The Case for the All-Red Room
Forget “unexpected red”—in these spaces, designers go all-in on crimson, from the walls to the trim and ceiling
As published in Architectural Digest, April 18, 2024
Lacquered bookshelves make a statement in an all-red library dreamed up by Bruce Bierman. Credit: Eric Piasecki
In the mid 1930s, legendary Vogue editor in chief Diana Vreeland began writing a column for Harper’s Bazaar called Why Don’t You? in which she would encourage readers to try something new, almost as an absurdly glamorous dare. Among her suggestions was the idea that readers might decorate their homes entirely in green, with a verdant mix of houseplants and glazed porcelain. But Vreeland’s personal favorite color was red, specifically “the color of a child’s cap in any Renaissance portrait.”
In 1955, she asked interior designer Billy Baldwin to create her famed New York apartment, which was completed in 1957 and later featured in the September/October 1975 issue of Architectural Digest. The living room, which Vreeland enthusiastically described as “a garden in hell,” is a master class in the art of monochromatic design. It’s not just that the room is all red: It’s that Baldwin and Vreeland combined red carpet, red upholstery, and red paint with objects that are culturally red, like playing cards and plaid throws. (Vreeland herself made the needlework pillows on the sofa.)
Decorator Miles Redd lacquered the paneling in the library of this Houston home in a fire-engine shade. Credit: Thomas Loof
From the frescoes at Villa of the Mysteries near Pompeii to the walls of the Louvre to the White House’s Red Room, red conveys a certain storied, regal grandeur like no other hue. AD spoke to designers with distinctly different aesthetic points of view about a color they all love, and asked them to make the case—and share their tips—for the all-red room.
Ashley Hicks, the color-forward British designer and son of David Hicks, recalls that his father had a “flashing red” dining room in his country house in the early 1960s. Years later, at Salone del Mobile in 2022, the younger Hicks designed a red tented room for Buccellati, festooning a dining space with a sumptuous Turkish chintamani-patterned textile and pedestals, hand-painted to resemble red porphyry. Hicks points out that there’s a strong association between red and libraries, from the walls to the books, “particularly in neoclassical and Victorian libraries,” he notes. “One of my father’s great ambitions was to get all his books rebound in red,” he adds. (Hicks reports that his father got about 30 of them done.)
A traditional dining room in all red by Adele McGann in Colchester, England. Credit: Tim Beddow
James Costos reclines on a plush sofa upholsered in Sforza fabric by Fadini Borghi in the sitting room of the Madrid home he shares with Michael S. Smith. (Smith designed the residence.) Fortuny’s Glicine in Museum Red adorns the walls. Photo: Simon Upton; Styling: Carolina Irving
Miles Redd’s AD100 firm Redd Kaihoi also appreciates the shade’s bookish appeal and once designed a deep red library, in addition to using copious amounts of it in other projects over the years. “The thing that no one ever really tells you is that red rooms, they’re nighttime rooms, they’re for the evening, they’re for fires, they’re for softly lit silk shades. And there’s something so enveloping, rich, and wonderful about being in a red room at night with a fire going. It’s just kind of magical.”
Crosby Studio’s Harry Nuriev recently tapped into the nocturnal vibe at the New York outpost of the exclusive members club Silencio, where he put a slick, contemporary spin on the all-red genre. (The otherworldly space was partly inspired by the chic weirdness of David Lynch’s design for Twin Peaks—think Sherilyn Fenn’s lip color and the iconic bright red curtain). Looking at historic nightclub architecture and design, Nuriev found red to be the most evocative hue. “For me, [red] is the color of the 1960s and Studio 54,” he tells AD PRO.
Harry Nuriev’s concept for the New York chapter of Silencio, a members’ club, taps into Twin Peaks aesthetics—sans the zigzag floor. Credit: Pauline Shapiro for Silencio
“The key to making an all-red room work is to start with a [shade] you love—there’s going to be a lot of it—and to limit the amount of pattern and chaos in the room,” advises New York City–based designer Leslie Banker. (She admires “tomato soup red glaze” and Farrow & Ball’s hue Charlotte’s Locks.) “Just let it be a calm and quiet jewel box.” Banker prefers an all-over color, with walls and trims wearing the same shade. “The ceiling should be a color that is not a stark white as that would have too much contrast.” But chic examples can be found of ceiling-inclusive all-red rooms too: Look no further than Pierce and Ward’s shockingly scarlet Nashville living room for Johnny Galecki.
Redd thinks of red as a kind of neutral. “I really like a little bit in every single room,” he tells AD PRO. The designer keeps a copy of the 1968 title Vogue’s Book of Houses, Gardens, People (with iconic photos by Horst, evocative texts by Valentine Lawford, and, naturally, a foreword by Vreeland) handy and refers to it often, noting that the library designed by Mark Hampton for Amanda and Carter Burden in the Dakota featured in its pages is a quintessential example of the genre.
Ken Fulk’s take on the Red Salon at Red Salon at Schloss Leopoldskron involved key moments of crimson in furniture and accessories. Credit: Richard Schabetsberger courtesy of Ken Fulk
Occasionally, a lucky designer will get to leave their own mark on a red design of yore. To wit: Designer Ken Fulk was recently tasked with reimagining the Red Salon at Schloss Leopoldskron, an 18th-century palace in Salzburg, Austria. (Movie fans will recognize it as the setting for The Sound of Music.) Nearly 100 years after its original design by theatrical producer Max Reinhart, the Red Salon retained little of its original look when Fulk started work on it. “Rather than simply paint the room red,” Fulk says, “we teamed up with de Gournay to create a one of kind hand-painted landscape based on a theatrical scrim found in the attic of the palace.” The mural contains red elements but isn’t overpowering. “The red tones of the mural envelop the room, and a set of 19th-century chairs covered in a mix of deep red fabrics add to the drama.” A table covered with reverse-painted glass, red trim around the door frames and dado, and a mostly red carpet anchor the room in its signature hue, but also allow other colors to provide contrast.
Be it “unexpected red,” a harmonious group of red elements, or a classic head-to-toe crimson library, a red room is a bold choice. But rest assured, it’s a path paved with centuries of style.