Today New York design editor Wendy Goodman visits Dawnridge, the Beverly Hills, Calif., estate once owned and lived in by the late, great American decorator Tony Duquette. When Duquette died, his business partner, Hutton Wilkinson, and Hutton's wife, Ruth, bought the house, which Duquette built in 1949 and decorated himself. Now, the space combines some of Duquette's original pieces along with the Wilkinsons' updates; the result, Goodman points out, would have appealed to Duquette's penchant for whimsical, fantastical interiors. And we're guessing his were not easy shoes to fill.
10: Gleaming gold panels that were originally made for a '60s black-tie ball.
9: A "biomorphic console" and mirror that Duquette designed himself for one of his residential projects.
8: A glassed-in indoor terrace with a mirrored ceiling and a silk carpet from the Tony Duquette Collection by Roubini.
7: Wild greenery, sculptures, and what Duquette called "spirit houses"—small pavilions—in the ravine on the property.
5: A dining room ceiling covered in embroidered, appliqued Indian panels.
4: A bronze praying mantis and a white taxidermy cockatoo, of course!
3: An English Regency gold-plated palm tree, which the Wilkinsons gave to Duquette and his wife on their 50th anniversary.
2: A '60s portrait of Duquette by Marion Pike.
1: A petrified tortoise shell and a giant gold-plated antique lobster in the library.
Here, take a video tour of the estate, courtesy of Style.com:
· Space of the Week: Every Headdress Needs a Cockatoo [NYMag]
· Style Studio [Style.com]