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THE INTERNATIONAL DESIGN AUTHORITY JULY/AUGUST 2022

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CONTENTS july/august

64

THE INVITING LIVING ROOM OF FASHION DESIGNER ULLA JOHNSON’S MONTAUK GETAWAY.

30 Editor’s Letter 32 Object Lesson

The mysterious history of the Adirondack chair. BY HANNAH MARTIN

37 Discoveries

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A DRAMATIC BLACK POWDER ROOM IN A LOS ANGELES HOME WITH INTERIORS BY JAMIE BUSH.

54 New American Voices

Today’s rising stars of interior design.

64 Calm and Collected

At fashion designer Ulla Johnson’s eclectic Montauk retreat, nature sets the tone.

BY HANNAH MARTIN

74 Wild Card

Interior designer Jamie Bush and architect William Hefner reimagine a 1960s Los Angeles home for a client with a dazzlingly eccentric point of view. BY MAYER RUS

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FROM TOP: PERNILLE LOOF, STEPHEN KENT JOHNSON

AD visits celebrity fashion stylist Kate Young in Woodstock, New York... Designer Germane Barnes explores history at the American Academy in Rome... The best outdoor sofas...

Montana-based ceramic artist Casey Zablocki’s latest creations... And more!

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SOMETIMES THE BEST ROOM IN THE HOUSE, ISN’T IN THE HOUSE.

T H E

G R A N D

V I S I T

A L L - N E W

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A DV E N T U R E S

R E T U R N

W A G O N E E R . C O M

CONTENTS july/august

112

THE UPSTATE NEW YORK RETREAT OF DESIGNER NICK OLSEN.

102

A PALM BEACH RESIDENCE DECORATED

BY FRANK DE BIASI.

86 Picture Perfect

For artist Vaughn Spann and his family, home is an art-filled midcentury house in New Jersey. BY GAY GASSMANN

92 Happy Ending

Having undergone a refresh at the hands of Mark D. Sikes, the longtime L.A. home of beloved filmmaker Nancy Meyers is ready for its close-up. BY CATHERINE HONG

FOLLOW @ARCHDIGEST

Designer Frank de Biasi updates a grand Palm Beach manse. BY MITCHELL OWENS

SUBSCRIPTIONS GO TO ARCHDIGEST.COM, CALL 800-365-8032, OR EMAIL SUBSCRIPTIONS@ ARCHDIGEST.COM. DIGITAL EDITION DOWNLOAD AT ARCHDIGEST.COM/APP. NEWSLETTER SIGN UP FOR AD’S DAILY NEWSLETTER, AT ARCHDIGEST.COM/ NEWSLETTER. COMMENTS CONTACT US VIA SOCIAL MEDIA OR EMAIL LETTERS@ARCHDIGEST.COM.

112 American Spirit MARY KITCHEN’S THREE DAUGHTERS, WEARING MINNOW SWIMSUITS, CELINE SUNGLASSES, AND VINTAGE SWIM CAPS,

BY THE POOL OF THEIR L.A. HOME. “WILD CARD,” PAGE 74. PHOTOGRAPHY

BY STEPHEN KENT JOHNSON. STYLED

BY MICHAEL REYNOLDS. FASHION STYLING BY DENA GIANNINI.

Nick Olsen’s farmhouse in Dutchess County, New York, possesses all the optimism of the young republic—plus some revolutionary detours. BY MITCHELL OWENS

120 One to Watch

Landscape designer Sarita Jaccard.

BY HANNAH MARTIN

ARCHITECTURAL DIGEST AND AD ARE REGISTERED TRADEMARKS OF ADVANCE MAGAZINE PUBLISHERS INC. COPYRIGHT © 2022 CONDÉ NAST. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. PRINTED IN THE U.S.A. VOLUME 79, NO. 7. ARCHITECTURAL DIGEST (ISSN 0003-8520) is published monthly except for combined July/August issues by Condé Nast, which is a division of Advance Magazine Publishers Inc. PRINCIPAL OFFICE: Condé Nast, 1 World Trade Center, New York, NY 10007. Roger Lynch, Chief Executive Officer; Pamela Drucker Mann, Global Chief Revenue Officer & President, U.S. Revenue; Jackie Marks, Chief Financial Officer. Periodicals postage paid at New York, NY, and at additional mailing offices. Canada Post Publications Mail Agreement No. 40644503. Canadian Goods and Services Tax Registration No. 123242885-RT0001. POSTMASTER: Send all UAA to CFS. (See DMM 507.1.5.2); NON-POSTAL AND MILITARY FACILITIES: Send address corrections to ARCHITECTURAL DIGEST, P.O. Box 37617, Boone, IA 37617-0617. FOR SUBSCRIPTIONS, ADDRESS CHANGES, ADJUSTMENTS, OR BACK ISSUE INQUIRIES: Please write to ARCHITECTURAL DIGEST, P.O. Box 37617, Boone, IA 37617-0617, call 800-365-8032, or email subscriptions@archdigest.com.

