Indholdsfortegnelse for Fall 2021 i MILIEU

It has been eight years and I can still feel the excitement and anticipation as the box of first bound copies of MILIEU arrived at our office from the printer. Our team was elated to physically hold the finished magazine, to turn the thick glossy pages, and to see the stunning photography of interiors and work of artisans around the world come together. We had collaborated for months on this one edition, as well as preparing for the launch of a brand new magazine. And, it was finally here. Then, almost immediately, we realized—now we need to do it again, and, in only ten weeks! MILIEU premiered in Fall 2013 with the mission to inspire and enlighten readers, to serve as a resource to the design community, and to honor…

Maybe it follows that a creative person like Randy Tilinski, who has a keen eye for design, would also recognize in an instant a person to whom he is attracted. When he was still managing a popular rock band, The Black Crowes, back in the mid 1990s, he and the musicians often stopped into an Atlanta design shop in which his now-wife, Courtney, was working as general manager. “I kind of couldn’t speak in front of her, or to her,” admits Tilinski, so smitten was he with the stylish woman. “I had a huge crush on her from the very start.” Trained as an accountant, Randy was used to easily solving financial problems, but not necessarily ones of the heart. When he found out that Courtney was soon to take…

FOR AN INTERIOR DESIGNER, most projects generally begin as a blank slate. “Oftentimes, in our work,” says designer Ray Booth, “you go in and find that everything’s got to go.” But what Booth and his team inherited with a whole house renovation near Nashville was a prize example of existing architecture, along with inspiring interiors and excellent materials dressing its well-crafted bones. “This was an unusual project for me, and now one of my favorites, because we started with so many great things in the house.” Ray Booth is a principal at McAlpine, the much-celebrated architectural and interior design firm headquartered in Montgomery and Nashville, with ancillary offices in New York and Atlanta. Booth had worked previously with homeowners Sissy and Bill Wilson, a couple—with grown children no longer at…

Hugo Alvar Henrik Aalto (1898–1976) was born in Kuortane, Finland, where his father, Johan Henrik Aalto, worked as a land surveyor and his mother, Selma (“Selly”) Matilda, as a postal worker. When Aalto was five years old, the family moved to Jyväskylä in central Finland. After completing lyceum (high school)in 1916, Aalto enrolled at the Helsinki University of Technology to study architecture, graduating in 1921. He opened his first architectural practice shortly thereafter and hired Aino Marsio as the studio’s assistant. She was a promising architect in her own right. Three years later, they were married. The young couple spent their honeymoon in Italy along the Mediterranean Coast, and this experience had a profound influence on Aalto’s creativity. The simple ornamentation of southern Italian architecture translated into Aalto’s own style,…

Pablo Paniagua When speaking of his career, the Spanish designer Pablo Paniagua says, “Nothing would be possible without Malaga or the people I have around me.” The light, colors, shapes, music, and people of Malaga continue to influence, indeed, determine, his interior design projects. Paniagua graduated from Malaga University’s history of art program, earned a diploma in interior architecture from the Polytechnic Institute of Madrid, and a master’s degree in decorative arts from Rome’s La Sapienza. Boris Vervoordt Boris Vervoordt is Director of the Axel Vervoordt Company, for which he oversees client relationships and the interior design team. A member of the Belgian Chamber of Antique Dealers since 2005, he is affiliated with the Foundation of the Antwerp Conservatory and the Hermes Ensemble. In 2011, he opened Axel Vervoordt Gallery,…

Having spent so much time on so many trips to Sicily, I have been afforded the luxury of covering much of the island at a leisurely pace. Each area of the island—north to south, east to west, and in the middle—has something to offer for every taste: Greek temples, ancient Arab and Norman palaces, and entire towns still reflecting their medieval origins. Greek, Arab, French, and Spanish influences have dominated Sicily at one time or another, each having left a legacy of intriguing architecture and monuments, as well as a mark on the culture as a whole—and particularly the cuisine. The Sicilian Baroque, for instance, is a style all its own—fanciful, vigorous, curvaceous, sculptural—and it is especially evident in many of the places of worship on the island. On the…

ON A SHADY DALLAS street, the venerable Colonial house with dormered wings that appear to have been added over generations is, actually, one of the newer residences in the neighborhood. “From inception, the house was meant to feel like an old, established home—and once it was all done, we could see that the mission had been accomplished,” says Dallas-based interior designer Shannon Bowers, who was commissioned to design the rooms. (She is also MILIEU’s Editor-at-Large.) “The homeowners are longtime friends, as well as longtime clients,” Bowers adds, “and when they conceived of building a new home, they were headed in a different architectural direction. When I saw the renderings, I said to them, ‘I don’t think this is the right house for you.’” Bowers suggested they consider instead Birminghambased architect…

