How to Create the Perfectly Imperfect Home

Q. The charming illustrations by Virginia Johnson are an unexpected element that makes this book unique and fun. What gave you the idea to forego all the usual styled-room photography and go with illustrations that portray real rooms?

A. I wanted the book to be a lovely and special object in itself, and Virginia’s work is magical. I also thought illustrations would help readers focus on the principles and ideas at play in the rooms, instead of getting bogged down in the particulars of the specific things that people have.

Portrait of Needleman by Virginia Johnson

Q. Which decorators of the past would be sitting at the table at your dream dinner party? What would your centerpiece look like?

A. Ahh! What fun. I would have the uber-chic Billy Baldwin, the deeply stylish American, Nancy Lancaster, who co-founded Colefax and Fowler. I would invite the decorator Syrie Maugham if she could come with her husband Somerset (although I think he despised her.) Oh, and I would love the idiosyncratic Elsie de Wolfe and her lady friend to join. I have a feeling they would be great fun.

The centerpiece would be done by the brilliant floral designer (because why can't I bring her back from the dead too?!) Constance Spry. The arrangement would be in a long, low urn and include a mix of cultivated flowers with wildflowers and weeds and even vegetables that she effortlessly mixed into her exquisite arrangements.

The table would be set simply but with lovely pieces, and there would be plenty of wine, and the room would be dark and lit mostly with candlelight. And I wouldn’t invite David Hicks, who might have been the most brilliant of them all, because there’s a chance he could be a pretentious bore.

Q. I credit Domino with bringing back the stylish bar setup that we are seeing everywhere these days. Do you have these easy service areas set up in your homes? If so, do you use a bar cart, console, or other table as the base?

A. The drinks table to me epitomized the kind of thing I wanted to domino to bring from the past into our lives — a sense of graciousness, of hospitality, of grown-up parties, of charm and of sparkle! The drinks cart could be the symbol of domino! We did a story on them in the first or second issue. I thought how lovely it would be to be the kind of person who comes home after work and fixes a drink and chats with my husband about our days. Of course, that never happens. But it is perfect for when people come over.

In my apartment I have a drinks tray atop an old table, and at our weekend house, we have an drinks cart that sits in front a window. In summer, I love Aperol Spritzes: aperol, prosecco and a slice of orange (ideally blood orange). For the holidays, I like champagne on ice, but I know that is very frowned upon by people who know better.

Q. A lot of people get design paralysis and fear breaking some set of rules. What are a few easy things they can do to dip their toes into quirkiness and cozification so that they can start to let their personalities shine via their decor?

A. We are so inundated by pictures of gorgeous rooms that decorating can be very daunting.

A bit of quirk is something houses need to show you don’t take everything too seriously. It will make you happy to have odd, little personal things around, and is really lovely for guests, and it puts them at their ease more quickly than if everything is just-so.

If you have children in your life, frame a few things they’ve made and hang them alongside other more 'important' pictures. Take a few snapshots you love and put them in the kind of frames you would usually reserve for more formal pictures. Or even just tuck a snapshot or two in among things on your mantle.

I find little animal figurines to be very 'jollifying,' and they can be set anywhere. A little collection of anything grouped together is fun to see. As for 'cozifying' one’s house, find a beautiful patterned quilt or throw drape it over the back of the sofa to break up the big expanse of solid color that is most sofas.

Make sure that it shares at least one color with other things in your room. And have a bunch of soft pillows on your sofa and one in the back of each armchair. When mixing patterns together, like with a group of pillows, try to make sure there is at least one color joining one to the next, and try to vary the scale of the patterns.

Q. I love the way you encourage personal style in the bathroom. Is it a terrible faux pax that I have a copy of Loni Anderson: My Life in High Heels and a vintage copy of Barbara Walters: How to Talk to Anyone About Anything on display in my guest bath? Your opinion on this matter is of the utmost importance to me.

A. That is even more personal and pressing than the TV-out-in-the-open-or-hidden-away dilemma! I used to think it was gross for people to have reading matter in the bathroom because it just makes you think of them sitting there on the can for way too long!

Then I went into Nora Ephron’s guest bathroom and there was a shelf above the toilet with books on it and I thought it was THE most charming thing I ever saw. Very cheery and personal.

I think you have it exactly right — funny little books that are amusing, not a big stack of newspapers and magazines. That said, I can't say you'd never find that at my house.

Q. I notice you quoting a lot of my favorite design writers. What are some of your favorite decorating tomes you'd recommend to someone starting a design book collection?

A. It’s incredibly interesting and useful to get a sense of the history of decorating — to learn from the 20th century's pioneering style icons. So much of what we think is unique to our time was first done decades ago.

These old books are among my favorites, true classics (most are out of print but findable on the internet): The House in Good Taste by Elsie deWolfe (1914, but 2004 reissue) ...

... David Hicks on Living—With Taste (1969) and ...

... and On Home Decoration (1972) ...

... Billy Baldwin Decorates (1972) ...

... Mark Hampton on Decorating (1989) and ...

... Colefax and Fowler: The Best in English Interior Decoration by Chester Jones (1989).

Be sure to pick up a copy of The Perfectly Imperfect Home for the design lover on your gift list.

More:
The Happy Home Project

Tray Chic: Turn an Everyday Item Into Decor

10 Great Coffee Table Books