Exclusive: A Peek Into Aerin Lauder’s Pastel Palm Beach Getaway
In the May issue of Architectural Digest, Aerin Lauder, granddaughter of Estée, gives us a look into the Palm Beach mansion that serves as a retreat for three generations of her family—and that has never been photographed for a publication before. Here’s an exclusive sneak peek.
Aerin, who founded a lifestyle brand of the same name, recently collaborated with Williams Sonoma on a tabletop and home décor line, inspired by her love of entertaining. Here in Palm Beach, the family is often entertaining in a “glamorous yet casual” way.
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One of only two properties that sit on the water, cosmetics mogul Estée Lauder bought this 1920s home in the ’80s as a way to prevent the Breakers resort next door from encroaching on her property (that’d be the other house on the water). She had it boarded up, but Aerin’s parents, Ronald and Jo, made it into a family retreat in the ’90s.
Everything is light and airy and painted with glorious custom-mixed Donald Kaufman pastels—pink, yellow, lavender, blue. Says Aerin, “We really played with the idea of indoor and outdoor with the colors.”
While the place has its own style, there’s much of Estée in the design. Ronald and Jo faithfully recreated the retro courtyard, down to the white iron furniture, that exists at the other house, now owned by Ronald’s older brother Leonard. And then there’s the loggia. “Estée loved white houses with pillars,” says Aerin. “For her, that was the definition of success, beauty, and style.”
Upstairs, the bedrooms circle what Aerin refers to as Estée’s Palm Beach room, a solarium filled with furniture and objects from the place next door (Leonard and his wife redecorated when they moved in). “We were so sentimental about her sense of style that we decided to re-create it here.”
Though Estée might have a thing or two to say about the décor. “My mother is more minimal,” she explains. “Estée loved layers and layers. I’m sure if she saw this house right now, she would ask, ‘Where are the curtains?’ ”
Check out the full story over on Architectural Digest and in the May issue.