Mario Buatta: Fifty Years of American Interior Decoration

Super well packed by the seller at a reasonable price. This book is a must for your designers library.

If you are an admirer of Mario Buatta's exuberant, vivid and rose-strewn chintz rooms, there are 400 pages detailing them, with commentary, in this oversize book which mirrors the designer's oversize personality. Buatta confesses in this book that he learned the crazier he acted, the more people liked him. Crazy like a fox we suspect. He describes the time he wrapped up one of Fowler's own vases and gave it to Fowler as a joke. He worked with, stayed in the homes of, or met, many design icons including Rose Cummings, Nancy Lancaster, Sister Parish and Albert Hadley. It was Albert Hadley, when he met Buatta in the antiques department of B. Altman, who suggested that Buatta study in Europe with Stanley Barrows in the Parsons European summer session Buatta tells us.Along with his humor and quips - this is the first design book I've seen which includes cartoons - Buatta describes his approach to designing a room: "I have a painterly way of decorating. Composing a room is like taking a canvas and putting color on a little bit at a time...It should be like a garden where things are growing at all different heights."He continues, "As soon as I enter a room, I immediately see how the furniture should be arranged - it's the sort of thing that becomes second nature with experience....Arrange your furniture in groupings - think of it as if the pieces were, in a sense, talking to each other."Following Buatta's colorful reminiscences, and thoughts on design, are pages of his iconic rooms from his over 50-year design career with brief descriptions of materials used or his design process. The rooms are colorfully vibrant. (In some photos the color seems off a tad.) Buatta has certainly decorated some of the prettiest rooms ever decorated. Some rooms you will have seen before in magazines, but there were a few I didn't recall. One I loved seeing - which was worth buying the the book for alone - is a room with a blue and white Matisse cotton print from Hinson upholstering the walls, a banquette and folding screen with red painted chairs and colorful art. Wow! If you want a collection Buatta's work organized under one cover, it's here for safe-keeping and to peruse for inspiration at your leisure.Following the photos of Buatta's rooms is author Emily Evans Eerdmans' take on Buatta's design life and anecdotes which Buatta didn't include, as well as more photos of Buatta's rooms. Eerdmans' account is a lively read. There are personal photos throughout the book. This book truly captures the author's irreverent personality - it's clear that no one can be too staid and stuffy around Buatta while he is decorating. This is fascinating design history which will only increase in interest and value to design historians. True design aficionados will want to have this book in their design library. This book is as entertaining, personable and effervescent as Buatta himself.

This designer, Mario Buatta, was absolutely a genius at giving clients what they didn’t even know they needed before they needed it. He built a well deserved reputation to take a dreary room, apartment or house, and infuse it with Charm, color, pattern and details and comfort that cosseted it’s owners with more comfort, spirit, optimism, cheer. Breathing new life, personality and comfort where previously there was utterly none. Skillfully timeless antiques that added beauty and warmth with new and even less expensive pieces like colorful earthenware, and new upholstery stuffed with heavenly plump down stuffed cushions that no plastic foam could ever, never duplicate in comfort.These rooms surely elevated the dwelling and the sprits of those fortunate to dwell there. The charm, warmth and relaxed elegance of timeless traditional English Country House Design is brought to it’s zenith here and deservedly so.No minimalist mod room could comfort a human being from the inevitable turbulence of life like these rooms can.

Mario Buatta is one of the best American designers ever and this photo filled book proves it!!!

I have waited impatiently for many years to have a book written on my favorite interior designer, Mario Buatta. I first viewed his English Country rooms back in college and was awestruck by his talent. The Prince of Chintz has such a distinct style I could always spot his rooms immediately.While reading I was enchanted by the wit of Mario as he describes his career throughout the years. He has a sense of humor that is as delightful as his flower strewn rooms.I was shocked by the disparaging comments on the photography. I treasure this book and I have a virtual library of interior design books but by far this one will stand out as the best! Most of the photos are clear and as bright as fresh cut daisies. Mario's book reminds me of a field of fresh flowers blooming in the homes of the people privileged and lucky enough to have him transform their spaces.The huge tome has a gorgeous photo on the front which eliminates the need for a cover that will tear with time. Their is a bright yellow ribbon bookmark that is as pretty as it is helpful. All in all I rate this book five stars and recommend it to all the readers who admire Mario's work and anyone interested in English design. You will not be disappointed. You will feel uplifted with every page as I did. Louise Glass

If you've read anything regarding English Country style (or looked at a high end shelter magazine) in the last twenty or thirty years, many of these interiors will be familiar. While the interior pictures are stunning, Buatta's wit and charm enchant as he describes various encounters with celebrity clients.For me, the appeal of this flamboyant yet liveable style is Buatta's description of "decayed elegance". Furniture bought for life, of the highest quality, and then, appropriately, lived upon. Buatta takes the task that he has been given and delivers the goods with what is there already, whether a shoe box size NY apartment or a ginormous southern mansion. That's not to say that the furniture, artwork and wall color is simply duplicated from one project to the other. It is incredible that, though instantly recognizeable as a Buatta interior, each interior maintains the personality of its owner as well as Buatta's.Perhaps the best thing to be said for any decorating treatise is that regardless of the style, any reader can glean many basics on scale, print combining (or not) and color. And this book delivers on that and much more.

Great book to have if you liked Mario. Looks good on the coffee/console table too. Interiors are from the previous era but can be adapted to current period. Four stars from me because its not THAT useful for current projects. Try Alexa Hampton's the language of interior design if you're looking for an updated classic book.

For many years Mario Buatta was one of my favourite designers so I bought this book to re-capture that era. I now regret it! Not because of the content, as it showcases the life's work of this wonderful designer with lots of interesting pictures, but because it is so heavy! It is definitely a coffee table book i.e. to be leafed through whilst being supported by a coffee table, because there is no way a normal person can read it comfortably sitting in a chair, in bed or indeed carry it around, as it weighs a ton! Why do published do this! Is there a market for very very heavy books?

As expevted

Wonderful book

An interesting historic record of a great decorator.