A Sparkling Diamond

Refreshing. Stimulating. Uplifting. Witty.  Native New Yorker Hester Diamond had a seri­ous art col­lec­tion, but was afraid of it being taken too seri­ously. She was deter­mined to cre­ate a design for her Upper West Side apart­ment that accom­plished show­cas­ing her impres­sive art col­lec­tion in an approach­able way.

Hester Diamond is the mother of Michael Diamond, oth­er­wise known as Mike D of the “Beastie Boys”. Little did we know, she is also an orig­i­nal, a tal­ented inte­rior designer and quite the vision­ary. Seeing the fresh approach to this inte­rior, you can see now where Mike D got his ground break­ing style.

Hester and her late hus­band Harold began col­lect­ing art in the 50s and became addicts. She con­tin­ued her art habit after becom­ing a widow and then remar­ry­ing the for­mer Dean of New York University in 1982. Their col­lec­tion grew to con­sist of Mondrians, Kandinskys, Picassos, Veroneses, Brancusis, Pontormos, and Legers. She and her now-late hus­band got to the point where they started trad­ing some of their other pos­ses­sions for iconic works of art they fell in love with. They were in fact, seri­ous about col­lect­ing their art.

After years in a career of social work, Hester decided to take a shot at inte­rior dec­o­rat­ing. Not sur­pris­ingly, with her inno­v­a­tive taste, she was a nat­ural. After retir­ing from the indus­try in the late eight­ies, she came to a place in her own home where she wanted a change. She then evolved through phases of Mid-Century Modern and Neo-Classical/Renaissance styles in the home. She felt com­pelled to be, at reg­u­lar inter­vals, refreshed and inspired. A few years ago she decided to again take on the redesign of her home and called on the assis­tance of her son’s friend Jim Walrod, a New York based inte­rior designer and art con­sul­tant. Mike D referred to Jim as his ‘fur­ni­ture pimp’ in a Rolling Stone arti­cle in the 90s and the nick­name stuck.

Walrod co-owned the mod­ern lifestyle store Form and Function in the 90s, spe­cial­iz­ing in Mid-Century Modern fur­ni­ture with Fred Schneider of the B-52’s and song writer Jack Feldman. Jim has col­lab­o­rated with design­ers and hote­liers on inno­v­a­tive inte­rior con­cepts for hotels and restau­rants such as The Standard in Los Angeles and The Park and The Thompson LES in New York. Hester hired him to help her bring her grow­ing Renaissance art col­lec­tion to life in a vibrant, mod­ern setting.

The two col­lab­o­rated and came up with a fresh, col­or­ful con­cept. The look is totally orig­i­nal. Hester’s big drive was to find a color palette that was inspir­ing and happy, and brought her art­work to the fore­front. Walrod and Diamond chose mod­ern fur­ni­ture pieces from Marcel Wanders, Tord Boontje, and Dune, set­ting them against cit­ron painted walls and a candy col­ored patch­work car­pet. The result is lively and cheer­ful, yet refined. In Hestor’s words, “It’s the most joy­ous place to live. It’s impos­si­ble to be depressed in this room.”

We’ve never seen any­thing like it, and that’s a qual­ity we love. Pushing bound­aries always results in some­thing extra­or­di­nary, and kudos to Hester for being fear­less. We have to say, she’s crafty. Enjoy these sump­tu­ous pho­tos filled with light, color and culture.

HighStreet. New York