Bunny Williams
Bunny Williams
Bunny Williams is a designer with a modern vision, a sense of history, and the confidence to take the unexpected path. Both a trailblazer and a taste-maker, Williams style is classic, but never predictable. [1]
Bunny about herself:
Renowned designer, President of Bunny Williams Home, Author, dog-lover and garden enthusiast. Classic, but never predictable.
Career
Bunny Williams op ened her own interior design company, Bunny Williams Incorporated, in 1988 after twenty-two years with the venerable decorating firm, Parish-Hadley Associates. Schooled in the classics, restraint and appropriateness are hallmarks of Bunny's style. Objects, patterns, textures and colors, beautifully balanced, have an appealing undisciplined look — the direct result of great focus and meticulous planning. Bunny Williams' passion for design extends beyond interiors into the garden. For 25 years, Bunny co-owned Treillage Ltd., a garden furniture shop in New York, with antiques dealer John Rosselli.
While beautiful rooms are Bunny's first consideration, client service and attention to detail are of the utmost importance.
To that end, Bunny has assembled two highly professional design teams, each headed by an accomplished Senior Designer.
The Senior Designers and their teams work with Bunny on clients' homes throughout the United States and abroad.
Books
A house by the sea
"Author and renowned designer Bunny Williams has been at the top of the interior design world for more than 40 years.
Her new book invites readers to explore La Colina, Williams’s lovely Caribbean retreat tucked into lush, tropical gardens by the sea.
The book explores every facet of the property—from outdoor rooms and garden plantings and design to the delightful, island-living luxury of the villa’s interiors, furnishings, and collections.
Woven into each chapter are essays written by friends who have visited the property: Gil Schafer details the villa’s architecture; Page Dickey tours the gardens; Roxana Robinson offers a peek at a weekend stay; Angus Wilkie discusses the delights of collecting; and Jane Garmey revels in the pleasures of cooking, food, and friends."
Parish Hadley tree of life
"The legendary interior design firm Parish-Hadley Associates set the standard for American style in the finest homes for more than three decades, from the 1960s through the 1990s.
Throughout its colorful history, Parish-Hadley was commissioned by the most prestigious families in the country, from the Kennedys at the White House to the Astors, Rockefellers, and Gettys.
Yet the fertile partnership between Parish and Hadley also greatly influenced the taste, style, creative process, and practices of the designers who worked for them.
In this volume, 30 of the most renowned designers relate in detail their personal experiences working at the firm, accompanied by images they have chosen of their own work, past and present, illustrating how their designs were shaped by Parish-Hadley."
A scrapbook for living
"Bunny Williams is renowned for her glamorous design and attention to every little detail in her clients’ homes.
Using her incredible knowledge of design and decor, and drawing on her wealth of experience, Williams takes the reader through several homes room by room, showing creative ways to organize and add personal touches.
From dining rooms (place a chest of drawers near the dining table to store flatware, napkins, place mats, and votives) to lighting (place sconces on the wall at eye level to cut the glare from ceiling lights), and pets (find interesting flat-bottom bowls for water—small Chinese fish bowls or the bottom of a porcelain tureen work perfectly!), Williams empowers the reader with her practical and inspiring tips for making a house a home."
On Garden Style
"First published in 1998, On Garden Style established Bunny Williams as a reputable expert on gardens. In Bunny Williams on Garden Style, Williams visits impeccably designed gardens around the world, shedding light on the key components that make a garden so appealing and idyllic. For Williams, gardens offer an escape, and she imparts vital information on how to envision your garden and design a space that translates into a lush sanctuary reflecting your taste and style. Once you’ve imagined your garden, Williams offers advice for bringing it to fruition—the garden structure,” furnishing the space, and establishing an aesthetic. The book also includes plant lists, a reading list, and more. Filled with new photography of spectacular gardens, this latest volume is both a wonderful inspiration and a practical guide to gardening from one of the world’s most renowned design experts."
An affair with a house
"For 28 years the world-renowned interior designer Bunny Williams has been involved in a passionate love affair with an18th-century New England manor house that she found in sad repair.
From the moment she walked up the driveway and her palms began to perspire, Williams knew she wanted the affair to last forever.
In her sumptuous new book, An Affair with a House, the venerable decorator describes in detail how she and her husband, antiques dealer John Rosselli, rescued, nurtured, renovated, and decorated the well-worn house, giving it new life as they restored each room, resurrected the abandoned gardens, and filled this weekend home with family and friends.
** Through photographs, anecdotes, how-tos, and recipes, Williams provides a rare inside look at a top decorator's retreat and explains how she approached the joys, pleasures, challenges, obstacles, and day-to-day realities of creating a beautiful, comfortable country home. An Affair with a House provides a wealth of advice on interior decor and such topics as mixing design styles, but it also addresses such practical matters as stocking the pantry and outfitting the linen closet. Beautiful photographs of the house, the gardens, and the property's rustic structures provide an intimate glimpse of the couple's lifestyle and illustrate a way of life we can all appreciate and learn from."
Bunny Williams' point of view
"An Affair with a House continues to be a top seller for STC, with more than 45,000 copies in print shows readers how to realize their own taste and design preferences You learn from people with great taste,” says Bunny Williams.
She should know.
As a novice, Williams worked for legendary decorators Sister Parish and Albert Hadley, absorbing everything she could of their peerless design sense.
Striking out on her own, she rose to the top rank of the interior design profession, where she has stylishly remained for the last 30 years.
Now, it’s our turn to learn from her.
Part memoir and part how-to manual, Bunny Williams’ Point of View showcases many of the drop-dead chic but always cozily comfortable residences whose interiors Williams has designed during her astounding career.
As Williams tells it, every design decision she makes is based on a bedrock principle: “Knowing what you value is essential.”
Her conviction that every person’s home should manifest their personality guides her as she creates environments that fit each client precisely, “like a couture suit.”
By showing you how to plan and then accomplish that plan for each room of your house, Williams inspires you to take account of your own values—and to realize your personal vision of how you want to live.
As she says about the book: “My point of view will help you discover yours.”"