Please give both new address and old address as printed on most recent label. SUBSCRIBERS: If the Post Office alerts us that your magazine is undeliverable, we have no further obligation unless we receive a corrected address within one year.

If during your subscription term or up to one year after the magazine becomes undeliverable, you are ever dissatisfied with your subscription, let us know. You will receive a full refund on all unmailed issues. First copy of new subscription will be mailed within eight weeks after receipt of order. Address all editorial, business, and production correspondence to ARCHITECTURAL DIGEST, 1 World Trade Center, New York, NY 10007. FOR REPRINTS: Please email reprints@condenast.com or call Wright’s Media, 877-652-5295. For reuse permissions, please email contentlicensing@condenast.com or call 800-897-8666. Visit us online at archdigest.com. TO SUBSCRIBE TO OTHER CONDÉ NAST MAGAZINES: Visit condenastdigital.com.

Occasionally we make our subscriber list available to carefully screened companies that offer products and services that we believe would interest our readers. If you do not want to receive these offers and/or information, please advise us at P.O. Box 37617, Boone, IA 37617-0617 or call 800-365-8032. ARCHITECTURAL DIGEST IS NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR THE RETURN OR LOSS OF, OR FOR DAMAGE OR ANY OTHER INJURY TO, UNSOLICITED MANUSCRIPTS, UNSOLICITED ARTWORK (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, DRAWINGS AND PHOTOGRAPHS), OR ANY OTHER UNSOLICITED MATERIALS REGARDLESS OF MEDIA IN WHICH IT IS SUBMITTED. THOSE SUBMITTING MANUSCRIPTS, PHOTOGRAPHS, ARTWORK, OR OTHER MATERIALS FOR CONSIDERATION SHOULD NOT SEND ORIGINALS UNLESS SPECIFICALLY REQUESTED TO DO SO BY ARCHITECTURAL DIGEST IN WRITING. MANUSCRIPTS, PHOTOGRAPHS, AND OTHER MATERIALS SUBMITTED WILL NOT BE RETURNED.

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FROM LEFT: MAX BURKHALTER, KRIS TAMBURELLO

102 A New Leaf

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KEEP A LOW PROFILE JOHNSON ESCHEWS STANDARD SEATING IN FAVOR OF FLOOR CUSHIONS UPHOLSTERED IN GRAPHIC OUTDOOR FABRIC. BOLSTERS AND THROW PILLOWS KEEP THINGS COZY.

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DESIGN INSPIRATION FROM THE ISSUE

Indoors and out, the Montauk home of fashion designer Ulla Johnson is pure summer bliss (page 64). But the crowning achievement might just be the roof deck, a casual but functional space to gather for morning coffee, alfresco meals, and late-night stargazing. (Her family has two telescopes there.)

We’re seeing some bright ideas ourselves....

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PERNILLE LOOF

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editor’s letter

1. ULLA JOHNSON POOLSIDE WITH HER HUSBAND AND CHILDREN IN MONTAUK. 2. ARTIST VAUGHN SPANN AND FAMILY IN NEW JERSEY. 3. A GRAND PALM BEACH STAIRCASE. 4. FILMMAKER NANCY MEYERS TIDIES HER L.A. LAWN. 5. MARY KITCHEN MATCHES HER COUTURE TO HER KIDS AND HER CURTAINS. 6. DESIGNER NICK OLSEN’S CHARMING UPSTATE NEW YORK RETREAT.

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Summer and escapist houses just go hand in hand, and no matter your personal vision of warm-weather nirvana, this issue of AD does not disappoint. Take our cover story, an extravagantly reimagined 1960s residence that interior designer Jamie Bush calls “a glamorous throwback fantasy” and West Coast editor Mayer Rus memorably describes as “a blockbuster vision of Los Angeles swank—a fearless pasticcio of Hollywood Regency, Art Deco, Palm Springs camp, tropical modern, granny chic, and a dash of Morris Lapidus–style Miami Beach cha-cha.” Bingo!

