At Home in Palm Beach with Mimi McMakin
Designer Mimi McMakin’s family is one of the oldest in Palm Beach, having settled on the island when it was still swamp and seagrass. Her great-grandfather, who came to Palm Beach in the late 1800s from Brooklyn, had a Victorian kit house built and shipped down on a barge. Duck’s Nest, named after his wife, whom he called Ducky, is the second oldest house in Palm Beach.
Steps away is a Gothic shingle-style church built in 1895. It was the only church within 50 miles, and worshipers had to make their journey by boat as no roads had yet been laid. By 1925, the congregation moved into larger quarters, now known as Bethesda-by-the-Sea, and the former church was absorbed into Mimi’s family lakeside compound. She grew up next door to the church, “terrified” by its gloomy facade, yet ironically in 1974, she decided to make it her home.
From the outside, the former church looks much as it did over 125 years ago, however, inside Mimi has fashioned a personal scrapbook of a home filled with oddities, souvenirs, and heirlooms left over from generations of free spirits.
Mimi’s daughter, designer Celerie Kemble, describes her childhood home and the inspiration it provided in shaping her career in her most recently released book, Island Whimsy. “Nothing was palatial or pristine or gilded the way the great houses of Palm Beach are, but it was – and is – a monument to romantic chaos that I have come to think of as the embodiment of home,” she said.
In a recent interview published in House Beautiful, Celerie asks her mother, “I’m wondering, when you think of our home, if you could describe what carries through it consistently, what is its spirit no matter what room you’re in?”
Mimi responds, “Time stands still in this house. So sometimes when I’m lying in bed, I’m not sure if the memory I have is of Zinnia, your daughter, running across the porch, or if it’s you or Phoebe. And for me, that is so lovely, because then we never age. If we have the ability to keep our memories ongoing, then we never lose a part of our life that we cherish.”
Such lovely sentiment and a tribute to the true comforts of home.
Photography by Jessica Glynn
You can read more about Mimi McMakin’s delightful home in Palm Beach Chic by Jennifer Ash Rudick. Celerie Kemble shares how the home guided her design philosophy in her books Island Whimsy, and To Your Taste: Creating Modern Rooms with a Traditional Twist. It was also highlighted in House Beautiful last month alongside archived images featured by the publication in 1989.
You can read more about Celerie and Mimi via the following articles by The Glam Pad:
- CELERIE KEMBLE’S ISLAND WHIMSY
- NEW DESIGNS AT THE COLONY HOTEL PALM BEACH
- ENTERTAINING AND STYLE: A Q&A WITH CELERIE KEMBLE
- A BOTANICALLY BEAUTIFUL HOME BY CELERIE KEMBLE
- A TRANQUIL PALM BEACH GETAWAY BY MIMI MCMAKIN
- KEMBLE INTERIORS REVIVES A 1940S PALM BEACH RETREAT
- A PALM BEACH HOME DECORATED BY KEMBLE INTERIORS IS ON THE MARKET
- A WHIMSICAL PALM BEACH HOME BY KEMBLE INTERIORS
- PALM BEACH CHIC CIRCA 1990S
- A SECRET ISLAND GETAWAY: THE GASPARILLA INN, BOCA GRANDE, FLORIDA – A TOUR WITH MIMI MCMAKIN OF KEMBLE INTERIORS, INC.
- MIMI MCMAKIN DECORATES A PALM BEACH MAISONETTE
- MIMI MCMAKIN: A PALM BEACH ICON
I hope everyone had a lovely Mother’s Day weekend! 🙂
Meet Frederic: A Chic New Magazine for Design Lovers
So often I hear from fellow interior design enthusiasts who are disenchanted with the content of shelter magazines these days, so it is very exciting when a new one comes along that grabs your attention! Meet Frederic, formerly known as The Schumacher Bulletin, led by Editor-in-Chief Dara Caponigro. Delivered to your door three times a year, Frederic is a glossy lifestyle magazine filled with a range of topics that comprise the well-lived life—interior and garden design, architecture, entertaining, art, color trends, gift guides and more.
Frederic is named after the visionary Frederic Schumacher, who founded F. Schumacher & Co in 1889. He had the uncanny ability to predict what was coming next in the world of interior design. “That nimbleness plus his insatiable passion for what he did are the same qualities we aspire to reflect in every issue of this magazine, so choosing Frederic as our new name was only natural,” said Caponigro. And a note to designers – Projects don’t need to have Schumacher products in them to be considered!
