backed up to a bay window across from the fireplace with flat taupe walls and a layer of beautiful antique leather bound books with natural light flooding in -she also had a vintage quite small chandelier above a smallish round table- so charming- in her tiny entry hall were applied mouldings filled in with strips of silvery chinoiserie wallpaper - very Otto Zenke- and her kitchen and den were in a glossy oxblood paint ! (Unusual for the mid 1970's). I suppose I've never gotten over the charm and beauty of Joan's house and my wonderful friendship with Gail her sister -what a lovely couple of women they were.  DF

ROLLING RR: 1962

Dean with 1962 Rolls

Billy took this shot of me a few years ago, and I liked it so I used it for my Christmas card -it was just for fun.  DF

SPRING: Clean

Dean Farris Interior Design (c) 2020 

Spring time as we all know is a great time to clean out ones accumulation from the winter -including excess books, decorative accessories, dust bunnies, rugs, too many pillows etc.  The late great California decorator Michael Taylor was quoted as saying if you want to freshen up a room, the fastest way to do it is to take something out. In other words, edit.  Accordingly I took quite a few tchotchkes out including a couple of small rugs and I do like this more cleaned up look much better. Enjoy the weekend as we segue into re-opening...DF

LAS BRISAS: Naples

Naples, Fla.

The charm of the Breezes is intoxicating. And in
Italy they call it sirocco- in California they call it Santa Ana winds -whatever you call it, we love it- something about the palm fronds blowing in the breeze is heavenly...DF

LOGGIA: Palm Beach

Louise W. Cronan for Kips Bay Palm Beach

Ever since January of last year I've been admiring this beautiful loggia that Louise Cronan ,my old friend from way back created for the 2019 Palm Beach kips Bay decorator show house.  I especially admire her use of seashells for the Billy Baldwin studio console opposite the seating group.  Louise selected a custom Tillets fabric for her upholstery - which added even more allure and decorative value to her room setting.  Kudos to Louise and her team !  DF

ROOM: Garconniere

DFID designers own residence

This image of my living room reminds me of when I was very young I would go to professors homes in Atlanta (I was a student at the art institute of Atlanta) as a guest and I got to soak up the atmosphere -it was wonderful.

Through my roommate Robert Shatzer, I was invited to the apartment of Professor Carey Sutlive -a very talented photographer who did all the pictures for one of the Neel Reed architecture books.  Imagine being 17 years old and invited to an apartment that looked like something a New York decorator had done (quite dark) and being offered a scotch in a waterford Highball- of course I loved it.

Bob and I also spent a lot of time at the apartment of Stan Topol and his partner Michael, which was great fun -it was done in a very low-key Billy Baldwin style and we had many dinners there -it was just so much fun to be hanging out with our professors if you can imagine.

Later, through my friend and classmate Nicolas Cardone, I was taken to the chic midtown apartment of professor Roger Remaley, who at the time was working with T. Gordon Little - one of the top society decorators of Atlanta.

Not only was Roger one of the best looking men you could possibly imagine -he was always in a suit (usually double breasted) - very well cut -and he drove a beautiful jaguar sedan -his apartment had nothing in it except for a tester bed sitting in the middle of the living room -which struck me as being extremely smart à la Pauline de Rothschild -!  And now that I think about it, this bed also reminded me back then of George Peppard as the kept man in "breakfast at Tiffany's" -not only did Roger look like George but he spent a lot of time in that bed if you've ever seen the film version of the Truman Capote novel.  Many years later I worked with a society decorating firm in New York and the office manager was dating the son of George Peppard -!!  DF

CONSUELO: Gilded Life

Consuelo Vanderbilt Balsan, Palm Beach, Fla.

I just finished reading again my copy of Consuelo and Alva Vanderbilt by Amanda Mackenzie Stuart, one of the best biographies on the market.  From the gilt drenched late 1800's all the way thru December 1964, Madame Balsan transitioned from an arranged loveless marriage to the Duke of Marlborough - scion of famous Blenheim Palace- into the wife of a French colonel, with whom she finally shared love and caring... above - she's shown in her salon in Palm Beach, after downsizing from a large estate on Hypoluxo Island (Manalapan).

Ms. Stuart, in her afterword, quoted style icon Diana Vreeland thus, regarding Consuelo's inclusion in her 1975 Met show, "American Women of Style" :  "the energy of Imagination, deliberation, and invention, which fall into a natural rhythm totally one's own, maintained by innate discipline and a keen sense of pleasure. All who have it share one thing -originality. This is not a dress show".  Wow! DF

YVES: At Home

YSL at Chateau Gabriel (near Deauville on Normandy coast)

Eternally inspiring - the homes of fashion designers such as the fabulous YSL - are studies in maximalism - read more about the image above here ...DF

YSL at Rue de Babylone apartment (Paris)