Advice to a young designer often includes something like “Choose your look” or “Quick, pick your lane.” In a lifetime of decorating, Bunny Williams has proved that the way a room looks isn’t everything; comfort, on the other hand, really is. It’s a viewpoint shared by her partner, Elizabeth Lawrence. “First and foremost, a home should be comforting and welcoming, and that is achieved by always thinking about how people are going to live in a room,” Williams says. The living room of a Mediterranean Revival house in Palm Beach, designed by architect Jeffrey W. Smith, provides multiple seating options, while pieces from Liz O’Brien, Bernd Goeckler, Todd Romano and Williams’s husband, John Rosselli, enliven the view. To pull the composition together while keying it to the outdoors, the designers added a generous squeeze of color: key lime.
“The vintage coffee table is a thick piece of Lucite with magenta tones running through it on a modern brass base,” says Elizabeth Lawrence. “I love that each coffee table in this large room is special.”
Design philosophy?
“The beauty of an interior should be subtle enough that you never tire of it. The combination of furniture, art, fabrics and colors should become more interesting as one spends time in the room.” — Bunny Williams
