H&G CT-NY
STYLE NOTES
with Interior Designer
Marshall Watson
Style Notes with Interior Designer Marshall Watson
I had the privilege to catch up with Marshall
Watson recently, diving into his design process
and his thoughts behind his latest book. It was
a conversation that reminded me why the best
things in life are often the simple elegant pleasures,
gardens, home, and good friends.
Marshall’s design sensibility is the kind of
refined elegance you expect from someone with
impeccable taste, but never stiff or forced, with
just enough surprise to keep it interesting. His home
reflects this philosophy, and walking through it
feels like a breath of fresh air. But his genius extends
beyond the walls of the house.
He is just as adept in the garden as he is with
interiors. The landscape is an art form of its own,
strong geometric lines meet the wild, untamed
beauty of glorious blooms, as if nature decided
to take a more sophisticated spin on its usual
spontaneity. The result – a beautiful dance of
control and freedom, all wrapped in romance.
We’re excited to hear about your new book, Defining Elegance.
I’ve spent seven years writing the book, and I think that it was very important to me to in the book be
able to not only show the work that we’ve been doing for the last seven years, but also to help people
learn about design, interior design, from the perspective of I’ve always believed in a more civilized life, a
life of calm and peace and harmony, and all those wonderful things that you’re hoping for in home. And
of course, I always believe in home, and that it’s not just a real estate venture, it is a home. And I try to
help my clients and the people that I work with understand that.
I believe that the book will
teach us about a kinder,
gentler world, a world that
is not stuffy, is not overly
formal, but is very civilized.
How would you define elegance?
I define it by a series of attributes. Peace, light, I enjoy
light in environments, so I wanted them to have almost
an effervescent light quality to them.
Proportion is very important to me. And the fact is that
proportion is everything. Harmony and I obviously love
symmetry. At the same time, I want it to be surprising.
I want it to have a sense of humor. I believe in texture,
color, all of the design tools that we have in our
designers’ toolbox, I use.
And you carry a lot of these themes over in your own garden. Would you say that those are very interconnected?
I would say they’re extremely interconnected. Because in the garden, I’m influenced by so many
different sources. In interior design, I am as well, but the interior design is more my own profession.
The garden is where I experiment. It’s where I’m not as confident.
I look to the symmetry of Le Nôtre. I look to the blousy looks of the English borders. I like Italian
statuary; I like what it brings to a garden. I like the colonial gardens and many of the gates and the
fencing that I use.
And because I’m on the board of the Garden Conservancy and I’m very involved with the Open Days
program, I have seen so many different private gardens around the country that have really inspired
me and have brought to my own garden so many elements like the brick walls, the Adirondack path
that you saw earlier made out of stumps. And there are so many influences that I’ve seen throughout
the country because of the Open Days program.
In what ways do you feel that your garden has inspired you as an interior designer?
Well, I have also created rooms in the garden just like an
interior designer would create. I kind of can’t get away
from that. I want to hem things in and create different
spaces and different experiences, like I do as an interior
designer as well.
You’ve created this wonderful
sense of these individual spaces,
with really interesting spaces
that feel very expansive.
Well, thank you very much. And you’re correct, because
there are five different gardens here that I look at. I have
the entry court that I think of as literally the entry foyer of
my garden, in which I entertain people. It’s a gravel area
surrounded by shade trees and ornamentals.
Then I have the French potager. I have another garden
which you can view from the Belvedere. You view the
entire garden from there. I have the walled garden, which
the deer can’t get in because deer are a major problem
here, but I can experiment in that garden with all sorts of
different planting materials like exotics and all sorts of
things. And then I have the garden that is specifically for
the deer that I’ve experimented with for years, as we were
talking about earlier, with gray plants, plants that are
scented.
And then I have the natural garden, which is for the
butterflies and for the dragonflies, fireflies and all of the
different flora and fauna in that part of the garden.
Is there a space that you
feel most attached to or that
inspires you the most?
Probably in the home, I would say this room that we’re in
right now, because I designed it in reference to the golden
rectangle or the golden mean. I experimented with the
concept of what does a room feel like that adhered to all
the geometric principles of the Greek Golden Mean. And I
feel that when I created it, the room actually worked.
This is a very comfortable space and very inviting to be in.
And it feels natural and human in terms of the height of the ceiling, the width, the
length. It all seems to come together. That was a teaching moment for me.
Absolutely, and it opens very beautifully to the
rest of the garden.
And I designed it so that you could enter from the front door, but actually I learned a
lot from Feng Shui, where you don’t see the view immediately. You don’t want your chi
to flood out the windows to the view. So, you come in, you stop, you see the entryway
and it’s more of a formal entryway with a console and the mirror, and then you come
around that, and then it appears in front of you – this magnificent view.
That’s a lovely view. I’m glad that we got to enjoy
the swans a little bit today.
I know! It’s like, cue central casting. Suddenly, the swans and the geese appear. You
have a good spirit about you. You brought it all.
You’ve created this wonderful sense of formality, but
there is a lot of wild that does come in, a little piece of
Eden. It feels abundant.
I think that also the property is the definition of elegance. There’s comfort, there’s ease.
Once again, I said there’s proportion in the property, there’s a story behind everything,
there’s romance. I mean how can you have both a home and a garden without a
sense of romance? I love symmetry, and it holds things together. I love form, but also, of
course, ultimately harmony.
If there’s one thing from the book that you wanted to share with people, what would it be?
I believe that the book will teach us about a kinder, gentler world, a world that is not stuffy, is not overly
formal, but is very civilized. And it is about hospitality, it is about welcoming people in, and it’s about living. You
can live with beauty and not be intimidated by it. And I think it teaches that.
I also think that my book teaches people about the ability to take the careers that you’ve had beforehand
(I’ve had several careers. I’ve been a theater designer and an actor as well as an interior designer) and how
you can apply all of the principles that you learned in your previous lives, which wrap up into a wonderful
package of your current profession.
Photo credits: Marshall Watson & Reid Deane Ganes, Rizzoli USA, and Caleb Kane.