As an art student Summers' favorite medium was collage, and she simply translated her sensibility to a larger scale. She treats sofas, chairs, and tables as figures in space, and juxtaposes pieces to accentuate the individuality of line and contour as she plays solids against voids. But fabric comes in at the end of the design process.
Summers starts with the art.
The designer builds her rooms around a pivotal painting or sculpture, which she often helps her clients choose. Then she assembles a collection of furniture equal to the art, combing the Paris flea markets for 20th-century classics by Andre Arbus or Jean Prouv . The Cubist cello case propped up in her own dining room was found in Winnetka, Illinois. All rights reserved.