Editing Sister Parish (section)

== Style ==
Parish is widely considered to have originated what became known as American country style.<ref name=":0" />  She avoided matching, filling homes with contrasting prints<ref name=":11">{{Cite web|url=https://partners.nytimes.com/library/home/081700sister-parish.html|title=Behind the Chintz Curtain, the Legacy|website=partners.nytimes.com|access-date=2016-11-21}}</ref> and sometimes intentionally placed items off center.<ref name=":1" />

A 1999 ''Architectural Digest'' article described Parish's style: "Her interiors as a rule were refreshingly unstudied, unself-conscious, and unstrained...A Sister Parish room overflowed, to be sure—but buoyantly. It was romantic and whimsical but not sentimental; and, always, it was light—the rug might be Aubusson, the mirror Chippendale and the chandelier Waterford, but she undercut these "brand names" with all manner of charming distractions. Her living rooms ''lived'': They were friendly to the world..."<ref name=":1" />

In 1994, ''House Beautiful'' editor Lou Gropp said, "There is no question that Sister Parish was one of the biggest influences on decorating in the United States. She dominated the decorating of the 1970s and '80s, and many of her ideas that were fresh and new in the 1970s are now in the mainstream of American decorating."<ref name=":10" />

Signature elements of the Parish look included painted floors, Anglo-Franco furniture, painted furniture, [[chintz]], [[needlepoint]] pillows, mattress ticking, hooked rugs, rag rugs, starched [[organdy]], botanical prints, painted lampshades, white wicker, quilts, and baskets.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":1" />

According to a 2000 New York Times article, "If you have a quilt, you probably owe it to Mrs. Parish."<ref name=":11" />

Her work influenced [[Ralph Lauren]] and [[Martha Stewart]].<ref name=":11" />