Micheal Simon
photo by Francesco Lagnese
If you could have a second home anywhere, where would you live? I do have a second home and it’s in upstate NY, in the Berkshire foothills.
What are three words to describe your style? Quiet, Refined, Unique
Tell us about your childhood bedroom? When I was really young, I remember the closet was covered in a hand-blocked wallpaper with a little boy climbing cherry trees. When I was a teenager, the bedroom walls were covered in a plaid wallpaper that was in chocolate brown, black and white. The bedding was Bill Blass.
What’s the first investment piece you ever bought for your house?
When I was about 15, I purchased a patinated bronze table base with three satyrs supporting the top.
In the history of design, if you could hire any designer other than yourself, who would it be?
Stephane Boudin
No room is complete without highly curated objets.
People think of me as a traditionalist, but I am really looking through multiple lenses – historic and futuristic - to fashion the furnishings and interiors we create.
Things you omit from
A flower arrangement: baby’s breath and ferns
An hors d’oeuvre platter: meats and cheeses
A bar cabinet: paper cocktail napkins
A song for
Dinner at home: Chamber music
Working at your desk: None – it’s far too distracting
Going for a run: Any of the turn-of-the-century Russian or French composers.
Biggest Vice? Sweets
If you were on an Ambien high and internet shopping, what would you buy? A dustbuster.
Do your clothes reflect your design sensibility, if so, how? Somewhat. I don’t want to be noticed, per se, but if I am, I want to be impeccable.
Who is your star crush? Marian Seldes
What is the thing you would never do on a project, but don’t detest when you see others do it?
I don’t like trivializing anything on a project. For example pillows must have unique textiles and trims, rather than repeating a fabric used elsewhere. One of my staff members refers to this as Michael Simon’s Ten Commandments. Thou shalt not…
What design book do you find yourself going back to again and again? Roomscapes by Renzo Mongiardino and Jerome Zerbe’s Small Castles and Pavillions of Europe and Les Pavillons.
For posterity, what would you like your work to be known for? Understated elegance with the utmost refinement and attention to detail I can muster.
photo by Francesco Lagnese
A Few Favorites:
Movie: Sunset Boulvard
Book: Balzac’s Cousin Bette or Emile Zola’s Thérèse Raquin
Scent: Tea Rose
The fabric you always come back to: Prelle’s Satin Façonné Ruhlmann
Dream project: My own house
Meal: Sconces with clotted cream and tea with milk
Drink: Ginger beer
Hotel: The Savoy in London
Travel Destination: Saint Petersburg (Russia)
Artist: Édouard Vuillard
A cause near and dear to me: Project Renewal
Thing to collect obsessively: Art and sculpture
Era in the history of design: 18th Century French and 20’s/30’s French
Museum: Nissim de Camondo
Paint Color: Benjamin Moore Portland Gray (which isn’t gray at all, it’s a shade of dusty grape)
Favorite person to follow on Instagram: Mitch Owens
Dogs, Cats, or No Pets? No pets. By now you should know!
