Shades of White | Fifi O'Neill
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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.
Fifi O'Neill: Hi, I am Fifi O'Neill and my latest book is Shades of White.
Suzy Chase: Before diving into this book, I'd like to thank my new sponsor Bloomist. Bloomist creates and curates simple, sustainable products that inspire you to design a calm natural refuge at home. I'm excited to announce they've just introduced a new table top and kitchen collection that's truly stunning. So surround yourself with beautiful elements of nature when you're cooking, dining and entertaining and make nature home. Visit bloomist.com and use the code decorating20 to get 20% off your first purchase or click the link in the show notes. Now on with the show.
Suzy Chase: You are an international style editor, bestselling author, creative director, photo stylist, founding editor of Prairie Style magazine and in 2020, traveling for work was no longer an option. And for you that meant no more planning photo shoots for magazines or books. You needed to come up with a creative project that would give you sense to your life. You knew your idea for a new book was the answer. I would love to hear about that.
Fifi O'Neill: It's very true. For many people, it was really difficult to work, especially if you have to travel during the pandemic. And on top of that, I'd moved from Florida to Connecticut because I always wanted to live in Connecticut. But when I got there is when the pandemic hit and in Connecticut, it was major lockdown, not like in Florida, where I came back. And so I felt my life was completely upside down, uprooted. I moved after living somewhere for 40 years to another state and I could not do anything. I could not work because there was no work available in my field. It was a very hard time and I'm not complaining because I know other people had much worse time than I had, but I didn't know which direction to go. And I knew that if I could figure a way to come up with a new book idea and talked to my publisher who was so lovely and so helpful, that would be kind of my saving grace even though I knew I wouldn't be traveling yet.
Fifi O'Neill: I actually approached her with a different book which was about somebody who has a fabulous home in Northern California. And she has a huge following on Instagram and she's been a friend. We have shot her home twice before for magazines. So I did a proposal, really was about her style and her look, which is beautiful and it's all white and blue, very pale blue accents. So when my publisher saw it, she loved it and she says that would be fabulous. And so I talked to my friend and she wasn't ready. She wants to do a book, but she wasn't ready. So I went back to CICO, the publisher and I said, "Look, I can't force somebody to do something. It's just not right when you're not ready. You just aren't ready. But I'm thinking we can take the idea in a different direction where it would be mostly about white, like shades of white." And she loved it.
Fifi O'Neill: So I came up with a different proposal using an example of what I had in mind because you can't tell people what's in your head, but they don't see it. So you really have to put it on paper. So I knew nothing would happen until 2021 except getting the process going, meaning finding the homes. I usually put a call out on social media because I have pretty good following and I tell people, "This is what I'm looking for." Then I get a lot of submission of people's homes and some of them are good, some of them are not so good, some of them are not white enough. Anyway, that's how I end up selecting the homes.
Fifi O'Neill: So then I have to set up shoot dates. You have 12 homes. You got to get everybody to be on board as far as dates, which is not always easy. And it all came to be, everybody agreed. We settle on dates and off I went to California and shot a bunch of the homes and then came back, wrote up some of the chapters. Then in April, went to the East Coast, did the same thing, came back and really by early May, the book was all written. This was my seventh book. So it's become easier for me to do it.
Suzy Chase: So to narrow it down to 12 homes, did you go and travel to a bunch of homes to narrow it down or did you just look at photos?
Fifi O'Neill: No. I just look at photos and quite often I had to ask the people when I could see it was a good home, I would ask them to send me some more pictures of their homes. They tend to love to take vignettes, things that they love. One girl actually was very smart, she FaceTimed me. And took me throughout the house, which is really kind of cool.
Suzy Chase: You grew up in France and early in your career, you moved to Canada, raised your kids in Manitoba, surrounded by ranches, fields and farms. And that's where you created your trademark Prairie Style. I grew up in Kansas. It was called Prairie Village, Kansas to be exact. And I live in New York City now, but my heart lives on the prairie. Would you describe Prairie Style and what you love about it?
Fifi O'Neill: I was born and raised in Paris, but even when I was little, my parents would take us on vacation. They had a house in the center of France where it's a lot of pasture and I love going there. And when I moved to Canada, I first lived in Montreal which I did like in Quebec. But when I moved to Manitoba, I just loved the prairies. It's infinite. Of course, when it's a blizzard, you don't see anything anywhere, but it's just beautiful. And there is a way of life that was very laid back. Because Canadians are very nice people to begin with and I really did love living there. And the way their homes were furnished, it wasn't that really rustic look that you think about when think about country, like country used to be. It was kind of a cleaner look, a little more spare and it just was wonderful.
Fifi O'Neill: And when I moved to the states, it stayed with me. And when I bought a little cottage and there was a... with the cottage came a guest... Well, it was a garage about 500 square feet, but it was totally falling apart. But it had the tin roof with the peak and the open rafters and it was all wood inside like painted white. And I thought I'm just going to rebuild it from the ground up. So I did. And I did it at the time in sort of a very romantic Prairie Style. And it was in my first book. And of course over the years, I kind of got away from the over romantic stuff, even though everything I do, there's always a little touch of romance in it. That's just my nature, I guess. Maybe it's the French in me. I don't know.
