Designer Spotlight: Palm Beach Show Home

Guided by over 40 years of experience and an exceptional range of styles, Leta Austin Foster has always followed her mantra to “never do the same job twice.” Joined by her daughters as her company’s Partners and Principal Designers, Leta Austin Foster has become one of the most well-established design firms on the East Coast. From a sleek Manhattan townhouse to a 19th century mansion in Northern California, Leta Austin Foster has designed a myriad of spaces, always working to keep design schemes grounded within their environments and in tune with the client’s vision.

What was your vision for your space in the Palm Beach show house?

The inspiration for our firm’s decoration of the vestibule and foyer is a classic winter garden. Many fabulous estates would include interior rooms where they would store plants from the outdoors for the winter. inspiration for our firm’s decoration of the vestibule and foyer is a classic winter garden. Many fabulous estates would include interior rooms where they would store plants from the outdoors for the winter.

Our plant-bedecked vestibule with its tile floor, whitewashed brick walls and bamboo-trellised ceiling does double duty as an intimate dining area where, in this case, the Florida heat can be escaped without sacrificing an en plein air experience. This interior garden element inspired many of the elaborate trellis rooms of the ‘20s and ‘30s which often used the overall floral motif but without any plants at all, as in the exquisite dining room Elsie de Wolfe designed for the Colony Club in New York with its beautiful mural of vine wrapped boiserie. Our own Honeysuckle Trellis wallpaper design for Waterhouse Wallhangings that hangs in the foyer pays homage to that iconic room and seamlessly transitions from the riot of greenery in the foyer to the more formal interior of the home.

We utilized one of our favorite cornice styles, the pagoda with its hand-painted bells, to evoke the chinoiserie elements that were so often featured in these spaces. The hand-blocked floral linen could have been used by John Fowler in the 1920s. A spectacularly embroidered tableskirt echoes the bamboo trellis theme and a collection of potted faux ceramic flowers reminds the visitor of the garden they just passed through.

How did you determine which rug would work best for this particular room?

We were looking to bring the outside in. So we were looking for a carpet that had a natural sisal-like look but that could withstand the high traffic of the entry foyer and the plants that were in our space.

How do you approach sizing this space with a custom-sized rug?

We also wanted to cover the entire floor to make our small space look larger so we appreciated Ernesta’s ability to provide a professionally serged rug in our specific size. Everybody loves it!