THE PIN–UP QUOTE: WENDY GOODMAN

Decorating doesn’t interest me in and of itself. I’m interested in houses that are incredibly personal and tell the story of that person. I was in fashion before I did this, and my approach to being a fashion editor was like a producer or director of a play. I thought, “What interests me is why people present themselves the way they do at any given moment,” because the clothing really does matter, because it’s their choice of presenting a character. To me, it’s all the same thing, from fashion to interiors — it’s telling the same story, of a person’s life, where they’ve been, where they are now, where they hope to be. I realized early that the hardest thing is to make rooms emotional and to make them speak about the people who live there. I want to get in somehow, to look in from behind the flowers…you have to keep the readers stimulated and steer clear of a deadening formula, to keep mixing it up and yet hold the point of view. When I see a big flat screen opposite a big sofa and above a fireplace it’s over. I say, “Bye!” It’s like a dead zone to me. I go into fancy houses and there are flat screens in every room, and I just go “Pooh!” It’s like automatic living. When you have people over, or when you come home, don’t you want to talk and interact?