Mario Buatta: Fifty Years of American Interior Decoration

by Mario Buatta, Emily Evans Eerdmans, Paige Rense (Foreword)

The eagerly anticipated first monograph to celebrate the fifty-years-and-counting career of decorating legend Mario Buatta. Influenced by the understated elegance of Colefax and Fowler and the doyenne of exuberant American decor, Sister Parish, Buatta reinvented the English Country House style stateside for clients such as Henry Ford II, Barbara Walters, Malcolm Forbes, and Mariah Carey, and for Blair House, the President’s guest quarters. The designer is acclaimed for his sumptuous rooms that layer fine antiques, confectionary curtains, and sublime colorations, creating an atmosphere of lived-in opulence. This lavishly illustrated survey—filled with images taken for the foremost shelter magazines as well as many unpublished photographs from the designer’s own archive—closely follows Buatta’s highly documented career from his professional start in the 1950s working for department store B. Altman & Co. and Elisabeth Draper, Inc. to his most recent projects, which include some of the country’s finest residences. Buatta shares exclusive insights into his process, his own rules for decorating, and personal stories of his adventures along the way.

Genres: Interior Design

432 pages, Hardcover

First published October 15, 2013

Reviews

[Karen Tripson · Rating 4 out of 5]

The quality of the photographs is not what it should be for a 50 pound coffee table art book, but I loved every page and he is very funny. "Think of dust as a protective coating for your fine furniture."

[Cindy Knoke · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fun and visually arresting. You'll go back to again and again. Buatta is a character and his rooms demonstrate this. Also a nice trip down memory lane~

[Manny Villa]

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[Shila Iris · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very nice book! Pages full of color and great designs. After browsing this book, I might be willing to explore floral a bit more. I tend not to like flower patterns on furniture. However, I liked them here. The photography was amazing, allowing readers to see right out the windows to the landscape. Really nice! My favorites: pages 187 & 288- the use of red on the walls; page 195- wall lighting; the entire room on pg. 262. The historic barn pictured on pages 357-361.

[Lorraine · Rating 3 out of 5]

Makes for a great coffee table book, each page contains a beautiful photograph of a designer room... Truly a visual feast. What I didn't like, is that it lacked instructional text on the 'how to', so we to could recreate some of these designs too. Accompanying 'detailed' & 'up close' photographs would've been helpful.

[Ashley · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked this book soley for its abundance of photographs. Mario Buatta's work does nothing for me, but by sheer volume I was able to pick out a lot of excellent details that were pleasing and made reding this book worthwhile.