The Whimsical Room


“..the meeting took place in what I called the
‘processed room’ - it was one of six done for us                
by a decorator from Sloane’s years ago, and the                
term struck in my head.                                                        
                                                   
“It was THE most decorator’s room: the angora
wool carpet the colour of dawn, the most
delicate grey imaginable- you could hardly walk
on it; and the silver panelling and leather tables
and creamy pictures and slim fragilites looked
so easy to stain that we could not breathe hard
in there, though it was wonderful to look into
from the door when the windows were open
and the curtains whispered querulously against
the breeze...”
Francis Scott Fitzgerald- The Last Tycoon

Beautiful, pale, untouched by anything other
than a light breeze. A vision to hold only in
your mind, and release as quickly in case you
held too hard and crushed it. As Fitzgerald
wrote “ the most decorator’s room”.

Oh to interior design a room that no one
would walk into, no children would play, no
guests would touch those leather tables, let alone put a wine glass on them.
A room where silver panelling gained no dust, and no clumsy visitors to render fragilites crashing to
the ground.
But those children are mine, those guests are my friends. Please don’t stand outside Mr Scrooge looking
in at what you only dream of, please come in.

As much as an “interior decorator” will want this whimsical illusion of perfection left untouched by
even the most bated breath, the “interior designer”will be inviting people to enjoy this space.
After all, you wanted the dream room, so enjoy it.

Ochre Chandelier, Florence Broadhurst Wallpaper and Victoria Carpets

Article reprinted from one originally written by Ally MacDermot 2010 for West Coast Magazine