Don’t be frightened by the word decorating. I like to think of it as setting the stage for the continuing story of your life. Whether your style is traditional, contemporary, formal, or even what I like to call “Early Red Lobster” (which was my assessment of the décor in the beach house Whitney rented a while back), your home should express who you are and how you like to live.
I’ve decorated many residences in my time, including Southerly, which had thirty rooms, and, as I’ve mentioned, I’ve had the benefit of a thirty-five-year relationship with the incomparable Mario Buatta, who has been dubbed the “Prince of Chintz” by his fans.
Mario, who’s as charming and quick-witted as he is talented, was featured on an episode of Southern Charm. He came to Charleston to put the finishing touches on my bedroom. It was right after my beloved cat Rocky died, and Mario startled Whitney by suggesting that I place a delft jar containing Rocky’s ashes on a decorative bracket over my bed. He thought that would be very Southern. Of course, he was kidding, but Mario’s a decorator who understands how to make a room unique.
Thanks to our long-standing collaboration, I know there are tried-and-true design formulas that can help you to achieve the look you want. The trick is that the results should never seem formulaic. Even though I often take a traditional approach, I like my surroundings to have a certain verve.[1]
If you want to think like a designer, your most important considerations are color, lighting, scale, and comfort. I think a walk through my double drawing room (most people would call it a living room) will illustrate my points. Every room starts with its wall color. As Mario says, “A can of paint can change everything.” There’s only one way to choose a color. Brush large samples of paint—and I mean large—onto the walls and pay attention to how they look at different times of day, as the light changes. After a week, you’ll know which color you prefer, and if you can live with it. I’ve chosen low-key pastels, specifically a vibrant shade of Benjamin Moore apple green, custom mixed by Mario, for my double drawing rooms. The color is uplifting and flattering, whether the day is sunny or cloudy, and it is soft and beautiful at night.
Each room in the house has its own color and texture, which creates a certain ambience.[2] The library has dark, lacquered, Chinese-red walls because it is supposed to feel intimate, like a jewel box. The hall, which I wanted to be light, airy, and spacious, has pale faux marble walls. And I use wallpaper in rooms throughout the house. The wall covering in my dining room is very special to me. Made by the historic French company Zuber et Cie, it depicts vibrant scenes from the Revolutionary War. I actually had it taken down from the dining room at Southerly and moved to Charleston. It reminds me of one of my ancestors, who served under George Washington. I’m always happy to introduce history to my surroundings.
Never underestimate the power of lighting. I consider it to be a form of theater because it establishes the mood of the room. Is it cheery? Romantic? Bright? Intimate? More importantly, how does it make you look? It should be flattering. Overhead lighting is the enemy because it creates lines and shadows in all the wrong places, especially on the face! In the evening, everyone looks best if there’s a soft glow. That’s why I love floor lamps and position them strategically around the room.
I love candlelight, but candlesticks are appropriate only in the evening. I’ve attended luncheons in broad daylight where there were lit candles on the table, and that’s just silly. When you entertain, always make sure that new candles are burned down a little, or they’ll look like props in a furniture showroom. Light them an hour before your guests arrive, and keep the wicks trimmed (before you light them) so they don’t sputter. At the end of the evening, use a proper snuffer to extinguish them, so you don’t blow the wax everywhere. If you end up with drops of wax on your dining room table, the best way to remove it is to let it harden and scrape it off with a credit card. I also like scented candles, which can be lit at any time. The bamboo candle by Nest has a clean and pleasant scent that works in any room.
Mario likes to spend a weekend in a client’s home before he determines the best approach to furniture, layout, and overall design, because he wants to understand how their rooms are used. If you’re doing your own decorating, think about how you really live, and be brutally honest, especially if you have children and/or pets. If the rooms where you entertain have to serve two purposes, there are beautiful indoor/outdoor fabrics that can withstand family room activity in a living room.