The inaugural issue features the newly decorated Mayflower Inn by Celerie Kemble, the romantic South African home of Serena Crawford, Dara Caponigro‘s 1920s Georgian in the Bronx, the homes of David Netto, a twist on tradition by Barrie Benson, an interview with Brigette Romanek, and more. Let’s take a sneak peek inside…
To subscribe to Frederic, please click here… Readers of The Glam Pad will automatically receive 10% at checkout! You can also use code “THEGLAMPAD”.
For ongoing inspiration, please follow Frederic on Instagram @fredericmagazine. And click here for a delightful interview with Jena & Hoda that highlights Grandmillennial style and mentions Frederic! Last but not least – You will also enjoy Schumacher’s blog, The Edit.
10 Tips for Creating Your Dream Garden by Bettie Bearden Pardee
Today The Glam Pad is delighted to welcome back a favorite guest, Bettie Bearden Pardee, founder of Private Newport and author of Living Newport: Houses, People, Style and Private Newport: At Home and in the Garden. Bettie has created one of the prettiest private gardens in the United States at her home in Newport, Rhode Island, which in turn inspired her to create the iconic Parterre Bench, a bespoke piece of furniture made to exacting standards by a fourth generation Newport craftsman.
Today, Bettie is taking us on a tour of her garden in spring bloom and sharing her inspiration behind the creation of the Parterre Bench. She is also sharing 10 fabulous tips for creating your very own dream garden. Welcome, Bettie!
NEWPORT IN FLOWER, HOME TO THE PARTERRE BENCH
By Bettie Bearden Pardee
One of the great truths to be revealed these past twelve months is the importance of the outdoors, especially the repose and solace to be enjoyed in a garden. As spring and summer start to unfold in Newport, my spirits are lifted as I anticipate the many beautiful settings that are part of the gardens here at Parterre, soon to be billowing with new blooms.
From the front courtyard urns…
to the roses climbing the side garden arch…
to the now famous four matched cherries fronting the Orangerie…
each venue reminds me that all beautiful gardens have something in common with the Parterre Bench.
Firstly, a garden and the Parterre Bench each have a story to tell. There is an origin to their beginnings. For us, it was building a new home to include gardens. My interpretation of a fanciful “Alice in Wonderland” bench that I chanced upon in an Irish garden would ultimately become the centerpiece of our Newport green paradise.
Secondly, the design of memorable gardens and the Parterre Bench are both nurtured by vision. This image that I had treasured for so long taught me the importance of manifesting my dream, no matter how long that may be (35 years!). I was determined beyond a doubt to have a garden bench that was unlike any other that I had, or to this day, have seen.
Thirdly, any project or undertaking, be it a new home, a garden, or a piece of furniture deserves and requires a commitment to quality. The meticulous details of designing the Parterre Bench were given the same level of workmanship as my husband and I put into our new home.
This bespoke piece of furniture is handcrafted to order, one bench at a time, to exacting design standards and specifications. And, we’re proud to say, made in the USA, in Newport, Rhode Island (not “off shore”). The material…Honduran mahogany; the size…a generous 62″w. x 63″ h.; the stability…2 1/2″ thick and 110 lbs; the intricacy…“capturing the grace of a flower and the flourish of a leaf.”
It has been thrilling to be part of the many celebratory occasions for which clients have chosen the Parterre Bench…to recognize a marital engagement, to accentuate the maze in a new landscape, to honor an anniversary, to decorate a wedding reception, to commemorate a house warming. Certainly, many are the opportunities to entertain at Parterre, all times of the day…and night. After all, isn’t life to be celebrated?
Especially when it is your 95th birthday!
The many personalities of the Parterre Bench are to be enjoyed not just here in Newport but in other venues around the world, many representing different garden styles.
Please do visit us at PrivateNewport.com/ParterreBench to learn more about, and to purchase, this iconic garden centerpiece.
BETTIE’S 10 TIPS FOR DESIGNING YOUR DREAM GARDEN
1) Develop your eye…visit gardens; peruse books, catalogs, and garden magazines; scroll through Instagram and Pinterest
2) Create a Mood Board of your “likes” (or albums/boards on social media)
3) Look to the experts…many nurseries have consulting and design services/on-line catalogs illustrate garden groupings and offer the plants for sale
4) Manage your expectations…ask other garden owners, trades people for thoughts about budget
5) Don’t forget about maintenance…in time, money and availability of services
6) Consider the relevance of a garden’s entire design…style, hard or soft features, furniture, ornaments, containers, as well as plantings
7) The “bones” of a garden (form, shape, scale) are more important than ie.color (flowers are fleeting).
