The World Of Exteriors™ Lectures Series

What Does an Exterior Decorator Do?

The ultimate Great Room and possibly the best room in the house is its garden.  Furnishing it appropriately for all outdoor activities takes a particular design knowledge and discipline.  John Danzer will reveal how his 12 years as a garden furniture designer with an insatiable curiosity for outdoor spaces has developed into a new design practice that led the press last year to call him “America’s First Exterior Decorator.” John Danzer’s firm, Munder-Skiles, which maintains the most complete archive on the subject, has served clients in a range of garden styles from traditional to ultra-modern.  John will share wisdom gained from these installations and also highlight the largely uncharted design history of the garden chair.

About John Danzer

Perhaps no person has thought more deeply about extending good design to the outside of the American home – into its surroundings – than John Danzer, president and owner of Munder-Skiles, a firm specializing in the production of new and historic designs of garden furniture and ornament.  Ten years ago, he abandoned his Wall Street career to concentrate full time on a lifelong affinity for garden decoration, researching here and abroad.  He then began to lecture on its disappeared history, pulling images from his extensive library of reference books, catalogues, and collection of 9,000 slides, taken from gardens and settings all over the world.  John Danzer has been a panelist for the National Endowment for the Arts, and has lectured on Garden Furniture at the Cooper-Hewitt (now the National Design Museum), The Museum of Garden History in London, Sotheby’s, the New York Botanic Garden, the Parrish Art Museum, the St. Louis Antiques Show, and the Dallas Museum of Art.  He regularly addresses decorative arts, design, and horticultural groups across the country.

In 1993, Munder-Skiles published its first brochure of 16 pieces of furniture, licensed from historic house museums or replicated from originals John Danzer bought while living in Europe.  Today, Munder-Skiles offers more than 80 designs of the finest quality garden furniture and objects, from dining tables to garden torches, in both metal and wood.  In 1994, the firm won the 1994 Roscoe Award for the best designed American chair – the first time ever a garden seat has been so honored.  The firm operates a Madison Avenue showroom in New York City.