Says homeowner Mary Kitchen simply, “I just love that it feels fun to me.”

Fashion designer Ulla Johnson is a master of laid-back but luxe bohemianism, and her idyllic Montauk retreat is a perfect expression of her well-honed aesthetic. Cleanlined and minimal yet layered and earthy, the modern house boasts a lush garden, ocean and bay views, and the tempting pool shown above. The house sleeps 20, and when all the bunks are full, “it means we’re having fun,” says Johnson’s husband, Zach Miner. “Friends are here. Family is here. And that’s what the house is for.”

Speaking of fun, I thoroughly enjoyed writer Catherine Hong’s delightful story about the beloved filmmaker and creative powerhouse Nancy Meyers and her breakup/makeup with her Provençal-style house in L.A. Meyers’s influential sets are nearly as celebrated as her many hit movies—consider the elegantly rustic kitchen of It’s Complicated and the inviting living room in Something’s Gotta Give—and it’s no surprise that Meyers brings her exacting eye to her personal spaces as well.

“Characters’ homes convey so much about the people who live there,” she AMY ASTLEY observes. The same can be said of Global Editorial Director her and all of the fascinating players and Editor in Chief, AD U.S. in our summer 2022 production. @amyastley

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1. PERNILLE LOOF. 2. MAX BURKHALTER, © 2022 KENNY SCHARF / ARTISTS RIGHTS SOCIETY (ARS), NEW YORK. 3. AMY NEUNSINGER. 4. KRIS TAMBURELLO. 5. STEPHEN KENT JOHNSON. 6. MAX BURKHALTER.

“I wasn’t looking for a cool midcentury house in the Hollywood Hills, with exquisitely tasteful interiors.

I didn’t want a house that looks like everyone else’s.”

—Mary Kitchen

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object lesson

THE STORY BEHIND AN ICONIC DESIGN

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On Deck

The mysterious history of America’s favorite outdoor chair

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1. ADIRONDACK CHAIRS AT AN ENGLISH COUNTRY HOUSE BY INTERIOR DESIGNER JOY MOYLER. 2. AN ADIRONDACKS PROPERTY

BY MILES REDD. 3. A HAMPTONS HOME DECORATED BY NEAL BECKSTEDT. 4. A PLASTIC VERSION

BY LOLL DESIGNS (DWR.COM).

5. BILL CALEO AND MEGAN NOETZEL LeFAUVE’S CATSKILLS HOME.

Perhaps locals saw that chair, liked it, and attempted to make their own. The slatted construction of the Adirondack suggests they were made by hobbyists working with scraps. Either way, by World

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created a steady market for the seats, in which they could rest in the mountain air.

Over the century Adirondack chairs became the

of materials from teak or pine to recycled plastic, like the one shown by Loll Designs. “It takes a certain kind of house,” explains interior designer Miles Redd. “Shingle, clapboard, stone—you need a traditional vernacular.” Neal Beckstedt, who recently placed two by a Hamptons pool, gushes, “It’s the perfect deep pitch that requires no cushion—a classic.” —HANNAH MARTIN

1. SIMON UPTON. 2. NOE DEWITT. 3. STEPHEN KENT JOHNSON. 4. COURTESY OF DWR. 5. MATTHEW WILLIAMS.

he provenance of the Adirondack chair—that sensible, slatbacked porch staple—is murky at best. Historians aren’t even certain it originated in its eponymous range of New York mountains. Pressed to pin down a pedigree, most point to a close cousin—the Westport chair—as its likely predecessor.

Around 1900, on the banks of New York’s Lake Champlain, a man named Thomas Lee tinkered with some seating for his summer cottage. “I can vaguely recall Uncle Tom’s nailing boards together [into a

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Bishop’s Lodge, part of the Auberge Resorts Collection, comprises a cluster of characterful adobe buildings nestled in the foothills of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains. Its origins date back to the 1860s, when French missionary Jean-Baptiste Lamy—Santa Fe’s first archbishop— built a chapel and lodge on what is now a 317-acre plot bordering the Santa Fe National Forest. Over 150 years, the storied landmark would become a private residence for the Pulitzer family, and then a resort that hosted numerous U.S. presidents. Now, after an extensive renovation and restoration, the destination has risen like a phoenix into one of the chicest retreats in the American Southwest.

