Designer Apple's flavor is singularly unique

by Sandra Miller
Beacon Hill Times
When you’re the daughter of a famous interior designer, the Apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.
May Appleton “Apple” Parish Bartlett lives in a flat overlooking the Charles with her golden doodle Billy, along with collections of carved wooden animals, a half-dozen antique bird cages, wooden nods to her name -- apples and pears -- and other touches unique to her taste, a sort of Shabby Chic meets folk art.
“I don’t care what people think,” says Bartlett, who also sells “pure whimsy” at her Maine store, Apple’s, as well as her decoupage artworks. But she knows her mother would approve of her home decor, the same way she approved of her former Back Bay apartment.
“She would have loved it,” said Bartlett.
Bartlett is the daughter of Sister Parish, the legendary American interior decorator, who is known as the Martha Stewart of the Upper Class. The former Dorothy May Kinnicutt was born into a patrician New York family in 1910, and during the Depression put her design ability to work, her “American country” style inspired by the family’s Maine summer house. Her firm, Parish-Hadley, was filled with a client list that eventually included the Rockefellers, Astors, and Whitneys, and transformed Jackie Kennedy’s White House into American elegance.
With her daughter, Susan Bartlett Crater, Apple Parish Bartlett wrote a biography about her mother, “Sister: The Life of Legendary American Interior Designer Mrs. Henry Parish II.” Bartlett recently regaled attendees at a recent book night at the Beacon Hill Civic Association with tales of her mother’s flair and the drama that surrounded her.
“What seems important to me is permanence, comfort, and a look of continuity in the design and decoration of a house,” said Sister Parish. Among the things she believed in was: buy the best bed you can afford; invest in a quality sofa; and start a collection of items that you love. She fell in love with painted French furniture, and enjoyed creating a homey undecorated look.
Apple’s home is filled with collections of items she picked up at flea markets and antiques stores. Like her mother, she doesn’t believe in throwing out things to follow the latest trend every couple of years. “The influence my mother has on me, it’s subconscious,” she said. “She really just wanted people to be comfortable. Every house should be a happy one.”
Along her bedroom wall she has a dozen framed paintings, some of which she describes as “crappy,” but that’s the charm, she said. “It makes it more interesting.”
Some of her walls are lined with intricately designed and oftentimes fun wallpaper designed by her daughter, Susan Crater, who launched Sister Parish Design in New York.
Her home is a steady accumulation of loved things, some which she inherited from her mother, others that she picked up along the way at flea markets. Some items she’ll repaint or refinish, others, like the ancient coffee table, is peeling gesso paint, but she loves the look.
To some, the look may be “cluttered,” she admitted, but her home is clean. “I’ve never seen an apartment as goofy looking as this.” She then added, “I do what I do, which makes me really happy.”