This week The Skirted Roundtable dissects the cover story of House Beautiful, the August issue. "WHAT MAKES A ROOM GREAT?" - the magazine asked and we answered! Hear what Linda, Megan and Joni have to say about Kips Bay's most talked about room this year - the Bunny Williams All In One Room. And just for good measure, we give Joe Nye's small apartment, also featured in the issue, a good go-over too. Find out which story we all loved, and which one we all...well, let's just say, we didn't quite "get" it!
BUNNY WILLIAMS' ALL IN ONE ROOM:
Bunny's All In One Room - looking towards the fireplace.
Looking towards the window wall.
A view towards the right side wall.
A view towards the back wall, showing the dining table and breakfront.
Close-up view of window wall.
Close-up view of sofa and pillows.
The table all set for a meal.
Another view of the table and breakfront.JOE NYE'S APARTMENT:
Joe Nye's very small apartment - the living room.
The dining area to the right of the living area.
The living and dining area.
The bedroom.
Another view of the bedroom.
Images courtesy of House Beautiful and Maria Quiroga, and various sites here.
Comments
I love you laughing at how small Joe Nye's apartment is! My house is about that size!
I'm not crazy about the Bunny room. It looks like an exhibit, not a place to live. Luckily, I don't know anything about theory or practice.
Nye's place looks cozy, human scaled, and comfortable to me. I wouldn't feel comfortable in Bunny's room by myself. I'd keep running into things and knocking them over. A table for 2 is more to my liking than a table for 8.
The pink just seems to be in the middle of everything and I'm not sure what I mean by middle. The images conceal how small the place really is.
Is there a politics in the magazines: one designer showing up another? An emperor's new clothes? Does the Bunny room really look like this except in the shoot?
ya know, it's not that much fun if we all agree, all of the time about everything. right?
And, we loved the fact we disagreed!!
The Nye rooms, on the other hand, seem to be beautifully put together.
After running upstairs this morning to fetch my copy from under the laundry pile in my bedroom...lol...I fell in love again with HB. Has anyone else noticed the quality of spaces in Veranda and HB (amoung others) is getting better?
Truthfully, I am not a fan of Bunny Williams' style...thank goodness there is room for all of us...but I have to give it to her...she he guts...good for her for shaking things up a bit in the world of bergere. Maybe by just being of good design makes these pieces mixable?
Joe Nye, well...still a bit bergere, but less stuffy, and looks like it was built over time...the linen and casual symmetry make me feel comfortable. Linda, I agree, the side shot of the living room is less cluttered, and against those rust coloured drapes...stunning.
The books, mirrors and art are my favs on Joe's place. He has used them all in a casual way.
Great conversation...thanks for having coffee with me this morning :)
Have a great day ladies!!
Best,
Michelle
Bunny is adored and I do love her designs. In fact gave her latest book to one of my interior designer friends. This is over the top though. It is almost like "let's throw this in and lets add this too"
I think that is the question. My answer is , a very vehemant "no!". No more than an oil painter can pick up a water color brush and create a masterpiece.
I'm sure Ms. Williams is trying to play off Madame Cataing's element of tension in the room, but it is a fine art that is a gift. Some have the gift, some don't. It cannot be taught, and requires an intimate knowledge of the unseen, of people, of pyschology.
The red egg is way too predictable to create a masterpiece. she might as well have thrown in a lime green bean bag chair. At least it would have been on the same side of the color wheel.
the question on the magazine cover: "What makes a great room?" is appropriate. we all are drawn to examine what works in this room, and what doesn't. imho, anyone who thinks the red egg chair is genius needs to examine whether they are independent thinkers.
I was also unimpressed by Charles Faudree's attempt last month at an eclectic look. He does country french so well---put down the watercolor brush and stick with the oils.
I'm not opinionated, am I?
Kathy
An older decoraTOR...
Because as much as I disliked this room, maybe she just thought that since it's NOT for an actual client who has to live with it, maybe she should just say to hell with her usual rules and ideas, why not try something totally different and see what happens? Well, it didn't work, but with her resume, let's give her a pass for trying something out of her normal comfort zone.
Another thought-- I remember reading an article a few years ago about Mario Buatta and he talked about how he was heavily criticized for a Kips Bay room he did that totally veered from his normal look. After that, he stuck to his chintz, etc., but at least he stepped out of his box a little!
Jan at Rosemary Cottage (a HUGE fan of Williams' "An Affair with A House!")
When I first saw Nye's place instead I felt "at home" and I spent lots of time analyzing the rooms.
I truly enjoyed every moment of the conversation, flipping pages with you all. What a great idea you had, hope we'll share more of this. Thanks!
And I liked the idea of the egg chair but maybe in leopard. Red made no sense to me. And the red backs of the blue chairs were awful. Also, Emma Jane Pilkington did the egg chair in a traditional room in leopard years ago - it's not a novel idea.
However, I LOVE HB and buy it always!!!
Keep on keeping on, ladies.
"This room is great because Bunny Williams decorated it"
is damning with faint praise. It's like admitting "...and we can't think of any other reason you'd call it 'great.' "
Susan
You girls have hit such a home run with TSR!
You girls have hit such a home run with TSR!
