I Hate Red, You're Fired: The Colorful Life of an Interior Designer
- Book Review,
by Bill Stubbs
From Publishers Weekly
Most decorating books give the impression that interior designers are refined, graceful individuals, the kind who sort through fabric and paint options while sipping a cup of afternoon tea. Stubbs, a high-end designer who has flown all over the world to renovate houses for the rich, appears to have no patience with such airy fantasies. In this photo-heavy memoir, he makes it clear that he has built his business on sweat and pragmatism as much as he has on taste. The secret to his success, he writes, has been the ability to say "Yes, I can do that" whenever he’s confronted with a project—no matter how impossible it seems. Stubbs begins his book by suggesting that decorating can be as exciting as joining the CIA; after reading his accounts of working in Kiev, Hawaii, Acapulco, Houston, Newport, London and the Ukraine, readers just might agree. His style is always sumptuous and ornate—almost Trump-ish in its luxury—but aside from the richness, he has no ‘signature’ look. "My goal is always to have the client say, ‘This is me!’" he explains. So working with a couple of avid boaters, Stubbs trims the walls with woven grass paper and glowing yachtsman-style mahogany. And, working with an Eastern European oilman, he creates a palatial dacha filled with red drapes, gold trimmings and handcrafted white plaster. But what really holds the book together is Stubbs down-home humor. He freely admits that his guidance counselor once told him, "Bill, with your grades, you should consider going into air-conditioning repair." This book is an amusing account of what he did instead.Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Book Description
Hailed by Architectural Digest as one of the top 100 designers and architects today, Bill Stubbs has designed penthouses, vacation retreats, and country mansions around the globe from Acapulco to Moscow. In this lively, irreverent memoir, Stubbs recounts the extraordinary, exasperating, and often hilarious adventures in his stellar career.
Illustrated with more than 150 color photographs of the spaces Stubbs has transformed, the book details the activities and thought processes that went into some of his most spectacular projects. These include the metamorphosis of an abandoned country dacha into a baronial mansion in the Ukraine, the renovation of a 100-year-old schoolhouse into stylish apartments for senior citizens in Newport, Rhode Island, and the project that inspired the book's title, a Houston penthouse designed around the color red, which caused his impulsive client to fire him over the phone. (Of course, when the client saw the finished apartment, he loved it-to the point that Stubbs had trouble convincing him to abandon the color in subsequent renovations.) This entertaining volume is a rarity, a design book that people will actually read. AUTHOR BIO: William W. Stubbs, founder and head of his own Houston-based firm, designs interior spaces, both commercial and residential, all over the world. He has been named to "The AD 100," Architectural Digest's list of the world's top designers and architects. He lives in Houston, Texas.
About the Author
William W. Stubbs, founder and head of his own Houston-based firm, designs interior spaces, both commercial and residential, all over the world. He has been named to "The AD 100," Architectural Digest's list of the world's top designers and architects. He lives in Houston, Texas.
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