Michael Taylor (1927-86) invented what was three decades ago dubbed the “California look”: white interiors with stone floors and over-scaled, sculptural furniture. In response to the casual West Coast way of life, he broke the rules of traditional design, says Stephen M. Salny, author of the new Norton monograph Michael Taylor Interior Design. Here’s a preview of the book, starting with a 1976 commission for songwriter Gil Garfield. The Beverly Hills home was built in 1950 by Modernist architect Harwell Hamilton Harris. “Taylor’s use of a white a warm white, not a white white was his trademark,” Salny says. “And he always included colors from nature.” In Garfield’s living room, shown here, Taylor used the natural shade of wicker in oversized pieces from his Jennifer collection. The grays and beige found in rocks used as tables created a palette that looked earthy yet clean. (Russell MacMasters Photography / W.W. Norton & Co.)
If it looks like the kind of space where Donatella Versace might throw a bridge party, consider this: Michael Taylor’s card room for San Francisco client Maryon Davies Lewis was completed in 1963 and has not been changed since. Working with the original checkerboard floor, Taylor created an explosion of color, covering ornate Venetian side chairs in electric shades of silk and adding upholstered pieces in lemon yellow. (Fred Lyon / W.W. Norton & Co.)
Taylor mixed period pieces with modern furniture and architecture with ease. For a San Francisco couple who collected French antiques, he created this eye-popping guest room where the walls, gabled ceiling and upholstered sleigh bed were sheathed in toile. (Steve Haag / W.W. Norton & Co.)
Named for a favorite client, the actress Jennifer Jones, Taylor’s signature seating collection from the 1970s is monolithic in scale, whether made from wicker or in faux stone, as shown here, which could be used indoors and out. Another Taylor trademark: overstuffed cushions and pillows designed to look like beach balls. (W.W. Norton & Co.)
This 1920s Spanish house in Beverly Hills owned by Marc and Jane Nathanson got the Taylor treatment in 1978, with banquette seating, chairs built into the cast-concrete hearth and bamboo window treatments that echoed the shapely ceiling beams. “The sophisticated rusticity of the decor,” Salny writes, “complemented the Nathansons’ notable collection of contemporary art.” (John Vaughan & Associates / W.W. Norton & Co.)
In the 1970s, when beige became the rage, Taylor distinguished the look with flair. In the master bedroom of this San Francisco home, he paired a natural berber wool carpet with a canopy bed swathed in a complementary shade of raw silk. The principal color of a Taylor room, author Salny says, “derived from his selection of fabrics and textures which contributed subtle dimension to the interior, making the rooms breathe and come alive.” This room also featured a gigantic wood-slab desk and night stands made from fossil stone on tree trunk bases. “The appearance of nature and organic elements in rooms today can also be credited to Taylor,” Salny says. (Russell MacMasters Photography / W.W. Norton & Co.)
In his much-loved 1980s design for the Auberge du Soleil resort in the Napa Valley, Taylor created the Black Room, a space dominated by its dark walls, hearth and furniture covered in a glazed chintz floral. (Russell MacMasters Photography / W.W. Norton & Co.)
Had Fred Flinstone struck oil instead of bedrock, he could’ve ended up with an oceanfront home like the Beyer Malibu residence built by architect John Lautner and designed by Michael Taylor in 1971. Decorated with boulders and furnished with 3.5 deep cast-concrete banquettes, the room achieves a modern stone age luxury. (Russell MacMasters Photography/W.W. Norton & Company)
“Although there was only one Michael Taylor, his design style paved the way for a less formal, less stuffy elegant, but rustic look,” Salny says. “Interior design before him did not present that option, but he made it acceptable and viable for design in perpetuity.” Case in point: this Lake Tahoe home with wood paneling, trophy heads, a raw-rock table, rush benches and Klismos-style chairs. The room still looks hip, even though the designer completed it more than 25 years ago. (Timothy Hursley / W.W. Norton & Co.)
To legendary Vogue editor Diana Vreeland, Michael Taylor was “the James Dean of interior design.” In this 1982 portrait, he stands by the pool at his San Francisco residence known as Sea Cliff. The home was a monument to the “California look” he created as well as to the antiques he collected. At 1 p.m. March 25, Salny will lecture about the colorful designer at the Michael Taylor showroom of the Pacific Design Center, 8687 Melrose Ave., Space #B542, West Hollywood; (310) 360-8118. To read about more new books, store openings and sales scoops, go to The Scout. (Russell MacMasters Photography / W.W. Norton & Co.)
