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Quotable Quotes

"I really care about how a house looks on the inside and outside; I could care less about how it's structured."

"Everything I've ever bought has always reminded me of something I've already seen, someplace, sometime."

"People decorate three times in their lives: The first time is when they get married and get their own place. The second is when their children grow up and they redecorate with better things. Then after 60, they do it for the last time and they make their home look the way they have always dreamed."

Background

Born in 1935 in Staten Island, NY

Ditched architecture studies at Cooper Union and switched to Parsons School of Design

Influenced by John Fowler and his accessorized-to-the-max English country decorating style

Dubbed the "Prince of Chintz" in 1984 by a NY television news reporter, and it's stuck ever since

High-profile commissions like Washington's Blair House and homes for Mariah Carey, Nelson Doubleday, Billy Joel, and other celebrities and socialites

What We Love

Mario Buatta Sampler

Photo credits: Framed Picture, Art and Living, New York Magazine, Architectural Digest, Cote de Texas, Glamour, Providence RI, Architectural Digest

Designer We Love:

Website: Studio Urquiola

Quotable Quotes:

"I do not have many desires -- this is very masculine. Often desires transform themselves into frustration."

"Be very passionate and curious! Find a few cultural references and people who can give you guidance to develop your personality. Try to defend your ideas and projects; create your own formula."

"I always think that the project I'm working on will be the best."

Background:

Born in 1961 in Oviedo, Spain

Broad background in academia, studying architecture in Spain and Italy and teaching in Milan and Paris

Developed her first furniture designs in 1991 for Milan's De Padova

See designboom for other background details and an excellent video interview with Ms. Urquiola

What We Love:

This designer has a solid architectural background; you see it in her furniture and product designs. Yet architectural slants to furniture often leave us cold. Patricia Urquiola leavens architectural sensibilities with a welcome sense of humor, great style, and a respect for fabrics and construction materials.

Ms. Urquiola either has the best ideas in the world, or she is fortunate enough to collaborate with the brightest, most passionate entrepreneurs in the furniture and design business today. Case in point: Urquiola's Fat Fat line for B&B Italia. Big idea: what if you had an overstuffed furniture line that said "dive in!" and turned furniture into swimming pools? In the Fat Fat bed (see picture 5 in our Sampler, below), she created a deemphasized, disappearing headboard and came up with a relaxed urban mosh pit that you could float in the room.

We love anything she ever designed for Moroso Spa.

Patricia Urquiola Sampler:

Photo credits: Architonic, Design Dictionary, designboom

Designer We Love:

Website: Bilhuber & Associates

Quotable Quotes: "I’ve been at interior design for 22 years now and through an enormous amount of effort I have become very successful and very proud of my accomplishments and it wasn’t easy. I approach it through the back door. I approach it as a business man."

"It’s a Herculean amount of work to deliver projects on time and on budget."

"Great details whisper, never shout."

Background:

Raised in Huntington, NY

Was able to choose a wall color for his childhood bedroom ("this side of old guacamole") and one wall of wallpaper ("a plain stitch chevron"), with coordinating shag carpeting ("which I frequently raked")

Studied hotel admin at Cornell; wound up working at the Carlyle Hotel in 1981

1983 saw him in the Carlyle's housekeeping department, working with Mark Hampton's in-house room redecorating team -- this planted the seed for Bilhuber to combine business and creativity in his career

Started Bilhuber & Associates in 1984, focusing on residential and hospitality design

Made a 1987 splash with his first Kips Bay Decorator Show House room

Noted for his widely published, high-profile projects in every major shelter magazine, from 70 Park Avenue Hotel and City Club Hotel to work that shouts Star Power for Iman and David Bowie, Mariska Hargitay, and Anna Wintour

Frequent guest and spokesman for American Style on The Charlie Rose Show, Late Night with Conan O'Brien, HGTV, and The View

Rolling out Bilhuber Design Basics lines with Stark Carpets and Homestead

What We Love:

We fondly recall the sensational 10-foot bed Bilhuber did for one of his Kips Bay Show Houses. It was a killer!

