According to Bunny Williams, Interior Decorator design was her birthright. According to the renowned decorator, author, and furniture designer, some people are born with the capacity to tell what is attractive and what is not. However, she cautioned that success in design requires more than just good taste.
“I do believe that humans have eyes from birth. In this industry, all of us see and take in things, but what matters most, in my opinion, is how we develop our eyes,” she said to a group of fellow designers at the most recent High Point Market in North Carolina. “Writing this book made me reflect on how I got started and how important it is to constantly educate yourself,” the author writes.
That book is “Life in the Interior Decorator Garden,” a brand-new coffee table book that features images of Williams’ gorgeous Connecticut home’s surrounding gardens. More than 40 years ago, she bought the somewhat dilapidated and overgrown house and grounds. She and her spouse, John Rosselli, an antiques trader, have restored the house and garden to thriving conditions in the intervening years.
Williams stated, “I think wanting a garden was one of the reasons I wanted to buy a house.” “I wanted to return to the country where I had grown up, even though I was living in an apartment in New York.”
Williams grew up on a farm in Charlottesville, Virginia, where she enjoyed riding horses and learning to appreciate both the land and opulent Southern mansions.
“Even though we lived in the country, my parents constantly took me on tours because they loved houses and gardens,” the woman remarked.
The tour that Williams remembers the most from those excursions may have been to The Greenbrier resort in West Virginia when she was a teenager. She discovered an unexpected interest for design as she explored the recently opened hotel thanks to its furniture and decor.
“I walked into this amazing place with these bright colors, Interior Decorator designed by the renowned American decorator Dorothy Draper,” she added. Since my family was rather traditional, I had never seen anything like this before. I cherished every square inch of it.
The gardens in Williams’ book feature the same striking use of color and variation as those that perfectly capture Draper’s Greenbrier design scheme. A seasonal tapestry of color is created by the rich scarlet of poppies, bubblegum pink snapdragons, golden sunflowers, and purple orchids set against the verdant greens of many kinds of grasses, towering boxwoods, delicate ferns, and curling ivy.
Williams used her travels as inspiration for her furniture lines and Interior Decorator design projects, and the same was true for her gardens.
Interior Decorator
“John and I would travel to France and Italy, where we would go shopping and also take in the beauty of the gardens,” she remarked. “I visited a Normandy garden. It goes without saying that you visit Sissinghurst, which is arguably the world’s most amazing garden. And you see that there was a purpose for these gardens. They were arranged exquisitely. I was only concerned with the plants, but I soon saw that my Interior Decorator garden required some order.
In the book, Williams describes the layout of her Interior Decorator gardens, from the carefully planned parterre garden to the naturally occurring woodland garden, where native plants flourish freely. And she emphasizes that a garden need variation in height and spacing, just like an interior room does.
Additionally, you must move from one room to another in a garden, just like you would in your home. Doors, hallways, and a flow are all present.
Williams gathers gardening Interior Decorator accessories, keeping and showcasing them in outbuildings like her potting shed and greenhouse.
She declared, “I adore vintage watering cans.” “I buy tools, rakes, and baskets all the time. They just seem so lovely, in my opinion. I find it impossible to resist gorgeous, mossy terracotta pots when I see them. However, we do make use of them.
Williams also incorporates outdoor themes indoors. Centerpieces made from vibrant farm veggies add a vibrant touch to tablescapes. Williams decorates her homes with evergreens cultivated especially for decoration during the holidays, and she adds interest to the mantle with single sunflowers in bud vases.
“These little touches, like morning glory growing in a terracotta pot or coleus in urns, add so much to a garden, a property, and a house,” the woman remarked.
She remarks, “I couldn’t find enough drink tables.” “It is intolerable for me to be seated in a chair without a spot to set down my water bottle, whiskey, or other drink. I therefore want to have a small table next to every chair that I see. I was unable to locate enough. Thus, I began creating them.