Bishop’s Lodge came to life as a collaboration between Dallas-based Nunzio Marc DeSantis Architects and design firm HKS, who shared a mission to preserve the property’s distinctive sense of place while upgrading it with modern conveniences. As a result, the adobe struc-

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tures—a patchwork of old relics and new constructions—flow seamlessly with the land’s contours, evoking a wonderous interplay of man-made and natural beauty. Their earthy hues beautifully complement the backdrop of indigenous vegetation, fieldstone textures, and pine treescapes. Ultimately, it was the notion of community that served as the inspiration for the exclusive sanctuary, which resembles a village with its ranch-inspired abodes, sprawling lawns, and tree-lined mesas.

Chic yet understated, the interiors of Bishop’s Lodge embrace guests with a comforting warmth that pervades its 100 rooms, suites, and casitas, as well as its communal spaces, like The Lodge. Design leads Mary Alice Palmer and Natalie Smith of HKS drew inspiration from the wealth of creative cultures that have flourished here over the last millennium, from native Navajo and Hopi tribes to renowned artists like fashion muse Millicent Rogers. References to the region’s rich heritage read not as a pastiche, but as a mindful ode to indigenous peoples, centuries-old crafts, and local architecture. They include carved wood-beam ceilings, vibrant textiles, and double-sided

kiva fireplaces. Some rooms, like the sumptuous Kiva Suites, boast hammered copper tubs and mountain-facing outdoor terraces with plunge pools.

Flavor-packed Southwestern cuisine is the star at Bishop’s Lodge’s three dining outlets. SkyFire, the rustic-chic fine dining restaurant, is where chef Pablo Peñalosa Nájera showcases meat and seafood specialties grilled on a piñon fire. At The Bar, innovative cocktails and bar bites make for a casual evening hangout. And at Two Dogs Café, artisanal coffees, sandwiches, and homemade pastries serve as adequate fuel for the outdoor activity du jour, whether it’s hiking the Nambé Badlands, heli fly-fishing, or taking a guided tour of downtown Santa Fe.

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DISCOVERIES

THE BEST IN SHOPPING, DESIGN, AND STYLE

EDITED BY SAM COCHRAN

KATE YOUNG WITH HUSBAND KEITH ABRAHAMSSON AND SONS LEIF (LEFT) AND STELLAN IN THEIR UPSTATE NEW YORK KITCHEN, WHERE OPEN CABINETRY DISPLAYS VINTAGE ELSA PERETTI FOR TIFFANY & CO. PIECES, AMONG OTHER TREASURES.

AD VISITS

Weekend Attire

Renovating a Bauhaus-inflected house for her family, celebrity stylist Kate Young pivots nimbly from fashion to furniture P HOTOGRAPHY BY WI L LIA M GEDDES

STY LED BY C HRISTINA LA NE

ARCHDIGEST. COM

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© 2022 Sotheby’s International Realty. All Rights Reserved. The Sotheby’s International Realty trademark is licensed and used with permission. Each Sotheby’s International Realty office is independently owned and operated, except those operated by Sotheby’s International Realty, Inc. The Sotheby’s International Realty network fully supports the principles of the Fair Housing Act and the Equal Opportunity Act. All offerings are subject to errors, omissions, changes including price or withdrawal without notice.

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Seeing is can’t believe-ing.

DISCOVERIES

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1. MARIO BELLINI FOR B&B ITALIA SOFAS, ISAMU NOGUCHI CEILING LIGHTS, AND A CHARLOTTE PERRIAND DINING TABLE IN THE LIVING ROOM. 2. THE STAIR’S BLUE-PAINTED BANISTER; EERO SAARINEN LOUNGE CHAIR.

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get very mood-board-y,” muses fashion stylist Kate Young, reflecting on her approach to designing her own homes. The same, she explains, is true when it comes to devising red-carpet ensembles for the likes of Jennifer Lawrence, Selena Gomez, and Dakota Johnson.

“I like to study, pick pieces, and mix it all together.”