Whether you are buying new furniture, using what you own, or combining the two, try to envision the whole room. Furniture never stands alone. No matter how much you love a particular piece, it has to work in concert with everything else. What I learned from Mario is that the preferred layout for a drawing room/living room includes a white or pale sofa flanked by two comfortable club chairs, with a large, low, Chinese-style table—a coffee table, but one that is square. Place occasional tables (round ceramic garden stools work perfectly) next to the club chairs. Armchairs with legs can be added, so they can be moved around to accommodate guests who are having a conversation.
If the room is large enough to accommodate more than one sofa, this grouping can be repeated. Once your core arrangement is in place, you can add pieces for visual variety. You need to stagger furniture of different heights or the room will look boring. A tall chest or a bookcase (I like a Chinese secretary with shelves) will offset the shorter sofa and chairs. Mirrors add height, light, and give a room life. And don’t forget gilt! On a mirror, lamp, or picture frame—wherever it is—a flash of gold will catch the eye.
Most of the furniture in this house was moved from Southerly, so it was a challenge to install the pieces to a new environment. The fact that they look as if they’ve always been here is testament to their endurance and versatility. Which brings me to the dreaded word, antique. Some people freeze when they hear it. I hate rooms that look as if they belong in a museum, but I do love a touch of “something old.” Most Southerners do. We surround ourselves with reminders of the past because history is so important to us. And I love having something in a room that’s older than me.
Nostalgia isn’t the only reason to buy antiques. From a practical standpoint, antiques are usually better made than new pieces, or reproductions, and they are renewable. A chair may look like it’s dead and buried, but a new fabric and a good upholsterer can bring it back to life. And antiques can be surprisingly affordable. Local auction houses and internet auction sites are great resources for deals. I buy china and silver on the internet all the time, usually late at night, and I’ve found wonderful bargains. Besides, who can resist an object with a great story?
Comfort is something I cannot emphasize enough. Whatever your price range is, whether you buy custom or off the rack, a sofa, a chair, or any kind of seating, has to be inviting—inviting is an important word. I like a sofa to be enveloping, with bountiful cushions and pillows that are usually filled with down. But one of my pet peeves is the sight of stiff, knife-edged pillows lined up like soldiers. They look staged and they feel uncomfortable.
Floors are very important. We don’t think of them as adding or subtracting light from a room—but that is definitely the case in the Isaac Mikell House. Mario thought the house looked too somber, so he painted the entrance hall’s dark wooden floor white, and had it stenciled with a pattern designed to look like a floor in an English country house. Now the space looks lighter and brighter, and more appropriate for a home in the South. The white painted floor in my bedroom, polished to a bowling alley finish (and crisscrossed with blue trompe l’oeil[3] ribbons in the adjacent bathroom), serves a similar purpose. The room feels light and airy, like a sunny garden sanctuary.
I don’t know why people bother with rugs when painted floors are pretty, cleaner, and much easier to live with if you have allergies or pets. Rugs are tricky to select and even trickier to position and maintain. In a living room the rug should be neutral, with a small pattern, and should cover the area where the furniture is centered. My Stark carpet from the large drawing room at Southerly was too big for either one of the double drawing rooms in Charleston, but Mario cleverly had it cut in half, and the resulting pair of rugs look as if they were made to fit the two new spaces.
Given my background, I always think that art is one of the most important elements in any room. Hang what you love, whether it was created by a professional or one of your children, but only if it is framed or mounted. And be careful where you place it. Most people hang their art too high or too low. When I worked at the Smithsonian, I learned that the curators did it by eye. I do that too, but if you want to be more scientific about it, the rule most decorators and gallerists endorse is as follows: in a room with traditional eight-foot ceilings, hang your artwork so the center stands between fifty-six and sixty inches from the floor—which is approximately “eye level.” If your ceilings are higher (mine are fourteen feet) you can take advantage of the extra space and hang your pictures a little higher to draw the eye up.
