Warm is Pretty

MICHAEL WHALEY: I wanted the apartment to be ... pretty. There, I’ve said it! I wanted it to be a showstopper, with everything special, because my big thing now is to do things that nobody else does. I wanted glamour for a glamorous person. I wanted it to take your breath away from the minute you walk in the front door. Anyhow, my client told me she absolutely didn't want palm tree fabrics or sisal. She wanted it to feel like a real home-not just a Florida getaway-with fine antiques and beautiful rugs.

Speaking of rugs-these are certainly colorful. I created cuslom-colored, cla sicall designed rugs in bright aqua, pink, and fuchsia. I had the pile heered down o low, il looks like a mixture of isal and wool. This makes it less formal, more relaxed, with a nod toward beachy—this is the beach, after all, those are waves crashing out there!—buy I’ll still retain the elegance and glamour my client wanted.

They sound like ideal clients for you. They are actually, I’d already done two other residences for them. They're from Connecticut, and they bought this apartment on the ocean in Vero Beach as a winter residence . She had so much enthusiasm for their new place—and such a love of pink—and that exuberance is reflected in the design. The concept I came up with was pink, aqua, and a mix of Brighton Pavilion, chinoiserie, and French and Italian painted antiques, with gilt and black lacquer to create a pretty juxtaposition with all the bright Florida colors.

That black lacquer secretary is a true pièce de resistance. My client said, ‘I want the apartment to have something fantastic, like this,’ and she whipped out a picture of a black lacquer secretary. But to buy an old one like the one she showed me would have used up the hole decorating budget. I had it copied for ½o of the price of the real one.

So, the rugs, the secretary... what else? I designed the cabana-stripe fabric for the curtains in the living room and dining room, because I wanted to create a feeling of a cabana on the Mediterranean. The room almost appears to be tented, and when the ocean breeze billows the curtains, you’re transported. I had the wall finished in a highly polished Venetian plaster, a shiny rich pink like the inside of a conch shell. The walls reflect the light and make the room glow And I designed the Regency-style dining chair. Regency chairs are usually black lacquer on rosewood, which seemed too heavy for a tropical setting, so I painted them white and striped them gold and green and pink, and had the backs of each one painted with a different chinoiserie scene. I also brightened the chandelier—it’s 19th-century Italian—with white gesso.

And that pink hall? My first thought was to use a hand-painted Chines wallpaper, but that would have cost too much. Then I remembered this Hines Coralie wallpaper. I’ve wanted to use it for 20 years. Cross that one off the list!