About Robin Bell
Robin Bell has been an influential member of the interior design community since 1983. For fourteen years she was director of her own firm, Robin Bell Schafer Associates, based in Vero Beach, Florida. Following her relocation to New York, she joined the interior design firm McMillen Inc., as Senior Designer. In 2006, she launched Robin Bell Design with offices in New York and Florida. Since 2010, we have consolidated our offices to Salisbury, Connecticut, where we continue to serve our client base throughout the country.
Ms. Bell studied painting and drawing at the Art Students’ League of New York City, and has worked in the Decorative Arts Department of Sotheby’s, New York. From 1981-1984 she served as Assistant Curator to Lyn Johnson, Curator of The Gracie Mansion Conservancy, whose responsibilities included the restoration and conservation of the interiors at the historic home. Ms. Bell’s duties included the research required for the selection and acquisition of appropriate period furnishings and decorative objects, giving her extensive training in 19th Century works of art and decoration.
Robin Bell’s first independent commission was the refurbishing of Campobello for the Roosevelt/Campobello International Trust. Subsequent residential projects have been located in New York, Connecticut, California, the Midwest, the Caribbean and the Bahamas. Recent projects have included a beachfront house on Cape Cod, a family home in Greenwich, a bachelor’s apartment in Manhattan and a horse farm in Nashville, TN.
Ms. Bell has designed furniture for both private and public commissions, and is represented in the permanent collection of the White House. With appearances on CNN and publication in such venues as House Beautiful, Elle Décor, Town & Country and the New York Times, Ms. Bell’s work has been widely disseminated to professional and public audiences.
Neither trendy nor revolutionary, Robin Bell’s approach is grounded in the holistic philosophy typical of earlier eras. Connoisseurship and a keen observation of classical design aesthetics are evident throughout Ms. Bell’s work, including her contemporary styled projects. Her skilled coordination of color, scale and proportion are the visible hallmarks of a designer who draws from the achievements of the past as inspiration for the future.
Ms. Bell studied painting and drawing at the Art Students’ League of New York City, and has worked in the Decorative Arts Department of Sotheby’s, New York. From 1981-1984 she served as Assistant Curator to Lyn Johnson, Curator of The Gracie Mansion Conservancy, whose responsibilities included the restoration and conservation of the interiors at the historic home. Ms. Bell’s duties included the research required for the selection and acquisition of appropriate period furnishings and decorative objects, giving her extensive training in 19th Century works of art and decoration.
Robin Bell’s first independent commission was the refurbishing of Campobello for the Roosevelt/Campobello International Trust. Subsequent residential projects have been located in New York, Connecticut, California, the Midwest, the Caribbean and the Bahamas. Recent projects have included a beachfront house on Cape Cod, a family home in Greenwich, a bachelor’s apartment in Manhattan and a horse farm in Nashville, TN.
Ms. Bell has designed furniture for both private and public commissions, and is represented in the permanent collection of the White House. With appearances on CNN and publication in such venues as House Beautiful, Elle Décor, Town & Country and the New York Times, Ms. Bell’s work has been widely disseminated to professional and public audiences.
Neither trendy nor revolutionary, Robin Bell’s approach is grounded in the holistic philosophy typical of earlier eras. Connoisseurship and a keen observation of classical design aesthetics are evident throughout Ms. Bell’s work, including her contemporary styled projects. Her skilled coordination of color, scale and proportion are the visible hallmarks of a designer who draws from the achievements of the past as inspiration for the future.