After seeing Mario Buatta’s Manhattan apartment, Anton Roxas commissioned the late designer to decorate his New York pied-à-terre and later his house in Manila, Philippines. “He had loved my apartment and wanted my living room,” Buatta said in his book, Mario Buatta: Fifty Years of American Interior Decoration, about the Manila residence. “He had already painted his the same pineapple yellow and copied my French screen. It was a large room and needed some cozying up.”
First published in Architectural Digest, I have admired this home for years. So I was delighted last week when Town & Country online published images I had never seen, originally from the September 2007 issue of Town & Country Philippines. Sadly, Buatta passed away last week, and the contents of Roxas’ home were apparently sold at auction. But today we will pay tribute by revisiting the Architectural Digest images along with those from Town & Country. This is such a beautiful home!
Photography by Mary E. Nichols for Architectural Digest (watermarked) and by Albert Labrador for Town & Country Philippines. Mario Buatta is my favorite decorator of all time, and he will be dearly missed. Past features from The Glam Pad are linked below… and there is a beautiful tribute that ran in the New York Times you won’t want to miss.
- FAREWELL MARIO BUATTA, THE BELOVED PRINCE OF CHINTZ
- THE MAGIC OF MARIO: THE LIFE AND LEGEND OF MARIO BUATTA
- MARIO BUATTA’S TIMELESS ALLURE
- A COUNTRY ESCAPE BY MARIO BUATTA
- A PREVIOUSLY UNPUBLISHED MARIO BUATTA APARTMENT!
- MARIO BUATTA AND PATRICIA ALTSCHUL EXUDE SOUTHERN CHARM IN CHARLESTON
- PATRICIA ALTSCHUL’S HOME IN CHARLESTON HOME + DESIGN
- SOUTHERN CHARM WITH PATRICIA ALTSCHUL
- PATRICIA ALTSCHUL’S MANHATTAN MAISONETTE: DESIGNED BY MARIO BUATTA
- MARIO BUATTA DECORATES A GLAMOROUS MANHATTAN HIGH-RISE
- PALM BEACH ENTERTAINING, MARIO BUATTA, AND A PAGODA POOL HOUSE
- MARIO BUATTA DESIGNS A 1930S JOHN STAUB HOUSE IN HOUSTON

Love the man’s dressing room — so classy!
Another great post with fabulous pictures! Thank you, Andrea! Xo
Wow! From the hand of the Master. Really Buatta-ful.
Love seeing your blog with Beautiful decorated homes! Thank you!!
So beautiful!!
Mario is timeless. I use is because his work is still relevant. Maybe a little less “stuff,” but the bones are still there.
He spoke at the Columbus, Ohio, Museum of Art in the early eighties . I just fell in love with his style.
To upholster some wicker for our sun room back then, I used one of his chintz designs. It’s still gorgeous! It makes me happy. It’s in my studio now. It’s MY room and I love it.
A Santa Fe artist, Ford Ruthling, also spoke that day. He was just as inspiring and charming.
What a gift! Both of them were fantastic.
It’s hard to accept that both are now gone. I just hope their legacy will carry on.
Janie Horn