Description
Book SynopsisThe first comprehensive book on the timeless, elegant interiors of Frances Elkins, the grande dame of early twentieth-century design who influenced so many important designers of our time.
Trade Review"Nearly anything that registers as great interior design in the 2020s appeared in legendary interior designer Frances Elkins’s rooms in the 1920s. Her projects were replete with warm tones, interesting tile, and a mix of modern, vintage, and antique furniture. Bamboo dining chairs in a Chippendale style? Elkins did that. That thing you’re calling “granny chic?” Elkins had you beat." —IN KANSAS CITY
"Regarded by many as the grande dame of 20th-century design, Frances Elkins brought an international perspective and architectural sensibility to her work that nobody had seen before. This new monograph showcases never-before-published material from the groundbreaking decorator that illustrates her ability to effortlessly mix styles and vivid colors." —VERANDA
"Among a trove of images and magazine spreads of rooms Elkins designed, Powell also includes interiors dotted with furniture and fabric collaborations between Elkins and Frank, as well as architects including her brother David Adler. Famed decorator Billy Baldwin called her “the most creative designer we have ever had, and perhaps the greatest,” and here her influential work stands in concert with fellow Northern California innovators Anthony Hail, Michael Taylor and John Dickinson." ~ C Magazine
"Elkins favored chic modernist European furniture, including the white plaster shell sconces, shell ceiling lights and twisted floor lamps designed by
Alberto Giacometti for
Jean-Michel Frank, or her own authorized copies. The Giacometti-style pieces later became basics of San Francisco interior designer
Michael Taylor, who considered Elkins the most advanced designer he knew. “Elkins was a free spirit and mixed things that hadn’t been mixed before,” he told
Dupuy Warrick Reed, writing for
Connoisseur magazine in 1983. “She was experimental in scale and approach.” " ~Nob Hill Gazette
"She collaborated with luminaries like Syrie Maugham, Marion Dorn, Dorothy Liebes, Alberto Giacometti and Jean-Michel Frank to specify teal and tangerine upholstery, mermaid murals and creamy ridged carpets. She turned glass pillars into gossamer balusters and spiraled a crimson-carpeted staircase around a stack of clear plastic balls. Plaster hands served as holdbacks on her fringed, plaid curtains." ~ NY Times
