Explore The Gracie Family’s Legacy In This New Book
'The Art of Gracie' (Rizzoli) is available in September. Copy and Cover: Reprinted with permission from (c) 'The Art of Gracie, by Brian Gracie, Jennifer Gracie, Michael Gracie, and Zach Shea, Rizzoli New York.
Charles R. Gracie & Sons, launched in 1898, soon became the American decorator’s go-to source for Asian antiques and decorative arts, especially hand-painted Chinese wallpaper.
Today, CEO Mike Gracie and Creative Director Jennifer Gracie continue the six-generation firm’s evolution, which has become one of the most prestigious decorative arts brands in the industry. The Gracie family captures their ongoing romance with design and the creation of beauty in the forthcoming book, The Art of Gracie, (out in September) from which Jenn’s essay, below, is adapted. Here, she shares her personal reflection of growing up in and around the studio and taking this family firm forward.
Some of my earliest memories are of visiting our New York showroom. At that time, our New York art studio was on the twelfth floor of the D&D Building, with the showroom above. The studio was a bustling, creative place, with artists drawing design sketches, restoring antique wallpapers and screens, or inspecting each panel arriving from our China studio. I never tired of walking around the showroom, trying to learn the difference between eighteenth- and nineteenth-century porcelain, appreciating the details on a lacquer table, and losing track of time admiring the tiny brushstrokes on our wallpapers
My brother Mike and I worked at Gracie during the summers. We kept almost every design in stock then. Mark Hampton, Mario Buatta, or Keith Irvine would visit, for example, needing twenty-five panels for a dining room. Mike and I would climb up a ladder, unclip the three on display, run to get the next twenty-two, wrap them up, and off they would go. We would then collect and hang the next three panels in the sequence. We had thousands of panels—and not a single repeat. As our lead times got faster, we began doing special orders almost exclusively. I design almost all of them these days, but many are also based on styles that have been in our repertoire since the beginning.
My father often reminded me, “We don’t make anything anybody needs.” That is still true, of course, and I never forget that this is why we must make the most exquisite designs, pay the utmost attention to quality, and make it a wonderful experience to visit Gracie. I feel incredibly fortunate to make beautiful things for people who appreciate them. I feel luckier still that Mike and I run the business together, and that six years ago were joined by my son, Zach. My great-great-grandfather would be delighted, I imagine, that we are carrying on what he started in 1898. And I wish that all former Gracie generations could see what we are up to today.
Gracie Creative Director Jennifer Gracie
For a Florida bedroom, the client selected Dorchester Grey because it worked perfectly with the curtains, all designed by Johnson Sokol Interior Design. Photo: David Engelhardt
Many Gracie wallpaper designs are rooted in 18th-century Chinese aesthetics, but the peonies on this handmade gold tea-leaf paper replicate a section of an antique Japanese screen painted in the Rinpa style, which dates to the 17th century. Photo: Courtesy Gracie Studio
A color version of New World, a panoramic scene featuring floating islands and tropical trees, balances 20-foot ceilings in a Dallas living room by Simms Hayes Design. Photo: Richard Powers
In a room by Mallory Mathison Inc., Eden’s gold tea-leaf ground creates the illusion of an expansive garden. Photo: Emily Followill
The two-brush technique is a classic Chinese painting style. Photo: Courtesy Gracie Studio
The Waves pattern transforms a Charleston powder room designed by Alaina Michelle Ralph. Photo: Katie Charlotte Lybrand