Bunny Williams’ Longest Running Affair

Bunny Williams is one of the grand dames of American interior design. She is also a furniture designer, an avid gardener, a philanthropist, and a prolific writer having published several books on decorating and gardening.

This spring she celebrates her latest tome, Love Affairs With Houses. It is a sort of sequel to her previously published book An Affair With A Housein which she chronicled how she and her husband antiques dealer John Rosselli lovingly restored a circa 1800 house in Connecticut and turned it into a gem of a dwelling place and a laboratory of sorts for her design ideas.

Williams’ style is a wonderful confluence of old money elegance and contemporary flair. Pedigreed antiques and heirloom pieces add multi-layered elements and stories to present-day designs. In designing for clients, she flits back and forth from lessons learned from her mentor Sister Parish and those she’s experienced on the job. The overall results are homes that you wish you could live in.

And reading her book Love Affairs With Houseswith glorious photographs and even more glorious tales of how they came to be, you can just picture yourself as weekend guest in these homes that span from New York’s Long Island to the South of France and to the home of the then Senator John F. Kennedy and his new wife Jackie.

Below are some of the homes featured in the book and the stories they tell.

A New York penthouse apartment. “From the time I designed this family’s apartment years ago, they had wanted to restore it to its original duplex format. When they were finally able to purchase the penthouse above, they called me to put the two spaces together without greatly altering their existing apartment.” (Photography by Roger Davies)

A bedroom with hand-painted wallpaper. “With curved corners, the master bedroom has a wonderful sense of enveloping embrace. Covering the walls in silver tea paper from Gracie infused the interior with an almost art deco allure…” (Photography by Paul Costello)

An 18th century chair in a rich blue upholstery pairs beautifully with an abstracted floral painting by Sarah Graham. “Imagine this homeowner’s surprise when he asked his wife what she wanted for Christmas and she answered: to have me decorate their newly purchased stone house on the East Coast.” (Photography by Francesco Langese)

A terrace in Provence. “Due to historic preservation laws, all our changes (to the farmhouse) had to take place within the existing walls and footprint. We wanted to respect the past but bring the house into the present with a coherent floor plan that reunified the interior into a warm, welcoming home for family and many guests. (Photography by Fritz von der Schulenburg)

Top image photography by Carter Berg

See more: Tour The 2019 Kips Bay Decorator Show House