So one might say that her own personal Oscars has been the circa 1945 Bauhaus-style house in Woodstock, New York, that she shares with her husband, record executive Keith Abrahamsson, and their two sons, Stellan and Leif. Armed with modernist William Muschenheim’s original plans (sleuthed from Columbia University’s Avery library) and aided by their architect friend Graydon Yearick, the couple set out to revive the spirit of the home, executing a near gut renovation after purchasing it three years ago. “A lot was replaced to look like the original,” Young says, alluding to new light boxes and stealth built-ins. “Everything really was made for living and ease.”

Strategic additions paved the way for the couple’s en suite bath, a roof terrace, and a larger kitchen that nods to Richard Neutra’s VDL House. Open birch shelving displays Young’s pottery collection, which includes terra-cotta vessels by Elsa Peretti for Tiffany & Co., angular Vallauris plates, and a selection of her own work (thrown at the nearby Byrdcliffe Arts Colony). “I’m prolific—I make so many ugly things,” Young demurs of the family’s daily wares.

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DISCOVERIES

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1. IN THE COUPLE’S ROOM, A GEORGE NELSON BED FROM DESIGN WITHIN REACH DRESSED IN LITHUANIAN LINENS. 2. THE KIDS’ OEUF BUNK BED AND A VINTAGE KIM MOLTZER CHAIR. 3. A HANS WEGNER CHAIR IN THE FAMILY ROOM.

like Mario Bellini sofas and a round pine dining table designed by Charlotte Perriand for the French ski resort Les Arcs. The vibe in mind, Young says, was “utilitarian, family-friendly, high design.”

Her family of four, plus Nagini— the Siamese cat, named for Voldemort’s snake—typically drive upstate from their Brooklyn home after school. Weekends are spent with friends hiking the Comeau Property trail or skiing Hunter Mountain.

At home, Abrahamsson often returns 3 from walks with a garbage bag full of moss, which he uses to fashion quilt-like, Japanese-style gardens all over the 15-acre grounds. Stellan, A vacation to the Côte d’Azur, where the family stayed meanwhile, has become quite the budding mycologist, foragat Hôtel Les Roches Rouges and visited Eileen Gray’s E-1027 ing for the black trumpets and chanterelles that Young then house, crystallized the prevailing decorative sensibility. “I prepares with tagliatelle, butter, and wine. (“It’s epic,” she says wanted everything to feel light, well designed, and warm,” of their pasta dinners.) Outdoor cooking is Abrahamsson’s Young says, describing the mental tableau she collaged during the trip. Shocks of color in the spirit of the French Riviera now domain. Using their Francis Mallmann–inspired firepit and appear in the form of a school-bus-yellow faucet, a cobalt rail- homemade rotisserie, he’ll roast whole pigs or chickens for up to 20 friends—supplemented by Young’s prodigious crop ing, and the tomato-red outdoor spiral staircase that leads to the roof. (That ascent echoes one at the former Massachusetts of organic vegetables.

“I always thought I’d live in a glass house with just slabs home of Walter Gropius, who served as an enduring influence for Muschenheim.) Textiles throughout the house tend toward of concrete. That’s my fantasy, but in fact I’m a cozier, messier person,” admits Young. “And Keith likes everything to be sturdy Baltic linens, some inherited from her Lithuanian wood—he would live in a tree house if he had his way. So this father, others gleaned on Etsy. “Fashion is my job, so for fun I is the merging of that.” —CHLOE MALLE shop for furniture,” says Young, pointing out early purchases

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E L I Z A B E T H H A R R O D , S O L O I S T, T H E R O Y A L B A L L E T

DISCOVERIES

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ARCHITECTURE

Alternative History

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t the American Academy in Rome, a Baroque villa atop the Eternal City’s second-highest hill, the recipients of the annual Rome Prize gather five days a week for lunch at 1 p.m.

After loading their plates at the buffet, these 30 or so scholars and creatives in residence sit at tables that run the length of the courtyard’s loggia. That community and diversity of expertise is, according to current architecture fellow Germane Barnes, “one of the cool things about being at the academy.” While breaking bread, he muses, you could ask any question aloud, like What were the racial dynamics of ancient Rome? “And an archaeologist might chime in.” (The answer? It was complicated.)

In his own work, Barnes, founder of the Miami-based Studio Barnes and assistant professor at the University of Miami, explores the ways that race and architecture are intertwined. His project during his half-year residency in Rome focuses on the classical orders of the columns—Doric,

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1. GERMANE BARNES OUTSIDE THE AMERICAN ACADEMY IN ROME. 2. BLOCK PARTY, AN INSTALLATION BY STUDIO BARNES IN COLLABORATION WITH SHAWHIN ROUDBARI AND MAS CONTEXT FOR THE 2021 CHICAGO ARCHITECTURE BIENNIAL.

