The Art of the Mix: Inside Heidi McWilliams’s 1920s Palm Beach Home

Heidi McWilliams will never forget her first visit to TEFAF 27 years ago. “As I made my way through the thousands of tulips, I found myself marveling at art and objects that spanned centuries. There was the dealer specializing in delft, the dealer specializing in snuff bottles — you had questions, and they had answers. They loved being tutors and sharing their knowledge, and it’s still that way today,” recalls McWilliams, a New York-born collector and art advisor who spends time between Watch Hill, Rhode Island and Palm Beach, Florida, and traveling the world.

It was through the invitation of her late friend and mentor, Ingrid Hutton, that McWilliams’s eyes were opened to the world of TEFAF. A dealer of German Expressionist and Russian Avant-Garde art, Hutton worked in Midtown Manhattan’s Fuller Building, where McWilliams also ran a contemporary art gallery for decades. “Ingrid had an eye like nobody’s business. She encouraged me to look at art in depth and to visit as many museums, galleries, and art fairs as I possibly could,” says McWilliams. “My eyes were like sponges... I traveled the world looking at art.” McWilliams became one of the first women to join TEFAF’s board in 2017.

A couple years earlier, McWilliams and her husband found themselves amidst their renovation project in Palm Beach, Florida. “What began as a trip in search of a temporary tropical getaway ended with the purchase of a landmarked historic home that needed some TLC,” says McWilliams of her 1920s residence designed by Manhattan-born, Paris-trained architect Marion Sims Wyeth. Maintaining the home’s architectural integrity as much as possible, the couple, who have always preferred living in old homes, took the 6,000-square-foot property down to its studs and restored it.

McWilliams worked with her friend, interior designer Sam Ewing, who also collaborated with her on the couple’s Grosvenor Atterbury Italianate mansion in Watch Hill, Rhode Island and their former Manhattan penthouse. For the Palm Beach residence, Ewing envisioned a timeless design that celebrates the estate’s lush grounds and highlights its original interior details, while incorporating McWilliams’s dynamic collection of fine art and furnishings to enliven the historic backdrop. “The essence of the Palm Beach house is one that represents that quiet, old-world elegance with a fresh perspective,” says McWilliams, always aspiring to live in homes where entertaining — which she calls her “sport” — flows effortlessly and comfort is king. “Everybody should have a place to put a drink, and the seating area should be conducive to conversation. There’s nothing worse than walking into a room and not knowing where to sit down.” If the party gets crowded, lucky guests may even find themselves seated on 18th-century Venetian stools, purchased at TEFAF from Burzio.

No matter the seat, guests will find themselves surrounded by world-class art. The residence is the physical manifestation of McWilliams’s collecting journey, which began during the 1990’s and continued with her husband in 2007. Their passion is Abstract Expressionism. “We both love the spontaneity, gesture, and expressive freedom in the paintings and drawings we live with,” says McWilliams of canvases by Franz Kline, Lee Krasner, Adolph Gottlieb, Hans Hofmann, Robert Motherwell, and Richard Diebenkorn. Sculpture, too, is another key area for the collectors who have several works by Clement Meadmore, Barry Flanagan, Bernar Venet, and Tony Cragg, whose stacked bronze Contradiction (2012) graces the base of their sweeping limestone staircase. A favorite sculpture is Henry Moore’s Study for Head of the Queen (1952), which was sourced from Di Donna Galleries and travels with McWilliams between her homes.

As McWilliams became more entrenched in the TEFAF universe, she took increasing advantage of the potential for discovery within it. “In many respects, I feel that our life is the TEFAF life well lived. The rooms are filled with many special purchases from the fair, which all have wonderful stories and memories associated with them,” says McWilliams. “The strict vetting process at TEFAF allowed us to feel comfortable buying antiquities and has led to several other acquisitions.” In the home’s entrance, a 2nd-3rd-century AD Roman marble sarcophagus fragment depicting a lion’s head, sourced from Galerie Chenel, sits atop an 18th-century marble console. Elsewhere are objects ranging from Japanese lacquer and bronzes — often acquired via Joost van den Bergh — to Swedish ceramics by Mårten Medbo from Modernity Stockholm.

A hallmark of the house’s ever-present artisanal craftsmanship is its resplendent ceilings, which include trompe-l’œil panels and cypress beams. The 30-foot-long living room’s elaborately coffered ceiling — in shades of pale green, blue, and coral — is reflected in Anish Kapoor’s prismatic stainless-steel and resin sculpture, Random Triangle Mirror (2016), which was commissioned through Gladstone Gallery and hangs over the limestone fireplace. Additional artworks include Sean Scully’s Wall of Light, Domingo (2001) painting — which was on the cover of the catalogue for the Phillips Collection’s 2005 exhibition on the artist’s series, which traveled to the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, the Cincinnati Art Museum, and made its final stop at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 2006 – 07. Franz Kline’s Green Oblique (Study for de Medici) (1956) also graces the living room. In terms of future acquisitions, “my list is never without a wish when it comes to art,” says McWilliams, though she never quite knows what she will stumble upon. “It’s thrilling to know that there is always something to discover.” There is one guiding principle, however: “My husband and I must both agree and love whatever we acquire. I think that’s what makes our home so special — there’s a harmony to everything.”