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All in a Day's Work Chris Madden reconciles style and comfort, discusses the need for personal sanctuary and still has time to explain why boar bristles have a place in her heart 
"Multitasking" doesn't quite cover it when you're talking about Chris Madden, who recently celebrated her 30th anniversary as a combination designer, author and lifestyle guru. Over the years, she has been Oprah Winfrey's on-air design consultant, had a long-running decorating show on HGTV and has contributed to numerous magazines. She is also well known for the huge home-furnishings collection - consisting of more than 1,000 different items - she designs for JCPenney. In addition, Madden has published more than a dozen books, including the 1997 best-seller "A Room of Her Own," a moving account of her efforts to design a personal meditation space after the death of her younger sister. "HomeStyle" recently caught up with Madden at her century-old stone house an hour north of New York City. In between finishing breakfast, tending to a sick puppy and directing a renovation crew, she found time to discourse on her life and work over the last three decades. HOMESTYLE: You design for Penney's, a large mainstream department store. What have you learned about Middle America in the process? CHRIS MADDEN: That we all want the same thing - a welcoming, stylish home. It doesn't matter if you live in New York or California or Iowa. Years ago, I did a collection for another big department store and I remember one of their executives telling me, "You know the kind of stuff you design for Oprah and Katie Couric? Well, think what was popular five years before that, and that's what you should design for our customers." I can't think of worse advice. I do what I love, what I'm passionate about right now. It's the only way to be successful. HS: Do you have a guiding philosophy when it comes to decorating? CM: For me, decorating is about layering. There's the stuff you've inherited, the stuff you've purchased at stores like Penney's and the stuff you've found over the years at flea markets, antique stores and garage sales. It's when you combine everything that rooms become individual and interesting. HS: You've been a designer for going on 30 years. Has your taste evolved much during your career? CM: I've always had a pretty eclectic style. I can name my top 10 furniture styles, top 20 fabrics and top 50 accessories - these haven't changed since I was a student at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York. I love and always will love classic refectory tables, rolled-arm sofas, English club chairs and Asian side tables. HS: Is there anything you really love that you have a hard time convincing other people is actually beautiful? CM: The look of a genuine antique - the distressing, the mottled or two-tone finish, the wormholes, the threadbare fabrics. Not everybody likes it. HS: Do you draw any kind of distinction between comfort and style? CM: My goal is to make the comfortable stylish and the stylish comfortable. There's no point to doing anything else. I'm not creating art. I'm creating furniture and fabrics for homes people live in. HS: Over the years, you have stressed the importance of creating what you call personal spaces within homes and apartments. Why are they necessary? CM: We need to take care of ourselves first in order to best attend to the people we love and the community at large. A personal space - whether it's the corner of a studio apartment or a separate room for prayer and meditation - feeds your soul. HS: Where does the idea come from? CM: My younger sister passed on in the early '90s, and I had no place to mourn her. So I created a space where I could do that. Then I decided to write a book about the experience. Initially, the reaction among people I knew was "Chris has gone New Age on us." Now, however, words like refuge and sanctuary turn up everywhere. HS: What is your personal space like? CM: I live in an old stone carriage house in Westchester County, and several years ago my husband and I added a new wing for a master suite. My personal space is also in there. It's a room where I have my meditation books, my oils and a small altar for family and friends who have passed on. I'm in there every day. I close the door, put on some music, get on the floor and do my yoga. HS: What kind of house did you grow up in? CM: A great rambling farmhouse on Long Island. There were 11 of us - nine kids plus my parents - so we needed a lot of room. HS: Where are you in the lineup? CM: I'm the oldest daughter. Can't you tell? Who knows what she's doing every minute of the day, or at least thinks she does? HS: Were your parents interested in design? CM: My father worked for the Mohawk Brush Company, which I don't think exists anymore. He had a great office at 610 Fifth Avenue. On vacation days, he would take me down there and his secretary would clear a desk and let me be the boss for the day. I loved it, needless to say. I learned about boar bristles, but I also learned about how much fun it is to work. HS: What's a great day for you? CM: Yoga and meditation in my personal space, a tramp in the woods with my three dogs and then breakfast during which I read the papers and listen to NPR. Follow that with a bit of business, a trek to my favorite antique mall to see what's new, a business lunch and then another round of "have-to-do" business stuff. Finally, dinner with my husband and then a great mystery novel. HS: Anything you would change if you could? CM: Nothing. I love it all - as I have for the past 30 years. |
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