Not many design professionals "get it." This designer gets it in spades -- sensational design is all about carefully combining creativity with business acumen. Such a big part of the job is handling the business side well, and the last thing you want your clients to think is that you're a creative flake. Business savvy builds solid client trust.

Bilhuber's design hero is Thomas Jefferson, and we second that nomination. American. Iconic. Inventive. Perfectionist. Craftsman. Scholar. Principled. Artisan.

We love Bilhuber's obsession with fabric-lined walls. They pop up in all his interiors, and they add a beautiful surround of color, pattern, and texture to his decor.

How clever of Bilhuber to focus on solid American classicism, but always with a twist of inventive modernism. This makes his interiors quite stylish and timeless.

This is a truly nice, interesting, personable individual. We can tell -- from a respectful distance -- that Jeffrey Bilhuber's clients enjoy working with him.

Jeffrey Bilhuber Sampler:

Photo Credits: New York Social Diary, Amazon, Yossawat, Bilhuber & Associates, Forbes Traveler

Designer We Love:

Website: Clodagh Design

Quotable Quotes: "The eyes are the most promiscuous of all the senses."

"I'll turn down clients who aren't willing to get rid of what I call stagnants. I hate stagnation. I want their closets cleaned out because it affects their lives and their thinking."

Background:

Born in Ireland

Age 17, she started her own fashion business, and by age 19 was a leading Irish dressmaking diva

Next career stop: architectural design and hotel, spa, landscaping, and interior design projects

Evolved her signature philosophy of creating total environments as "art to live in"

Feng shui plays a major role in her designs and approaches to projects, as well as appealing to all the elements and the senses

In 25 years, her Clodagh Design studio has taken on a variety of global projects in the commercial, residential, retail, office, salon, spa, and corporate image spaces

Began Clodagh Signature, licensing and product designs for furniture, bath, hardware, textiles, carpets, lighting, accessories; also designs packaging and graphics for packaged good such as cosmetics

Her Clodagh Collection Showroom opened in Manhattan with gallery and retail showroom space showcasing furniture, fine art, accessories

Named as one of Architectural Digest's "World's 100 Leading Interior Designers" and Interior Design magazine's "Top 100 Interior Designers in America" and their "Pioneers of the Industry"; inducted into Interior Design's Hall of Fame in 1997

Clodagh’s work has been widely published in Architectural Digest, Interior Design, Elle Decor, Metropolitan Home, Vogue Deutsch, Brides and New York Times Magazine

Media work includes "Ultimate Kitchens" on Food Network, "Interiors by Design" on HGTV, and CNN's "Style with Elsa Klensch"

What We Love:

How eclectic can one person's career be! Clodagh amazes us with the variety of her projects -- from a jazz-themed restaurant in LA and a conference center for one of Japan's largest ad agencies to the luxe Woodlands Spa and Resort and an Armenian countryside hotel.

There is nothing more wonderful than applying thoughtful design to stimulate and inspire good health, relaxation, and rejuvenation.

Natural materials are front and center in every Clodagh design. Every interior and detail is as "green" as possible. What could be more important?

Have you seen Clodagh's design studio? Dogs trotting on the floors, natural brick walls, excellent library of resources, imaginative work stations -- a designer's Disneyland!

Being true to yourself and to your sense of style is difficult in this PushMe/PullYou world of fickle trends and fads. Clodagh has managed to maintain her strong identity and signature style in everything she has tackled through the years. For that alone, she has our great admiration.

Clodagh Sampler:

Photo Credits: Washington Spaces, Amazon, Forbes, New York Social Diary, Nemacolin Woodlands Resort, Interior Design

Designer We Love: Bunny Williams

Websites: Bunny Williams Interior Design, Treillage

Quotable Quotes: "Rooms should never be boring, yet nothing should hit you over the head. I think a room comes alive when there is a spontaneous mix of different periods, raw materials and high quality design."

"Decoration is not enough. Good architectural design is always the first consideration."