1. VALENTINA SOMMARIVA. 2. MARK ANTHONY WAITE.

From contemporary Miami to ancient Rome, Germane Barnes mines the nexus of race and design

DISCOVERIES

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1. A RENDERING OF A DETAIL OF A FORTHCOMING TAPESTRY FOR BARNES’S SHOW AT NINA JOHNSON GALLERY (NINAJOHNSON.COM).

2–3. A SPECTRUM OF BLACKNESS: THE SEARCH FOR SEDIMENTATION IN MIAMI, PART OF MOMA’S 2021 “RECONSTRUCTIONS” EXHIBITION. 4. A CHAIR FROM STUDIO BARNES’S 2020 “UNEASY LIES THE HEAD THAT WEARS A CROWN” SERIES.

Ionic, Corinthian—that uphold the portico, antiquity’s precursor to the porch, an essential element of the modern Black American household. His goal is to design a new order (or “column disorder”) that abandons European standards in favor of forms and proportions rooted in Black culture. His research mines the lesser-known contributions of North

His piece in Chicago, meanwhile, was an homage to the block party. As he wrote: “The block party does not obey traffic regulations, it does not obey permit jurisdiction, and it most certainly does not obey traditional urban principles.”

In 2021, Barnes also won Harvard’s Wheelwright Prize, the Architectural League Prize, and an inaugural grant from

at New York City’s Museum of

4 —JANELLE ZARA

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1 & 4. COURTESY OF NINA JOHNSON GALLERY. 2 & 3. NAHO KUBOTA/MOMA.

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Artist’s Conceptual Rendering

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DISCOVERIES

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DISCOVERIES

CASEY ZABLOCKI WITH HIS DOG, INGRID, IN HIS MISSOULA, MONTANA, STUDIO.

ARTISAN

Turning Up the Heat

he could achieve using the age-old method.

After apprenticing for masters like Hun Chung Lee in South Korea, the Michigan-born talent found himself at the Clay Studio of Missoula, where he asey Zablocki is sleep-deprived. It’s mid-April; his ceramics studio has been running 24 hours still rents a cave-like anagama kiln. “I don’t use any glaze,” he explains. “It’s all wood ash from the fire being pulled through a day for the past week; and he’s working the the kiln, landing on my work, and melting at a high, high heat.” night shift, firing the wood-burning kiln from midnight to six in the morning. “It’s a physical Temperatures regularly reach up to 2,300 degrees Fahrenheit.

His latest creations—his most ambitious yet—are big. Fired and mental marathon, like running up a mounin two parts, one piece stands nearly nine feet tall and weighs tain,” Zablocki says by Zoom. After the call he’ll doze a little, roughly 1,200 pounds. (Zablocki wants to go bigger, but he’d chop more wood, and do it all over again. need a new kiln for that.) Over the course of a year, he’ll go This is how the artist works. Due to the risk of forest fires in his home base of Missoula, Montana, he limits himself to just through some five tons of clay, sculpting chairs, benches, tables, two main batches a year, once in April and again in December. and nonfunctional artworks in an intuitive, almost spiritual process. “There has to be some kind of energy transfer between At the time of our conversation there was even more heat as the kiln and me,” Zablocki reflects. “I have to read what’s he prepared for his September solo show at New York’s Guild going on—the color of the flame, the smell of the atmosphere, Gallery, the fine-art extension of Roman and Williams Guild.

Zablocki fell in love with wood-fired pottery as an undergrad, the sound of the wood burning. These all tell me different things.” rwguildgalleryny.com —HANNAH MARTIN attracted to the richly textured, at times crystallized surfaces

Montana-based ceramic artist Casey Zablocki fires up his most ambitious work yet

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and armrests. Occasional tables are similarly clever, combining fragments of richly veined marble with timber columns or spheres, the latter peeking through stone tops via circular cutouts. Lighting nods more directly to Northern Italy: Inspired by chimneys in Venice, a series of conical table lamps incorporate wood salvaged from the port city’s boat docks, while ceiling fixtures mix handblown Murano glass with rattan from the Treviso village of Barbisano. Each surface begs to be touched, and that’s exactly the goal. Says McKinley: “Monea is a collection that represents my spirit and is designed from the heart. It is meant to be timeless—made with materials I love.” moneanewyork.com —SAM COCHRAN

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DISCOVERIES Coast to coast, today’s rising stars of interior design are reinventing tradition, challenging staid rules of good taste, and leaving their mark, one room at a time...

