Designing in a Louis XVI Dining Room

Working from home- especially if you don't have a room designated specifically for work- can be tough. How and where do you hide the printer, files, the Rolodex, and all of the other necessary but not so attractive work tools? If you're a designer, it can be even more difficult what with samples, swatches, boards, and plans. I found this 1966 article, featured here, that shows how one decorator managed to convert her dining room to an office by day. It all seems a little complicated, but I guess it worked for her.

So, for all of you designers who work from home, this post is for you:

Five mornings a week, the elegant boiserie paneled dining room in the Eric Mulvany's New York apartment is transformed into a hard-working office for Mrs. Mulvany- interior designer Audré Fiber. When her secretary and assistant leave for the day, the drawing board and three folding black lacquer work tables are whisked away to the file-and-storage room which the Mulvanys created by walling off the windowless end of the 20-foot-long room. Then the Bessarabian carpet is unrolled, the chandelier unhooked from its higher working-day position, the dining table pushed back to room center. The conversion takes exactly seven minutes.











Article and images from House & Garden, July 1966.