8) Everything doesn’t have to be done at one time… there’s merit in installing a garden in stages (and easier on the budget)
9) Be Brave! Take that initial step (noted interior designer Bunny Williams’ first garden was ordered out of a catalog)
10) Finally, “If you don’t have a place to sit, you won’t go into the garden.”
Thank you Bettie for allowing us to tour your exquisite garden, and for your tips and inspiration on how we can all create our very own dream garden! What a delightful way to start the week. 🙂
To learn more about Bettie, please visit her website and blog and follow @privatenewport on Instagram. You might also enjoy the following articles from The Glam Pad…
- IN THE GARDEN WITH BETTIE BEARDEN PARDEE
- AT HOME AND IN THE GARDEN WITH BETTIE BEARDEN PARDEE
- BETTIE BEARDEN PARDEE’S 13 TIPS FOR THE GRACIOUS HOST AND PERFECT HOUSEGUEST
- NEWPORT, RHODE ISLAND: BEHIND THE SCENES WITH BETTIE BEARDEN PARDEE
- EDITH WHARTON’S NEWPORT SUMMER HOME
ABOUT BETTIE
Author, lecturer, garden connoisseur, former magazine editor and television host/producer, Bettie Bearden Pardee calls Newport, Rhode Island home, the inspiration for her most recent books on lifestyle and design, and her website, Private Newport. She’s also the designer of the Parterre Bench, designed for and named after her home on Bellevue Avenue.
Before starting Private Newport and writing two acclaimed books on her adopted home town – Living Newport: Houses, People, Style and Private Newport: At Home and in the Garden – Bettie led an 11 year career at Bon Appétit as a contributing editor producing “Entertaining with Style.” At the same time, she became the host and creative producer of a 13 part PBS series titled, “The Presidential Palate: Entertaining at the White House.” A design graduate of UCLA, she has received the Burlington Award for interior design. Bettie lectures extensively in the garden club and design world around the country. Bettie’s popular lectures on lifestyle topics include, “Entertaining, Newport Style….when Grace Kelly was a Guest;” “Wit and Whimsy in the Garden;” and the recent, “Newport, A Fabled Destination,” premiered at Rosecliff as part of the Preservation Society of Newport County’s Summer Lecture Series, “Great Escapes.” She is a past president of the Newport Garden Club.
Inviting Interiors by Melanie Turner
Inspired by fashion and borrowing a palette from nature, Melanie Turner‘s interiors possess a timeless quality that celebrates architectural details and classic design. In her first book, Inviting Interiors: A Fresh Take on Beautiful Rooms, released this spring and published by Rizzoli, she shares her secrets for creating sophisticated, glamorous, and functional rooms. Balance, scale, light, and subtle coloration all factor into her designs, creating a timeless effect.
Divided by look, the book features multiple homes illustrating each style. “Calm” showcases cool, white interiors, accented by natural textures like wicker and bone. “Clarity” celebrates graphic, contrasting rooms filled with black and white. “Collected” revels in richer colors, accessorized with lush velvet, rich patterns, and metallic accents. “Color” celebrates the power of a palette-driven interior, from spring green, to pale pink, to midnight blue. “Cool” is driven by a funky 1970s vibe, with macramé chairs and Moroccan accents.
Melanie is an advocate for not only surrounding yourself with beauty, but also living beautifully. Art and collections are signatures of her edited designs. Her passion for designing beautiful interiors changes the way people live.
“Today’s modern lifestyles demand so much of our energy and creativity, and homes have to go above and beyond simple function to truly nurture us. I believe in the promise of beauty to greet us, comfort us, and envelop us at the ned of a long day,” Melanie says in her introduction.
Inviting Interiors: A Fresh Take on Beautiful Rooms is available for purchase via Amazon. To see more of Melanie’s work, as featured by The Glam Pad, please enjoy the following articles:
- THE PINK CASTLE OF ATLANTA
- A HISTORIC ATLANTA HOME GETS A PLAYFUL RENOVATION
- A DREAMY MASTER BEDROOM, BY MELANIE TURNER
To learn more about our favorite newly released books for spring 2021, please see below…
Celerie Kemble’s Island Whimsy
Celerie Kemble and her mother, Mimi McMakin, founder of Kemble Interiors, are two of my favorite designers, and when Celerie’s latest book, Island Whimsy: Designing a Paradise by the Sea, was released this month, I devoured every single page! Island Whimsy recounts her deeply personal and creative journey of designing Playa Grande Beach Club and bringing this labor of love to life. Today we will peek inside this spellbinding book which provides a glimpse into Celerie’s enchanted world…
When Celerie Kemble and her husband traveled to the Dominican Republic in the summer of 2004, she fell head over heels when they stepped onto the sand of Playa Grande… which happened to be for sale. The couple had dreamed of building a group of vacation homes with friends and families, somewhere beautiful and wild, but not too remote. A place where they could build a cluster of houses centered around a shared clubhouse, which would perhaps turn into a boutique when the homes weren’t in use. What had been a recreational fantasy soon became reality.
