Romancing the Home | Stewart Manger
Intro: Welcome to the one and only interior design book podcast, Decorating by the Book, hosted by Suzy Chase from her dining room table in New York City. Join Suzy for conversations about the latest and greatest interior design books with the authors who wrote them.
Stewart Manger: I'm Stewart Manger. My latest book is Romancing the Home published with Rizzoli.
Suzy Chase: I am dying to know how has the title of your book not been snapped up already? Romancing the Home is the best title ever.
Stewart Manger: Well, thank you, I appreciate that. I'm not really sure why it had not been snapped up, but we did do a search before just to make sure it had not been taken, because the last thing you want is when people go searching for your book, Googling it or looking for it on Amazon, that another book comes up instead of yours. So I was thrilled that it was available.
Suzy Chase: Yeah, I was shocked, so good. So for each of the 13 projects in this book that range from Majorca to New England to London to South Hampton, New York, you single out a theme that influences the entire design. Talk a little bit about your projects in Romancing the Home, best title ever.
Stewart Manger: Sure. I think it's very important that every project have a voice and a point of view. And I think you'll see that in this book we try to include something for everyone. And by that, I mean we have a very traditional house in Scotland all the way to contemporary and modern projects in Spain and Manhattan. So I think it's very important that projects have a voice. And I think it's important with the client that you discuss the location of the project, what their goal is, and that team assembled works to achieve that goal. For example, very typical in Manhattan, when I work on apartments, clients generally want a fairly urban aesthetic or sensibility. And generally, the apartment's architecture supports that direction.
But I have clients with very contemporary apartments in Manhattan who want very traditional homes in the country. Or for example, when my clients purchased a house in Scotland, the direction was it should look like an English country house, which fit the architecture, because it's a mid 19th century stone house on the coast in Scotland. And so renovating it and installing white oak libraries and mahogany doors and limestone floors suited that project. Whereas when I was hired by another client to do a very contemporary house in Spain, they wanted a very contemporary interior. They didn't want antiques or vintage pieces. They wanted everything to be very, very modern, including the artwork and objects, et cetera.
Suzy Chase: Now do you find that you're matching the exterior architecture of the house with the interior aesthetic of the house?
Stewart Manger: Not always, but I think that the architecture and the location of the house definitely needs to be considered when you are talking about the interiors. So for example, I've done several houses in the Hamptons or in beach communities, which tend to be shingles style, vernacular. However, some clients, they say they love color, and so they want the interior to be full of color and pattern, which is great for a summer house. But then I have clients who say similar style architecture who want something clean and serene and not overdecorated. So it plays a role, but it's not always the defining element.
Suzy Chase: So let me ask you about your upbringing. Where did you grow up?
Stewart Manger: I grew up in Manhattan, so I'm a native New Yorker. And I went to school here until I was about 15, and then I went away to boarding school and college. I spent a several years living in London and a short stint out in LA and then came back to New York.
Suzy Chase: Okay, so I read somewhere that your first big design job came at the age of 15. I'm dying to hear about that.
Stewart Manger: When I was 15, my parents underwent a renovation of their house in Manhattan where I grew up. Coincidentally, I was at the right age and I was interested. I came home and met with my mother and the interior designer who was working on it. So it wasn't really my job, but it certainly sparked an interest in the field. And I was very interested in the selections that were being made and the results. That was where maybe the spark started, but there was a professional designer certainly employed to work on the project.
Suzy Chase: Is your style still the same as it was when you were 15 helping out the interior decorator?
Stewart Manger: Well, no, I mean, when I was 15, that was the early eighties. And New York, as you can imagine, in the early eighties, was very-
Suzy Chase: Chintz?
Stewart Manger: Yes, exactly. Full of pattern. I think the overriding designers of the day were still Parish-Hadley and McMillan and Mario Buatta. And there was a lot of print and chintz and a nod to an English interior or a modern English interior. And so my style certainly evolved as you've seen in the book from that. And also, as I said, it's not just one source for inspiration, but the clients play a role, as does the project. And also sometimes you set out goals that you'd like to achieve on a particular project.
Suzy Chase: See, my personal style stuck in the eighties with the whole Mario Buatta, the more is more.
Stewart Manger: Well, and that maximalism is still a strong design tendency today. I mean, you see it with a lot of designers and there are a lot of people who love that. There's no example in my book of that maximalism interior design, but I'd love to do it. So I'm waiting for a client to ask me to do that.
Suzy Chase: In the introduction, you briefly mentioned Marion McEvoy, the former European editor of Women's Wear Daily and W, founding editor of Elle Decor and editor-in-chief of House Beautiful. How was she instrumental in your journey?
Stewart Manger: Well, I met Marion when I was in graduate school. We had a lot of mutual friends and she'd moved from Paris to New York to be the editor-in-chief of Elle Decor at the time. And she asked me if I could work on special projects with her, which was a great job offer, and I was happy to do it. Marion and I got along very well and we're still friends today. And fortunately, I still run into her at some industry events. But after about two years of working for Marion at Al Decor, she wanted to introduce me to David Easton, who at the time in the late nineties was running one of the main interior design offices in America. And I think there were probably 40 to 50 employees with interior designers and architects, as he had had an architect who was a partner. And it was a thriving office, a lot of new construction, building great projects all over America.
