“I think of myself as a visual storyteller through design,” says Sheila Bridges. “Everyone has a story to tell.” Her own unfolds across the double-height dining room of her Hudson Valley home, a repository for the art and objects she’s made or assembled over a — yes, storied — career. There are vintage Fornasetti chairs. There are Louis XV fauteuils, re-covered in pony skin. There are Moroccan carpets, gathered on endless trips to a country she loves for its wild embrace of color, which she shares. And there is a custom mobile she commissioned from Elizabeth Parker, kinetic eye candy in a space not lacking for drama. Still, Bridges puts contemporary photographs (by Lorna Simpson and Fabiola Jean-Louis) at the room’s center. These are her stories within stories.
“When you think about the Hudson Valley, you think about light as depicted by such artists as Thomas Cole and Frederic Edwin Church. I wanted to capture that light, which is so unique to this area.”
Design philosophy?
“I tend to like things that are pretty classic because they really help to ground my projects. Then, I can play with color and shapes and silhouettes to create something you could call classicism with quirkiness.”