Duett Interiors

WILL MATSUDA

“Portland was never on my radar,” says Tiffany Thompson, founder of Duett Interiors, reflecting on her adopted Pacific Northwest home.

Six years ago, however, an open mind led her to Oregon, where she has discovered a community of talented makers. The New York–born designer has long been inspired

by American cities, having previously lived in Chicago and Miami. Today, jobs continue to take her nationwide, from Minneapolis (where she recently completed the home of NBA player D’Angelo Russell) to Houston, the site of projects under way for former NFL player Darryl Sharpton. But when it comes to current decorating gigs, Thompson can’t help but be partial to her own house, a 1960s split-level ranch. Upstairs, primary living spaces err on the side of serene (“almost like an art gallery”), while downstairs, guest rooms nod to hospitality hot spots like Ian Schrager’s Public Hotel in Manhattan. A forthcoming furniture line and other hush-hush endeavors promise to keep her busy; still, collaboration with clients remains the top priority. “It feels like this beautiful symphony,” notes Thompson (photographed at a Portland project) of her creative process. “As a designer, I’m going to push you and ask, ‘Who is your future self versus who are you now?’ ” duettinteriors.com —MADELEINE LUCKEL

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PRODUCE D BY ALISON LEVA SSEUR

DISCOVERIES Prospect Refuge Studio

In Minneapolis, where turn-of-the-20th-century Craftsman-style houses dominate the vernacular, Victoria Sass of Prospect Refuge Studio has carved out a niche transforming “old homes for young families.”

True to that calling card, her work is decidedly varied, mixing contemporary furnishings with family heirlooms and layers of bucolic patterns, in rooms that cordially defy categorization. “People are complex,” says Sass (photographed at home with daughter Irene). “We’re not just organic, natural, neutral. We’re that and we like neon. Finding ways to get all of that together and let it speak to the complexity of a family is exciting.”

That’s a dialogue she’s finessed over time, growing up between California and Minnesota, and studying in Copenhagen. After several years working for a Twin Cities commercial practice, Sass founded Prospect Refuge Studio in 2015 to focus on residential work and “grow a more intentional portfolio.” That now includes a lakeside cottage for a sustainability-conscious couple in Iowa and historical renovations in her hometown.

As ever, Sass delights in variety. Case in point: her “pandemic purchase,” a 1983 Viking liveaboard whose interiors she’s giving a new, albeit totally retro, look. The 44-foot-long boat will be traversing the Saint Croix River this summer. prospectrefugestudio.com —MEL STUDACH

“I’m always thinking about the narrative of a place,” explains Little Wing Lee, asking, “What story is being told here?” It’s an approach this Brooklynite honed working in documentary film for a decade before shifting to design. (She credits an exploratory class at Harvard for the career change.) She cut her teeth at Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, Rockwell Group, and Ralph Appelbaum Associates, where she worked on the exhibition design for the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture.

That project, she recalls, brought together “my two interests and loves.” (Her undergraduate degree is in African American studies.) Today Lee does triple duty as the design director for Atelier Ace, the founder of the interdisciplinary global network Black Folks in Design, and the principal of her own firm, Studio & Projects, where she has taken on local hospitality jobs like Bar Bête (pictured). In her role at Ace, for which she’s putting finishing touches on the brand’s new Toronto hotel, Lee extracts narratives from a given city, conjuring “spaces where people are at ease.” In her independent practice, meanwhile, she’s working on a new Harlem building for the National Black Theatre, finalizing her first major residential commission, and beginning to conceptualize product lines, among them rugs with Odabashian. Pressed to describe her style succinctly, she says, “I’m a modernist—but I really love texture and color and pattern.” studioandprojects.co —HANNAH MARTIN

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FROM TOP: CHRIS MOTTALINI, SEAN PRESSLEY

Little Wing Lee

From editor-in-chief Amy Astley and Architectural Digest, AD at 100 celebrates the most incredible homes of the past century, showcasing the work of top designers and offering rare looks inside the private worlds of artists, celebrities, and other fascinating personalities.

