Find your own style

Designer and Artist Tony Duquette certainly lived his life on his own terms. The very wonderful legacy he leaves us with is the very relaxed attitude he had towards design, that truly made his approach quite sophisticated. The lesson here is obvious: surround yourself with objects that you love (regardless of their origin or price point). I know what you're thinking, and there is no right approach, just try different things, that very flexibility is what makes life interesting. Have a look at these spaces, they are so refreshing!



The interior of "Hamster House" circa 1980's (after the 1920's mobile home had been pulled out). The secretary desk is 18th century Venetian and the architecturally painted furniture on the left was originally made for Tony Duquette's dressing room at the old studio on Robertson Blvd.



Tony Duquette placed many pavilions throughout "The Empire". This one created out of an existing skeletal metal pipe structure purchased at the nearby Port Hueneme Navy surplus sales and covered with antlers from the Hearst ranch (Tony and Elizabeth were guests of the Hearst family at San Simeon for the last weekend before they gave the castle to the state). The pavilion is topped with a cast resin onion dome which had been thrown out at the back lot of MGM.



Another view of the kitchen at "Frogmore" house where Tony Duquette covered the ceiling with rag rugs from Greece.

"The Tea House" which Duquette decorated with an antique Chinese silk temple rug on the floor, Asian antiques and a pagoda chandelier of his own invention. The ceiling was upholstered between the red lacquer beams with quilted bedspread fabrics which Duquette felt resembled inlaid tiles.

Tony Duquette decorated the covered porch at "Frogmore" using antique willow chairs upholstered in his own tiger printed corduroy and antique painted Austrian peasant furniture which he purchased in Salzburg in the 1950's when he was designing "Yederman" for the first post-war production of the Salzburg Festival. Note Duquette's cast resin lighted "Ghost Snail" sculpture and the carved Indian horses to which Duquette added the carved wings on their heads.