Innholdsfortegnelse for Spring 2021 i MILIEU

Sometimes the most important element in a room isn’t a piece of furniture or an accessory. Rather, it’s something that rarely stays still, often makes noise, and is known to do a little accidental damage—yet also brings a big dose of love. I’m talking about our pet dogs. As much as I love interior design and the talent required to do it well, I often think that without my dogs, Baby and Maddy, the rooms of my house would be lacking in something. MILIEU staff members agree about the emotional and physical significance of dogs at home. We have no bias against cats, birds, or even bunnies. Over our years working together, we simply realized that many of us have dogs and that it was time to introduce them to…

For years during his boyhood, Steve Giannetti worked in a Maryland warehouse filled with plaster and stone cornices and pilasters, corbels and columns, urns, fireplace surrounds, and statuary made by his grandfather, father, and other artisans. Although that warehouse has since been dismantled following the retirement of Giannetti’s father from the business, he can still conjure up the sight of the shelves filled with decorative objects, the smell of the chalk and stone dust, the feel of the grit on his skin. As a prolific residential architect now, Giannetti says, “The lessons of the past show up in a person’s art.” And upon looking at photographs of the old warehouse when it was still stocked with the architectural and sculptural creations, he says with a wistfulness and pride, “Everything I…

RICHARD HALLBERG LIKES to go back in time—way back, to ancient Rome. “When designing a house, inside and out, I always start with square one, Roman architecture, for its embrace of symmetry,” says the Los Angeles interior designer, who is also the owner and co-founder of Formations, the West Hollywood maker of furnishings and accessories, most of which expertly reference historical precedents. “I believe that symmetry can create a focused calmness for people. For me, architecture and interiors are tied together,” he insists. “It’s hard for me to conceive any interiors without also conceiving the architecture.” When Hallberg was commissioned by the owners of this Brentwood house, he was shown a floorplan and renderings for a residence not yet built. The client, a noted television personality and host, recalls driving…

Lorenzo Castillo Spanish interior designer Lorenzo Castillo often cites his early-career experience in Madrid as an antiques dealer in decorative arts as fundamental to his success now. In a 2018 monograph of his work, Castillo wrote, “Without [my] experience in the decorative arts, I would not be the designer and interior decorator I am today. That may be what sets me apart from others and characterizes my style.” Barbara Westbrook Barbara Westbrook launched her Atlanta-based interior design firm, Westbrook Interiors, in 1992, after designing under the tutelage of venerable talents Nancy Braithwaite and Gandy/Peace. She has made her mark on Atlanta interiors, employing her signature style: tasteful, tactile, timeless, and elegant. With every project she undertakes, her goal is to make the design feel cohesive and reflect the character of…

At 87, Sam Gilliam is enjoying a career high. In 2018 the artist unveiled a major commission for the National Museum of African American History and Culture, and in 2022 he will be the subject of an ambitious retrospective at the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, both in Washington, D.C., where he continues to live and work. Gilliam has been a fixture of the nation’s capital since 1961. He moved there with his then-wife, the journalist Dorothy Butler Gilliam, after earning his MFA from the University of Louisville, which followed a childhood spent in northern Mississippi. After teaching in Louisville’s public school system as a way to sustain his life as an artist, Gilliam soon dedicated himself full-time to painting and in 1972 became the first Black artist to show…

WHEN LORENZO CASTILLO traveled to Menorca for the first time, he knew he’d find the serenity he needed to finish writing his book—a monograph of his work published by Rizzoli in 2018. “I wanted some quiet time, so I went there to stay as a guest at the home of a friend,” says the interior designer whose primary dwelling is in his native Madrid. What he didn’t expect was how smitten he would be with Mahón, the capital city of Menorca (also spelled Minorca), one of the Balearic Islands situated off the eastern coast of Spain. “I was shocked by its beauty, its rich history and mix of cultures,” says Castillo, who is also a seasoned antiquarian and historian. “In the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, Menorca was occupied by Arabs…

INTERIOR DESIGNER Suzanne Kasler knows why this recent project in coastal Florida proved a success. “Designers love people,” the Atlanta-based Kasler says emphatically. “We love the relationships that develop through our involvement in a project like this.” Indeed, on an island off the Florida Gulf Coast, the vision of an airy, light-filled new house was realized in its full dimension, brought into being through the combined efforts of an architect and designer whose design philosophies are like two sides of the same coin. The result—combining influences of Florida “Cracker style” and the East Indies on the outside with spare, clean detailing inside—is the product of a close collaboration between Kasler and Ken Pursley, principal of Charlotte-based Pursley Dixon Architecture. Completing the cooperative effort were the homeowners, who engaged every step…

