Frances Elkins

Last night while sipping cocktails at the Kelly Wearstler
-designed Viceroy Hotel in Santa Monica I listened as my friend Katie told me how she was buying a lot of modern housewares lately but didn't want to push that too far because her core style is traditional (read: waspy). For some reason that was stuck in my head tonight as I glanced over to my book shelf and saw Frances Elkins Interior Design by Stephen M. Salny. I soon realized you never have to pick an absolute style or time period —the mixing and the matching is the real art, and Francis Elkins is perhaps one of the first designers to ever mix classic and modern styles together, and master the relationship between the two (and how ironic that her clients mainly resided in San Francisco-where Katie is from and the North Shore of Chicago where I am from?). From the early 1920s to the late 1950s Elkins defined avant-garde interior design, and continues to influence several in the field today, like...Kelly Wearster!. Get this exellent book on amazon for $43.