When Farrow & Ball invited bossy color to design the DC showroom‘s window display for the 2017 “Windows by Design” project, we jumped at the chance.
You know Farrow & Ball. They’re the amazing English paint and wallpaper company that draws its colors from historical sources. Everyone loves the paint names. They’re so quirky and, well…British. To wit: Mole’s Breath, Worsted, Middleton Pink, Book Room Red, and Chalke Green:
“Windows by Design” represents the second annual partnership between Farrow & Ball and DIFFA, the Design Industry Foundation Fighting AIDS. The foundation does amazing work. Not only does it work to promote AIDS awareness worldwide, it also grants money to organizations that care for AIDS patients in myriad ways.
For “Windows by Design,” Farrow & Ball invited one interior designer for each of its 16 American showrooms to create a window display that honors DIFFA’s work while also marking the holiday season. We were honored to represent DC in this effort.
The “Windows by Design” storefronts were revealed on December 1, which is World AIDS day. It’s also Day Without Art, a day to act and to mourn the 35 million people, many of them artists, who have died in the AIDS epidemic.
We created a winter vignette that mixes classic and contemporary elements to evoke a warm, comfortable home. There’s gorgeous Farrow & Ball Ringwold wallcovering, a vintage English table, Kelly Wearstler crystal lamp by CIRCA, and a number of gilded picture frames.
The picture frames are empty, though, alluding to the people we’ve lost to AIDS. There’s a nameplate on each frame; not everyone is famous, and not everyone is an artist. That’s the point. AIDS has claimed the lives of athletes, writers, doctors, and activists — people of every nationality, ethnicity, and vocation.
Some of the people listed on our empty frames are:
Glenn Burke, a Major League Baseball player; Michel Foucault, the French philosopher, historian, and literary critic; Patrick Maguire, the cousin of Christy Maguire, bossy color’s Associate Designer; Lucille Teasdale-Corti, a Canadian pediatric surgeon working in Uganda; and Larry Pond – Co-founder of DIFFA.
Architectural Digest published photos of all of the designers’ windows, which you can see here. (Just remember that ours wasn’t quite finished by the photography deadline!)
If you’re in DC this evening, Thursday, 12/14 — especially you SOCIAL MEDIA ENTHUSIASTS — I hope you’ll stop by the “Windows by Design” reception at the Farrow & Ball showroom in Friendship Heights. It’s from 5:00 – 8:00. Every time someone posts a picture of our window on social media with the hashtag #FaBforDIFFA, Farrow & Ball will donate $1 to raise AIDS awareness. Easiest buck you’ll ever donate!
If you can’t make it to the reception, please stop by the showroom between now and the end of January to see the storefront. It looks especially cool at night, if you care to drive by ;) Then pull over to post your picture of the window with the hashtag!
We are so proud to be part of “Windows by Design.” It’s reminded us how much we have to be grateful for this holiday season.
Annie Elliott | bossy color is a design firm based in Washington, DC. After you’ve seen our “Windows by Design” storefront at Farrow & Ball, check us out in the December 2017 issue of Washingtonian Magazine.