Michael Taylor had a signature style. No one could mistake the oversized furniture, fossilized stone, logs, wicker, and lots of mirrors, usually against a backdrop of white or creams as anyone else’s style.
Taylor pioneered what would come to be called “The California Style”, something that would be widely emulated, a combination of rusticity and glamour. “When you take things out, you must increase the size of what’s left,” Taylor would famously say. Indeed, monumental scale would become one of the hallmarks of his work.
Born in Modesto California, Taylor was an early fan of the work of Syrie Maugham, another designer who favored the shade of white. He eventually opened his own shop on Sutter Street in San Francisco where he would create fantastic window displays utilizing furnishings of his own design combined with natural elements and objects, mostly from East Asia and the Mediterranean. Major commissions followed and he became one of the most published designers in the 1970’s and 1980’s until his death in 1986.
On Madison has put together a retrospective of some of the best of Michael Taylor’s work. We can’t think of many who have done it better.
All image credits can be found on our Pinterest board, Madison Modern Blog.