Mark Hampton's Iconic Red Living Room Was Painted by Guests at a Dinner Party

For House Beautiful’s 125th anniversary this year, we're digging into some of our favorite spaces from our archive—including, so far, decorator Sister Parish’s New York Apartment and the West Hollywood home and studio of designer extraordinaire Tony Duquette, dubbed "the house of a magician." Here, we revisit a piece about designer Mark Hampton’s Park Avenue apartment, from 1974, which was first published in our February issue that year.

In House Beautiful’s color issue in 1974, the living room of celebrated designer Mark Hampton’s Park Avenue apartment takes center stage, illustrating the maximalist-yet-timeless aesthetic for which the decorating legend was known. Today, his daughter, Alexa Hampton, continues the family legacy as the owner and president of Mark Hampton LLC—and she has plenty of insight to share about this celebrated space...including the unusual way it got its crimson hue.

“In 1971, right before I was born, my parents moved into this Park Avenue apartment,” Hampton tells House Beautiful. “The story goes that my young parents had a party, and everyone helped paint the walls red over drinks and dinner.”

The crimson living room boasts chairs upholstered in fabrics from David Hicks, who was a mentor and friend to the elder Hampton. “His love for the graphic patterns employed by David never diminished,” says Alexa. Meanwhile, her father “always had his curtains done by what is now Anthony Lawrence-Belfair Draperies,” while the wedding chest was a souvenir from Thailand, where Alexa’s mother lived for a year as a child.

While this particular space went on to be redecorated several times over the course of the next few decades, the way it appears in our February 1947 issue showcases “a room I will forever love, and one of my favorites among my father’s many gorgeous interiors,” declares Alexa Hampton.

Read the original story below:

Individual color preferences rarely change. The “why” of it is not as important as the good feelings we get from living with a particular shade, hue or tint of color. Psychologically, a color can provide an enormous range of reactions and, often, often, we couldn’t be called on to say exactly how it happens. But, this is color’s baffling power. Yellow illuminates, blue cools, brown tranquilizes—and we feel it. How we put color’s infinite variations together will always be personal. Share some of the newest points of view with us and witness the impact of color ahead.

When Decorator Mark Hampton chooses vivid red for the living room in his Park Avenue apartment, you know that here’s a man who’s undeniably bold about color. Rich red walls, fascinating in themselves, are a lush background for paintings and an international mix of furnishings comfortable for guests and family.

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