Bunny Williams

Designer We Love: Bunny Williams

Websites: Bunny Williams Interior Design, Treillage

Quotable Quotes: "Rooms should never be boring, yet nothing should hit you over the head. I think a room comes alive when there is a spontaneous mix of different periods, raw materials and high quality design."

"Decoration is not enough. Good architectural design is always the first consideration."

Background:

Virginia childhood, growing up in horse country and traditional decorating influences

At 16, began self-study of architecture

Boston training in interior design

First job in NYC at Stair & Company, antique dealer

22 years at Parish-Hadley Associates, starting in 1967, first as assistant and shopper, then to designer working alongside Albert Hadley and Sister Parish

Opened up Bunny Williams Inc. in 1988

Started Treillage Ltd., high-end garden ornaments and furniture -- "My second love is gardens." -- in 1991 with her partner, antiques icon John Rosselli, on East 75th Street in a former blacksmithy and stables

1995 inductee into the Interior Design Hall of Fame

2000 "Design and Business Award," Edith Wharton Restoration honor for women of outstanding achievement

Author of On Garden Style and An Affair with a House

On board of directors in The Lenox Hill Neighborhood House, The Garden Conservancy, The Institute for Classical Architecture, The Humane Society of New York -- and c0-founder of not-for-profit Tails In Need with fellow designer Kitty Hawks

Residential projects featured in Architectural Digest, Veranda, House Beautiful, House & Garden, Garden Design, Victoria, British House, Southern Accents, Elle Decor, NY Times, Town and Country, New York Magazine, Connecticut Cottages & Gardens, Quest, Gotham, and W

What We Love:

Her professional ethics; her business seems to be beautifully organized -- three design teams, each headed by a seasoned senior designer, strives for close attention to client service and buttoning down the zillions of details inherent in our business 

Bunny Williams' passion for gardening gives us the gold standard of a designer who looks at interiors and outdoor spaces as a unified whole 

We love her professional partnership with John Rosselli, sourcing unusual antique and new garden ornaments and furnishings around the world in their Treillage venture

She's a reader of fiction and starts her day off with an hour of reading in bed

Her passion for the humane treatment of animals is inspiring, as witnessed in the Great American Mutt Show

An Affair with a House beautifully details how Bunny brought to life a sadly neglected old home

In politics, they say you vote for the person you'd most like to sit down and have a beer with; Bunny, you're the designer our Design2Share staff would very much like to sit down with and talk design over a cold one!

Bunny Williams Sampler:

Photo Credits: Bunny Williams, Harry N. Abrams Books, Linda Plato, Panache