It has always been my dream to properly do interiors. Since moving into my seaside palace, I have been scheming, plotting, planning, and gathering inspiration of the style I am after. “Hollywood Regency” is what I am looking towards as my guide. And the queen of that look is none other than Dorothy Draper.
Draper was a pioneer on so many levels. Born in 1889 to a waspy New York family, she was a true women’s libber, who not only began her career doing interiors in 1918, but she started her interior decorating company in 1925, and really was the first person to kickstart the industry; at a time when it was unheard of for women to work.
Her speciality was Hotel interiors. With her bold use of color, and mix of chintzy florals, stripes and art deco patterns, she created a new style deemed “modern baroque”. Many of her interiors are still in existence today. The pictures you see are one of her most famous creations – The Greenbrier Hotel in White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia. She also did Sutton Place in New York, as well as the Fairmont & Mark Hopkins in San Francisco.
This week I was fixing some shoe designs, and thought – “ooh actually, this would make nice upholstery fabric!” So I have been laying out cushion patterns. I want to take Draper’s idea, but replace the chintz with psychedelic prints on regency/ baroque style furniture. That is the plan anyway. Ooh maybe I can coin my own style – “Baroque Psychedelic Regency Pop”! It has a ring to it, no? Check out Drapers amazing work here! More soon…oxo gd
