Photography by Alise O’Brien
A trip to Madelyn Lane’s home in a distinguished 75-year-old building in the Central West End is an experience as eye-popping—and satisfying—as visiting her shop, Hewitt & Hitchcock, which features distinctive lamps and shades and offers interior design services. Who knew that choosing the right finial could be as easy as proclaiming one’s favorite truffle flavor? That the shape of the shade needn’t necessarily match the base of the lamp? Or that just about anything could actually be transformed into a lamp? At Ms. Lane’s new address, a similar exuberance for color, pattern and finishing touches is present everywhere.
Committed to living in the city, Ms. Lane left her home on Skinker when this apartment became available. “This time,” she notes with satisfaction, “I didn’t have to gut the place.” What she did do was change the lighting—of course—and choose from a palette of favorite colors for the walls and ceilings. “I made it me,” she says, and indeed, just 18 months after the move, the rooms do reflect Madelyn Lane’s past and present. All that’s left is to redo the kitchen and transform a galley-shaped balcony into what will become a New Orleans–style courtyard suspended several stories above the street.
Ms. Lane’s home is filled with things she adores—like china. “Blue-and-white [Chinese porcelain] is my passion,” she proclaims, pointing to a collection started when she was very young. The pieces border on omnipresent; they are in virtually every room. She has Delft pieces owned by her great-great grandparents. And her collections are numerous: She purchased her first painting, an oil done on board, when she was 18. It hangs here, along with all the artwork that followed, including many paintings by Edna Hibel, one of Lane’s favorite painters.
This is a home designed in layers: Patterned rugs cover wood floors; furniture pieces, covered in Brunschwig & Fils fabrics (most of her fabrics are Brunschwig), are made more comfortable with the addition of pillows covered in contrasting fabrics and trims; atop a favorite table rests an heirloom tray filled with other prized collectibles. Ms. Lane succinctly states her personal theory of design: “I don’t get rid of things. I add to them.
“All these things,” she adds, with a gesture that takes in the whole apartment, “have meaning and memory.” Which is why the contents of a linen chest—inherited napkins, tablecloths and embroidered linens—are just as interesting as what is displayed on its surface. Ms. Lane learned the art of hospitality from her mother, an accomplished hostess who once was responsible for making Adlai Stevenson feel comfortable in their house in Breeze, Ill. (“It was a very political home,” Ms. Lane says.)
Displayed atop the linen chest and on all the other tabletops and bookshelves are more of Ms. Lane’s favorite things, including small elephant statues and inkwells. She also has a series of early-1900s framed sketches, originally used to help plan the floats for the Veiled Prophet parade.
The walls of the butler’s pantry leading into the dining room are covered in a black-and-white toile. In the dining room, the wallpaper is a brilliant green moiré pattern. “I had this wallpaper for 25 years before I used it in this room,” Ms. Lane says. “It traveled with me from Canada to New Orleans to St. Louis.” A trompe-l’oeil medallion above the dining table adds another layer of color to a room already brightened by palm tree–patterned drapes. The living room, finished in pale, cool colors, is the home’s most formal space. The adjoining sitting room, in earth tones, wood and leather, is Ms. Lane’s favorite room, the space she finds most relaxing.
It isn’t surprising to discover that, as the owner of a lamp and shade store, Ms. Lane is sensitive to light, though not with the sort of bat-like sensitivity that leads to aversion. In fact, it is the apartment’s abundance of windows that drew her to it. To provide non-solar light, she added soffit lighting to the ceiling of the long, galley-style hallway that separates one half of the apartment from the other. The mechanics of this are virtually invisible; all that can be seen is a soft, subtle and flattering glow. Each room in this home is adorned with good light and great lamps—all (predictably) from Hewitt & Hitchcock.
“A lamp finishes a room,” Ms. Lane states. Her emphasis—and the evidence present in each of her rooms—makes it clear she knows of what she speaks.