Curtains, if you have them, should be punctuation, not a verb. They’re eyesores if they overpower everything else in the room. Mario is famous for his curtains and he’s done the most beautiful window treatments throughout the house. They’re all wonderful, but I must confess that I fell in love with a set of gorgeous, over-the-top curtains he made for one of my New York apartments. They were “couture” curtains—mauve, peach, and pink taffeta panels trimmed in light-catching crystals. They made me feel like Scarlett O’Hara. In a pinch I could have pulled them down and worn them to the Costume Institute Gala.
Once you’ve mastered the basics, you can start adding all the wonderful decorative touches that express your individuality. The items you choose for your coffee table (I like a selection of books, a pair of candlesticks or hurricane lights, a decorative box, and something wacky like the new turtle bell I use to summon Michael) should be the things you collect and cherish. I’m always surprised when I go into a house or apartment and don’t see any books or magazines. That’s a big black mark if you come across as someone who never reads!
Potpourri in a decorative bowl is a lovely touch. It lasts for months if you turn it over and add another box, or refresh it with scented oil. My favorite brand is Agraria. Their Bitter Orange blend (nicknamed “Park Avenue Potpourri”) is filled with flowers, herbs, and spices and the scent is distinctive yet subtle.
If your living room is indeed a living room, it’s a place for socializing and conversation. Let’s be old Millennium. No television, telephone, or tablets, please.
I’m often asked to name my favorite room in the house. It’s hard to say, but because I’m basically lazy, I love my bedroom and bathroom, especially my bathroom, where I have a Jacuzzi tub, a big-screen television, a fireplace, and a toilet enclosed in a cabinet so I don’t have to look at it. My bedroom suite is my little corner of the world, my refuge from reality—although this is where I watch all my favorite reality shows. Some nights, especially after an exhausting day of shooting Southern Charm, I can’t wait to retire to my room with dinner on a tray, the television remote, and a good book. I also like to entertain my dogs there. I have a beautiful blue toile dog bed, but they prefer mine.
It is perfectly acceptable for your bedroom to be a personal space where anything goes, but a guest room, if you have one, has to be held to a higher standard. It can’t be the place where unwanted things—worn pillows and blankets, old furniture, and God knows what else—go to die. And let’s face it, if your grown child’s former room is filled with toys, posters, and commemorative shot glasses, it’s not a place for guests, it’s a memorial.
For the guest room, you have to step up your Southern hospitality and create an environment that makes your guests feel wanted and special. The basics include:
The bathroom you’ve set aside for your guest, if you have one, is another place that should be spanking clean and hospitable. In addition to providing good lighting and a generous supply of towels, think about the toiletries you yourself have forgotten to pack when traveling. Any guest will be grateful to find:
When you have company, going the extra distance to make them feel welcome guarantees that they will be good company, in every sense of the word. Conversely, guests should be on their best behavior when staying in your home. I asked Michael to share a few insider thoughts about what makes a guest “good.”
Ask the Expert: Michael Kelcourse
What’s one of the worst things a houseguest can do?
Don’t leave wet towels on the floor or on the bed. Fold them neatly and place them on the tub. And turn off the lights when you leave a room.
Are guests being pesky when they ask for things?
A good guest politely informs the hostess about requests and problems. People are so afraid to ask for what they want. But if a house has a staff, we’re here to give you what you want.
What to do when something breaks—hide it and hope no one notices?
Inform your hostess if you break something. We don’t care—we just want to know so it can be fixed or replaced.
Charleston is blessed with a beautiful climate (except during the dog days of summer). Here, and throughout the South, outdoor space is considered an important extension of the home. We take our porches—we call them piazzas—and yards very seriously. They’re great settings for lounging, loafing, entertaining, and of course, gossiping.
The Isaac Jenkins Mikell House has wraparound piazzas on the first and second floors. In keeping with the house’s Italianate origins, I’ve planted Meyer lemon trees in large Tuscan pots and positioned them so they can be seen from inside the house. When the lemons are hanging from the branches, I feel as if I am living in a Palladian villa in Italy! This beautiful tiled space has been the setting for many a Southern Charm moment, including the photograph on the cover of this book.
