Thad Hayes: The Tailored Interior by Thad Hayes, Evelyn H. Lauder (Contribution by), Charles Gandee (Introduction)

• Read an Excerpt

Read an Excerpt

It’s about time. It’s about time that a book showing the work of the wonderful interior designer Thad Hayes can be shared with readers interested in what distinguishes a great interior designer from a merely good one.
Designers can be formulaic; they can leave their stamp on a room, almost literally putting their name in the room, leaving the client in an anonymous abyss. Not so with Thad Hayes. With his Southern charm and easy smile, Thad listens intently to his client and produces rooms that don’t need to be changed, since they reflect their owner so well.
In these beautiful pages you will see how Thad’s use of proportion and scale invites people into a room.
For my husband, Leonard, and me, Thad created an Adirondack masterpiece in our country home, a tiny one-bedroom log cabin near a pond. Thad filled this home with twig furniture and handcrafted lamps, tables, and bookcases. Now, a favorite hideaway is loaded with charm, color, and patterns, creating the perfect weekend getaway.
In Florida, Thad reworked a formal Georgian house completed in 1938 into our elegant but practical beach house. Since the house literally sits on the beach, Thad chose to keep it elegant without using fancy silks or overly delicate materials. Instead he employed straw rugs on the first floor, anticipating the return from an ocean swim by our guests with sand between their toes. Linens, cottons, and cotton blends with a crisp, smooth hand in elegant, cool colors give our formal rooms the right look, but one could sit on any chair in the breakfast room or dining room in a damp bathing suit.
Touches of extravagance are suggested in Lalique fixtures, Ruhlmannsconces, Chareau chairs, art deco mirrors, and the massing of Leonard’s art deco posters on one wall in the media room. These touches, appropriate and contemporary to the era of the house, feel as if they had been there from the time the house was built. Thad’s restoration even earned a commendation from the Preservation Foundation of Palm Beach.
In other words, Thad Hayes can make a home fit into its own skin, not into his skin.
And, he is nice. The relationship with a client is key to Thad. After all, sometimes fabrics need to be changed, lampshades replaced, and other adjustments made. The selection of a designer–or a client–should be handled with great care, as the relationship can last for many years. In a successful relationship, designer and client become part of each other’s lives. Thad Hayes certainly has become a happy and productive part of our lives.
You will surely enjoy and appreciate the beauty and comfort you shall see in the pages of this glorious compendium of Thad Hayes’s accomplishments.

~Evelyn H. Lauder's foreword for Thad Hayes