Jane Pauley Explains Her Self-Diagnosed Decoraphobia and Why She Can't Move a Candlestick

"Eventually we found a designer, Alan Tanksley, who introduced us to celadon. Now I have a palette that is calming and beautiful, and for 22 years Garry and I have lived happily in the same palette, as long as I don't move the candlestick. Alan married our tastes successfully."

"My inspiration was Mary Richards's apartment on The Mary Tyler Moore Show. I furnished it with a desk from the unfinished furniture store, which I finished myself, and a sofa bed I reupholstered myself with fabric I bought. My prized possession was a Sony Triniton color TV. The television station happened to be in the Merchandise Mart, so I was able to buy a burled wood highboy."

"Why no! I keep them under the bed. I don't sign them because when I'm gone and my children are wondering, "What do we do with mom's paintings?" having my signature on them would make them a harder toss."

"At a charity auction, my mother-in-law bought a sitting with Andy Warhol. She gave it to Garry, who went down to The Factory and sat for the Polaroids in 1974. Periodically, Garry would call about the pictures but heard nothing, nothing, nothing ... until the next year when Garry won a Pulitzer Prize. This was unique for a cartoonist, so his work ended up on the cover of Time magazine. Suddenly, the phone rings: The painting is read"

A designer introduced a celadon palette that created a calming, beautiful home environment. A first major broadcasting role in Chicago came at age 24, and the home was inspired by Mary Richards’s apartment, furnished with self-finished and reupholstered pieces and a prized Sony color TV. Later, help from Tom Brokaw and Meredith added more sophistication after moving to New York. Watercolors are painted but kept under the bed and not signed to make them easier for children to discard later. The home includes Garry’s cartoon art collection and several paintings by a 19th century German-American artist. Warhol connections include a charity auction purchase, a 1974 Factory sitting for Polaroids, and recognition after a Pulitzer Prize.

Read at Architectural Digest