And I was a little bit hesitant, because I had no experience in interior design. But Marion with her great foresight and intuition said, "Well, I think having worked in the auction house and studying decorative arts in graduate school, that you would bring a lot to his office. And that he would be able to teach you the basics of design." And so we had a meeting with David Easton, and I had a couple of interviews with him after that. And on the second interview, he sent me home with some plans and I started shortly there after. And that was, I don't know, about 25, 26 years ago.
Suzy Chase: So what are a couple of the basics that he taught you that you still use today?
Stewart Manger: Well, David was a master, truly of interior design, probably even not understood to his full potential even when he was working, because he was an architect by nature and did plans. And the overriding factor was always good architecture. So even if you were doing just an interior design job, the architecture of the space was always the most important. I always refer to the Hall of Mirrors at Versailles, because even though it's a public space, it's something that always leaves a lasting impression, but it's the architecture. And even in an apartment in New York, you can rework architecture to your advantage, either making things symmetrical or just balanced, replacing a mantle. But architecture was always the first. The second thing was every room you had to start with the rug. And he taught me that when you build a room in interior design, you always start with the rug because everything has to look good on the rug.
And also a rug shouldn't just be the right color or pattern, but he felt, when we went to look for rugs, when the rug dealer unrolled it, he felt the rug should sing. And I often compare it to going to the symphony, that you hear an instrument that can speak to you. And he really had that reaction with rugs. And a rug defines a room in a way, even a contemporary room, even if you're using a sisal or a neutral textured rug, I mean, that still has a big impact on the rest of the room. So those were, I think, a couple of very significant elements he taught me. But then of course, you got into the weeds of details with how you distribute color around the room, pattern around the room, how you mix textures. And then of course details of how you trim certain pieces. And that in the end, by doing it with him for years and years, picked up a good sense of how to design and build a room.
Suzy Chase: I think a great rug example is on page 232 and 233 in your stunning South Hampton home called Top O' Dune-
Stewart Manger: Right.
Suzy Chase: With its distinctive octagonal tower. And in the octagonal sitting room, you chose a geometric rug.
Stewart Manger: Yes. Well, that's interesting, because of course that project is a work in progress. It's a family home, and we all love the Pierre Frey print that's in the room. And we wanted something that felt more contemporary to compliment it. And so I used that geometric rug, which is a tone on tone, beige on white, which sets an architectural framework, which of course everything looks good on. The bamboo furniture and the white sofas as well as the Pierre Frey print.
Suzy Chase: So the second legend you worked under was David Kleinberg, one of the most respected and celebrated names in interior design. With David you learned about more contemporary designs and he encouraged a breaking of the rules.
Stewart Manger: Well, I mean, yes, David is a consummate professional and definitely a giant of design in America today. His training with Parish-Hadley, so important. And beyond being an incredibly talented designer, he is also a businessman through and through. And one part of the industry, which is often forgotten, because people are so consumed with design and color and pattern, is that it is a business and David really taught me that. And how to run a tight office. But I do recall in the early days of working for David Kleinberg, when I did schemes for him, he was very complimentary, but it was an underhanded compliment. Cause he would say, "Well, Stewart, it's a very pretty scheme, but we need to shake it up a little bit." And he didn't want everything to be so perfect or matched, and he encouraged me to have more fun. And I think that's where the breaking the rules came from. It was a good influence on me just to relax a little bit and enjoy the process.
Suzy Chase: The third legend who helped pave your design path was Bunny Williams. How was working with Bunny different from working with David Easton or David Kleinberg?
Stewart Manger: Well, one way I can tell you, and I tell Bunny this all the time, is when I've worked for Bunny, I never worked so hard, but I never had so much fun too. Bunny's office was probably one of the busiest offices I ever worked in. And I don't if you know Bunny, she's tireless. She has more energy than everybody in her office combined and still thriving today. But at that point, when I started working for Bunny, I knew I had 10 years of experience and I knew how to put a project together and came with a fair amount of experience. So she gave me a certain amount of freedom, but she definitely wanted the projects done. There was no sitting around, there was no wasting time. And we had fun, I mean, we worked on projects in Florida and in Virginia, and we did a lot of traveling together and it was a lot of fun. But while supporting me, she let me be my own designer at that point.
Suzy Chase: In the foreword Bunny recalls the time you were working as a designer for her. It was a Thursday morning, she saw your name on the calendar, but it wasn't attached to a client and her heart skipped a few beats. Please fill us in on that meeting.
Stewart Manger: Well, it's always a tough meeting to have with a boss and your employer and somebody who you have a tremendous amount of respect for and who you develop a relationship with. And I love the team effort, and that's probably one of the reasons why I worked for so many different offices. Needless to say, the offices I worked in, they were incredibly great designers. So I mean, it was a pleasure for me to have those experiences, but that was a very hard meeting for me. And if Bunny's heart was skipping a beat, mine certainly was too. But I think Bunny in the end knew that one day, like anybody, you have to spread your own wings. And since I was working in her office and today its been incredibly supportive and she was so kind to write the foreword to the book and she hosted the book launch in New York. And to this day, I consider her a great, great friend, and I love to see her and John, whenever we have a chance.
