Design team brings ‘peace and light’ to White House

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“So…would you like to do some Christmas decorations for the White House?”

That slightly paraphrased question was certainly not what New Bedford-based product designers Don Carney and John Ross expected when they received a call from one of their regular customers in early September.

The customer was internationally renowned event planner Bryan Rafanelli. Among his clients are Bill and Hillary Clinton (for whom he planned the wedding of former First Daughter Chelsea Clinton to investment banker Marc Mezvinsky in New York in 2010), as well as the Obamas, the Bidens, and Matt and Luciana Damon.

Needless to say, Carney and Ross responded with an emphatic and delighted yes.

Purple and Pink ornaments done by New Bedford couple Don Carney and John Ross for the Green Room at the White House. Credit: Courtesy of PATCH NYC.

Carney grew up in Lexington and Ross was from Orange County, California.

But the pair met in a bar on St. Mark’s Place on the Lower East Side of Manhattan in the late 1990s and quickly became friends, bonding over their shared passion for fine art (particularly 18th century engraving, scenes of flora and fauna, and contemporary block printing) design, fashion and the like.

The friendship morphed into a romantic relationship and the two became inseparable. They married last year.

Carney and Ross established PATCH NYC in the summer of 1998 with a collection of hand-detailed hats, inspired by a hat made by Ross’s mother Yasuko for his first New York winter. The hats were embellished with vintage buttons, often found at flea markets. Soon, scarves and handbags were added to their collection.

The PATCH part of the business name is a reference to patchwork quilts, which are made of various colors and shapes and sewn together to create something new and unifying from the sometimes incongruous elements. That also seems to be, broadly speaking, a hallmark of their design sensibility, and perhaps their life philosophy as well.

Much later, a brick-and-mortar store was opened in a former ice cream parlor in the West Village. Not long after the lease was signed, two planes flew into the World Trade Center. It would be months before something resembling normalcy resumed.

In time, the company grew to have a substantial online presence and Carney and Ross were soon collaborating with international partners, including the French luxury brand Hermès, for which they inspired a collection of leather jewelry featuring drawings by Carney. For the Paris retailer Monoprix, PATCH NYC created collections of home decor products, tablecloths and accessories.

Other affiliate businesses came to include Crate & Barrel, the Shops at Target program, West Elm (purveyors of decorative accessories, bedding and serving pieces), and the French perfumery Fragonard, for whom they designed packaging.

Carney’s elderly mother had some medical issues which necessitated that they move to Massachusetts to be closer to her. They shuttered the New York City store and opened a location at 46 Waltham St. in the South End of Boston. Rafanelli’s frequent visits to the new shop was the spark that would eventually lead to the question that began this column.

New Bedford couple Don Carney, right, and John Ross at their Hawthorn Street home. The pair decorated the Green Room at the White House for Christmas. Credit: Courtesy of PATCH NYC.

In 2020, Carney and Ross became first-time home buyers, purchasing a majestic home on Hawthorn Street that had been a WHALE (Waterfront Historic Area LeaguE) renovation project. The house is ornate without being ostentatious. Their working studios are in the refurbished attic.

But of particular significance to them is that the house, built in 1857, was the home of Leander A. Plummer ll, a quixotic artist, a member of the regional Arts & Crafts movement and a participant of a social and literary group known as “the Blues.”

He did paintings of ducks and other waterfowl, carved fish out of wood (which he referred to as “relief paintings”), and created a series of eight carved oak “fantasy” chairs.

Carney and Ross have said that they thought that “this house, with its spirit and history, is happy that there are creative people in here making art.” They’re right: 110 years after Plummer died, eclectic and elegant art is still being produced there. It’s enough to elate the Ghost of Christmas Past.

The Christmas tree below the chandelier in the Green Room at the White House. Credit: Courtesy of PATCH NYC.

So let’s get back to the Christmas part of the story.

Rafanelli was the creative director of the White House project, working in partnership with First Lady Dr. Jill Biden. Her vision was to have the invited create a magical holiday wonderland that celebrated “A Season of Peace and Light.”

About 10 teams of artists, designers and/or decorators were tasked to transform “The People’s House” into a beacon of hope and joy. Carney and Ross were invited to choose from several rooms from which they could begin the seasonal transformation, including the White House Library.

Ultimately, they selected the Green Room, which they felt most reflected their own design sensibilities and sensitivities. It is one of three state parlors on the first floor of the White House and it is primarily used for small receptions and tea parties. During state dinners, guests may be served cocktails there prior to the president, first lady and visiting heads of state descending the Grand Staircase to join their guests for the formal meal.

Carney and Ross, working with Johnny Krause and Elizabeth Plaetz Lori, who they describe as the best volunteers they possibly could have asked for, got to work. They were more than up to the task.

Their response to the First Lady’s “Season of Peace and Light” was to transform the classically adorned Green Room, decorated with the likes of the French painter Theobald Chartran’s 1902 portrait of First Lady Edith Carow Roosevelt, into a festive space illuminated with a rainbow of jewel-toned hues.

Carney and Ross, inspired by the theme, gave thought to how light hits certain surfaces and they sparkle and glimmer. They created ornaments, some traditional and some abstract, that were their own funky yet elegant interpretations of rubies, emeralds, sapphires, diamonds, turquoise and more.

Using decidedly unprecious crafting materials such as cardboard, flat back faux gems, glue, pompoms, and glitter-covered pipe cleaners — oh, so many pipe cleaners — the team festooned a full-bodied 8-foot-tall Christmas tree with glittery fanciful balls, leaves, wreathes, starbursts, doves and other birds.

The fireplace below the portrait of Mrs. Roosevelt was handsomely decorated with similar objects and a chain of golden links.

The fireplace and mantle decorations done by New Bedford couple Don Carney and John Ross for the Green Room at the White House. Credit: Courtesy of PATCH NYC.

By any assessment, Carney and Ross’s transformation of the Green Room into a showcase for a season of peace and light was a delightful and resounding success.

They made their moms proud, they made the First Lady proud, they made the White House proud, and they made that old house on Hawthorn Street in New Bedford proud.

Don Wilkinson has been writing art reviews, artist profiles and cultural commentary on the South Coast for over a decade. He has been published in local newspapers and regional art magazines. He is a graduate of the Swain School of Design and the CVPA at UMass Dartmouth. Email him at dwilkinson@newbedfordlight.org