Michael Taylor (1927 – 1986) was an American interior and furniture designer. He was known for the “California Style” and made his homes showplaces of the unexpected.
Early Years
He was born in Santa Rosa, California. He was active in San Francisco. He dropped out of High School and joined the Navy. Taylor attended design schools after his discharge. He worked for other designers and department stores before entering into a partnership with designer Francis Mihailoff on Post Street in San Francisco.
Taylor received numerous honours, including the Designer of Distinction award in 1984 from the American Society of Interior Designers.
“When you take things out, you must increase the size of what’s left.”
Michael Taylor
However, he was known to that segment of the public that could afford him as a melder of traditional and contemporary in settings where huge boulders became fireplaces, and Saguaro cacti might serve as room dividers.
Education
He studied at Rudolf Schaeffer School of Interior Design, San Francisco. Taylor frequently used logs and wicker in his furniture designs for his beige-on-beige interiors, often incorporating natural stone.
After a partnership with Frances Milhailoff in San Francisco beginning in 1951, he established his practice in 1956 with initial clients, including Maryon Lewis and her father, Ralph Davies. Syrie Maugham and Frances Elkins influenced his early interiors. Some of his clients were people in show business, including Maryon Lewis, Gorham and Diana Knowles, Nan Kempner, Douglas S. Cramer, Steve Martin, Donald Bren, Martha Hyer, and Hal Wallis.
Works
Projects included Norton Simon’s and Jennifer Jones’s Malibu house, the Bernard Maybeck-designed house of John and Frances Bowes, architect John Lautner’s Malibu house, and the Arizona villa of Jimmy Wilson. Typical Taylor designs included ball-shaped pillows (derived from ancient China), and he has been credited with rediscovering the lamps and furniture of Diego Giacometti. He was frequently copied. His retail shop was on Sutter Street, San Francisco.
Selection of Works
Sources
Byars, M., & Riley, T. (2004). The design encyclopedia. Laurence King Publishing.
Saeks, D. D. (1999). San Francisco: a certain style. Chronicle.
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