Mario Buatta: The 'Prince of Chintz' - Interior Designer
The interior designer Mario Buatta was born in Staten Island, New York in 1935. His education in the interior design field includes the nine month study of architecture at Cooper Union in New York and a study of the subject at Parsons School of Design in Europe.
Buatta's passion for interior decoration and design sparked at a very early stage itself when he started collecting antique furniture. His initial career as an interior designer started as an apprentice at the interior decorating section of B.Altman department store in Manhattan and later at a company department store in New York City. The same period also saw him working at the firms of Elisabeth Draper and Keith Irvine, both of whom were involved in interior design. Mario Buatta started his own interior decorating business in 1963.
Mario Buatta's unique style involves incorporating the inputs of clients so as to have a collaborative style in interior design processes. He gave great importance to furnishing of houses with a careful combination of contemporary and antique furnishings. Apart from commercial design works in New York, he also has to his credit the interior decoration and design of a small number of houses in Alabama, Texas and Florida.
Buatta prefers to have the interior of houses filled with decorative items from different eras. His idea is that items of different ages will make visitors think that those items were collected by the house owners over different periods in their life. He developed his own style called the "the undecorated look" which combines both contemporary and antique furniture with 18th and 19th century pieces used in the decorative scheme.
Mario Buatta's vision is that the interior design of a house is to become part of the daily life of its residents; it should be done with utmost quality and commitment. His decorative style also involves the classic English decorating style and his philosophy in interior design attracted a large number of high profile clients, including Malcolm Forbes, Henry Ford II, Charlotte Ford, Marey Carey, Billy Joel and Nelson Doubleday.
From 1985 to 1988, Buatta was engaged in high profile public commission works which included the collaborative work with Mark Hampton on the restoration of the Blair House, the 1824 White House guest home on Pennsylvania Avenue. His works also include the design of a museum shop at Winterthur, and the old du Pont estate in Wilmingtom, Delaware.
Buatta's creations are unique in the use of colours, the use of bright cotton fabrics, and also for the classic styles. Apart from being an excellent interior designer, he is also a man of good humour and magnanimity who believed that all objects, including beautifully crafted arts and objects, are "on loan" to humans during their lifetime and are to be passed on to the next generation for enjoyment.