1. Antique or modern?
I’m best known for interpreting my clients’ taste. That can range from very accurate historical interiors to modern, classic clean lines.
2. City or country?
Again that depends on my clients and their location. From historic homes in Albemarle County to very modern urban ones in Florida and Las Vegas.
3. Which colors do you use most?
Warm neutrals and softer natural earth tones—yellow ochre, terra cotta, sage greens, and soft seaglass blues.
4. Which materials or textures do you frequently use?
Washed linens, raw silks, cotton blends, chenilles, and bouclés.
5. What is your favorite interior design-related word?
Listen.
6. Does your home look like the one you grew up in?
At the moment it does. I’m renovating a 1960s ranch-style house.
7. Does a room need a view?
It’s wonderful to have a beautiful vista, but oftentimes the room must carry itself and look inward.
8. Favorite designer or architect?
Michael Smith.
9. Which design blog, website, TV show, or magazine do you peruse religiously?
The British magazine World of Interiors.
10. Design-wise, what should a homeowner never scrimp on?
Quality.
11. Design rule you like to break?
Red dining rooms!
12. What is your favorite room in the house?
Dining room.
13. What is your most treasured possession?
A small watercolor sketch by my mother of my little house at Montebello in Nelson County.
14. What do you wish you could do without?
Antique sterling silver—somebody has to polish it!
15. What are you afraid to DIY?
Hanging wallpaper.
16. Have you ever had a change of heart about an object or a style?
Yes, but luckily it was before the project was fully underway.
17. If you could live in one historical figure’s house, whose would it be?
Jefferson’s Poplar Forest.
18. On what movie set would you like to live?
Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day, in Amy Adams’ incredible art deco apartment.
19. If you were reborn as a piece of furniture or an object, what would it be?
An 18th century Meissen figurine, in pristine condition of course.
20. What is your first design memory?
A beautiful linen print with pheasants and flowers that my mother used on a wing chair in our living room.
Want to know more? Visit williamacobb.com or call 971-9445 to get in touch.