Architectural Digest's latest piece on a project by outspoken chintz-enthused interior designer Mario Buatta covers a space he created for one of the "remarkably loyal" clients he's gathered over the course of his 50-plus years in the business; people committed, sometimes for life, to of his specific blend of fabulously over-the-top, brazenly loud finery. Virginia-born "society figure" Patricia Altschul is one of these kindred spirits, and her Greek Revival mansion is the fourth large-scale project she had Buatta work on. Or, in AD's parlance, she comissioned him to "Buattafy."
In Buatta's words, the home used to have a "frumpy beige interior." He turned the dining room into pretty much the complete opposite of that with a Zuber wallpaper depicting Revolutionary War scenes (↑).
Buatta painted the double drawing room (↑) a shade he calls Apple Green, which Altschul characterizes as "very uplifting, whether the day is cloudy or sunny." Like a lot of the homes furnishings, the carpet came from Altschul's previous Buatta-designed estate, but this one he "blithely chopped" in two and divided between each section.
A Manuel Canovas covers pretty much every surface in the master bedroom (←). In the entryway (→) hangs a 19th-century Gothic Revival lantern, and a collection of antique silhouettes.
Visit Architectural Digest for more on the project, and the AD archives for more madcap chinoiserie.
· Mario Buatta Decorates a Stately Charleston Mansion for Patricia Altschul [Architectural Digest]
· Mario Buatta [Curbed National]
· All Printed Page posts [Curbed National]
· All Charleston coverage [Curbed National]
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