Mario Buatta, Curtain Master

Curtains in the Dillon Room of Blair House
decorated by Mario Buatta. 1988.
Photo from Southern Accents.

Granted, there are many other examples that would better prove Mario Buatta's skill in curtain design, but this one illustrates several valuable lessons.  While it is admirable that the form of the curtains acknowledges the form of the window (or doorway), it is not critical that the form be absolutely followed.  Windows with a rounded head do not necessarily require rounded head curtains.  (As with any rule, there are exceptions and I will contradict myself in a future post, but let's stay with this for the moment).



The Dillon Room at Blair House
as decorated by Mario Buatta, 1988.
Photo from Southern Accents.

Identifying the gilded, pierced element of the valance (or pelmet) as the curtain cornice, note how that feature gives grace to the large opening.  The curtain cornice allows the striped silk taffeta fabric of the valance and panels to just simply hang; the volume of the fabric along with lining and interlining as well as the correct dimensions keep the ensemble from looking limp.  Although the center of the curtain cornice rises to a height above the cornice (or crown molding) of the room, note that the attachment of this treatment is made to the wall.  Curtains should never be attached to the face of the cornice of the room.  (And that is one rule for which I can think of no exceptions).


Another view of the Dillon Room, Blair House.
Photo from Architectural Digest.

While many might know that Blair House is the official guest house of the President for visiting foreign dignitaries and their entourages, some may not realize that it is actually four houses; two face Pennsylvania Avenue and two face Jackson Square adding up to over 100 rooms.  The 1984 to 1988 renovation dealt with architects John Mesick and John Waite restructuring the interconnection of the interior spaces and other functional issues with an $8.6 million grant from Congress.  But an additional $5 million was raised by private donations for the décor by the Blair House Restoration Fund headed by Selwa "Lucky" Roosevelt (Chief of Protocol from 1982 to 1989 and wife of Theodore Roosevelt's grandson) and Clement Conger (who was the force behind the White House decoration of public rooms from Pat Nixon until Nancy Reagan).  Half of those funds was used for decoration and half was reserved for an on-going acquisition and maintenance fund.  The responsibilities for the interior design were divided between Mario Buatta and Mark Hampton, each among the top "name' decorators of the time.


The Queen's Bedroom at Blair House
as decorated by Mario Buatta in 1988.
Bunny Williams redecorated the room in 2011.
Photo via The Washington Post.

In 2011, Bunny Williams, one of the top talents today, was brought in to redecorate three bedrooms, two by Mario Buatta and one by Mark Hampton, which had discontinued fabrics that made it not feasible to reproduce the original scheme. The curtains, however, were still in a condition suitable for re-use and sent to be auctioned in September, 2011 by the Potomac Company in Alexandria with proceeds to benefit the restoration fund.  The  headboards and associated hangings along with the curtains, all in a discontinued Lee Jofa chintz, were given a pre-auction estimate of $400 to $800; the results are not known.

John Saladino, Curtain Master

John Saladino's Kips Bay Showhouse room.
Image from HOUSE BEAUTIFUL, October 1988.

Designer of furnishings and interiors, John Saladino is known for his Signature Look that mixes continental antiques with seating, tables and lighting of his own design, usually within a handsome architectural setting.  But Saladino is not necessarily known for his curtains.  Here is an example, however, where Saladino realized that the room absolutely needed some softness at the tall south and west-facing windows of this room and addressed the issue in a simple, classic way.


A corner of Saladino's Kips Bay Showhouse room.
Image from HOUSE BEAUTIFUL, October 1988.

This room was in a Park Avenue townhouse that was used as a decorator showhouse several times to benefit the Kips Bay Boys & Girls Club providing after-school and enrichment programs for New York City children; I think this particular event dates from 1988. Patrons at the gala opening are allowed to walk into the rooms, but the typical visitor only sees the room from one angle, at the doorway (unless it is a walk-through room) so the space is often furnished to be seen from just one vantage point.  But the room has to work during both day and evening opening hours. The existing paneling in this case could not be altered, making any special construction at the windows impossible.  Part of the solution here was a bottom-up linen shade that could be adjusted to diffuse the light as well as the view of traffic just below.  This allowed the curtain panels of unlined fabric to be fixed, pulled up to one side in the manner of the classical Mediterranean villas that still inspire Saladino.  The panels were silk, if I am remembering correctly, with inverted pleats giving a more tailored look, hanging from braided cords of the same color.


Saladino's Kips Bay Showhouse Room.
Photo from SHOWCASE OF INTERIOR DESIGN:
EASTERN EDITION, 1991, via
The Art of the Room

Can you imagine the room without the curtains?  It would not be nearly as successful without this relatively simple element.  Read more about this room in a post of The Art of the Room.  This is the third post in the not-necessarily-consecutive series on curtains with the others being able to be seen by clicking on "curtains" under LABELS in the right-hand margin of the regular web version of The Devoted Classicist.

Robert Couturier, Curtain Master

Designer Robert Couturier's Living Room
from House & Garden, September 1990.

