Project: Family Hang-Out

 My clients, the Hart family wanted a living room that they could really live in.  Like I mentioned in my previous post on their dining room, they're an active family who love being outside, hiking, camping and spending time together so we really wanted an outdoors-in natural, fresh feel in here.  They're also musically-inclined and wanted a place where the damily could practice playing.  Although they do entertain, the initial function of their living room was to be a place where they can hang out, pay bills, do homework, play instruments and relax. 

Here's what the space looked like before.  It was a totally empty blank slate (how fun?!): 

 

And here's it is now:

When I initially surveyed the house, I noticed they didn't have many family photos and suggested doing a family photo wall in the living room because they wanted an extremely personal family-focused feel in here.  The problem was that they didn't have many family photos to create the wall.  

...So, this past Fall, I met with the family for a family "photo shoot" and I took a ton of pictures of them in the backyard.   We had so much fun "playing" in the leaves and even Whimsy, the family dog, got her close-ups. 

{The Harts}

They came out really well and I created this photo collage of all of the photos surrounding a natural "twiggy" sconce:

Mike & Debbi pay their bills  and the kids also do on homework here at the worktable:

{I love their family-passed-down-clock !!}

We chose a pen shell cocktail table: (This was the first element I chose for the space and used it as a springboard for the rest of the design)

And repeated the natural shells again in the capiz shell pendant over the work table:

I found this cool old lion painting in their garage.  I think he's prefect for the space and it was the last thing to go up.

I tossed this cool needlepoint throw of mine over the back of the loveseat for some added interest: 

 {It's a very tone-on-tone textural design in keeping with the family's natural, relaxed style}

The kids & I picked some pretty polar leaves from the trees outside the house and I had them enlarged on 3 and a half feet high canvases for the walls.  I thought it was a really personal way to "bring the outside in" since they love their house because of its wooded location. 

Here's a view of the second poplar leaf canvas:

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed the before & after and thank you again to the Harts for trusting me to design your home!  It was so much fun!!

Hope you had a great 4th of July weekend and if you missed the first part of this project (the dining room), check out the previous post here. 

Photographer Christine Bauer

Second post today to show you the work of talented photographer Christine Bauer. She worked for many years as a stylist for editorials and advertisements before turning to photography. Her work can be found in renowned lifestyle and interior magazines and she also has photographed exclusive hotels. She has specialized on interior-photography, still lifes and the production of home stories. At the moment Christine Bauer is working on her first book.
Soft and feminine. Hope you enjoy the pics I selected for you!




























All images from her portfolio right here.

Retreat outside New York

We are going to visit a 10-room house in northwestern Connecticut belonging to literary agent Lynn Nesbit. Made from scratch by architect Calvin Kiiffner and decorated by interior designer Annabel Bartlett who kept things light and airy and used soft colours, such as restrained yellows, greenish grays and subtle celadons, that wouldn’t compete with the glory of what lay outside. The elements and furnishings came from a multiplicity of sources: auction houses, salvage yards, an abandoned Victorian building at the foot of the property that had had to be razed because it was about to cave in, and Nesbit’s own travels. From 17th-century Tuscan doors and 19th-century French terra-cotta floors to an antique Moroccan chandelier, this house, though newly built seems as if it has been here for ages.

Tour time!

Architect Calvin Kiiffner included an octagonal observation tower in the configuration of the clapboard-and-stone house, which stands near a field of wildflowers.

A series of double-hung windows and four sets of French doors allow light to flood into the high-ceilinged living room. Hanging above the fireplace is Western Skies, 1995, by April Gornik. The 19th-century child’s rocking chair, once belonged to Nesbit’s grandfather. Wood horses on mantel from Sotheby’s.

Two black-and-white digital prints by Robert Rauschenberg—Quiet House, Black Mountain, 1940, left, and Ceiling & Light Bulb, 1950—were placed in the entrance hall by Annabel Bartlett. In the den beyond lies a 19th-century Persian carpet that Nesbit bought in Damascus.

The Han Dynasty ceramic female attendant in the living room was found by Nesbit.

Painted faux-stone walls and massive antique wrought iron chandelier for the dining room.

A tapestry-covered settee faces the master bed, which has hangings made from saris Nesbit purchased in India.

The first-floor guest wing, one of three wings in the residence, is reached by a long corridor punctuated with window seats and shelves filled with part of Nesbit’s extensive collection of first editions and contemporary books.

A Louis XVI-style chair and an iron bedstead are paired in a guest room.

A paved patio off the kitchen. Low stone walls delineate the outdoor dining room and frame beds of perennials, wildflowers and herbs.

“It was important to me that the house be unobtrusive, that it look like it belonged on the land,” Nesbit explains.

Photography by Scott Frances

All images from Architectural Digest.