![]() Such high standards-what Rothschild calls “David’s incredible range of excellence and punctiliousness”-have made Mlinaric’s reputation. “I hadn’t done enough work that I really cared for,” he says. Cecil, he says, had tried to persuade him to coauthor a book 30 years ago, but he hadn’t felt ready. Sitting in a sunny alcove of his pied-à-terre in London’s Chelsea neighborhood, Mlinaric, a youthful near-septuagenarian (he turns 70 next March), is much more fun and forthcoming than his status as the establishment figure of English design leads one to expect. Recording the process in riveting detail, the book also covers Mlinaric’s “mending,” as he calls it, of his own country homes and includes chapters on private commissions ranging from small urban apartments to atmospheric houses in Corfu, Greece Mustique France and Ireland. In addition, Mlinaric was responsible for the masterly rejuvenation of the Royal Opera House, as well as other venerable London institutions. ![]() Prefaced with fragments of biography and full of evocative photographs, the retrospective chronicles Mlinaric’s numerous achievements, most notably a nearly 30-year collaboration with Rothschild, who commissioned more than a decade’s worth of work on Waddesdon, his palatial, French-style manor, and entrusted Mlinaric with the salvation of Spencer House, one of the few remaining aristocratic London mansions. Many of these projects are on view in the new book Mlinaric has written with Mirabel Cecil, Mlinaric on Decorating, out in October from Frances Lincoln Ltd. That realization was the first glimmer of Mlinaric’s ability to intuit the past life and future potential of a building, to-as his longtime client Lord Jacob Rothschild puts it-“read its character.” It’s an innate skill that has served him well over the course of his 50-year career, and one that has resulted in some of the most successful restorations of great English interiors. A dressing room at Nostell Priory in Yorkshire with green japanned Chippendale furniture and 18th-century Chinese wallpaper.
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