Suzy Chase: So when you speak to young designers, you encourage them to work for established decorators for as long as they possibly can. How come?
Stewart Manger: Well, one of the things that is lost, I think in the industry is mentoring. And I think what's interesting is that all the people I worked for, David Easton, spent a few years working for Parish-Hadley. David Kleinberg worked for Parish-Hadley, I think for 14 or 15 years, very closely with Albert. Of course, Bunny worked directly with Sister Parish for many, many years. And that mentoring is unparalleled. And I mean, I can't stress it enough. And I have had lunch with young designers who come out of design school or they graduate and they really want to dive into interior design, and they ask me for advice. And I said, "Well, find somebody who's doing a project or has an aesthetic that you admire and you like." And I said, "Go work for them, because there is so much you can learn about the industry." I think there is obviously an innate or intuitive sense that drives you to this industry.
And the intuitive core is not something anybody can teach you, you just have to have that. But if you do have that, there's a tremendous amount that people can teach you. And as I said, it's not just about building a room, but it's also about running an office. And we all make mistakes, everybody has made mistakes, you learn from your mistakes. And I think all the people I worked for had experience that they shared with me. And I was extremely fortunate that all of the people I worked for really, really shared their experiences with me. And when you combine the decades of experience of all of those people, that's a lot of information. And if you're smart, you absorb it, you pay attention, you listen, you do your job and you're better off for it. So I always recommend that to anybody who wants to get into the business.
Suzy Chase: When you travel, you pick up on patterns that are part of other cultures around the world, and then you reinterpret them to fit a variety of projects. Your project in the Hamptons is loaded with pattern at every turn. So how do you go about incorporating the pattern while not coming across too busy, which is something we all deal with?
Stewart Manger: Well, I do love to travel and I do get inspired. It's interesting, David Easton really taught me to look at motifs and elements of design. And so it's not always just the big picture, but look for smaller elements. And I had seen these Borneo prayer mats, and I love the overall pattern of it. And I asked one of my finishers if we could interpret that for a stencil design, which we did use in the family room in that Hampton's project. And I love that. And I love stencil anyway. And I also like being able to provide my clients with a custom pattern. So a lot of people will see it on social media and they'll say, "Where can I get that wallpaper?" Or, "That's great." And it's one of a kind. So I think it's better for the result of my project, but also for my client.
Also, again, using stencil, I also like organic stencil. And I saw this Americana series of organic flowers. And again, I took pictures and I showed the images to a decorative artist and asked if we could do that. And we ended up doing it on canvas, and we created I think five or six different stencil motifs and then used them in a random pattern. And then we layered the pattern with mother of pearl and wax polish. And of course, the great room that I really loved that I did, was the client who loved color wanted some pattern in her family room or library where the kids would watch TV and they had a card table. So they spent a lot of time in this room.
And there wasn't any particular artwork that we were going to use in this room. And there were bookshelves and blank walls. And I'd been to the Matisse show and I'd seen a wonderful textile that would've been owned by somebody like Matisse when he was working on those cutouts. And I showed the textile to my client and I said, "Well, what if we did something like this as a wall pattern?" And she was game. And so we did it, and of course we could modify the colors to use colors that she really liked, but also they could be a little unexpected. And so we did the room wrapped in this Matisse cutout that was based on a textile, which was a lot of fun.
Suzy Chase: So before we go, I must ask you about the end papers. I adore that blue pattern. Is this a wall covering you created?
Stewart Manger: Yes. I mean, that's actually the one that I did in the dining room in the Hamptons project where we layered it with mother of pearl. And when we were looking through the rooms, the art director on the book said how much he liked that pattern, and it seemed very distinctive and also representative of me, because it was something that I had come up with. So we modified it for the end papers. But I agree with you, I think it's very successful.
Suzy Chase: It's so different. I mean, I can't even describe it. It's lovely, it's gorgeous, but it's something that I've never seen before.
Stewart Manger: Yeah, well, and if you look in the book in the dining room of the Hamptons project, you'll see the scale is actually much bigger. We had to reduce the scale for the scale of the book, but it's a very bold and strong design in the room where I used it. And I love the way it turned out, and I think it's very successful as the end papers as well.
Suzy Chase: Where can we find you on the web and social media?
Stewart Manger: Well, my website is stewartmangerdesign.com, so anybody can go on the website and see my projects. Press a little bit about me and working for the different designers. And then of course on social media, I'm on Instagram at Stewart Manger Design, posting regularly images of projects that I'm working on and sometimes posting old favorites and inspiration and travel and some fun daily pics.
Suzy Chase: Well, this has been so terrific and inspirational. Thanks so much, Stewart, for coming on Decorating by the Book podcast.
Stewart Manger: Thank you so much for inviting me. I enjoyed it tremendously.
Outro: Follow Decorating by the Book on Instagram. And thanks for listening to the one and only interior design book podcast, Decorating by the Book.
