Sep
4
Over the decades, Bunny Williams, the interior designer veteran, has taken her hand to everything in her numerous collaborations and, of course, her own eponymous brand: Bunny Williams Home. That said, it’s high time the AD 100 talent put all of that work under one roof.
“When we found the space in the Fine Arts Building, it was the perfect fit,” Williams says of her new 4,000-square-foot showroom on New York’s Upper East Side. Wishing to give the space a hint of its original rawness, her team stripped the floor to reveal cement blocks; they also threw in a few architectural columns—a neoclassical contrast to the existing wood ceiling beams. With that, it was move-in ready.
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In a series of vignettes, Williams’s own designs play perfectly with things she’s picked up on her travels. An early-20th-century gilded Italian-style mirror she discovered while antiques hunting in her hometown of Charlottesville, Virginia, adds a bit of glitz to a cream-color table and French-inspired sofa from her home line. At the other end of the showroom, an 1860s Swedish scroll-arm bench is pulled up to Williams’s famous Workhorse desk.
“Great design is not about pedigree but panache, and the fun is putting it all together,” she says. “I personally like wood tables with painted chairs. I like a little gold in a room. I like different textures because I think they stand out. But I want to show something for everyone.”
That doesn’t mean, of course, that she endorses decorating without rules. “So much of the furniture that’s out on the market is overscale,” Williams says. When putting together her showroom—as with all of her design projects—proper proportions were paramount. “A space has to be strong and bold but also balanced,” she notes. In the showroom, her famous teeny-tiny occasional tables are scattered about, ever-present resting spots for a cocktail or cup of coffee. Her sweet slipper chairs offer petite perches in the bedrooms, while other items—her oversize Tray Chic ottoman and a new line of beds for Bunny Williams Home—make big statements.
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