Talk Shop: David Netto // David Netto Design
ABOUT DAVID
David grew up in New York surrounded by taste and people talking about it, which, for a young person, was both “a good and a bad thing”. David’s father owned the historic fabric house Cowtan & Tout, and from an early age, he became interested in architecture, furniture, cars, and the history of each.
Since dropping out of Harvard Architecture School and founding his studio in New York in 2000, David has specialized in residential decoration in no particular style. It might be said that David’s work is known for trying to bring to modernism a touch of warmth and personality, and to traditionalism young energy and a dash of the exotic. For a project to be successful, he believes in the importance of getting the architecture right, but that good decoration should also be a portrait of the person who lives there. David’s projects have been published in Vogue, Elle Decor, Architectural Digest, House Beautiful, House & Garden, Town & Country, and Veranda, as well as several books.
As a writer on the history of architecture and design, from 2010-2012 he worked as contributing design editor to the Wall Street Journal. After 2012, he did so for T, the New York Times Style Magazine, and now writes the Case Studies column for Town & Country. Recently, David authored a monograph on the work of Francois Catroux, published by Rizzoli, and is presently writing the text for the upcoming Stephen Sills book. We also are anxiously awaiting his own book! We are longtime admirers of both his design work and his writing, and are thrilled to chat with him (this could be one of our most favorite Talk Shop interviews ever…!) check it out below.
Describe your style in three words or less:
Unstudied, un-phony, #unliketherest.
What have been the three biggest influences on your aesthetic in your life:
Bryan Ferry, the movie Moonraker, going to Mexico City recently.
How did you start your company, and what is your favorite thing about what you do:
I started my company in 2000 when I got fired by the architect for whom I then worked, who was also a mentor. Sometimes you just need a little push, and that can take many forms. I had one major project, one employee, one worried mama, and a lot of support from friends and editors.
Do you have a mentor in your career, and if so, how have they helped to shape your trajectory:
Marian McEvoy kind of invented me when she was editor of Elle Décor in the late 1990’s. Having someone like that believe in you gave me confidence, and a sense of wanting to live up to it—which when in your 20s--a careless time-- can be useful, make you keep you going. I still write her sometimes just to say thank you. But the example set by my godfather--the textile designer Alan Campbell—is always with me.
What does your home say about you:
That I don’t have a signature style. I’m flexible, and responsive to architecture. And I always try to take a risk, even if it’s a little one.
Where do you find inspiration:
History! Old movies. And I don’t just mean the way they look—I mean the editing. They teach you narrative technique, how to tell a story visually. Travel is very important. Maybe the most important.
Who are your style icons:
Albert Hadley. Charlie Watts. Serge Becker.
What are your key ingredients for entertaining:
I like to tell people what to do. Don’t fuck around with a lot of pseudo-polite questions and white wine...put a nice strong house cocktail in their hand right away. Tell them where to sit, if possible by a fire, serve them beautiful food (I don’t cook). Always invite some incredibly beautiful younger person nobody knows, and some incredibly funny person everybody will know by the end of the party. I never have anybody over, though
Do you collect anything:
Rare architecture books.
Favorite Instagram accounts to follow for inspiration
@cap_estel, @racheltabb, @petersburg1913, @paulkremer, @lamaisonpierrefrey, @galeriephilippeguegan, @geraldblandinc, @beau_traps.
What design “rule” do you always follow, and which is made to be broken:
Pretend to listen and agree when they say they already have a lot of books, then go ahead and buy more. They NEVER have enough
What are you working on right now:
Trying to make something of my middle age.
Wardrobe staples:
Richard James in London is my tailor.
Favorite fabric/wallpaper:
I’m really into textured whitewashed burlap wallpaper from Elitis lately.
Best interior advice you ever received:
Put the leggy antique chair next to the sofa, and the big upholstered chair out in the middle of the room. All the lamps should be at the same height.
Best career advice you ever received:
If you made 35%, you did fine.
Types of home purchases you invest in:
Bonacina and Soane wicker instead of catalogue stuff that will fall apart.
Your greatest extravagance:
A Patek Phillippe watch I don’t wear. I just wanted to look at it on my desk.
Favorite places to shop for home:
Gerald Bland. Robert Kime. Bloom in Sag Harbor
Your interiors motto:
Ask yourself--is this what I would want, if I were doing this for me? And if it isn’t, try a little harder to explain; sell it. Do this three times. If after the third time you don’t have a yes, you’re not going to get one; then do it their way. But people want your best ideas, and sometimes the real work is not thinking them up—a good decorator never runs out of ideas--but convincing someone. Don‘t get lazy about that.
Your life motto:
If you fail your children, it doesn’t much matter what else you do.
Advice for someone looking to define their own interior style:
Don’t confuse the show business and hot-dogging of what passes for most celebrated decorating now with real, important, changing-the-culture style. There aren’t five people alive doing work at the top of the top of the game at any one time--especially now. Concentrate, figure out who they are to you--and if you hire one, let them take care of it. Don’t try to out decorate them.
Take Ten: My Favorite…
Food: Anything from William Poll in NYC, but especially shepherd’s pie. Caesar salad at Zuni in San Francisco. A croque madame on the street in Paris
Drink: Whiskey Smash at Bemelman’s Bar
Film: Mississippi Mermaid (1970)
Hotel: Claridge’s in London
City: Vienna
Bedding: Schweitzer Linen
Tea or Coffee (and how do you take it): Black tea (PG Tips), milk and sugar
Playlist: I leave that to my daughter Kate Netto but my favorite new music is by Dayglow and Frances Forever. Love Coleman Hawkins
Weekend Activity: Running into the ocean when I first wake up
Design Book: Georges Geoffroy, Shelton Mindel, How They Decorated by Gaye Tapp, Architectural Digest’s Celebrity Homes II