William Pahlmann
| William Pahlmann | |
|---|---|
| Born |
December 12, 1900 Pleasant Mound, Illinois |
| Died | November 6, 1987 (aged 86) Guadalajara, Mexico |
| Nationality | American |
| Occupation | Interior Designer |
| Years active | 1931-1976 |
William Carroll Pahlmann (December 12, 1900 - November 6, 1987) was a New York-based, mid-twentieth-century interior designer who popularized the eclectic style of design. The eclectic style borrowed decorative elements from different time periods and countries and often used bold color combinations, varying textures, and a mixture of antique and modern furnishings. Pahlmann employed eclectic design principles to accommodate his customers’ personal taste preferences and stressed the importance of comfort, functionality, and adaptability in his work.
William Pahlmann was born on December 12, 1900 in Pleasant Mound, Illinois. His father died when he was six, and the family relocated to San Antonio, Texas, where his mother ran a boardinghouse. At the age of ten, he began to draw freehand and showed an interest in flower-arranging at the local Baptist Church.
After completing high school, he accepted a job as a traveling salesman selling sewer pipe. While he was on the road, he completed a 48-lesson correspondence course from Arts and Decoration Magazine. He moved to New York in 1927 to study interior decoration at the New York School of Fine and Applied Arts, now the Parsons School of Design. Pahlmann helped pay his way through school as a dancer in Broadway musicals. In 1929, he was given a scholarship to study at Ecole Parsons à Paris (Parsons Paris School of Art and Design) in Paris, France.
Upon his return to the United States in 1931, Seton Henry commissioned Pahlmann to decorate his eighteenth-century home, Pen Ryn, in Bensalem, Pennsylvania. Pahlmann’s extravagant design quickly garnered attention when the project was featured in Country Life magazine. Shortly after, he decorated a Manhattan apartment for Dorothy Paley, the first wife of William S. Paley, the founder of CBS. Although the ox-yoke headboard he designed for her bed attracted some criticism, the project helped to launch Pahlmann’s career.
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