The tiger leopard velvet sofa in it's original purple walled space. Even this room is chic! Look at the Madeline Weinrib-esqe dhurrie on the floor!
Lee Radziwill is the younger sister of Jackie Kennedy. While famous in her own right for many reasons what I like best about Lee Radziwill is her home decor, of course! Her homes have been published in many magazines over the years but what first got me hooked on her is the "famous sofa"!
The famous sofa is a tiger silk velvet sofa that she had custom made back in the 60's. I first found out about the sofa when Carole Radziwill was on the Real Housewives of New York and it was featured in her apartment. Carole was married to Lee's late son Anthony Radziwill. When Anthony moved into his own apartment years ago, his mother gifted him the sofa which ended up in Carole's current apartment.
Apparently, the sofa finally saw its last days after 50 years of use and finding out it would be $50,000 to reupholster. It has since been replaced but here it is below in an older version of Carole's apartment:
The famous sofa is a tiger silk velvet sofa that she had custom made back in the 60's. I first found out about the sofa when Carole Radziwill was on the Real Housewives of New York and it was featured in her apartment. Carole was married to Lee's late son Anthony Radziwill. When Anthony moved into his own apartment years ago, his mother gifted him the sofa which ended up in Carole's current apartment.
Apparently, the sofa finally saw its last days after 50 years of use and finding out it would be $50,000 to reupholster. It has since been replaced but here it is below in an older version of Carole's apartment:
In love with this sofa!
If I owned that sofa I too would keep it for years and years until it literally fell apart!
But the sofa is not the piece only piece of decor greatness from Lee Radziwill. She has had many, many amazing interiors.
One look that she has seemed to favor over the years is pattern on pattern. Below is one of her former bedrooms decorated by Mark Hampton in her English country house. I could happily live in this room. The details are insane. Notice the trim work on the fabric covered walls and the painted wood floor. I have been into pink lately and this room is pink done right!
But the sofa is not the piece only piece of decor greatness from Lee Radziwill. She has had many, many amazing interiors.
One look that she has seemed to favor over the years is pattern on pattern. Below is one of her former bedrooms decorated by Mark Hampton in her English country house. I could happily live in this room. The details are insane. Notice the trim work on the fabric covered walls and the painted wood floor. I have been into pink lately and this room is pink done right!
The photos above and below are of one of her New York libraries. The room is wrapped in a La Manach fabric which was also used to upholster the sofa. Below is a detail shot showing a really cute Decalcomania lamp. I am dying to do a room using the same fabric on walls and upholstery.
Below is a photo of Lee and her daughter in their ottoman inspired London drawing room decorated by Renzo Mongiardino which was said to have made waves at the time that it was published. Another example of a pattern on pattern room filled with Indian printed cottons that were used as wall coverings, curtains and lampshades causing it all to meld together. It was said by Lee that the room had never made sense and the proportions perplexed other decorators but treating the room as Mongiardino did seemed to enlarge the space and dissolve the boundaries.
This room above may very well be one of my favorites! This is Lee's Paris apartment living room again covered in another La Manach fabric on both the walls, windows and upholstery. This particular pattern is Tree of Life. I love this fabric so much I have another blog post being cooked up all about it! I really, really want to do this in a room. I can imagine how cozy and enveloping it might feel to be in a room with the same fabric repeated throughout! I also really love that Zebra photo!
Another great room was the bird cage room at Turville Grange, her country house an hour outside of London. Pattern on pattern is again used here. You can see a small part of the sofa poking out in the corner of the photo showing that it is also upholstered in the same fabric as the wallpaper and the lampshades.
What I love most about this room is the birdcages! I remember reading years ago about the late decorator, Charles Faudree and an antique French birdcage that he had in his dining room with 2 love birds that sang during dinner parties. Ever since then I have had this fantasy of an antique bird cage with some small birds in it! I don't actually want birds...... but I love how idea of having them singing at dinner.
My only experience with birds are my chickens (which I like because they live outside!), a bird that my parents "bird-sat" for when I was a child that died in our care and a really expensive exotic bird my grandmother bought years ago that was constantly squawking and was so nasty that you couldn't even put your finger by the cage without fear of having your skin ripped off! So....birds are not realistically my idea of an ideal pet but in a fantasy world having two sweet little love-birds in an antique bird cage sounds lovely!
Anyway......Lee decided that she wanted her country house to be the opposite of the typical gray English weather so they chose this floral paper and filled the room with bright, happy objects and singing birds!
What I love most about this room is the birdcages! I remember reading years ago about the late decorator, Charles Faudree and an antique French birdcage that he had in his dining room with 2 love birds that sang during dinner parties. Ever since then I have had this fantasy of an antique bird cage with some small birds in it! I don't actually want birds...... but I love how idea of having them singing at dinner.
My only experience with birds are my chickens (which I like because they live outside!), a bird that my parents "bird-sat" for when I was a child that died in our care and a really expensive exotic bird my grandmother bought years ago that was constantly squawking and was so nasty that you couldn't even put your finger by the cage without fear of having your skin ripped off! So....birds are not realistically my idea of an ideal pet but in a fantasy world having two sweet little love-birds in an antique bird cage sounds lovely!
Anyway......Lee decided that she wanted her country house to be the opposite of the typical gray English weather so they chose this floral paper and filled the room with bright, happy objects and singing birds!
Finally, above is a photo of her latest Paris apartment which was recently sold. It seems as she gets older her interiors are becoming more clean and calming. But the part of this room and the rest of the apartment that I love the most is that you can see that when you buy things you love they often travel with you and outlast trends. Obviously, the tiger velvet sofa was a true winner but in the photo above there are a number of pieces that have been recycled. The chairs covered in the La Manach fabric are reused from another iteration of her Parisian apartment. The botanicals on the wall were used in the bird room at Turville Grange, one of her New York dining rooms and also in one of the her other bedrooms. The lamps flanking the couch were previously also used in another space in the apartment and those are just a few of the things that are obvious. Her style has grown and changed as everyones does throughout the years but what she really loves has stood the test of time. If you are interested in seeing more of her interiors there are many, many photos to be dug up online!