Fifi O'Neill: But it inspired me to approach the publisher, I'd never worked with them before. I had never done a book. I had just been doing magazines and came up with this concept and I said, "There is no title that covers Romantic Prairie Style." And the book became a best seller actually, which is really just fabulous for my first book. I was tickled pink for sure. I know I was in Kansas. I loved it. I loved the wheat fields and the corn fields. And I'm like you, that's where my heart is. I'm not a city girl, there's just no way. I was right in my element.
Suzy Chase: Can you give me one hallmark of Prairie Style, like if I walk into a Prairie Style home, what would I find?
Fifi O'Neill: The closest I can come to try to explain the style, if you take the Scandinavian look, which everybody is crazy about, the Prairie Style is more cozier. I would say texture is a big element of Prairie. The texture brings the rooms to life.
Suzy Chase: So in the introduction of Shades of White, you talk about how white is like a chameleon. It has the uncanny ability to morph into many shades. Can you talk a little bit about that?
Fifi O'Neill: You can have white with a little creamy color in it or even pinkish tone, but it still looks white, but it's not that pure white and you don't want your furniture to be all white. I think, to me, that's kind of a mistake. It can get sterile, especially if there is no texture in the furniture. Natural wood is a great color accent for white. When you mix white and honey, honey toned wood, that's just beautiful. It feels very organic and very cozy.
Suzy Chase: Picking the right paint color can be a challenge. And that is also definitely true for white paint, which comes in an astonishing array of options. Do you have some tips for choosing the perfect white?
Fifi O'Neill: So funny you should ask because I just bought a tiny cottage that I have to redo, completely do over. It's 540 square feet. It's really tiny. But yesterday afternoon, I went to look at paint charts. I'm going to go with pure white because I want do the trim in pale pale pink or pale pale blue. I'm not sure.
Suzy Chase: Okay. So when you say pure white, is that the name of the paint color or...
Fifi O'Neill: Yeah.
Suzy Chase: What is it? Okay.
Fifi O'Neill: Sherwin-Williams as a pure white and I mean, several of the brands have a pure white and it's really a white that doesn't have any yellow in it. Some of the whites, even the pinks have a touch of yellow, the more pink whites or the... So it's as pure as you get. My rooms are tiny. So maybe pure white will be the answer. And what I'm going to do is try the pure white inside and try them on the walls. To me, that's really the only way you can tell, because then you have how the light hits the room different times of the day. There is no easy answer. There is trial and error. You can do it by looking at paint chips. You have to take something to the walls, I think.
Suzy Chase: There's something wonderful about the mix of warm brick, honey timber, and crisp white finishes. Can you talk a little bit about Shannan and Drew? They're my favorite couple in your book.
Fifi O'Neill: Oh, they're fabulous. And they're just as lovely as you can imagine, and she's gorgeous. I think you might have looked at her Instagram and you can see. Here this beautiful young woman with three babies and a dog and what she and her husband have done to that house. I mean, everything from scratch and she's really so genuine about wanting to preserve and conserve and respect the history of the home that she has now. She has such a sense of what goes with what like the timber and the brick. So the way that she makes the paint choice with the brick and the wood, like keeping the old doors in the house, keeping the... And redoing those beams. I mean, how many hours they've put into the house? It's incredible.
Suzy Chase: So you just talked about the beams and apparently the last owner had stained the beams cherry, and I didn't realize this, but paint predate stains. So they were able to paint the beams white, which actually represents the 1700s period of their home.
Fifi O'Neill: One of the lovely side effects of working, writing, doing books and stories, you learn a lot of stuff. The more you learn, the more you realize how little you actually know, which is a good thing because you should stay curious and you want to know more. She was so instrumental in helping write the story. Some people are better than others, like with Shannan and Drew, I could have done a whole book just on their house.
Suzy Chase: So I have so much old lace that's been handed down to me, just sitting in a trunk. What are some interesting ways we can use vintage lace as white accents in our home?
Fifi O'Neill: The best way is to do a lace curtain or if you have a pillow that you like, the front pillow could be lace with a white cloth behind it, I'll use lace on the table. I have one of those most gorgeous lace panel, which came from a company. I don't know if you're familiar with them, Bella Notte, their stuff is beautiful, very expensive. But I had bought that years ago, but I think in my next house, it's going to go probably as a shower curtain, but I'll find a way for that piece because it's just too gorgeous to be sitting in a drawer. Even make a nice little cover lamp shade, to have it over an existing lamp shade or a white lamp shade. That's very soft and pretty.
Suzy Chase: Where can we find you on the web and social media?
Fifi O'Neill: My Instagram is @fificoconut, and I have a website which is www.fifioneill.com.
Suzy Chase: To purchase Shades of White and support the podcast head on over to www.decoratingbythebook.com. And thank you Fifi for coming on Decorating by the Book podcast.
Fifi O'Neill: Well, thank you so much for having me. It's been really fun and a pleasure, and I hope that people will enjoy it.
Outro: Follow @DecoratingbytheBook on Instagram. And thanks for listening to the on and only interior design book podcast, Decorating by the Book.
