“I knew from the moment I met John that he had a gift,” cosmetics titan Bobbi Brown says of the company’s design director, John Eaton. “He could take something ordinary and make it extraordinary almost effortlessly. His aesthetic is simple luxury. And he just gets it.” Eaton has been working with Brown since 2003 and wears many hats at the company”he styles brand events, product launches, and photo shoots. More recently he took on a more personal assignment when he was asked to decorate the private offices of Brown and two of her executives, Alicia Valencia and Maureen Case. Here, in Brown’s corner office, John found a thirties banker’s desk topped in brown leather. “The large conference table is made up of industrial machine parts that inspired a lot of her retail counter fittings,” Eaton says. The two chairs at the head of the table are vintage fifties Shaw Walker, and the side chairs are by Emeco. Photo: Natalie Chitwood
Valencia, the VP of sales and marketing for Bobbi Brown, “needed a calm office,” Eaton says. Hence the palette of pale-butter walls, wheat-colored sisal, and custom-designed raw-linen slipcovers for chairs surrounding the classic Saarinen marble-top table. The bookshelf is vintage French industrial metal. Photo: Natalie Chitwood
Eaton played up the graceful architectural proportions of the building’s windows with unobstructed views of the neighboring turn-of-the-century buildings. Photo: Natalie Chitwood
Eaton painted the far wall a deep metallic gray, offsetting the milk-glass interior windows that now look like a piece of art. Photo: Natalie Chitwood
Art plays a big part in the décor of Case’s office. Case, president of Bobbi Brown and Jo Malone London, wanted a mix of vintage and modern pieces. The credenza is mid-century-modern mahogany with tambour doors. It sits next to a Philippe Starck side chair and four custom armchairs upholstered in Kravet gray-velvet fabric. All the lamps are from Aero Studios. Photo: Natalie Chitwood
Case has a view toward a wall of black-and-white photographs by Horst P. Horst and Cecil Beaton that feature the Duchess of Windsor, Marlene Dietrich, and Gertrude Stein, among others. Photo: Natalie Chitwood
Each office has two distinct areas that work as a whole. Here, as you first enter Case’s office, the space feels more residential, inviting relaxed conversation. The modernist coffee table is designed by Lebanese artist Nada Debs. “It’s been fun,” Eaton says of the office project. “And while it might seem to others like I do this effortlessly, believe me: It’s work.” Photo: Natalie Chitwood
