Madeline Stuart Designs Furniture and Interiors for Glamorous CA Living

Creating environments that exude comfort, Madeline Stuart has put her mark on interiors and restorations from the Pacific Palisades, Malibu to New York. Her eclectic finds mixed with antiques, contemporary colorful paintings and her signature furniture come together to create a unique sense of place for her clients.

In 1998, Stuart introduced a line of furniture and lighting. As is usually the case, necessity is the mother of invention, as she based on the custom pieces on those she had designed for her private clients. The collection grows every year, as she adds to her glamorous selection of reinterpreted classic forms.

What is your favorite piece in your collection?

Isn’t that a bit like asking a mother to name her favourite child??  (Of course depending on the day, I’m sure even fair-minded moms have a secret favourite…)  So, today I’m extremely partial to our new Mitchell Bed.  It’s elegant, quietly chic and very hard to make.  Actually, that sounds like a description of so many of our pieces!

What got you interested in interior design?

My mother was a designer, and although I vowed I would never grow up to be like her…voila!  She filled our home with beautiful antiques, modern art and a gracious spirit.  It was not overly decorated, but incredibly stylish, quietly timeless and exceptionally comfortable.  Clearly these elements have been incorporated into my own design philosophy.  I’d been working as a decorative artist and fumbling about for a real career—I thought perhaps I would go into advertising or graphic design—when it dawned on me that my true calling was interior design. I always find it amusing when designers recall their childhood and talk about how they repainted and rearranged and were able to select the furniture and wallpaper for their own room.  I had no such experience!  My mother designed my bedroom and I wasn’t given a single option…I came home one day to find it papered with a Brunschwig pattern that I hated and a canopy of dotted swiss on my antique four poster bed. To this day the sight of that wallpaper makes me cringe and I loathe dotted swiss!

What is influencing your style now?

Everything I see.

What does every room need to be comfortable?

Soft, flattering, ambient light.  And a chair with an ottoman.

What color finishes are you loving now?

Lacquered walls of any color.