It’s not that often that we turn to the Wall Street Journal for the latest interior design news.

It’s kind of like looking for a piece of hay in a needle stack – it’s possible, but there are less painful ways to get there.

Which is why we were surprised and delighted to stumble across Josh Barbanel’s WSJ article about the “show house of fashionable interiors” that featured the use of textured wallpapers from Phillip Jeffries Ltd.

The makeover of five Manhattan apartments is a mash-up of haute fashion, interior design and business people hoping to stir up interest in the pricey Hudson River real estate. It’s all for a good cause – organized by the Council of Fashion Designers of America to benefit HIV/AIDS organizations and breast-cancer research.

The real occasion, of course, is Fashion Week at Lincoln Center. And many of the top designers are participating.

Our hero-of-the-hour, however, is fashion designer Elie Tahari, whose interior décor featured the celebrated grass-cloth wallpaper from our friends at Phillip Jeffries Ltd. Working with interior designer James Kutner, the two men created a minimalist, but decidedly sexy bachelor pad using the same restrained sense of style Tahari uses in his fashions.

This Tahari quote from the Wall Street Journal is the clincher: “The clothes should be quieter than the woman. The house should not take away from the people who live there.”

We love the idea of quiet designs. What a perfect word to describe some of our favorite Phillip Jeffries wallcoverings – as if they are the décor equivalent of “the strong silent type.”

The patterns are soothing.

The palettes are inviting.

And the natural textures – well – they just speak volumes.

Quietly, of course. But with authority.

Serving design professionals,
KMD Showroom