Visionary: David Hicks More Ideas and Inspiration from a Life of Design

Visionary: David Hicks
More Ideas and Inspiration From a Life of Design

By SUSAN SCHULTZ with commentary from ASHLEY HICKS

The “Long Room” at Britwell, the Hicks country home, has simple white walls and a plastic tiled floor (done as a advertisement for a tile company) until Hicks completely redecorated it in 1972. The room was “conceived as a space for music and fun, an informal, relaxed counterpart to the drawing room with its Georgian grandeur,” explains Ashley Hicks. David used pink felt on the walls and filled the room–from ceiling to floor in a brilliant, “vibrating” mix of reds, pinks, magenta and aubergine. Photo © David Hicks Archives, from David Hicks by Ashley Hicks, Rizzoli 2009.

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David loved the drama of tester beds and almost every bedroom at Britwell had some version. The master bedroom was done up all in white, with pelmets designed from sketches made at Skokloster Castle in Sweden. The Swedish Room had a moulded cornice and bed hangings in an 18th century toile d’Aix cotton. Even a single bed was treated rather grandly, with a gathered cornice and hangings in flowered chintz set against the Indian block-print cotton on the walls. Photos © David Hicks Archives, from David Hicks by Ashley Hicks, Rizzoli 2009.

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Originally decorated in 1963, David’s library at Britwell was a model of classic elegance, as this photo dated 1978 attests. “Very little about this room changed those 15 years,” notes Ashley. “The shelves once held more objects and pictures, which were displaced by books, and the grey flannel shade was eventually redone in green. What makes it a classic? The black walls framed by white which makes the books glow; the simple modern shelving on pine on steel tracks, which contrast with the Regency mirror; the marble chimneypiece; and the Victorian mahogany desk. It’s the simplicity, the solid blocks of color and the measured use of pattern that makes this room timeless. Photo © David Hicks Archives, from David Hicks by Ashley Hicks, Rizzoli 2009.

For the full article and more ideas and inspiration from David Hicks, see the Nov./Dec. 2010 issue of Vision magazine.