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Frances Elkins: Signature Style For each client, Elkins created a singular look, rich in detail and extravagant with custom finishes. • In Lake Forest, Illinois, a 1932 guest room featured walls of silver leaf and a maharajah's ivory-and-silver four-poster bed. • Vivid color: Chartreuse silk velvet (for a dining room in L.A.), shell pink, coral, Veronese green, Venetian red, emerald green. • Muted tones: Parchment, ecru, eggshell, driftwood, and moss (at Pebble Beach), and mint green and white. • Blocks of hewn rock-crystal lamps, after a design by Jean-Michel Frank. • Sculpted pure white plaster tables, shell sconces, and pendant lamps by Serge Roche. • Cheap chic: Yards of inexpensive cotton muslin with custom-made trim — very couture. "F rances Elkins created some of the most polished, beautifully proportioned rooms you're ever likely to see. She was not aiming for a California look. Her work is chic, full of superb craftsmanship, worldly, understated, timeless. A century later, her work still looks fresh and appropriate." — Michael S. Smith Clockwise from top left: Mrs. Kersey Coates Reed house, Ivory Room bath, Lake Forest, IL, 1929-1932. Frances Elkins: Visionary American Designer by Scott Powell, Rizzoli, 2023 Mr. and Mrs. Edward G Robinson, master bedroom, Beverly Hills, CA, 1941-1944. Photo by Moulin Studios, courtesy David Boyd. PHOTO EMELIE DANIELSON. FRANCES ELKINS ARCHIVES, MONTEREY PENINSULA COLLEGE (Continued from page 70) 72