Below the piazza, the walled garden features pea-gravel-covered paths, boxwood hedges, statuary, a Greek revival dog house (and sometimes five frisky dogs), spectacular water lilies that bloom day and night, white camellias, and olive trees. I had an amazing crop of olives last year but didn’t know what to do with them. I was excited about the possibilities until I discovered that an olive has a long, long way to go before it’s ready for a martini glass.
If you have access to any outdoor space—a yard, a porch, a deck, a balcony—think like a Southerner and transform it into a retreat where you and friends can relax for a tall drink and a long chat. You’ll come to regard it as the best “room” in the house. Define the area with potted trees, planters, and flowers—bougainvillea is a quintessential Southern choice. Add a French market table and chairs, candles, linen cocktail napkins, and wicker furniture. Then bring out the sweet tea or the bourbon slushies (recipe to follow) and settle in for a leisurely visit, Southern style.
Sean Brock, the James Beard Award–winning chef at Charleston’s Husk restaurant, says, “If you sit on the porch long enough, you finally start telling the truth.”[4] He’s absolutely right. Many Southern Charm truths—the good, the bad, and the ugly—have come to light right here on my piazza.
From art to antiques to Steiff animals, I surround myself with objects I love. But collecting doesn’t have to be a one-percenter’s game, nor does it have to turn a house into a hoarder’s paradise. I’m as enthusiastic about Steiff stuffed animals as I am about seventeenth- and eighteenth-century needlework, as evidenced by the plush zoo that surrounds my Christmas tree. The secret is to arrange and display these collections in unexpected places and in eye-catching ways.
One of my best assemblages can be seen on the curved wall overlooking the staircase in the main hallway, where I hang my collection of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century silhouettes. My parents owned a few silhouettes when I was a child, and I had one done of Whitney when he was three. But it wasn’t until I became an art advisor that I paid closer attention to the genre and started collecting them in Europe.
They have such an interesting backstory. Originally, a silhouette—a profile traced onto and cut from black paper—was an inexpensive alternative for people who couldn’t afford to commission painted portraits. They were called portraits à la Silhouette after Étienne de Silhouette, a notorious eighteenth-century French official who was famous for being a cheapskate. I found the best ones on the Left Bank in Paris and at antique fairs in London.
Arthur, who was a serious collector of museum-quality art, thought that silhouettes were great fun. One of our favorite activities was hunting for art and antiques together. Wherever we were—in America or in Europe—we would wear ourselves out visiting dealers, galleries, auctions, and flea markets. It was almost more fun when we came across hidden treasure in unlikely places, such as a tag sale in a church basement. We found many silhouettes on these excursions.
My collection has many different kinds of silhouettes: some are cut out of paper, some are painted directly on glass; a few are sculpted in plaster; some are embellished with color, or gilt; some are painted on reverse glass; and two very unusual ones, which depict scenes in a royal court, were made by the queen of Portugal. The most valuable silhouette in my collection, and my favorite, depicts George Washington. To date, it’s the only silhouette of him that was done from life. It was signed by the artist, Samuel Folwell.
Have I mentioned my obsession with antique French clocks? I think every mantel looks better with one, especially in rooms with high ceilings. Made of gilded bronze, with intricately designed figures, the clocks were manufactured in France in the eighteenth century. I’m always ready to pounce on an irresistible one at auction.
Arthur and I also shared a passion for antique silver. S. Kirk and Son presterling “coin” is the popular silver of the old South, and the preferred choice of traditional belles for their trousseaus. But I always preferred “Lap Over Edge,” a stunning sterling pattern created for Tiffany & Co. In my opinion, Lap Over Edge, which was designed by Charles Grosjean in 1880, is the epitome of fine silver, despite the fact that it was made in the North. The pattern is in the Japanese style, with butterflies, berries, gourds, and other elements from nature. Arthur had amassed a huge collection of Lap Over Edge, but lost a substantial part of it in a divorce settlement. When we married we pooled our silver collections, and I still treasure it today.
