Alex Papachristidis Shares 'The Elegant Life'

Interior decorator Alex Papachristidis will return to East Hampton Library’s Authors Night on Saturday, August 12, with his second book, “The Elegant Life: Rooms That Welcome and Inspire.”

Elegance was also the theme of his first book, “The Age of Elegance: Interiors by Alex Papachristidis,” published in 2012, which prompted his first appearance at the library’s renowned annual book signing and literary celebration.

Papachristidis defines elegance as “cultivated, refined sensibility” and the ability to appreciate, develop and cultivate beauty.

“Someone who’s truly elegant doesn’t wear their elegance, if you know what I mean,” he said during a recent interview. “It’s just who they are. It’s not a pretense. It’s not a put on. And what I try to do is create interiors that feel relevant to where they are and who’s living them.”

He’s looking forward to his second Authors Night, and has fond memories of his first about a decade ago. “There was a great group of people there, and it’s full of atmosphere,” he recalled. “And it’s so nice to see all the other writers and authors, and lovely. I was so excited to be asked and happy to do it.”

Like Papachristidis’s first book, “The Elegant Life” features a number of his design projects displaying the diversity of his work.

“What I do is very different for different people,” he said, explaining that he is not just applying his sensibilities onto a client’s home but rather decorating in a beautiful, individual way that is reflective of the people who live in the home.

One client may love colors and patterns, while another may not want any color or any patterns, he noted. And he often asks clients not just their favorite color, but also, what’s something that makes them happy?

“It’s always a challenge and it’s interesting, and it’s why I do what I do — because it makes my job exciting and interesting that I’m melding their sensibility and creating interiors that are a combination of the two of us, and that’s what’s fun,” he said. “And making it happen and giving them these homes that they feel ownership of.”

Several of the room designs featured in “The Elegant Life” include wallpaper, some with eye-catching patterns, for clients who enjoy those, and others more subtle, with texture that is not obvious until the viewer is up close.

Papachristidis said people often underestimate the decorating value of wallpaper, but it is a wonderful thing that gives a room dimension and interest.

“Wallpaper gives you a lot of bang for your buck, and it really gives you a lot of decorating,” he said. “… It can take an ordinary room and make it feel special.”

He also encourages bringing nature inside.

“A beautiful fern, a flowering plant are sort of wonderful ways of making rooms feel cozy and inviting,” he said.

And then there are the finishing touches: “A little cashmere blanket, a beautiful vintage pillow and a wonderful antique textile … an interesting lampshade made out of thatched paper or string or a beautiful fabric. I often make lampshades out of a batik tablecloth …

“It’s all those little finishing touches that make a room special and personal.”

Unlike his first book, “The Elegant Life” includes a chapter on becoming the perfect host.

“The most important thing is to be gracious and never to be nervous and to be accepting of people’s tastes and their needs — and just to be kind and welcoming,” he advised. “And, you know, I love formality and in a lot of ways, I’m very formal, but in my personality and my approach, I’m very relaxed and very warm and very inviting. And I think that’s the most important thing to hospitality.”

As an example, he noted that though he doesn’t drink diet soda — “I don’t believe diet soda is good for you” — he keeps diet soda in his house because many people like Diet Coke.

“That’s what a host does,” he said. “They accept people’s tastes and desires. It’s not about you and only what you want, but it’s about what your guests want and making them feel comfortable in your home. I also think that it’s nice to create tablescapes that are unique and interesting and a conversation piece.”

His approach to hosting is the same as his decorating philosophy.

“It’s about comfort,” he said, and not about his own taste.

“That’s why I’m so proud of this new book,” he added, “because it shows the range of what I do. I have clients who want to live in very classic traditional interiors, and then I have clients who want to live in very modern sort of fun interiors. And so I sort of jump into my clients’ shoes and create interiors that are reflective of who they are and how they want to live, and I think that’s what modern and current.”

Papachristidis’s firm, Alex Papachristidis Interiors, is based in Manhattan, but he works all over, including many projects on the South Fork, where he also has a family home.

“I’ve been coming to the Hamptons since I’m 12 years old,” he said. “I’m 60 years old, so I’ve been coming out there for 48 years.”

With his niece and nephew and their children, he shares the Bridgehampton house where his mother, sister and brother-in-law used to live.

“I love the Hamptons, and I’m a big supporter of the Hamptons,” he said. “I’m on the board of ARF — Animal Rescue Fund of the Hamptons.”

He noted that he also supports the local businesses, having shopped at the antique stores for 35 years. He’s also participated in the Hampton Designer Showhouse, which benefits Stony Brook Southampton Hospital.

Papachristidis has a side business as well, Everyday Elegance, a retail website that offers his original tableware line.

He founded the company with Lisa McCarthy of East Hampton, who is on the board of ARF with him. “It’s how we became so close,” he noted.

They started out selling dishes from everyone from Mottahedeh to Limoges, he said. Then Moda Operandi co-founder Lauren Santo Domingo reached out to him about creating his own collection for her online store.

“I did that, and I had such a good time doing it,” Papachristidis said. “Then I decided after that collection was finished that I would do my own collection, and so now all of our things on Everyday Elegance I’ve designed and are made exclusively for our website.”

The best part of being an interior decorator is when a client calls after living in the house for a month and says, “You know what, I just can’t tell you how happy I am because I feel so good in my house,” he said.

“That is the goal,” he said. “That is everything you want. You want your clients just to be happy and fall in love with their home. Because it’s very important to have a place that makes you feel good, to wake up in a beautiful house and feel happy and at home and really love it. It’s so important.”