CLASS ACT

For those of us design devinators always looking to the past to predict future trends, this new book is enlightening. Class Act: William Haines, Legendary Hollywood Decorator shows the beginning of Hollywood Regency in the 30’s - light and airy in contrast to the dark, heavily draped homes of Los Angeles in the 20’s. Haines was a movie star who came out of the closet decades before it was acceptable.

No longer a candidate for leading man, he turned to decorating and introduced a new style where he literally opened walls of windows, used Chinoiserie wallpaper on remaining walls, streamlined seating with banquettes, and used signature occasional seating pieces.

My favorite is called the elbow chair which is a lowbacked, armless chair which any woman seated sideways with her elbow perched on it looked “particularly alluring.” Bring it on! I hope to find this book in my stocking. Or maybe not, my stocking is small - much more suited to gifts in small boxes.