My most whimsical “collection” is in my first-floor powder room, where I display a selection of perfume bottles for guests to sample. I confess that I wear only one perfume: Muguet by Guerlain, which is a light, floral fragrance infused with lily of the valley. Every year Guerlain invites a renowned artisan—a jeweler, a ceramicist, a sculptor—to create a limited-edition bottle, which is fabulously expensive and sells out immediately. I buy it, but, ironically, I always transfer the perfume into one of my pretty antique bottles because I prefer to apply my scent with an atomizer. There’s something very feminine about spraying perfume the old-fashioned way and walking through a cloud of scent.
Since I never stray from my signature Muguet, I came up with a clever way to share the perfumes I get as gifts or samples. I line them up on a table in the first-floor guest bathroom, where they look beautiful and prove to be very tempting. Every woman loves the opportunity to try a new fragrance.
You really can call anything a “collection.” I save invitations I’ve received over the years and keep the prettiest and most meaningful ones in a large decorative bowl on a console in my office. Some invitations are works of art, with elaborate engraving and calligraphy, while others bring back happy memories. Either way, I enjoy seeing them and remembering the stories that go with them.
I feel the same way about antique books. I have a complete set of first editions by P. G. Wodehouse, and other authors. I am always adding to my extensive collection of art books. And, I love my books about the South, especially the rare ones from my parents’ library in Virginia.
I seem to be starting new collections all the time. When I was in India, I went crazy for elephants and brought back a procession of carved and embellished wood figures that will have a place of honor on my dining room table. Then I bought at auction a beautiful antique Dresden elephant Christmas ornament for my tree. I love alligators, monkeys, rabbits, and pugs in any form. My miniature china pugs are threatening to take over the house, just like my real dogs. I have everything from a rare, hand-painted eighteenth-century box depicting a pug to a pug on wheels that Mario bought in a drugstore. Collect what’s important to you, regardless of its monetary value, and find a lovely way to showcase it. That’s the best way to add personality to your home.
If you’re insecure about your sense of style, or feel that it’s still evolving, don’t be afraid to copy people you admire. Read shelter magazines—my favorites are Architectural Digest, World of Interiors, and Veranda—and start a file of what you like. Pictures can be inspiring. I’ve always enjoyed reading books by interior designers and studying up about the objects that interest me. There are so many resources available today, especially on the internet. Barbara Guggenheim, an important art advisor and a close friend for thirty-five years, has written an indispensable book about furnishing your home without having to leave the house. Decorating on eBay: Fast and Stylish on a Budget tells you how to find the pieces you want, and at the best price.
And then there’s Mario, who always knows best. Even if you can’t hire him, you can read his wonderful book, Mario Buatta: Fifty Years of American Interior Decoration, which is an enormous source of inspiration.
Ask the Expert: Mario Buatta
What’s the most common mistake people make when decorating their homes?
It’s so easy to get scale and proportion wrong. Furniture ends up being too big or too small. I like to compare a room to a garden, where all the flowers and trees grow at different levels. Approach a room like a puzzle and give yourself time to think—eventually the right answers will present themselves.
What happens when a new design trend comes along? Does a room have to adapt?
The way I think never changes. Forget about instant gratification. You can’t treat decorating as fashion—it’s not like a dress you can push to the back of the closet. A great room is an investment in time and money, and if you do it correctly the first time, chances are you will never get tired of it.
What’s the best way to prevent a room from looking stale?
A room is not a still life. Keep it fresh and up to date with flowers and living plants. Also, switch the books and objects you keep on your tabletops a few times a year—and, most importantly, display things you love and that bring you happiness.
[1] Verve: vigor and spirit, or enthusiasm.
[2] Ambience: the character and atmosphere of a place.
[3] Trompe l’oeil: visual illusion in art, especially as used to trick the eye into perceiving a painted detail as a three-dimensional object.
[4] Ligaya Figueras, “Art of the Porch Party,” Atlanta Journal Constitution, June 26, 2016, E10.