MARIO BUATTA’S ROMANTIC BEDROOMS

A painted and gilded canopy bed ornamented with pagodas—the design was inspired by Buatta’s own 19th-century bed—sparkles in the Manhattan penthouse of Wilbur and Hilary Geary Ross. The hand-painted green-on-white wood floor has a parquetry look. A Lee Jofa stripe hangs at the windows, and D. Porthault’s star-spangled Étoiles linens dress the bed. (November 2009)

For the lavender-walled Tribeca bedroom of singer Mariah Carey, Mario Buatta designed a corona lavishly swathed in apricot fabrics. The floral pattern used on the headboard, bed skirt, and button-tufted side chair is by Bennison, and the carpeting is from Stark. (November 2001)

The Georgian-inspired canopy bed Buatta designed for a client’s New York City pied-à-terre serves as “a separate room within a room, ” the tastemaker says. A tulip-print fabric by Scalamandré is used throughout the space, which features carpeting by Stark and a mirror from Florian Papp. Buatta striéd the walls in a warm shade of apricot. (February 1999)

In the Manhattan maisonette of Patricia Altschul—the apartment was once home to design grande dame Sister Parish and, before that, to movie star Gloria Swanson—Buatta nestled an antique Chippendale bed into a mirrored niche. With lively colors and ruffled edges, a floral chintz by Colefax and Fowler complements the bed’s fanciful lines. The bed linens are a color-coordinated combination of D. Porthault patterns, including Coeurs (pillowcase), Trèfles (flat sheet), and Pois de Senteur (roll). (February 2008)

“If you don’t have a great room, covering it in one fabric can hide a multitude of sins, ” Buatta says, describing this bedroom on Long Island’s North Shore. The space features a tropical print by Manuel Canovas that references the views of Long Island Sound. The blue-and-white color scheme is amplified by ceramics mounted on brackets and an assortment of cat-shaped cushions on the open-arm settee—a favorite Buatta design—at the foot of the bed. (November 2004)

For a snuff-color master bedroom in the Philippine capital of Manila, Buatta lined the theatrical bed’s carved-wood canopy with a shaped valance made from a flame stitch–pattern fabric by Old World Weavers. The same fabric shows up on a low chair, while textiles from Brunschwig & Fils upholster the settee and club chair. (August 2006)

A space Buatta proclaimed “a fantasy room, ” this master bedroom in the American Midwest is part of anEnglish country–style house commissioned by architects Ferguson & Shamamian. The lit à la polonaise is hung with panels of a Colefax and Fowler fabric held fast by tasseled tiebacks, and the settee is clad in a Pierre Frey checked fabric. (April 2003)

In the master bedroom of a Virginia house by architect Tommy Beach Jr., Buatta installed one of his signature hand-carved and -painted canopy beds. Pictured here, it is clad in floral and checked fabrics by Brunschwig & Fils and crowned by a gathered white valance. The leaf-trellis carpeting is by Stark, and a Cowtan & Tout textile covers the Buatta-designed settee, a piece he often places at the foot of a bed for putting on shoes. (December 2003)