At Home with the Bunny Mellon Collection by de Gournay
Written by Diane Helentjaris
Our first visit to Oak Spring was serendipitously in April — the garden a riot of exuberant daffodils, tulips, and grape hyacinths, the ornamental trees heavy with pale pink blossoms. Witnessing for the first time the Virginia landscape carefully cultivated for over 60 years by Rachel ‘Bunny’ Lambert Mellon was like stepping into a springtime dream. We were there to explore the possibility of designing a collection of wallpapers, what would become the first of its kind to pay homage to this special place and the extraordinary woman behind its creation.
This is how Dayle Wood, the editorial and U.S. marketing director for de Gournay, describes the beginnings of the Bunny Mellon Collection.
The British company de Gournay, founded in 1984 by Claud Cecil Gurney, has collaborated with the Oak Spring Garden Foundation to bring forth its newest creation, a collection of hand-painted wallpaper and handmade porcelain dinnerware inspired by Bunny Mellon’s extraordinary vision as a garden designer.
Born Rachel Lambert in 1910, her childhood nickname “Bunny” lasted throughout her 103-year-long lifespan. Her prosperous family’s wealth was rooted in such stalwart American brands as Gillette Safety Razors and Listerine. Born in New York, she was educated at Foxcroft School. She married Paul Mellon in 1948 and her primary home became the 4,000-acre Oak Spring Farm estate outside of Upperville, Virginia.
Bunny Mellon was a world-class garden designer, horticulturist, and philanthropist. At the request of former President John F. Kennedy, she redesigned the White House Rose Garden. She also designed landscapes for River Farm, which is the headquarters of the American Horticultural Society, and helped with the restoration of the Potager du Roi in Versailles. Along the way, she gathered a superior collection of artwork, books, and references to inform her passion for beautiful gardens.
The Bunny Mellon Collection, released April 29, includes six wallpaper designs, two dinner services, and a charger plate. The de Gournay team describes the style as “distinctly ‘Bunny Mellon.’”
According to Wood:
The Oak Spring Garden Library became our lodestar for the de Gournay collection, with our friend Head Librarian Tony Willis as our guide. On that first visit, a parade of treasured objects, all diligently collected by Mrs. Mellon throughout her life, appeared before our eyes — medieval herbaria, 17th-century botanical manuscripts, works on canvas, and modern lithographs. Each individual artifact transported us to its own enchanting, plant-filled world. We marveled at artworks by masters Georg Dionysius Ehret, Jan Van Kessel, and Pierre-Auguste Redouté, and were captivated equally by the naive watercolors of little-known artists that Mrs. Mellon also greatly admired. We spent hours studying exquisitely painted renditions of wildflowers drawn from life hundreds of years ago, poring over the notched shape of a leaf or the subtle variations of color on a flower’s petal. With every turned page came a sense of discovery — in many ways, being in Mrs. Mellon’s library was like being in the garden, always in anticipation of what natural beauty lies in wait around the corner. Our minds were thoroughly immersed in the magic of Oak Spring and Mrs. Mellon’s singular vision.
In designing the collection, we set out to interpret these rare works of art much in the way that Mrs. Mellon used them as inspiration for her own gardens. We looked for color, form, and composition, of course, but also for those hard-to-describe details that can be what make an object most sing, like the particular way the artist depicted twine tied around a bundle of red poppies, or the painted moldy spots on a fallen pear so tactile one could almost grab it off the page. We became voracious in our pursuit of these charming, humble moments that most sparked our imagination, knowing that they were perhaps what Mrs. Mellon would have most loved, too. The result is that, within each wallpaper and porcelain design, the story of Oak Spring is quietly revealed through the constellation of these highly personal and beautifully rendered details.
Sir Peter Crane, president of the Oak Spring Garden Foundation, confirms the organization’s enthusiasm about the collaboration with de Gournay. “Plants are at the core of our mission, and have always been central in the decorative arts. De Gournay’s exquisite designs will allow us to highlight the botanical treasures of Mrs. Mellon’s spectacular library in a new and exciting way,” he shares. The proceeds the foundation receives from the project will support local educational and outreach programs.
The wallpapers are hand-painted by de Gournay’s in-house artists in their studio near Kolkata, India. To emulate the styles found in the Oak Spring Garden Library collection, which are often painted in gouache, an opaque paint is used. Many of the designs are painted on handmade Xuan paper. A blend of natural rice and bark fibers, its texture mimics that of worn canvas or vellum. Some designs are then sanded and distressed by hand to add to the antiqued feeling of the originals at Oak Spring Garden.
Two of the Bunny Mellon Collection wallpapers have been installed at Oak Spring and will be viewable during the property tours on June 27 and 28. The Bunny Mellon Collection is available to both trade groups and the public, with global showrooms in New York, London, Paris, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Beirut, and Shanghai. ML
For more information about the Bunny Mellon Collection, visit degournay.com. To learn more about the Oak Spring Garden Foundation, visit osgf.org.
Oak Spring Garden Foundation
1776 Loughborough Lane
Upperville, Virginia 20184
Featured photo courtesy of de Gournay.
Published in the June 2025 issue of Middleburg Life.