William Billy Haines Ottomans and Poufs
Plenty of prolific designers started off on slightly different tracks than those on which they ended up, but rarely did they begin their careers in a totally separate industry like William “Billy” Haines did. Before he gained a reputation as a furniture designer and decorator to Hollywood’s biggest and brightest, Haines was himself a star of the silver screen.
After leaving his native Virginia as a young man, Haines earned modeling and acting jobs in New York City and then won a Goldwyn Studios talent contest in the early 1920s. The next frontier was California, where he would go on to appear in more than 50 films. His acting career was halted abruptly in 1933, allegedly because he refused to leave his partner, British footballer Jimmy Shields, at the request of his representation at MGM Studios. Whether it was the fact that Haines was one half of Hollywood’s first openly gay marriage or that there were other factors at play, MGM cofounder Louis B. Mayer canceled his contract.
Luckily for Haines, he had nurtured a side career that kept him on Hollywood’s radar: He was a prominent antiques dealer on La Brea Avenue in Los Angeles. Haines dedicated himself full-time to both dealing and designing furniture as soon as his tenure as a leading man came to an end.
Haines collaborated with the era’s biggest names in architecture and created a desert living room for the 1939 Golden Gate International Exposition in San Francisco that featured walls made of California Joshua wood and a painting by Georgia O’ Keeffe. He paid close attention to lighting design, employed hand-painted wallpaper and favored featuring Chinese ceramics alongside Chippendale chairs and ottomans for entertaining. His most famous clients included Joan Crawford, Carole Lombard, Betsy Bloomingdale and more. Crawford played a significant role in kick-starting his career when she commissioned Haines to decorate her entire home in Brentwood.
Haines was such an esteemed tastemaker that he’s among those credited with having cemented Hollywood Regency as a reputable design style. (Its origins are owed to influential interior decorator Dorothy Draper.) While he gravitated toward the look of chinoiserie and English furniture, his signature was low-level seating and giltwood accents. Haines’s interior design style was so in vogue that Nancy Reagan became one of his biggest fans and eventually enlisted Ted Graber, Haines’s successor following his death in 1973, to decorate several private and public rooms in the White House.
Find a collection of vintage William Haines lounge chairs, lighting fixtures and other furniture on 1stDibs.
Mid-20th Century American Mid-Century Modern William Billy Haines Ottomans and Poufs
Lacquer
20th Century English William Billy Haines Ottomans and Poufs
Fabric, Wood
1950s American Mid-Century Modern Vintage William Billy Haines Ottomans and Poufs
Suede, Wood
1970s American Mid-Century Modern Vintage William Billy Haines Ottomans and Poufs
Fabric, Hardwood
1970s American Hollywood Regency Vintage William Billy Haines Ottomans and Poufs
Faux Fur
1980s Mid-Century Modern Vintage William Billy Haines Ottomans and Poufs
Upholstery, Wood
2010s American William Billy Haines Ottomans and Poufs
Iron
1960s American Mid-Century Modern Vintage William Billy Haines Ottomans and Poufs
Bouclé
1950s American Mid-Century Modern Vintage William Billy Haines Ottomans and Poufs
Fabric, Walnut
Late 19th Century English Victorian Antique William Billy Haines Ottomans and Poufs
Mahogany
Late 20th Century William Billy Haines Ottomans and Poufs
Upholstery
Early 20th Century American Art Deco William Billy Haines Ottomans and Poufs
Upholstery, Walnut
1960s Mid-Century Modern Vintage William Billy Haines Ottomans and Poufs
Wood
1960s American Mid-Century Modern Vintage William Billy Haines Ottomans and Poufs
Fabric, Wood
1940s American Vintage William Billy Haines Ottomans and Poufs
Wool, Upholstery
