By Madoline Markham Koonce
One of Caroline Gidiere’s earliest memories growing up in Florence, Ala., was going to a wallpaper store with her mother while her sister was in preschool. Her mom would set her down in front of a wallpaper book and ask her to pick out a pattern for her room.
No matter if they were at home or out in the world, Gidiere saw how her mom valued having a beautiful home and always knew an upholsterer or wallpaper hanger to call. “My whole life, I watched someone create their own interiors and was encouraged to do the same thing,” Gidiere says.
So, it was only fitting that when Gidiere released her new interior design book full of joyful patterns and colors on March 4th that she’d dedicate Interiors for a Life in Good Taste to the woman who raised her. “For my mother, who planted the seeds and then added the gentle rain and warm sunshine, pinching and pruning along the way,” the dedication reads.
Rewinding in time, Gidiere started her career not in design but in law. She met her husband, Stephen, in law school and practiced law in firms in downtown Birmingham for years before she stumbled into interior design. In some ways, Gidiere’s journey as a designer started when took on a personal project designing her own home in Mountain Brook with local architect James F. Carter.
From there she started receiving notes in her mailbox asking for her design work, and friends began asking for her expertise as well. Add to the design interest mix that a household with two children and two working lawyers was “an overwhelming amount of pressure,” Gidiere says. Ten years ago, Gidiere decided to step aside from her law career and focus on interior design.
Today, Gidiere has showcased her modern take on traditional interiors by designing homes not only in Birmingham but also from Dallas to Palm Beach and up the east coast from Georgia to the Carolinas to Northern Virginia, and her work has been featured in Veranda, Southern Living, House Beautiful and Flower, among other magazines.
As Gidiere’s career in design was growing, the publisher Rizzoli, a New York company that has released many interior design coffee table books, took note. The publisher met Gidiere at a design conference a few years ago and, to Gidiere’s surprise, emailed her offering her a book deal a couple of weeks later.
“It literally caught me off guard,” Gidiere says. “It was more of something I hoped to do one day.” At first she turned the publisher down, fearing she didn’t have enough design work built up yet to fill a book, but after talking to some friends, she decided to move forward with the project. As photo shoots for the book began, more of her projects finished, and in the end, she had more images than she needed to fill her 272-page book.
Today, Gidiere sees the book as not only a portfolio of her design work but as a way for a reader to feel like they have hired her for a couple of days. Alongside beautiful interiors images spreading across full pages, Gidiere sprinkles in tips on how to set up a guest bedroom and entertaining areas along with other spaces in the home. There are even two recipes for cocktail parties and tips on how to throw one and how to set up your bar, in keeping with Rizzoli’s request that she also impart wisdom on entertaining in the book.
Recently, Gidiere wrapped up a project with Carter, this time for a client and is quick to note how much she enjoys working with him. “We are both classicists,” she says. “We don’t like trends. James is an encyclopedia of knowledge about interiors and architecture, and I always learn something when I am working with him.”
Another bond she shares with Carter is their love of Colonial Williamsburg. Growing up, Gidiere’s family spent two weeks every summer there on vacation, and while she didn’t always appreciate it in her teenage years, she came to know it “like the back of my hand,” she says.
Likewise, when she started to design her own home with Carter, Gidiere knew she wanted a design that would endure and that she didn’t want to regret getting caught up in trends. What came to mind was none other than Colonial Williamsburg, and the George Wythe House on the Palace Green in particular. Carter would go on to design the Gidieres’ home after the Wythe House, adding arches to the design for his own take on the design that Gidiere thinks adds presence to the design.
Pick up a copy of Interiors for a Life in Good Taste, and you’ll not only find timeless design in photos of Gidiere’s own home in a section of the book but also that it is the guiding principal in each room she shapes. “I want to create designs and interiors that are enduring and that do not speak to a moment in time,” she says. “You can create interiors that can be refreshed over time as things wear out but don’t need to be yanked out because that moment is gone, and it seems old and outdated.”
Readers have decidedly wanted to see what’s inside the book too. Interiors for a Life in Good Taste sold out within 24 hours of its release on March 4th and is now in its second printing. Just like she carefully crafts each detail in the rooms she decorates, Gidiere took deep care thinking through the design of the book. “The edges of the book are dipped blue because I wanted it to be beautiful sitting out on a coffee table whatever direction it turns,” she says. “I wanted the book itself to be an object and not just the content in it.”
Gidiere also chose a smaller size for the book to make it more affordable for younger readers–the same audience she hopes will read her entertaining tips and start hosting parties of their own.
Flip through the book or walk in a space Gidiere has designed and one thing is very evident: Just as Gidiere’s mom’s decorating and entertaining legacy lives on in her, Gidiere’s legacy will live on in the interiors she creates and the pages that share their beauty.
To learn more about Gidiere’s work or purchase her book (that comes signed and gift wrapped!), visit carolinegidiere.com. Interiors for a Life in Good Taste is also available at other local and online retailers.