I was hoping for a vigorous debate on the pros and cons of the room and we have received very few positive commentary. What do you love about this room? We'd love to hear support for this design and for someone to educate us in what we (and many others) clearly missed. What say you?
All in all, the room looks poorly controlled.
And I can't remember any of us even pretending to know her personally. I'm sure she is a lovely lady. no doubt.
We made great efforts to support the idea that she's one of the greats for a good reason.
Over all I was disappointed in Bunny Williams presentation. She is an exceptional interior designer but this particular work did not excite me. My heart rate did not increase with viewing each photo shot ... my head did not dizzy me with visions of applications in my own home ... instead I was left flat ... disappointed and demoralized. In fact, I refused to purchase the magazine after thumbing through it a few weeks back. A lesson in marketing ... if the public does not care for what is being presented ... profits fall and magazines go out of business. It is as painful and plain and prophetic as that.
It's also untrue. Most of the shelter magazines that have failed in recent years have been extremely popular and well-loved by their readers. They failed due to lack of advertising.
Joe's place is a little busy but I think it is pretty, and the things all relate, and it looks very comfortable.
Can't wait to hear what you pro's think when I listen to this one!
I do think this is the ugliest HB cover ever, but then again, it made me really think, and I did look for what worked and didn't work. I still think this whole issue is a mess. Really some rather ugly rooms.
Maybe it's that whole ugly beautiful (jolie-laide) style coming back, like in fashion, with weird looking models and hideous clothes. But you know, maybe we need a little shake-up. Too many perfect rooms have lead to this...
;) wink.
I have to say that I didn't love Bunny Williams' room, but I admire the fact that she pushes herself to be daring and try new things in front of us all. That takes a lot of courage.
I loved Joe Nye's apartment.
xo
Brooke
decided where they stood on the matter. What I'm
saying is that Bunny Still Rules.
The arrangement was faultless? Come on--a television in the dining room? And as for scale: I'd say the proportion of furniture to space-you-can-walk-around-in is pretty damn poor. The sheer density of furniture packed in there makes me uncomfortable. That's part of "scale."
"I haven't read a single comment from anyone who actually stood inside that room"
So what? Look at the sheer number of photographs that were considered. Look at how the bloggers took pains to call attention to even more photographs of the room--photographs that were on other blogs but NOT in the magazine--in an effort to be as fair and as merciful as possible.
And if photographic representation is so distorting, why do magazines like House Beautiful even bother? And why do decorators like Bunny agree to have their work represented in them, if the photographic documentation is so inaccurate?
"What I'm saying is that Bunny Still Rules."
She's had a distinguished career. But she is not "great," in the sense that her work will endure in a substantial way long after she's gone, and will be taught and studied in detail by many. Some people are middling. They have good, long, stable, honorable careers. But they are not "great." They are respected. An example from another field: John Cheever. For a while everyone was happy to give him good reviews, to read his latest New Yorker story, to write biographies about him, publish his correspondence, etc. But in 100 years from now, few people will study him or teach him or read him, not the way they read, say, Henry James or Edith Wharton or Franz Kafka or James Joyce. He's just not at that level. Same with Bunny.
Suzanne on St. Simons
I like the Joe Nye rooms.
All in my humble opinion of course!
Ok, I both loved & disliked elements of this room. Obviously, the art, the wall color and I even liked that she mixed in something like the crazy red egg chair, I just feel that it was too off. (I love something off in a room but this was too much.)
I don't believe you can say a room is "great" just because of who designed it--- when I read it the first time myself I read it outloud to my husband so we could have a laugh/ scoff. From a young designer's standpoint, it came across as snobbish and kind of arrogant... but I wonder if maybe they did it in fun and more as a nod to her because they're so fond of her??
Although I feel like it's got a little too much going on/ is so full of stuff, I like the direction it's going in. It's definitely fearless & a bit unconventional. Just a few changes and I think it would be perfect.
I also agree with Megan about the muddy colors in contrast with the turquoise-- beautiful & necessary and I really agree that without them, a room has the potential to feel really elementary.
As for Joe Nye's apartment, it really felt like a home. More than anything in particular, I just loved the collected, "real" feeling about it.
great podcast!! :)
As for Joe Nye, Megan - I saw him first! Adored his space. He's divine.
This is what magazines are all about: love it/hate it.
Interesting to note... we've been deluged with requests for the coffee table in Bunny's room.
I feel it's important to have this discussion because when I am told that I have to like this room because it's Bunny's I begin to question myself. Is what I'm doing in my home the best that I can do? Should I be looking at decorating differently? What about my style?
I love using second hand furniture and pieces I pick up at flea markets. I love things in my home that have a story to tell. Where did I find this piece and how did I dicker the price down. I'm not the type to go out and spend a fortune to furnish my home and have it arrive all at once in a big truck. I love adding pieces a little at a time as I find them. Decorating by Love I like to call it. Most of the pieces in this room were new so where is the story?
Then I conclude that nothing in decorating is right or wrong. I'm sure Bunny loves her room but it is not the room for me yet, someone somewhere will like it also.
Thanks for this great conversation. I enjoyed your points of view. We all have them, don't we?
Fondly~ ~Ahrisha~ ~
I will be listening again.
xx Becky
www.agnesandco.com