Barbara Westbrook: Gracious Rooms

The doors are so handsome in this house I wanted to draw more attention to them so they became smart black sentries. I love black as an accent color and try to weave it into an interior like three-dimensional calligraphy. Especially in a more informal setting, by the lake or up in the mountains, nothing pulls this off so well as ironwork. It can be shaped into lyrical, natural lines as well as take on more geometric form. Here, I employed a combination in lamps, lanterns, and chandeliers, curtain rods, a basket for firewood, table bases, spool chairs, a canopy bed, and the stair rail. So many things contribute to lending an interior a particular flavor. A palette doesn’t just concern itself with color. Materials have everything to do with setting a tone. The television in the living room isn’t housed in any old cupboard but an antique armoire from Brittany that has the most fabulous brass handles and studding. I love using hooked rugs in a country house; to me they are like putting fine American folk art underfoot. And yet by placing them on dark walnut floors they swing in a more European direction. The artwork in the dining room is a charming old painted sign that’s appropriate for a Georgia country house. It also happens to speak French. Americans swoon over a European accent. I do, too, and not just the kind I hear. I find that introducing European antiques and materials in my work makes interiors more beguiling. The fabrics I first proposed for this house were almost too American, certainly too rustic. So instead of (tk example) for curtains, we stepped up to a Chelsea Textiles linen embroidered with sprigs of flowers for the living room, a lovely plaid from Holland and Sherry in the study, and another Chelsea fabric for the master bedroom. In each room, the color of the curtains is close to the wall color so they don’t make a bold statement. What pattern they have is also subtle. I’ve always thought the role of curtains should be to discreetly frame a view, not distract from it. The role of all the materials in this house, soft and otherwise, is the same: to convey a quiet sense of luxury.

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