ITALO-CENTRIC Tony Buccola was walking in Newport Beach recently when he saw a young girl wearing an earring shaped like a lightning bolt. “I wore exactly one of those on a chain when I was eighteen,” he recalls, “which is just one example of how we go full circle with design. Antiques once again remain very popular accessories for the home.” In 2000, Buccola founded Antonio’s Bella Casa, which is actually two showrooms—one in the heart of Los Angeles’s La Cienega design district, the other in Newport Beach. While each showroom has its own feel—L.A.’s is grander in scale with fifteenfoot barrel arches, and Newport Beach’s is more intimate—Buccola has kept Italian antiques the sole focus in both. “When I first opened my showroom, everyone was doing French and English.…

Milton De Paul’s Los Angeles desk is a collage of paper goods. “I’m visual but also very tactile,” admits the Creative Director of Samuel & Sons. “Sometimes I just pick up calling cards to feel their paper quality and finishes.” Inspiration takes many forms, but also within reach are the practical tools for various projects he is juggling for the venerable company. Snippets for a catalogue are pinned to a corkboard, a dry eraseboard is poised for brainstorming concepts at virtual global meetings with colleagues, and thoughts for an advertising campaign or a table setting at an event are sketched in innumerable Moleskine notebooks invariably by his side. “The more I look at an idea, the more it comes to life,” is his mantra. Celebrated for light-hearted ads redefining passementerie…

As a longtime writer on architecture, I know that every house tells a story—about its owners, architects, interior designers. When I was commissioned to write Collaborations: Architecture, Interiors, Landscapes about fourteen house and apartment projects by Ferguson & Shamamian Architects (Rizzoli, $55), I knew I would be immersed in hearing stories, both personal and design oriented, and doing my best to recreate them for readers. In speaking to the owner of a new house on Mount Desert Isle, Maine, he had commissioned the firm to design, I heard him talk about the difficulty of tearing down his ancestral home to build this one—and about the satisfaction he derived from having the firm replicate much of what once existed. Another client, in recalling plans for his Palm Beach residence, envisioned a…

DESIGNER MEREDITH MCBREARTY has developed a wide range of interior projects—some contemporary, some traditional—and while there might be a consistent thread throughout her work, she hopes people won’t hire her for “a certain look.” “For me,” says McBrearty, “the best projects are genuine collaborations. But the end result should always reflect the people who live there. I don’t think you want people asking, ‘Who’s your designer?’ as they walk through your door.” McBrearty, whose eponymous firm is based in Atlanta, recently collaborated on the development of the Britishinspired interiors of a new Modern farmhouse located forty-five minutes southwest of the city. The home’s rooms reflect the sophisticated point of view of its owners: a newly retired architect and an attorney—a couple whose children have grown and flown and who were…

COVER Interior design: Shannon Bowers, Shannon Bowers Designs, shannonbowersdesigns.com, 214-521-7800 Architecture: Jeremy Corkern, jeremycorkernstudio.com Photography by: Miguel Flores-Vianna Sofa: Custom design by SHANNON BOWERS DESIGNS, shannonbowersdesigns.com. Sofa fabric: Velvet Bleached Terracotta, GEORGE SPENCER DESIGNS, georgespencer.com. FROM THE DESK OF… Page 26 Cep lamp in Antique Bronze finish, COLLIER WEBB, collierwebb.com. 3150-85LF one-arm chaise upholstered in Petry Optic White fabric, LEE INDUSTRIES, leeindustries.com. Tadla Collection of linen-wool fabrics, GEORGE SPENCER DESIGNS, georgespencer.com. Page 27 Palm woven weekender, RELA GLEASON DESIGN, @RelaGleasonDesign, on Instagram to place order. Swedish watering can in Green, NICKEY KEHOE, nickeykehoe.com. Dr. Johnson Tennis Umpire Chair, MCKINNON AND HARRIS, mckinnonharris.com. Window Pane Raffia Wallcovering collection, RF-146, Madagascar, GREGORIUS PINEO, gregoriuspineo.com. THE PAPER TRAIL Produced by: Katrin Cargill Photography by: Simon Brown, simonbrownphotography.com Constructions made by: Melanie Williams, Tabby…