styled by Jenny O’Conner, text by Laura Kostelny, photography by Stephen Karlisch, flowers by Hailey Woosen
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Barry Williams can make the mundane elegant. It’s a gift. Even as the noted interior designer lounges in jeans, listening to opera, and sipping Dr Pepper from a can, no less he manages to bring a refinement to it. He may as well be in a tuxedo enjoying a martini. Williams brings that sense of civility to all of his projects. “I’m very discreet,” he says. “That’s how I get billionaire clients.” His style is heavily detailed, classic, lush, layered, and rich all of which is beyond obvious the minute you set foot in his sumptuous Turtle Creek Boulevard apartment.
Williams bought it three years ago. At the time, he was living in a contemporary loft in the West Village, but he’d had his eye on 3525 Turtle Creek for some time. “In my mind, this building was kind of legendary in Dallas. I had heard about all these famous people who lived there, and I got swept away by it,” he says. Once the sale was done, he gutted the place. “It took three months, and it was a total disaster,” he laughs. “We could only work from 9 to 5, Monday through Friday. And the building is vigilant about that they really police it.” Some of the changes Williams made include adding a fireplace in the living room “It’s fake,” he laughs), adding a lush 10-step process paint finish, laying down sisal carpet, and totally changing the bathroom as much for function as form. “Everything was low. It had a 32-inch vanity. Six-foot-six and low is not a good match.”
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| Barry Williams spent three months transforming the apartment from 1950s building standard to present-day fabulous. Improvements include the faux fireplace and the lush 10-step process paint finish. Williams’ art is also practical the piece over the mantel hides the television. He often works with Kristy Stubbs when looking for art both for himself and his clients. “I am crazy about her,” he says. |
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| Barry Williams’ art collection abounds. “I love antique oils in gold presentation frames,” he says. “I love old things antiques in general.” |
Once the construction crew finally departed, it was time to bring in the furnishings and accessories. “I love old things antiques in general,” he says. Williams buys a majority of his antiques both for himself and his clients in New Orleans. He’s certainly done his part to help that city’s ailing economy “I’m there all the time,” he laughs. “We buy six major times a year.”
Williams is constantly working he says he has “an impressive stable of stars, moguls, and titans as clients.” But he tries his best to separate work life from home life. When he’s home, he likes to read many of his favorite books line the walls of the living room. The television hidden behind a painting over the fireplace rarely gets used. “One of my best qualities in both my life and work is that I’m a great editor,” he says. “Not watching television allows me to do things that other people don’t have time for. I write letters. I love going for walks I’m only a block from the Katy Trail.”
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| Barry Williams found the desk in Fort Worth recently. “I had never seen this turquoise chinoiserie and leather top before,” he says. As for the painting, “A friend called me from Asia and said, “˜I’m standing in front of an artist who can paint anything.’ So I Googled Canaletto and sent him an image,” he laughs. Williams has had the Julius Caesar bust for years. “It’s really fragile and heavy,” he says. “The movers put it there, and that’s where it stayed.” |
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| Williams’ master bedroom is a place of refuge. Antique Staffordshire figurines that Williams has collected throughout the years adorn the living room wall. |
Sometimes work and home intersect though when Williams entertains. “Cocktail parties are the way for me,” he says. Many times, his clients are the guests. “My projects take three or four years,” he says. “We talk every day, and my clients start asking me about everything what kind of perfume they should wear. And I can do that. The relationships are like marriage.” And what happens when a project is complete? “I marry for life,” he says with a wink.
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| Williams found the grand table on one of his many trips to New Orleans. “This is a piece I bought with a client in mind, but I kept it for myself,” he says. “It’s English and finished on both sides. And somebody married a new top on it at some point.” |
