When furnishing a house most women run around examining sofas, collecting swatches of fabrics and studying pictures of interiors. This, according to William Pahlmann, one of America's most famous decorators, is all wrong. What women should study is themselves and they should consider their look,s clothes and personalities as a key to their decorative schemes.
To show how effectively the background can reflect and set off the individual, Mr. Pahlmann chose Margaret Truman and four other american women and, in colors, fabrics and styles, made portrait backgrounds for them. Though he met and talked with the subjects he chose to represent five types of american women, Pahlmann did not ask their tastes in furnishings. When he finished, three approved of the backgrounds wholeheartedly, two liked them but with reservations.
As a backgorund for the President's daughter, whom he considers forthright, young and unmistakably american, designer William Pahlmann composed a cool, simple decor that is colonial in feeling. The pine clock and Lowestoft vase are antiques. The chiar by Paul McCobb is a modern version of a Shaker original. The chintzes on the table, the Grandma Moses painting, the blowl of fruits and vegetables are early american in style. The sideboard, coffee table and puerto rican rug, though modern, suit the period. The blue background and linen fabrics at the right were chosen as Miss Truman's best color, becoming to her blue eyes and blond hair. Miss Truman, who likes american antiques, considered her portrait background altogether exact and appropriate.
To accentuate the smallness and grace of Metropolitan Opera Star Patrice Munsel, Pahlmann has used overscaled baroque objects such as the venetian doorway, gold and white candelabra, french directorie clock and huge, flower-filled porcelain urn. To emphasize Miss Munsel's elegance he selected a venetian mirror, chair and stool, and an italian marble bust. To set off her femininity he used delicate satin ,taffeta and damask materials. To match her warmth he designed a glowing color scheme of pink and lavender, with a touch of pale blue. The only concession to modernity is found in the severe black and white vinyl tile flooring. Miss Munsel's reaction to her portrait setting is that the period is right but "too sedate". While she approves of all the objects individually, she find them somewhat overwhelming when they are grouped together. She would like a little bright red somewhere and "a bit of humor."
TV's Nina Foch, television and movie star is, to Mr. Pahlmann,a sophisticated american woman. He considers the misty gray background perfect for pale blondesm the Stamos painting and african masks the sort of art a "ladylike siren" should collect. The swedish rug repeats the gray. Dorothy Liebes' woven blind (right) and her woven fabrics on Edward Wormley's modern chair (left) add sharp color notes to keep the setting from looking too pale and washed out. The long modern bench is the sort often used in front of large glass windows to hold plants and books and people. Miss Foch approves the color scheme, the sumptuous textiles but would like a comfortable chair added to the decor. As a portrait background she questions the africna masks. "Maybe they are there to make me look pretty by contrast" she says, "but I would not use them."
Seeing the red-haired actress Shirley Booth as the friendly, unaffected sort of woman who dislikes formality, Mr. Pahlmann created her background portrait with soft colors, comfortable provincial furniture and country-style fabrics. This, it turns out, is exactly what Miss Booth likes and lives with. The modern hooked rug, the old copper teakettle, large, bright brass pot filled with ferns and the copper warming pan are all excellent accessories for a provincial setting. The wooden mixing bowl set on legs and filled with apples and vegetables, the clothes racks and weater vane are american pieces. The caned chair Miss Booth sits in and the water color of flowers and the small portrait below it are french. The olive green fabric hanging at left and the pure silk, dark-green fabric on the coat rack are becoming to Miss Booth and have a rugged texture that goes well with provincial furnishings.
"I could live happily in this setting and I wouldn't change a thing," says Jinx Falkenburg McCrary of radio and TV, "except maybe the water buffalo skull, though I suppose I could get used to it." Mr. Pahlmann selected an informal ranch setting to express Jinx's free-and-easy, outdoor girl personality and chose rusty colors becoming to her happy-medium, between blond-and-brunette beauty. The indian print at left is large in scale, informal and western in design. Fabrics to harmonize with the print are grouped on the large cocktail table. The Robsjohn-Gibbings armchair in the background at right is big and comfortable. Mr. Pahlmann likes large accessories with rnach styles such as the water buffalo skull and the plant which is an outsized member of the lily fmaily. The bamboo ladder is for atmosphere, not climbing, though Jinx McCrary thinks her children would consider it a highly useful piece of furniture.
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