Miles Redd
If you could have a second home anywhere, where would you live? Some place in Europe is a dream. I am torn between London, Paris, Southern France and Southern Italy.
What are three words to describe your style? 1. Coloristic 2. Chicenstein 3. Boudinish
Tell us about your childhood bedroom? The entire room was ‘seafoam’—this was the 1970’s after all. Today I call the color Celadon—but the walls, carpet, bedspread and chair were all in the same shade of soft green. We got it all from The Storehouse, Atlanta’s substitute for the Conran shop. A few well placed Marilyn Monroe posters completed the look.
What’s the first investment piece you ever bought for your house? A Rococo Pier Mirror in Kent white
In the history of design, if you could hire any designer other than yourself, who would it be? Stephane Boudin
No room is complete without: Some decorative tension: crumbly next to slick, ancient next to modern, black next to white. In other words, contrast makes good decorating.
People think of me as extroverted, but I am really introverted.
Things you omit from:
A flower arrangement: spikey looking things like Birds of Paradise
An hors d’oeuvre platter: A tower of Swedish Meatballs is revolting
A bar cabinet: Never really had the need for Alizé Passion
A song for:
Dinner at home: Les Feuilles Mortes by Nat King Cole
Working at your desk: Hot Child in the City by Nick Gilder
Going for a run: Boogie Oogie Oogie by A Taste of Honey
Biggest Vice? Sugar and Hooch, sometimes together!
If you were on an Ambien high and internet shopping, what would you buy? I alternate between speedos and 19th Century Opaline blue glass.
Do your clothes reflect your design sensibility, if so, how? I like elaborate rooms, but simple well-cut clothes.
Who is your star crush? Brad Pitt, currently, for the understated charm.
What is the thing you would never do on a project, but don’t detest when you see others do it? Balloon shades, but only done well. Stephen Sills did it nicely in his Bedford Library.
If there were a fire, and you could only keep one design book, what would it be? My Old Jansen book, with Mary McFadden’s grandmother’s orange dining room on the cover.
For posterity, what would you like your work to be known for? That people had fun in my rooms.
A Few Favorites:
Movie: Gone with the Wind
Book: Love in a Cold Climate by Nancy Mitford
Scent: The plant leaves of Lemon Geranium, when rubbed together, send me to the moon
The fabric you always come back to: horsehair, silk velvet, taffeta, linen and felt
Dream project: A Folly Pavilion on the Mediterranean
Meal: Soup, souffle, salad, baked potato and caviar, with mint ice cream for dessert
Drink: Lately a Bee’s Knees (lemon, honey and gin)
Hotel: I love me some Round Hill!
Travel Destination: I really love it all—a week on a sunny beach, or a snowy mountain or a fabulous city—my three usuals.
Artist: Sargent
Thing to collect obsessively: You are an enabler, but art, books, and chairs are my weaknesses.
Era in the history of design: 1930’s
Museum: Always the Met for me, but lately the V and A.
Paint Color that always looks great: Black. If you can’t paint it black and make it look good, put it on the street.
Favorite person to follow on Instagram: My friends who I don’t get to see that much, but for just pretty pictures, Yolo journal.
Dogs, Cats, or No Pets? Dogs, but I am attracted to cats.
