The dining room at Coral House evokes Capri with its trellising and hand-painted panels depicting lemon trees by de Gournay.Photo: Courtesy of Douglas Friedman
This was far from Dee and Tommy’s first rodeo, though. The two are intimately familiar with the rigorous demands of home transformations. It’s a journey that has carried them around the world, and across numerous properties, over the course of their nearly 17-year marriage—all of which is masterfully chronicled in the new book release, Hilfiger Homes (Vendome Press). “We’ve never bought a house—ever—and just said, ‘Right, let’s move in,’” Tommy explains. “It’s always a redo. But that’s also the fun of it.”
The pages of Hilfiger Homes are armchair travel at its most imaginative. A Caribbean idyll on the secluded island of Mustique, a Normandy-style manor tucked within Connecticut parkland, a handsome yacht off the coast of Saint-Tropez, and their Palm Beach enclave: a temple to timelessness, clad in breathtaking coral stone (hence the name).
But despite the grandeur and singularity of all seven residences featured in the book, one unifying motif is threaded throughout: family. This sentiment is affirmed in the book’s foreword by Anna Wintour. “There’s always a sense that these homes are not show palaces,” she writes, “but places where Tommy and his wife, Dee, and their kids actually enjoy living their lives.” (Together, they share a blended family of seven children.)
A collection of Bavarian hunting trophies surround a painting in Round Hill.Photo: Courtesy of Douglas Friedman
In Coral House’s neoclassical living room, the focal point is a Picasso circa 1972.Photo: Courtesy of Douglas Friedman
As we stroll around Coral House, Dee drives home this point. “Every room I walk into, I love. We really live in this house,” she says as we arrive at her favorite nook—a coat closet that’s been converted into a sumptuous display for her robust collection of tableware. “Kris Jenner had one, and I thought it was such a fabulous idea—it’s like a jewel box,” Dee says. Just across the hallway lies another of her favorite areas—a light-filled dining room designed in the spirit of Capri, with a Flora Danica set magnificently arranged on shelves. “I think we’ve used them once, but I’m so paranoid about breaking a plate,” Dee says. Adds Tommy, with a laugh: “Yeah, they’re not for eating.”
