When Smith positioned the cushioned daybed he’d ordered in another guest room, he immediately lit on 1940s images of a bedridden Henri Matisse in the South of France working on his now famous cut-outs. In an homage to Matisse, the designer had similar forms stencilled onto the natural raffia wall covering. “Matisse was a great portrayer of Mediterranean life,” notes Smith. “His paintings of Provence, Algeria, and Morocco have deeply informed our image of those regions.”
The Matisse room is one of several bedrooms with carpets Smith made in collaboration with Madrid’s centuries-old Royal Tapestry Factory. The royal workshops maintain stores of every thread or yarn ever used to be able to repair damage or wear on any carpets or tapestries they ever produced. In a complete about-face for them, Smith specifically commissioned old-looking carpets that appear faded and worn. “As soon as James was named U.S. ambassador to Spain, I wanted to showcase these legendary workshops any way I could,” the designer says. “It took some doing to convince the weavers not to create a perfect product, but my clients appreciate a patina of age and use in the things they collect.”
In the serene primary bedroom, a crisp white canopy bed floats amid a sea of muted blue, grey, and taupe tile mosaic that Smith designed for the room’s floor and wainscoting. The colours reflect—but do not compete with—the views of the sea outside, creating a tranquil and meditative atmosphere. The sleek twentieth-century chrome-plated bench at the foot of the bed is just another part of what the designer describes as the home’s “mashup of styles, periods, and places of origin so it’s not heavy and ponderous—it’s still a summer house.”
With summer in mind, the eye is drawn down to the seaside, where a winding staircase leads to a small stone platform with several fabulous lounge chairs from Hervé Baume, a manufacturer of outdoor furniture in Avignon. “Whenever we see those stripy chairs billowing in the breeze we remember how much we love Mallorca,” Smith says. It’s easy to see why.
This is an extract from ‘Classic By Design’ by Michael S Smith, published by Rizzoli.
