Picking up where we left off at Rough Point, we climbed the stairs to the second floor and began in Doris Duke’s bedroom. What a combination of color: vibrant purple curtains set against intensely yellow walls. I’m not much of a purple person myself, but I loved how she carried the shade through, repeating it in the brocade upholstery on her exquisite Louis XV furniture.
Above, her collection of Limoges and other petite boxes gathers on a beautiful table, its surface painted with flowering branches and sweet little birds. Seeing them displayed together, I’m inspired to unpack my own collection and set it out again, just as Doris did. I only wish I had a table half as spectacular as hers to show them off!
Here is her beautiful mother~of~pearl side table. If you’re also a fan of mother~of~pearl furnishings click on Luxury Handicraft to see the Scroll Vine dresser in dove gray that I ordered for my room in France {and I love it} and many more of their creations.
Speaking of scrolling vines, I adore this trellis wallpaper with its climbing vines and leaves. Paired with the floral sconces and chandelier, it turns the room into an indoor garden.
What a view to bathe by! Doris’s tub looks straight out over the Atlantic, and hanging above it is an antique barometer. I suppose when your bath comes with an ocean view, it’s handy to know whether a storm is rolling in before you settle in for a long soak.
The second floor has been reimagined to show off pieces from her closets, and I mean that almost literally, since she left behind a collection of over two thousand items.
She dressed the way she seemed to do everything else, entirely for herself, decades before it was fashionable to say so out loud.
Doris loved the sea, as her views from Rough Point and her Hawaiian home, Shangri La, make clear. Her collection of swimwear and cover-ups reflects that salty passion.
In 1968, Doris founded the Newport Restoration Foundation to rescue the city’s colonial houses from demolition, and it has since saved more than 80 of them. The second floor tells the story of these homes in a wonderfully interactive way. Here we see the “Colors of Historic Newport.”
Here, the exhibit tells the story of mahogany, a wood so prized for fine furniture and interiors that demand for it led to dangerous depletion of the forests. It doesn’t shy away from the uglier truths, either: the wealth behind these beautiful pieces depended on enslaved people who harvested the wood and helped build the furniture. Newport merchants traded the city’s rum both for mahogany and for enslaved people.
Finally, we head back downstairs to the solarium. With its spectacular views, this room is most famous for once sheltering Doris’s two pet camels, Princess and Baby, during a hurricane. There’s even a crack in this mirror, said to be from one of the camels bumping into it while they waited out the storm. When the weather was clear, the camels roamed the property freely.
Newport is full of grand houses, and I toured many wonderful ones as Captain Splendid sailed away, but Rough Point was the highlight for me.
Perhaps it’s because it still feels like a home rather than a monument, filled with the things Doris loved: her favorite furniture, her art, her clothes, her view of the sea, and even reminders of her camels. She lived exactly as she pleased, and walking through her rooms, you can’t help but feel a little inspired to do the same.
Stay tuned for a scrapbook of highlights from the other Newport houses we visited!
