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KATIE RIDDER- by Susanna Salk
“I’ll never forget finding this perfect chocolate on a perfect pillow at the Waldorf Towers when I visited Manhattan back when I was twelve,” remembers Katie Ridder. “I grew up in what is now the Silicon Valley, California but back then was mostly walnut orchards and vineyards. I had no idea there was another world out there.” That doesn’t mean her own rural backyard not to mention family didn’t provide style exposure to an impressionable young Ridder. “My Uncle Joe drove an aubergine Bentley, the rear windows of which had a pleated woolen curtain. He put four,foot-high Ming Foo dogs next to a martini shaker on an alter table. He was such a man of style.”
After nabbing a B.A. in Art History at USC, Ridder moved immediately to New York and got a job as an assistant at Conde Nast. “It was an exciting job but, apparently, not exciting enough,” says Ridder. “After a while I applied to the Central Intelligence Agency, thinking Conde Nast was a perfect cover. When I was rejected I realized I’d have to make a living honestly.” While working at House & Garden Magazine, she met her future husband architect Peter Pennoyer, who tried convincing her to work at his firm. And while she rejected his job offer, she did accept his ensuing invitation to dinner and they were engaged four months later. “Peter is so clever and creative and he taught me a lot,” says Ridder. With his encouragement, she eventually set up an eponymous shop on the Upper East Side, after being inspired by a jaunt to Turkey. “I came home from that trip knowing that I wanted to open a store with Iznik tiles, fabrics, and metal work,” says Ridder, who then added large-scale ceramics from Spain, lanterns from Egypt, screens, and furniture from Hong Kong to her exotic retail mix. “I had felt limited as a buyer over the years by existing retail sources,” says Ridder, “so it was wonderful to now be able to offer people more options.” The shop was a complete success as was life at home: Ridder became a mother and family life inevitably began to tug at the time she was helping others feather their own nests: clients weren’t just buying her decorative arts pieces – they also craved Ridder’s unique eye and style. “One day a couple in their mid-seventies asked Ridder to make slipcovers for their library “They were red with white piping and they were on everything,” she recalls with a smile. She was soon designing entire rooms for a bevy of clientele and eventually, it made sense to trade in her role as chic shop owner to that of in-demand interior designer. Now Ridder oversees projects that span from the Adirondacks to North Carolina, to Nantucket. Time has since become even more precious, and as a result, Ridder makes sure that all her talents and passions are intertwined as much as possible with family life. She and her clan still head to a quiet seaside town in Massachusetts every August, where Ridder bakes rhubarb pies, sews, quilts, and makes jewelry out of shells and driftwood. Two years ago, her crafty efforts turned to wallpaper. “It was a slow process,” says Ridder, who found inspiration in everything from a book of 17th century miniatures to sprays of seaweed. Guided by her family’s input, she taped up different sketches on her bedroom wall and asked Peter and relatives to vote on their favorites. From this, she eventually created seven patterns, all now available from Holland & Sherry. “It is hard for me to put into words how I am inspired,” says Ridder. “My mind is undisciplined, so I don’t have a set of rules or a list. But my inspirations come from all different directions: It could be a pretty label on a wine bottle, or the bracelet that Grace Kelly wore in “Rear Window.” Or Tony Duquette’s use of mirrors on ceilings or the dappled bark of a tree at the New York Botanical Gardens.” Wherever she turns and whatever she sees, Ridder is sure to translate that vision into something with style she can call her very own.
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