Boudoirs just for the ogling

A lavish book like this is meant to inspire. More than 250 pages of photos illustrate 51 bedrooms (many with en suite baths), all of them decorated by Paris-based interior designer Alberto Pinto. The trouble is, Pinto travels in a stratosphere of such great wealth, and in a culture so dominated by Old World Europe, that it would be difficult to translate his opulent ideas into the palest simulation of those shown in the book.

Pinto does have some great ideas for color and pattern combinations; he has a fabulous way with aqueous blues, greens, yellows and all sorts of prints. But to achieve anything truly Pinto-esque in your own boudoir, you might need a budget that equals the national debt.

Walls covered in fine silk are overlaid with French lace; drapes in opulent brocades and linens are cut with “couture precision� into “bustle shapes like Belle Epoque gowns.� Furniture is predominantly English or French antique, (with much mahogany and inlaid wood), and oodles of Louis XIV and XV touches tossed into the mix of hand-loomed wool rugs, crystal chandeliers and authentic works of art.

The names of Pinto’s clients, who presumably sleep in the bedrooms shown, are never mentioned. That would be declasse. His faithful followers reportedly include some members of the royal families of Saudi Arabia and Jordan, and some individuals who have had Pinto design the interiors of their five-masted yachts and Boeing 737 planes.

Of course, there’s no mention of the costs entailed in decorating the rooms shown, nor are there specifics on how to acquire such furnishings. If you have to ask, you can’t afford it. Perhaps more to the point, there’s a whole new generation of sybarites, even super-wealthy ones, for whom this kind of ancien regime opulence is way beside the point. It’s too high maintenance and overwrought.

-- Bettijane Levine