Elsie de Wolfe
The woman who invented the profession
Early 20th Century · 1905–1950 · New York, NY
Signature styles
- Anti-Victorian
- Chintz
- French Eighteenth-Century
Profile
Elsie de Wolfe took the dark, cluttered Victorian American interior and stripped it back to white walls, painted furniture, chintz, and light — a single 1905 commission for the Colony Club is often cited as the founding job of the profession in America. She wrote "The House in Good Taste" in 1913 and ran a Manhattan and Paris practice through the 1940s.
Visual language
White walls, glazed trellis, eighteenth-century French furniture, chintz, and a horror of clutter.
Wallcoverings that match this designer
Curated by Designer Wallcoverings — collections that map to Elsie's published interiors.
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