Background:

Virginia childhood, growing up in horse country and traditional decorating influences

At 16, began self-study of architecture

Boston training in interior design

First job in NYC at Stair & Company, antique dealer

22 years at Parish-Hadley Associates, starting in 1967, first as assistant and shopper, then to designer working alongside Albert Hadley and Sister Parish

Opened up Bunny Williams Inc. in 1988

Started Treillage Ltd., high-end garden ornaments and furniture -- "My second love is gardens." -- in 1991 with her partner, antiques icon John Rosselli, on East 75th Street in a former blacksmithy and stables

1995 inductee into the Interior Design Hall of Fame

2000 "Design and Business Award," Edith Wharton Restoration honor for women of outstanding achievement

Author of On Garden Style and An Affair with a House

On board of directors in The Lenox Hill Neighborhood House, The Garden Conservancy, The Institute for Classical Architecture, The Humane Society of New York -- and c0-founder of not-for-profit Tails In Need with fellow designer Kitty Hawks

Residential projects featured in Architectural Digest, Veranda, House Beautiful, House & Garden, Garden Design, Victoria, British House, Southern Accents, Elle Decor, NY Times, Town and Country, New York Magazine, Connecticut Cottages & Gardens, Quest, Gotham, and W

What We Love:

Her professional ethics; her business seems to be beautifully organized -- three design teams, each headed by a seasoned senior designer, strives for close attention to client service and buttoning down the zillions of details inherent in our business 

Bunny Williams' passion for gardening gives us the gold standard of a designer who looks at interiors and outdoor spaces as a unified whole 

We love her professional partnership with John Rosselli, sourcing unusual antique and new garden ornaments and furnishings around the world in their Treillage venture

She's a reader of fiction and starts her day off with an hour of reading in bed

Her passion for the humane treatment of animals is inspiring, as witnessed in the Great American Mutt Show

An Affair with a House beautifully details how Bunny brought to life a sadly neglected old home

In politics, they say you vote for the person you'd most like to sit down and have a beer with; Bunny, you're the designer our Design2Share staff would very much like to sit down with and talk design over a cold one!

Bunny Williams Sampler:

Photo Credits: Bunny Williams, Harry N. Abrams Books, Linda Plato, Panache

Designer We Love:

Quotable Quote: ". . . the reward of something rare and special—like a vintage Warren McArthur chair" (Michael Webb, Architectural Digest, April 2001)

Background:

Born in 1885 and grew up in Chicago, IL

Well-to-do upbringing, with dad hiring Frank Lloyd Wright to design their family home in 1892 (one of Wright's earliest commissions, before he struck out on his own)

Studied mechanical engineering and graduated from Cornell in 1908

Designed lamps from 1911 to 1914 for a lantern company that his father headed up sales for; had various jobs and lots of support from his father to design and produce patents (had 10 patented lamp designs)

Moved to Phoenix, AZ to work with his brother Charles

Started 12 car dealerships and developed an adapter for car radiators to prevent overheating in desert climate

He and Charles created the "Wonder Bus," considered an early recreational vehicle, to promote tourism and visiting National Parks via the new U.S. highway system

Warren and Charles started the first AZ radio station, founded the Arizona Museum, and worked on the Arizona Biltmore resort which was designed by Arthur, their older brother

With his father's financial backing, made a 1929 move to LA to start a metal furniture business, with focus on aluminum and special ways to join standard metal pieces together

Developed a process to make aluminum hard, impossible to tarnish -- backed by a lifetime guarantee

Developed a coloring process, adding color into the porous aluminum, then sealing it in as part of the metal versus an outer coating (see his Rainbow Chair, photo just below)

Warren McArthur Corporation's curvy Art Deco furniture became a huge hit with film stars, and waves of furniture showed up in movies, in theaters, hotels, and residential design projects

His refined metal curves helped popularize the streamlining and Moderne style

Designed bomber aircraft seating during World War II

Beset with financial woes after his father died, McArthur moved to Rome, New York in 1933 to manufacture his lines, with over 600 exclusive designs

His company closed its doors in 1948 and McArthur died in 1961

What We Love:

We're intrigued by his father's constant financial support of his son's early career pursuits, and wish all parents were as supportive of their children's artistic and design sensibilities and projects

His pioneering spirit and devotion to technology and design innovation -- from a mechanical engineering background and fascination with the car (his family was one of the first to own a car in Chicago), he kept innovating away

McArthur's sense of color, producing cool tones of aluminum with great names like Grenadine, Alice Blue, and Golf Green, then pairing them with upholstered fabrics that featured contrasting colors like red and canary yellow or red and ebony

His design chic defined glamorous Hollywood of the 1930s

Thank this man for the outdoors chaise lounge, which he called "dripping chairs that would stand the test of sun and rain"

We love his folding chairs!

