Quick: what do you think when you hear "interior decorator"? Someone lavishly dressed by the best Italian tailors, making dramatic gestures, unilateral decisions, and extravagant expenditures of your money on your home? Someone dictating that you must live your life in a puce and magenta bedroom, when the combination gives you heartburn? Well, meet William Hodgins, and think again.
The nationally known, Boston-based designer is a soothing surprise ... a consummate professional who seems to both reassure and challenge his very satisfied clients. Proof that his clients are satisfied lies in the fact that many return to him again and again. He's currently decorating the Midwestern home of a longtime client for whom he did a house in Cambridge when she was a student, then one in Washington, D.C., when she married.
William Hodgins personal style is low-key. He reminds you of your brother's prep-school roommate, matured but still almost boyishly youthful ... a little reticent, and conscientiously polite. His well-over-six-foot stature is not schoolboy awkward, however; he moves with a relaxed but upright grace, greeting you in gray flannel slacks, a conservative tie and white shirt, and an easy-fitting but buttoned cardigan that says Brooks Brothers rather than European tailleur.
Hodgins is a recognized figure in his Back Bay, Boston, neighborhood, strolling Newbury Street in classic tweed coat or navy blazer. He projects, above all, the manner of a gentleman, candid and diplomatic, who values principle, integrity, and taste--the substance as well as the appearance of the right thing. These qualities are evident in the way he goes about his business. He demands the best of himself and everyone who works with him.
Examples of the Hodgins' style have been seen in such publications as Architectural Digest, House & Garden, and the New York Times. They're traditional, colorful, comfortable. There was the restoration of a small historic house with fabrics from deep emerald to rich pink, dark woods, and many of the owner's best-loved antiques and mementos. There was the city apartment distinguished by tastefully articulated architectural detail (all of it added on, brand new, and Hodgins-designed), a bedroom cheered by abundant use of a sunny yellow floral fabric, and a soothing book-lined study/guest room in muted darks.
In each case, the effect was warm, personal, livable--albeit gracious and elegant. William Hodgins never seems to reach for effect for its own sake; a handsome effect is the by-product of his striving for comfort, pleasantness, and quality of living environment. You can really live in a Hodgins room.
Right now, we're going to visit with Bill Hodgins where he lives and works--the historic Boston town house that's headquarters for his business, and his home. It's a landmark building of the Victorian era, built by America's nineteenth century patent medicine queen, Lydia Pinkham. (Remember "Lydia Pinkham's Pink Pills for Pale People"?) It's been beautifully restored and utilized by Hodgins with regard for both its history and its owner's present needs.
We're greeted by a Hodgins staff member in the white and beige foyer detailed with painted "faux" stone and marble surfaces--as interesting as the real thing, but much
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