COVER: Produced by: Katrin Cargill Photography by: Simon Brown, simonbrown.london Flowers by: Harald Altmaier Floral Design, haraldaltmaier@mac.com Location: Euridge Manor, euridgeorangeryweddings.com All stitching by: Melanie Williams Apron: NH Design Seafern linen, New Mown Green, NICKY HASLAM AT JEAN MONRO, jeanmonro.com, TWIN PONDS STUDIO, twinpondsstudio.com. Culottes: Brinley cotton, Cilantro, 7722/05, ROMO, romo.com, trimmed in French Grosgrain Ribbon, Lilac, 977-44931-166, SAMUEL & SONS, samuelandsons.com. Bunch of flowers tied with Callen Striped Border, Spearmint, BT-57675-08, SAMUEL & SONS, samuelandsons.com. FROM THE DESK OF… Pages 20-21 (from left to right) Avebury table lamp, Stone, VAUGHAN, vaughandesigns.com. Volta clay lamp in white with natural raffia shade, MARTA BONILLA, martabonilla.com. Henry wall/ceiling flush mount, Nickel, WATERWORKS, waterworks.com. Eva Small light, Bright Nickel, COLLIER WEBB, collierwebb.com. Hanging Rise and Fall Round Eydon light, Brass, CHARLES EDWARDS, charlesedwards.com.…

A PATCHWORK LIFE As an artist, Anna Maria Horner understands that the greatest source of inspiration is limitation. Although Horner designs fabrics and needlework patterns, paints paintings, teaches sewing workshops at her popular Nashville retail store, Craft South, makes clothing, and writes books about her mediums, it is in the designing of quilts that she seems to best understand how every artist works. “Quilters are a fascinating cross-section of mathematicians and artists,” she says. “Quilts are based on geometry, and the confines of a quilt are a very comfortable place for a certain kind of creator. Creating is about editing.” Horner is not only an artist, but also a kind of philosopher about art, too, referencing her Greek heritage as a reason for that. About quilts, which she has been…

To watch Gary Tinterow, Director of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (MFAH), walk the galleries is to see a man engaged as much with the art as he is with those looking at the art. He wants to see who is in the museum, who appears to have made a return visit, and how they are responding to what is on view. He covets the art and his public. Even though he has likely seen every piece on display in the museum more than a few times (and many of them he has been responsible for bringing into the permanent collection), he stops at familiar works. Beneath the whirling fins of Alexander Calder’s International Mobile he pauses, as if to feel the breeze its parts might stir as they…

It was on a school outing to Paris in the days of my youth that I made my first visit to Versailles, and there I happened upon the exquisite creations of Pierre-Benoît Marcion (1769–1840), furniture maker to Emperor Napoleon. Marcion’s stellar work, as well as all that I observed that day wandering the halls and salons of the Grand and Petit Trianon, was for me at that young age an introduction to perfection. In seeing Marcion’s work en masse, I was astonished by the refined beauty of his designs, the subtle applied embellishments, the lack of excessive frou-frou, the simplicity of line and flow. I was awed by the gilded bronze in the form of palmettes and laurel applied to stunning mahogany case pieces, tables, chairs, and beds. This would…

EVERY DAY, the sun rises over the Atlantic Ocean and Pawleys Island, South Carolina, and shines its rays through the windows of a family beach home that’s nestled in the dunes. And every night, on the other side, the sun sets over the marsh—or what the denizens of this historic resort town call the creekside—and puts on a show that, regardless of the weather, will take your breath away. The home, which finds its purpose as an escape for a busy family with adult children and grandchildren, was fittingly built on family-owned land. Where a dramatic A-frame house once stood—and on its porch the homeowner as a child, with his father next to him in a rocking chair, staring out at the ocean—there’s now a five-bedroom respite designed for one…

HOUSES BEGIN, OF COURSE, at their front doors. For interior designer Robin Rains, though, her house began with the front door. Prior to commissioning architect Jeff Dungan to design a new house for her in the Forest Hills neighborhood of Nashville, Rains was on one of her frequent buying trips to Europe. As she recalls, “I went to Belgium to look for a door and found this raw oak one, with a mail slot and its original hinges and hardware. It spoke to me immediately. It was the inspiration that forged me ahead with my design decisions, inside and outside.” Not long after, Rains was welcoming people through that door. For many months, Rains looked for the right land on which to build a house, but it wasn’t until a…

Oscar Niemeyer (1907–2012) was born and raised in Rio de Janeiro. A childhood passion for drawing led him to pursue a career in architecture, and he entered the Escola Nacional de Belas Artes, from which he graduated in 1934. Shortly before his graduation, Niemeyer was hired by architect Lúcio Costa; together, they were tasked with the design of Rio’s Ministry of Education and Health building. The Palácio Gustavo Capanema, as it’s known today, was raised on pilotis, slim supportive columns, and notable for its glass façade, which was articulated with adjustable sun shades or brises-soleil. The success of this project led to a longstanding collaboration with fellow architect Le Corbusier. In 1947, Niemeyer joined with Le Corbusier to design the United Nations headquarters in New York City. Each architect was…