High Point Market takes place twice yearly—in the spring and fall. It’s where the American furnishings industry gathers to launch new products.

As a design journalist and blogger, I attend High Point Market most times, eager to see what new releases my favorite manufacturers will unveil. I’m always interested to see what new furniture and lighting Currey & Company debuts, and I enjoy visiting showrooms like Bernhardt. There are always excellent opportunities with both to use their products to craft literary design adventures afterwards, like the diary entry in which I had Rudolf Valentino taking over a portion of the Bernhardt showroom.

Within this generously proportioned string of rooms, I happened upon what I believe would be the quintessential Valentino lair. Though the silent film star has been dead for over 88 years, were he still causing women to swoon today, I had found the furnishings he’d tap to create a modern-day interpretation of his home in the Beverly Hills, which he had dubbed “Falcon Lair.” I am convinced the sumptuous setting created by the Bernhardt Interiors Collection nestled into a corner of the showroom in High Point would have fit him to a tee.

The literary angle to this post is a surprising one: Valentino was a scribe—admittedly, not a very seasoned one but his love poems outlive him! This literary legacy is tucked between the covers of a book titled Day Dreams, which he penned when boredom during an actor’s strike got the best of him.

“Happy indeed I shall be if my Day Dreams will bring you as much enjoyment in the reading as they brought to me in the writing,” he wrote in the introduction of the book, setting the locale and date of the finalization of his rhymes in New York City on May 29, 1923. This is a terrific example of how greater depth can be brought to the subject of design with just a bit of imagination.