Warren McArthur Sampler:

Photo Credits: Antiques and the Arts, DesignGallery, Carnegie Museum of Art, Washington Post, Reside, Rago Arts, Philips de Pury & Co., artnet

Designer We Love:

Websites: Eva Zeisel Design, Eva Zeisel Forum

Quotable Quote: "We feel differently, more intimately, about dishes than we do about shoes or chairs or forks. If we unexpectedly come upon a chair like we used when we were children we say, 'We had a chair like that at home.' But if we come upon dishes like we used on the dinner table with our parents, we will surely exclaim: 'Look! Our dishes!'"

Background:

Born in Hungary, 1906

Her well-off upbringing was filled with encouragement for her art

Formal painting training at Royal Academy of Fine Arts

Left the Academy to pursue her love of pottery

Was the first-ever female journeyman potter at age 18

In 1928, designed tablewares for Schramberger Majolika Fabrik, supervising 350+ workers

Artistic Director of the China and Glass Industry in the Soviet Union

Falsely accused of being part of a plot to assassinate Joseph Stalin, jailed 16 months in solitary, faced the death penalty -- others were executed, but she was freed for unknown reasons (likely her family lobbied greatly for her release)

1938 emigration to U.S. to flee the Nazis

Became top ceramic design instructor at Brooklyn's Pratt Institute -- first U.S. course on mass markets for ceramic design

Museum of Modern Art offered her a show of her Castleton porcelain dinnerware in 1947, MOMA's first one-woman show

Created dinnerware for Hallcraft, Sears, Red Wing Pottery

After World War II, she pioneered designs for busy homemakers with elegant casserole dishes and her Town and Country series of dinnerware which could be easily mixed and matched

Still designing today at 101

Her older series have been reissued by Crate & Barrel, KleinReid, The Orange Chicken

Zeisel's works are on display in major museums worldwide

What We Love:

Ms. Zeisel is our role model: we wish we could still be vital, alive, and creative when we're 101

Merging the worlds of the fine arts with mass merchandise and industrial design

Her pioneering work in the design arts, influencing other creative people by combining teaching with her design work

Introducing modernism into middleclass American homes

Her work looks like modern sculpture, but their warmth invites touch and use

Bringing emotion, passion, and contemplation through beautiful objects designed for our everyday food rituals

"I have always thought of my own work as a link between the past and the future, not as a break or departure from past styles."

Eva Zeisel Sampler:

Photo Credits: Boston.com, Crate & Barrel, Cathy of California, Better Living Through Design, The Metropolitan Museum, Jerry and Martha, Erie Art Museum, The Overlook Press

Designer We Love:

Website: andree putman

Quotable Quote:

"I have always cultivated the revel spirit, from my early childhood. I wanted to empty rooms. I turned down all the dictates of good taste and elitism. I avoid decoration for decoration's sake. "

Background:

Born in Paris, 1925

Wrote "Decoration" column during the 1960s for French design magazine L’oeil

Founded Ecart International in 1978, reproducing 20th century modern furnishings

Interior design work for designer shops: Yves St. Laurent, Cartier, Ebel, Azzedine Alaia, Thierry Mugler, Karl Lagerfeld

1984 interior design for Morgans hotel, the first boutique hotel, from Ian Schrager and Steve Rubell; other hotels in Cologne and Paris followed

Commercial design for movie The Pillow Book, Bordeaux Museum of Contemporary Art, office of Jack Lang (then-minister of culture for France)

