Architect Alexander Girard, a man who shifted from exterior to interior design as easily as he shifted the gears of his car, thought a long time about what to do with the main rooms of Dragon Peak — House & Garden magazine’s Hallmark House show home for 1968.
“In a day when everyone is thinking of motion and asymmetry, here are square, orderly, classic rooms,” he reflected. “They demand a really romantic emphasis on elegance.”
The living room, a dazzling 25-foot square of exotic color, could have come out of a Venetian palazzo, even though the furniture, which Mr Girard designed, is comfortably latter-day: low-slung, delicately scaled to fit the room without crowding it.
In this vintage 60s living room full of exotic color and style, the tall shutters could be opened, closed, or “played with” for wonderful variety.
Inside the shutters were both tall windows to the green garden beyond, or full-height mirrors that reflected the room’s glow.
All louvers, all solid paneling, or a mixture of the two in a riot of color were stepped up by the brilliance of the checkerboard rug — another design by Mr Girard.
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Eschewing curtains (“too fussy, wrong for those windows”), Girard hung each arch in the three outside walls with a double set of upper and lower shutters — one set solid, one louvered — with the louvers enameled in deep orange.
The solid, room-side panels were upholstered in Thai silk in two colors — hot orange on one side, shocking pink on the other.
