Royal Oak mourns the loss of acclaimed interior designer Mario Buatta who died this week in Manhattan. Mr. Buatta had a long relationship with the Foundation and was celebrated as our Timeless Design Award recipient in 2006.
The Timeless Design Award recognizes outstanding individual achievement in American and British interior design, the stewardship of historic properties, and celebrates American and British design icons whose work is inspired by the collections of the National Trust.
Mr. Buatta was inspired by English country houses and their style as a young man during a semester abroad while he was a student at Parsons. He would go on to revive the very British style pioneered by John Fowler and Nancy Lancaster.
His name became synonymous with that style in America and he was known throughout the industry as the “Prince of Chintz”—a name he took on happily. As everyone who came into contact with him knew, he had a wonderful sense of humor. (He sometimes took his pet plastic roach, Harold, to the many parties he attended, including one at Buckingham Palace.)
To read more about his life and legacy, we urge you to get yourself a copy of his one and only book, Mario Buatta: Fifty Years of American Interior Decoration, or the “Buattapedia,” as he called it, which he wrote with Emily Evans Eerdman.
Pictured above is Mario Buatta with his Timeless Design Award in 2006.
