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New York City Interior Designer shines spotlight on St. Louis residential architecture

Two St. Louis homes featured in new book by Interior Designer Marshall Watson

He is a seriously talented New York City Interior Designer who's work has been featured on the cover of Architectural Digest, House Beautiful and several others, but what tends to surprise people is Marshall Watson's love of St. Louis architecture.

"They do say what is it about St. Louis and I have to repeat over and over it's the largest collection of great residential architecture in the country. It really is and the variety!"

He's a Kansas City native who has worked in every corner of the country and beyond and yet the homes in St. Louis are at the top of his list.

"I mean this is a treasure trove here I don't know if people really understand it," Watson reiterates.

We followed him around from neighborhood to neighborhood as he pointed out some of the architectural highlights.

"This portion of the house with the bump out there which is very much a tudor style bump out is actually balanced on the other side by the chimney."

Each structure had several qualities of elegance, the topic of his new book The Art of Elegance.

"It's not a hoity-toity subject, it's about warmth, comfort, light, balance, proportion and harmony," he explains.

This particular home was one of the first in St. Louis he decorated and although it isn't among the pages his work in two other St. Louis homes is.

"I slipcovered all of the furniture in beach towels which I had monogrammed,"

The book is a collection of what he's done over the last ten years.

"But also my book shows how you can have your own personal elegance from chapter to chapter in different styles. Every project that I show, I show how I started, what I thought about it, what the story was, what the architecture presented to me."

He also explains what the client's desires were. It is a beautiful hardback divided into chapters of different projects

A reminder of what an incredibly beautiful place we live in.

You can meet Marshall in person tonight at a book signing at KDR Designer Showrooms which is on Page Service Drive.

He'll be there from 5 to 7 for a reception and conversation. You can RSVP by emailing cortney@slmag.net.

You can find his book, The art of Elegance, at Barnes and Noble and on Amazon.

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