1997 launch of her product design business, featuring furniture, fragrance, home accessories -- silver, crystal, tabletop, textiles, linens, rugs and carpets

What We Love:

Fearless curator of great, underdog design

Bringing Mellet-Stevens, Mariano Fortuny, Rene Herbst, Jean-Michel Frank, Pierre Chareau, and the sublime Eileen Gray back into the design spotlight through her reproduction business

She made merchandising couture fashionable with her sublime shop interiors

She put personal style into hospitality and helped launch the boutique hotel craze

Her mannequins for Barneys

Her classic interior design for Air France's Concorde jets

Her desire to design for a children's hospital someday

This quote: "Minimalism in interior design has become a caricature. Everywhere you find shops or hotels with an ambience that makes you feel like you are in a refrigerator."

Andree Putman Sampler:

 Photo Credits: Time, Amazon France, domeau & Peres, Wallpaper, Gaia & Gino, Architonic, New York Magazine

Designer We Love:

Website: Aero Studios

Quotable Quote:

"I like practical and useful things as well as fine and rare things . . ."

Background:

Born in 1961 in upstate New York

Received his BFA from The Cooper Union in New York City in 1986

Founded Aero Studios in Manhattan's SoHo neighborhood

Major residential design commissions, including homes for Ralph Lauren and Georgio Armani

Commercial projects include the luxe 60 Thompson Hotel in NYC

Lives in Manhattan and in Bellport, New York

What We Love:

His self-appointed label as a "shopkeeper," giving a boutique retailer's loving attention to all the details of his interiors

O'Brien's trifecta of home emporium, interior design service, and commercial design production makes Aero Studio a hive of industrious activity

The Target Vintage Modern Collection -- a clever expansion by the retailer into mass-merchandising of this designer's classic takes on mid-century modernism

O'Brien's coinage of his style as "warm modernism"

The designer's home decorating advice and common sense: "Don't get stuck into buying things for your home with the idea, 'It's not me.' Of course it's not you. It's a chair!"

Thomas O'Brien Sampler:

Photo Credits: Safavieh, Luxury Life and Style, Discount Fabric Resources, Outblush, katiedid, Shakadoo

Website: Vicente Wolf Associates/VW Home

Quotable Quote:

In response to the question "If you had to choose, which would it be -- interior design or photography?", Wolf responded, "The photography. I like the immediacy of it. I like the sense that it's your vision. When you're doing interior design, you're doing somebody else's vision."

Background:

Almost 30 years as a contemporary designer

Clean, crisp aesthetic

Eclectic, global tastes, with many of his interiors focusing on interesting objects collected from his travels: designer as both Curator and World Observer

Passion for photography, both as a personal form of creative expression and as a passionate collector of gelatin silver prints and other photography forms

Celebrity design commissions from many notables, including Clive Davis, Nely Galan, the Von Furstenbergs, Michael Lynne, and Carl Bernstein

Retail and commercial commissions have included L S Store in Hong Kong, Andrew Fezza Company, L'Impero and Alto Restaurants in Manhattan, Luxe Hotel Rodeo Drive, J Records, and Bedell Cellars Winery

Widely published in shelter magazines, and widely honored, including Interior Design Designer Hall of Fame, Architectural Digest's AD 100, and Metropolitan Home's Design 100

VW Home began in 1999 to house overflow of items from his travels; one-of-a-kind items are for sale in  retail/showroom environments throughout the U.S., along with VW Home Collection case goods, mirrors, and lighting; and furniture, fabrics, and upholstered items for Texstyle and Niedermaier

What We Love:

His global vision of including a potluck of beautiful, simple, found objects into residential space

Wolf's passion for the black and white photograph, and his stylish, groundbreaking use of photos in his interiors

His respect for other peoples and cultures, leading to an embracing, expansive design aesthetic

The beauty of his work, whether it's for a public dining space or a private bedroom

We'd like to go on record as saying that it's hard to best Vicente Wolf's authentic design vision and sensibility. He is the Real Deal when it comes to designers.

Vicente Wolf Sampler:

Photo Credits: New York Social Diary, Alto Restaurant, Amazon