Lessons from the master: a book review of David Hicks in Colour
The very best books on interior design and decoration are the ones you find yourself turning to again and again. Sometimes it is with intent: in search of an idea, an answer or a reference. And then there are the more meandering, less focussed, Sunday afternoon flicks: worth it because you know you will discover something that a previous reading has not revealed. Such books are rare, but I think this is one of them.
A reprinted essay taken from the 1966 book David Hicks On Decoration (signed first editions of which currently sell for £400) sets the scene of this new title. In David’s own words:
“Colour means more to me than any of my other raw materials. I get infinite pleasure experimenting with it and exploiting it. Most people are afraid of colour, which I understand, but there is no reason why they should be. It is one of the most exciting, rewarding and inexpensive things and can easily create a complete transformation in any room. Too much time is wasted, too much nonsense talked, too many rules adhered to and energy put into deciding what colour will go with what other. There are few colours that do not go together if you understand how to mix them.”
And the book, arranged in chapters by colour, is filled with memorable bon mots on how to use them. And what to avoid:
“A pink dining room would be awful, but in a living room pink could be all right if combined with the right colours. A dark red bedroom would be unattractive but it is a good dining-room colour. A deep yellow bedroom would be ghastly if you were ill but it is a delightful colour for a playroom."
And isn’t that exactly what we want from a book called David Hicks in Colour? To be reassured that Faded Coral walls will indeed work with Tobacco curtains and Bronze green carpet? Or to do a deep dive into some of the incredible interiors created by Hicks throughout his career? Many of these rooms have never been seen before; others have never been published in colour. All are framed by David Hicks fabrics and carpets in corresponding colourways, to beautiful effect.
As well as Classiebawn Castle and Baronscourt in Northern Ireland, there is Kelvedon Hall in Essex, and no shortage of the smart houses inhabited by the international high society who made up David Hicks’ clientele. Some of the interiors shown are Hicks’ own homes, the most famous of which is Britwell House in Oxfordshire, but he seems to have had several other London homes over the years, including a set of chambers in Albany, off Piccadilly. It is heaven for the design and decoration voyeur.
In truth, it is so much more than that. Edited by Hicks’ son Ashely (himself a talented designer, artist and writer), this book has a sense of intimacy that only someone close to the subject could provide. For example, in the introduction to the chapter on Pink, a colour that Hicks did use and love, we learn how the decorator consciously strived for a masculine style. The reason for this is an interesting footnote in the history of 20th century interior design.
“This came partly from an urge to differentiate himself from the John Fowler prettiness that dominated English decorating when he began his career, and partly from his natural instincts, honed by military service."
Hicks’ military service surfaces elsewhere, too. As does the role that House & Garden played in inspiring him. In the chapter on Yellow, we are told:
“Yellow was the sun; yellow was excitement; yellow was gold leaf on picture frames, mustard in a glass pot, dusty pollen in a flower. Yellow was the glowing cover of his first copy of House & Garden magazine, bought while doing loathed military service in 1947and devoured in a grim seaside café, its inset picture of a glamorous drawing room in London making a window into a world he longed to enter."
It seems fitting that in 1954, House & Garden was the first magazine to publicise one of Hicks’ projects: his mother Iris's flat just off Eaton Square. ’Colour is the key used by the young interior designer,’ the article began.
A further note on yellow, as it is a particularly rich seam of anecdotes and ideas (although this one doesn’t appear in the book). Ashley’s daughter Angelica, an illustrator responsible for the endpapers of David Hicks in Colour, once recounted one of her earliest memories of her grandfather:
“...of being in a car with him in the countryside, driving through fields of daffodils. He was like: “Daffodils are horrible. They are the wrong yellow. Murder the daffodils!” I was in the front seat jumping around like, “murder the daffodils!” It was a formative moment.
In her forward to the book, Tory Burch - a lifelong fan of David Hicks - writes that: “What I love about Hicks is that he was unpretentious, even after he became a highly acclaimed decorator. He mixed high and low, old and new, opulent and spare; he preferred raw linen to expensive velvet, revived thrift store finds with a gloss of paint, and found inspiration everywhere, from modern art to a bar of soap. “
I love how this idea sits alongside another passage found later in the book, referencing the stipulations for any new working relationship with a client that David Hicks office listed in 1970. These included: first-class travel, two cartons of cigarettes and a bottle of whisky by his bed. Mr Hicks is always a VIP, Mr Hicks will have drinks but not dinner with the client. And included was his need for two hours’ sunbathing in the afternoon of any working day.” I know a few interior designers working today who will read the above slightly wistfully, thinking, ‘those were the days.’
David Hicks in Colour, edited by Ashley Hicks (£85, Cabana) has three cover options, each featuring a different iconic David Hicks fabric.
