Decorating Your Villa, 1990s-Style

On the 100th anniversary of Edith Wharton’s first book, “The Decoration of Houses,” her strict and proper classical rules for decorating still are putting a few tassels in a twist.

Penned before she became a celebrated American novelist, Wharton’s book, written with Ogden Codman Jr., riveted upper-crust taste makers of the era who were tired of fussy, rigidly held Victorian decorating practices. Pulling back the draperies and letting in the light, it helped change society’s thinking about how a room should be put together.

Even today it remains must reading, even if some of the refined edicts culled from French, Italian and English villas and chateaux seem out of step with the 1990s penchant for shabby chic and feng shui.

Now the book that set a new course in style 100 years ago has inspired New York decorator and author Alexandra Stoddard. She expands on the classic principles of Wharton and Codman in a book of the same title intended for those with smaller homes and tighter budgets.

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The influential text Wharton penned with Codman, a New England architect, was a response to their dislike for late Victorian clutter and overstuffed rooms of potted palms and fabric-swathed windows. It outlined what at the time was a fresh approach to interior design: simple rooms that were balanced, in proportion and light.

Some of their rules for decorating at the end of the 19th century may be hard to relate to homes at the dawn of the millennium: “In a ballroom of any importance, especially where marble is used on the walls, the floor should always be of the same substance,” they advise. And: “The hanging of walls with chintz or any other material is even more objectionable than the use of wall-paper.”

Wharton’s book was not a how-to manual for novices. It dealt with architectural history and fundamental design principles, such as the correct placement of fireplaces, the decoration of ceilings and floors and the proper ornamentation of doors. It encouraged the rise of interior decoration as a profession.

Wharton (1862-1937) is better known as a distinguished novelist of more than 40 books chronicling the cosmopolitan lifestyles of her world. Born into fashionable New York society, she traveled throughout Europe, lived in France for many years and designed numerous houses and gardens for herself.

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Stoddard, who has spent 36 years as a designer and is a host on the Home & Garden TV network, read Wharton’s novels as a teenager and studied “The Decoration of Houses” in design school. Her professional mentor was legendary New York decorator Eleanor McMillen Brown, who opened her firm McMillen Inc. in 1924 based on the classical principles put forth by Wharton and Codman.

Stoddard’s version of “The Decoration of Houses” (William Morrow) is pitched more to people in three-bedroom colonials and rambling ranch houses rather than those in palazzi and villas. She includes numerous examples of her philosophy on making the house a more welcoming place. She has written about these ideas in many of her other 19 books, including “Living a Beautiful Life” (Random House, 1986), which has sold over a million copies.

Her new book covers topics Wharton and Codman did not address in 1897. For example, she examines how to use feng shui, the ancient Asian art of placement, to have your house fit your emotional and physical needs. She considers how to deal with Seasonal Affective Disorder, known as SAD or the “winter blues,” by bringing more light into the house.

Make no mistake--Stoddard is a dedicated Wharton fan. “There’s no deception. My book was meant to praise and to celebrate Edith Wharton,” she says. “Classical principles don’t change--proportion, symmetry, balance and scale are all still important. [Wharton] was a keen observer, and she still has relevance.”

However, Stoddard believes it is time for a more practical approach. Although Wharton’s book “has been alive and well for 100 years,” contemporary homeowners might have trouble with such advice as “take a chateau and put 30 servants in it.”

Of course, Stoddard’s standards, like Wharton’s, can be expensive. She favors using solid-brass hardware and bemoans the lack of attention paid to ceilings.

“One of the greatest differences between the decoration of houses 100 years ago and now is that today there is an appalling disregard for the aesthetic dimension of a ceiling,” writes Stoddard. “While ceilings take up the same space as the floor, few people consider spending even a fraction of their decorating budget to make them beautiful.”