Dwell Publisher Michela O'Connor Abrams

By Sara James Mnookin
June 18, 2010

On the eve of the third annual Dwell on Design conference in Los Angeles (June 25-27), Dwell's publisher Michela O'Connor Abrams chatted with The Inside Source about how she styles her own Mill Valley, CA, home and which eBay items she'd love to own. This year for Dwell on Design, sustainable living site ecofabulous is decorating a PreFab home crafted from recycled goods, and the house will be auctioned off on eBay during the event. Check back here in coming weeks for more dispatches from the conference, including an interview with ecofabulous founder Zem Joaquin.

The Inside Source: As the publisher of Dwell, you must have a pretty sweet pad.

Michela O'Connor Abrams: I live in Mill Valley [CA], and I have what is a Dwell-in-progress home. We’ve lived here for 16 years, and I’ve been with Dwell for eight. We are slowly but surely turning it modern. It sits on some acreage, and the work we've done has been to break down walls or add windows, so we’re bringing the outside in. My husband [Alan Abrams, president and founder of Alan's Wine Cellar] is in the wine business, and we’re both foodies, so it’s always an open door.

TIS: Tell us about some of your favorite pieces in your home.

MCA: One of them would be a 12th century buffet breakfront from France that we inherited from my grandmother. The reason I love it so much, besides it’s incredibly beautiful: it sits on a huge open wall with a single piece of art above it. The combination of modern and antique creates a beautiful scenario in a large open room. We use it to set up wines for tastings.

We also have lots of modern sculpture from Zimbabwe. We’ve been collecting for 20 years, so we have that in different places around the house on pedestals. Part of a hallway is an atrium to the backyard, and we have a piece there. I love those. I never get tired of looking at them. We've gotten most from a local dealer here, Spirits in Stone.

TIS: What interior design movements or decorators do you admire?

MCA: Probably I would say the person I admire most in the design world right now is Yves Behar because of his amazing breadth and depth. And architecturally, our founder’s husband, Christopher Deam. He is an architect and a product designer, and modernized the airstream.

TIS: How would you describe your own design philosophy?

MOA: Truly, because of living and breathing Dwell 24/7 for the last eight years, it’s one of increased simplicity and elegance at the same time. If I were to try and put a description on the style, it’s casual elegance. I love the formality of some of the dinners I do, especially during the holidays. I love to bring out the sterling and the china, but it's not about big heavy tablecloths. It’s about using the china and silver we’ve inherited or got as wedding presents—plain, simple bone china—on a long glass table with lots of candles. We’ve made the whole house very informal, but it can be formalized. It's still simple, though. I don’t love knickknacks. I love nice pieces of furniture and original art, which we’ve collected over the years. And our sculpture.

TIS: Do you ever shop eBay?

MOA: I have to admit, I’ve only been doing that for two years. I bought a table on eBay, a little end table that I really admired. It’s Danish modern. It looks more like Dux furniture. It doesn’t say who it’s by. I've bought Reidl crystal, more than a few things. I got a rug on eBay, it said lightly worn—it's an Angela Adams rug—and it looked like it had never been used. As a gift, somebody bought me a baccarat vase that I was admiring. I have dozens of rose bushes, so that vase is a fixture on my table, and I replenish it every few days with new roses.

TIS: What are you hunting on eBay right now?

MOA: I’m looking for new dining room chairs. I don’t have anything in particular in mind. I’ve been on the site quite a bit in the last few weeks. There's a leather Bellini chair, simple, tall, with a high back. I'm thinking of adding more Danish modern and so am looking for those possibilities. I'm also looking for a new bedroom set for my daughter, who’s just turned 12 and thinks her room looks too little girly. Her theme is 40s Hollywood. The art is all Marilyn and Audrey, black and white photographs that are framed.