“I couldn’t help imagining my own children frolicking in the waves, my family and friends gathered around a bonfire, counting constellations and mosquito bites, walking up the beach at the end of the night to a home we could return to year after year,” said Celerie.
Over the course of a decade, Celerie designed and constructed Playa Grande. It became a home away from home, an island retreat encompassing a little group of houses gathered around a lawn, a pool overlooking the ocean, and a garden full of tropical flowers – all surrounded by the beauty of the jungle.
The chapters of Island Whimsy are organized around the different ways Celerie sought to weave her family’s story into the larger landscape of Playa Grande and to provide inspiration, joy, and respite to all who come. Throughout this lovingly crafted book, ideas abound for anyone decorating a house at the beach or fantasizing about spending time in one. Celerie shares inspiration for creating a sense of openness to the sea, sand, and sky; offering places to wash sandy feet or perfect viewing spots for a sunset-saturated drink; and infusing spaces with invitation, welcome, and magic.
Celerie grew up on the enchanted island of Palm Beach in the 1970s. Her great-great-grandparents were some of the first settlers back in the late 1800s when it was still swamp and sawgrass. Her childhood home was a wood-shingled Gothic former church decorated by her mother, the legendary designer Mimi McMakin, founder of Kemble Interiors. Decked in chintz, wicker, and Porthault linens, Celerie’s childhood home was elegant yet casual… the silver was never polished, but there was a many-generations-deep collection of it.
The home was surrounded by the lake on one on one side and the jungle on the other, and Celerie’s days were spent in a damp, sandy bathing suit and Coppertone sunscreen. At night, she fell asleep to the sound of bamboo creaking outside her windows and frogs singing in the trees.
“Nothing was palatial or pristine or gilded the way the great houses of Palm Beach are, but it was – and is – a monument to romantic chaos that I have come to think of as the embodiment of home,” she said. “When I began to imagine building homes at Playa Grande, I envisioned a similar kind of enchantment: a wild, romantic place that was also modest in scale and appropriate to the location.”
Celerie says, “A home exists first and foremost to make its inhabitants feel safe and comfortable – to tell stories about the things they love and the times they’ve shared, and to help inspire them to do new things. But the best houses also tell a story about the place itself, the landscape, and the larger culture within which its inhabitants live.”
Island Whimsy: Designing a Paradise by the Sea is available through Amazon. You can read more about the Playa Grande Beach Club and made reservations here.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Celerie Kemble is a partner in Kemble Interiors, Inc., a decorating firm founded in 1982. Celerie has been featured in Architectural Digest (including as an AD100 Designer), Elle Décor (where she is a perennial member of the A-List), House Beautiful, Vogue, Harper’s Bazaar, The Wall Street Journal, Town & Country, Veranda, and more. Her previous design books include Black and White (and a Bit in Between): Timeless Interiors, Dramatic Accents, and Stylish Collections and Celerie Kemble: To Your Taste: Creating Modern Rooms with a Traditional Twist. She lives between Palm Beach and New York with her three children.
You can read more about Celerie and her mother, Mimi McMakin via the following articles by The Glam Pad:
- NEW DESIGNS AT THE COLONY HOTEL PALM BEACH
- ENTERTAINING AND STYLE: A Q&A WITH CELERIE KEMBLE
- A BOTANICALLY BEAUTIFUL HOME BY CELERIE KEMBLE
- A TRANQUIL PALM BEACH GETAWAY BY MIMI MCMAKIN
- KEMBLE INTERIORS REVIVES A 1940S PALM BEACH RETREAT
- A PALM BEACH HOME DECORATED BY KEMBLE INTERIORS IS ON THE MARKET
- A WHIMSICAL PALM BEACH HOME BY KEMBLE INTERIORS
- PALM BEACH CHIC CIRCA 1990S
- A SECRET ISLAND GETAWAY: THE GASPARILLA INN, BOCA GRANDE, FLORIDA – A TOUR WITH MIMI MCMAKIN OF KEMBLE INTERIORS, INC.
- MIMI MCMAKIN DECORATES A PALM BEACH MAISONETTE
- MIMI MCMAKIN: A PALM BEACH ICON
And stay tuned as we will soon tour the newly renovated Gasparilla Inn, designed by Kemble Interiors!
