“I am going to make everything around me beautiful — that will be my life.” This is by far my favorite Elsie de Wolfe quote. And, it is quite a good reflection of my own life and dedication to the interior design field. Elsie de Wolfe is known as the world’s first professional interior designer. She couldn’t sit idly by in spaces she deemed ugly. It was her calling, her duty to banish everything she distained from the dark and heavy Victorian Era she was raised in and adorn the world with white walls, mirrors, chintz, and florals. However, she was much more than an interior designer. She was an actress, an author, a socialite, a vegetarian, a yoga enthusiast, a diplomat’s wife, and a lesbian. 

 

But most importantly, she was a rebel. 

Who Was Elsie de Wolfe? 

Elsie de Wolfe was born in New York City on December 20, 1865, and died on July 12, 1950, in Versailles, France. Over her 84 years, she had many accomplishments. One of the most notable was The New Yorker declaring her the inventor of the interior design profession. Before professionalizing home interiors and creating an entirely new economic industry, Elsie was an actress and socialite. 

She abandoned the stage to play a new part in design in 1905 when she was commissioned to redesign The Colony Club. This was her first, and most famous, project. It was the first paid interior design project — ever. From there, she went on to decorate many prestigious private homes, clubs, and businesses on both the East and West coasts. By 1913, her reputation had grown so much that her studio took up an entire floor of offices on 5th Avenue. That year, she received her largest design commission from Henry Clay Frick, one of the richest men in America at the time and published her book, The House in Good Taste.

She married English diplomat Sir Charles Mendl in 1926, despite having lived openly in a lesbian relationship with Elisabeth Marbury since 1892. She casually referred to her union as a marriage of convenience, and would regularly travel to stay with Elisabeth in her New York and Paris apartments. She loved the social life of being Lady Mendl, but of course loved Bessie and interiors more. 

 

Throughout her life, she rejected the status quo, expectations, and especially the aesthetics of the Victorian Era she grew up in. She was incredibly sensitive to her surroundings and set out to make everything she touched beautiful, even if that meant having to be a rebel. 

 

A Rebel in an Ugly World…

Elsie de Wolfe called herself a “rebel in an ugly world.” From a young age, she was especially attuned to her surroundings and desired to live among beauty. There is a story that one day she returned home from school to find that her parents had redecorated the drawing room. She took one look at the new William Morris wallpaper pattern (gray palm-leaves and splotches of bright red and green on a background of dull tan), fell to the floor, and began to cry, shouting, “It’s so ugly!” 

 

It’s important to note here that William Morris and his wallpaper patterns are recognized in their own right as important figures in interior design history. However, that didn’t change Elsie’s opinion. She hated anything dark, drab, and even remotely Victorian. 

 

Elsie rejected the design (and social) standards of the day. Her rebel spirit is something I relate to. I reject the drab gray interiors, performative open-concept kitchens, and the perfectionism expected of a good housewife — all rearing their ugly heads back to outdated and repressive notions on women in the home. How we design our homes actually says a lot about the current culture. I’m happy I don’t adhere. 

A Pioneering Professional… 

I take an academic approach to interior design, looking at the history at play. Before Elsie de Wolfe, there wasn’t a path to become an interior designer because the profession simply did not exist. 

 

And that’s because, historically, the home arts and women’s skills have been undervalued and the domestic sphere largely has not been deemed legitimate or worthy of professional recognition. For centuries, things like homemaking and fiber arts have been seen as “soft” skills while the idea of “real” art was reserved for men who painted and sculpted. 

 

Elsie was a pioneering professional — and a success! She took all the skills that are so undervalued in creating a beautiful home and monetized them for the first time. Decades later, Martha Stewart would go on to take this even further into the domestic spheres of cooking and entertaining. 

The interior design field is not exclusively women, but we do make up a predominant sector of the field. Our skills have a high value, and this profession takes a lot of knowledge, expertise, and years of practice to get right. Today, the interior design industry is valued at almost 140 billion dollars, and Elsie made the first dollar that paved the way for our skills to get the attention they deserve. 

There’s beauty and power in taking ownership of your space. 

 

A Purveyor of Good Taste…

Of course, Elsie de Wolfe wrote the book on good taste. Elsie rejected the Victorian stylings of the day, moving away from dark paneling, heavy furniture, and damask textiles in favor of white walls, chinoiserie, chintz, green and white stripes, wicker, and trellis. All of these made for softer, more feminine interiors. 

Two of the design loves we share are trompe l’oeil faux finishes and mirrors, both of which add a little drama to interiors. Trompe l’oeil murals that resembled trellis and walls of mirrors worked to brighten and expand interior spaces. Eslie explained that she “ opened the doors and windows of America, and let the air and sunshine in.” 

After years shut into stuffy Victorian design, her style was a long-overdue breath of fresh air. 

 

An Advocate of Suitability… 

Many interior design principles and elements go into creating a functional and beautiful space. But, perhaps the most important is the simple principle of suitability. Elsie de Wolfe agreed, stating, “I grant you, we may never fully appreciate the full balance of proportion, but we can exert our common sense and decide whether a thing is suitable.”

 

When it comes to interiors, certain things just work while others do not. For instance, is it suitable to force a coastal design style onto an industrial loft apartment? Just ask yourself if you can even see the ocean. 

 

After all, even rebels need some boundaries on what’s suitable. 

Elsie de Wolfe’s Influence on Interior Design 

The first paid architect (still a male-dominated field) was commissioned by an Ancient Egyptian pharaoh sometime in 2600 BCE, while the first female interior designer wasn’t paid for work until just 120 years ago. If Elsie de Wolf hadn’t taken the opportunity to design The Colony Club in 1905, I am not quite sure where my profession would be. Interior design is still a very new profession in the world. And it is constantly changing. 

 

As we’ve seen, it takes a rebel to pave the way forward.