We just love living in Palm Beach County! There are so many fascinating things to see and do, right here in our own backyard. Take the The Society of the Four Arts, for example. It holds a plethora of cultural programs and is Palm Beach’s destination for art, music, drama and literature. The campus includes 2 libraries, a gallery and gorgeous botanical and sculptural gardens.
You should try to plan on being there for most of the day because there is so much to take in, and before you head over, you may want to call ahead to set up a private tour of The King Library. That's what I did, and it was such a great experience!
The King Library designed by Maurice Fatio
The Library houses over 75,000 books, periodicals, videotapes, DVDs, CDs and Audiobooks. It has a Fine and Decorative Arts Collection with books on Decorative Arts, Interior Arts, Art History, Photography, and Architecture, so naturally, as a designer, this really appealed to me.
The library is very charming and its donated collections are quite impressive, but I must say, my favorite part of the tour was the Rare Book Room. For it is in this room where the personal library of Addison Mizner lives. The collection spans the entire back wall, several shelves high, and includes a 300-volume Architectural Library as well as books about the History of Spain, English Furniture, and Japanese Gardens, just to name a few.
As I was standing there among all of the books, what I found most interesting was that the library also contained his personal scrapbooks. It was a real treat to actually see old postcards, photographs and tear sheets that one of my favorite architects felt worthy of saving. While most designers will tell you that they keep such things as inspiration, these days, most of it is in digital form. With the advent of websites like, Pinterest, Houzz and Coolhunter (some of my personal favorites) there are so many different types of images at our fingertips. If you haven’t done so already, sign up and create your own look books! It’s fun :)