In Robert Couturier's Living Room in his own NYC apartment, the curtains play a large part of the success of the room.  Filled with a mix of stylish continental antiques from the 18th, 19th, and 20th-centuries, an Aubusson rug grounds the arrangement.  Three tiers of white, hinged bi-fold, louvered shutters provide light control and privacy in the bay window that would otherwise dominate the room if the eye had not been stopped by the billowing effect of the curtains.  Panels of taffeta hang by tabs of the same fabric from a steel rod accented with brass finials, support posts, and large tie-back rosettes.

Imagine the same room without the curtains to realize the importance of that feature.  Although it is not the type of room usually seen in magazines today, it still has validity after 25 years.  More posts in the Curtain Master series will follow with a series of un-consecutive series of posts by The Devoted Classicist.

Kevin McNamara, Curtain Master

A view of the East Hampton Living Room
of designer Kevin McNamara.

The Devoted Classicist is still hearing far too many people -- including professional interior designers -- say that they do not do curtains.  Actually, they say they don't do "drapes" which is like nails on a chalkboard to me, but that is another subject.  This is the first of a non-consecutive series of posts to show how curtains can really add to the appeal of a room.

Although I have a great appreciation for elaborate curtains -- if the rest of the room is up to it -- I do understand those whose memory is tainted with visions of poorly proportioned, tortured, and sometimes smothering window treatments that are so objectionable that nothing at the windows would be better.  But relatively simple curtains, even in formal atmospheres can be a welcome and much needed dressing.


Another view of the curtains
in Kevin McNamara's East Hampton
Living Room.
Both photos from Architectural Digest.

These photos show the Living Room of the late Kevin McNamara's weekend house in East Hampton.  I visited twice, once while it was under construction and another time after it was complete and handsomely furnished when I still worked at Parish-Hadley.  So this decor dates back about 30 years. (These two shots come from an article in Architectural Digest, torn out for the Curtain File of a colleague.  But I have the entire issue packed away and will show more in a future post).

I hope you can imagine how different this room would look without curtains.  As I recall, the long walls of the room each had three pairs of tall French doors opening out to a terrace on both the entrance and garden side of the capital 'I' (with serif) shaped house.  (I might have preferred shorter doors with a transom to give the desired overall height, but that, too, is a subject for another post).  Color/value also plays a role.  How different the room would be if the curtains matched the green glazed walls.  Here, the French doors remain an important feature of the room, but they are visually softened somewhat by the creamy curtains.  The site is wooded and private, so there may have never been a need to draw the curtains, eliminating the need for supplemental treatments or more complicated hardware.  And I hope you can see the simple gilt fillet at the top of the wall, giving definition to the perimeter of the room, an interesting detail given the curtain poles mounted almost to the cornice.

Kevin, who passed away in 2005, had started his career at McMillen and then at Parish-Hadley before founding his own firm so he was well-versed in how to create proper curtains.  Later in his career, he and his life partner founded Christopher Norman Inc., a to-the-trade source which was at the forefront of having French and Italian-style silk woven in the Far East at more affordable prices, making silk curtains, etc., more popular to a wider market.  More about Kevin McNamara will appear in future posts of The Devoted Classicist.

Curtains for Albert Hadley?

Yes and no.  Yes, Albert Hadley refers to window treatments as curtains (and never drapes).  As a former employee of the interior design firm Parish-Hadley, The Devoted Classicist follows the tradition.

But no, despite a recent New York Times article titled "It's Curtains", it is not over for Albert Hadley, b. 1921, who closed his design office on November 1st of last year.  Fortunately, the upcoming auctions represent a retirement sale rather than an estate sale.  At Sotheby's Manhattan on March 30 and 31, and at Stair Galleries, Hudson, NY, on April 1, 2011, there will be an auction of property from his office and warehouse.  While many treasures have already found good homes, even second tier furnishings with an Albert Hadley provenance will be worthy of attention.  There is anticipation building to see the on-line catalogs as well as the exhibitions themselves.

The sketches shown here are not by Mr Hadley but my own.  However, they clearly show his influence in both theory and rendering style.  As Albert Hadley is referred to as the Dean of American Decorating, these drawings would fall into the category of "school of . .".  For the top sketch, I have used as inspiration an A.H. design for a bathroom window treatment for Mrs. Jock Whitney at Greentree, the Manhasset estate that will be featured in a future post.  For my project, the bathroom with a wainscot of slabs of marble was given stencilled decoration on the upper walls, and the window was treated with a half curtain, a roller shade (not shown), and a swagged valance with trailing jabots, adorned with a fringe of tiny silvered bells and wooden silverleafed tassels, and silvered rings held with glass head picture pins.  The bottom sketch was for dining room windows at One Sutton Place, an apartment which will also be featured in a future post.  Here the sketch shows the proposal for using different fabrics -- one for the valance, another for the panels, and a third for the lining which is visible as a border on the face.  Currently there is a trend for more simple window treatments, but there are still circumstances where the curtains can provide just the right finishing touch.