Gil Schafer
photo from Gil Schafer’s home at last. Shot by Eric Piasecki
If you could have a second home anywhere, where would you live? Montecito, California, where I spent time in my childhood or Harbor Island in the Bahamas.
What are three words to describe your style?
1. Understated
2. Classic
3. Comfortable
Tell us about your childhood bedroom? Fairly uninspiring, from a design sense—pale blue walls, curtains with antique toy soldiers as the pattern, pair of antique mahogany twin beds. But there was a big pine desk with lots of cubbies and drawers that made me feel like I was conducting some sort of important work. Plus, as a Virgo, it allowed me to indulge my mania for organization. From that room I conducted my various design explorations in wood block and Lego, and later in drawings—of cars, skyscrapers, and undersea cities.
What’s the first investment piece you ever bought for your house? It was in college—the first antique I ever bought. I had an apartment off campus with a lot of hand-me-down antique and ersatz antique furniture from my parents. I found this 18th c. George III Mahogany chest-on-chest in an antique shop in the suburbs outside Philly which I have to this day.
In the history of design, if you could hire any designer other than yourself, who would it be?
Toss-up between David Hicks and Frances Elkins.
No room is complete without a plant or flowers. Something living in a room always makes it feel more lived in.
People think of me as SERIOUS, but I am really a GOOFBALL.
Things you omit from:
A flower arrangement: a fourth or fifth variety
An hors d’oeuvre platter: onion dip
A bar cabinet: booze (joking), but as a non-drinker I’m fairly hopeless at setting up a good bar tray
A song for:
Dinner at home: Ella Fitzgerald or Stan Getz
Working at your desk: Oscar Peterson or Pat Metheny
Going for a run: something electronic, more current, and more upbeat
Biggest Vice? Chick Fil-A
If you were on an Ambien high and internet shopping, what would you buy? Anything from Max Rollitt’s site
Do your clothes reflect your design sensibility, if so, how? Yes—tailored, classic, understated.
Who is your star crush? Kiera Knightly—beautiful but with a goofiness that makes her seem approachable.
What is the thing you would never do on a project, but don’t detest when you see others do it? I tend to be fairly rigorous in my architecture—not doing too much free-associating with the design. But the impulse to do that can inject some aspect of fun and whimsy into a project which, if done well, I often enjoy seeing. I frankly think that decorators are much better at that than architects—they’re not so hung up on a rigorous architectural narrative—more willing to explore a free-flowing idea.
If there were a fire, and you could only keep one design book, what would it be? If I had to choose just one, it would be something that was out of print now and impossible to find—probably one of the volumes of survey drawings, published in the 30s, of historic American architecture, which we keep in our office library and find immensely helpful in getting the proportions and the details right.
For posterity, what would you like your work to be known for? Houses for families that feel like “Home”—places where they have been been able to make memories. And hopefully also are beautiful, cozy, comfortable, elegant.
photo from Gil Schafer’s home at last. Shot by Eric Piasecki
A Few Favorites:
Movie: Breakfast at Tiffany’s
Book: I’m so far behind in my book reading. The last book I finished recently was Mac Griswold’s bio of Bunny Mellon which I enjoyed a lot.
Scent: In a flower, a toss-up between Lilac and Peony. Never a cologne.
The fabric you always come back to: Plain linens from Fermoi, or a wool felt from Claremont.
Dream project: A family compound in the islands: tropical, easy living, indoor/outdoor
Meal: My wife’s roast chicken on Sunday nights
Drink: Diet Coke
Hotel: Ballyfin in Ireland
Travel Destination: Two places I haven’t been that I really want to visit are: 1) Spain - completely shocking that I have not yet been there; so much to see that is inspiring. And 2) Norway, for the incredible landscape.
Artist: It’s so hard to isolate that because I like the work of so many. Rothko, Joan Mitchell, Fairfield Porter (if we’re in Maine)…
A cause near and dear to me: Land conservancies, because I think it’s so important to preserve open land whenever possible.
Thing to collect obsessively: 20th century ceramics have been a thing I have been tuned into lately, ever since I started buying things for my house in Maine, which has some mid-century furniture…
Era in the history of design: for architecture, it would be the 19th century for me—so many different architectural styles evolved in America during that time and it made for such a rich time of creativity. For interiors, it might be the late 1960’s when people like David Hicks and Billy Baldwin were experimenting with the fusion of modernism and traditionalism.
Museum: Beauport in Gloucester Mass – The Sleeper-McCann house
Paint Color that always looks great: Sea Pearl is a Benjamin Moore off white that I come back to again and again: warm but still clean and white. Color of milk.
Favorite person to follow on Instagram: David Netto (@davidnettosays). Although I tease him about all of his selfies, I always learn something from his feed. It’s knowing and smart, and full of enthusiasm for good design.
Dogs, Cats, or No Pets? Right now, the kids have dragon lizards (which would not be my first choice for a pet) because at the time they wanted to get pets, I said, “no dogs.” But if our lives were a bit different and we weren’t traveling so much, the pet of choice would definitely be a dog—I’m not a cat person.