Marc Jacobs, Jennifer Aniston, Diana Vreeland, India Mahdavi, Peter Marino, Kelly Wearstler, Oscar Niemeyer, Axel Vervoordt, Frank Lloyd Wright, Elsie de Wolfe,

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FROM LEFT: ANTHONY COTSIFAS; JASON SCHMIDT; OBERTO GILI

A CENTURY OF STYLE

DISCOVERIES David Lucido

Until two years ago, David Lucido confesses, “I had zero connection to Florida.” Raised outside Manhattan, he studied graphic design at Washington University in St. Louis, settling in the Big Apple after college. The Sunshine State, however, has proven to be an easy fit for this young talent, who launched his own firm in 2019 after six years as a private interior designer for a major art collector. (“I did everything from yacht to office to dorm room,” he recalls of the creative catchall gig. “It’s where I learned everything.”) Approached by the hit restaurant group Le Bilboquet to design its Palm Beach location, Lucido flew south during the pandemic, intending to stay only temporarily. But when his Decoinflected rooms—think streamlined curves, seaside glamour, terrazzo, nickel, oak— became the talk of the town, Lucido stuck around, handing out business cards at the bar and reveling in South Florida’s new energy. (He still keeps “one foot” in New York.) Today, Le Bilboquet’s refined pivot from local decorative tropes has given way to major jobs like a production studio in L.A. and a mansion in his adopted hometown (pictured). “Is it weird how much I like Florida?” jokes Lucido, citing the welcoming community, abundance of local artisans, and—of course—the weather.

“I needed that change.” davidlucido.com

ORI HARPAZ

—SAM COCHRAN

DISCOVERIES Studio Ahead

Homan Rajai and Elena Dendiberia, founders of San Francisco–based Studio Ahead, want to fill a perceived void in the marketplace. “San Francisco tends to go for either seriously traditional design or the kind of spare, modern look that appeals to the tech crowd, with not much in between,” explains Rajai, who grew up in the Bay Area as the son of Iranian parents. “For all of the city’s forward-thinking liberal culture, design in San Francisco remains fairly conservative and Eurocentric. We wanted to celebrate interiors with a more layered, multicultural texture, tapping into the incredible community of fabricators who work in this part of the country,” adds Dendiberia, a native of Samara, Russia, who alighted on the West Coast eight years ago. Studio Ahead’s roster of projects speaks to the elasticity of the partners’ vision. They’re currently working on a home heavily influenced by the solarpunk movement, a penthouse that represents a contemporary interpretation of classic Art Deco, and a high-concept, quasi-industrial meditation/hangout room for a San Francisco marketing firm. In addition to interiors, Rajai and Dendiberia (photographed at a Bay Area job site) have developed a signature collection of biomorphic furnishings, as well as an online journal spotlighting intriguing Northern California artists and artisans. Says Rajai, “The more voices and viewpoints you can add to a conversation, the more exciting it becomes.” studioahead.com —MAYER RUS

“I want spaces to feel personal, well balanced, not too decorated,” reflects Lily Dierkes—spaces, in other words, that look “like they’ve always been that way.” And as this designer is showing, she’s got a knack for it. Two years ago, in a pandemic lifestyle move, Dierkes relocated from L.A. to Hudson, New York, where she launched her own firm, LK Studio. At the time, she had been working for the AD100 titan David Netto, under whom she honed her eye for color and pattern, contributing to projects like the beachy Bahamian abode that recently graced the pages of AD. (He praised her in the May 2022 article, noting, “All projects have their heroes.”) Today she’s putting her own spin on classic Americana, in projects that range from a pre-war apartment on Manhattan’s Upper West Side (pictured) to a Georgian-style manse in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan. Wall stenciling, painted floors, and punchy patterns harken to folk art, while palettes take inspiration from Shaker villages.

Dierkes, who studied film and previously worked as a production designer on music videos and commercials, gets a special thrill from designing second homes. “You can use things in a country house you might not use in a city apartment,” she notes. “It’s fun to do something a little theme-y.” lilydierkesdesign.com —H.M.

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FROM TOP: EKATERINA IZMESTIEVA, STEPHEN PAGANO

LK Studio

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DISCOVERIES

Studio Roene

NICOLE MORRISON

As résumés go, Julia Sobrepeña King’s is tough to beat. Over the course of nearly two decades, she cultivated her craft in the offices of five of the most influential design firms working today—those of Kelly Wearstler, Michael S. Smith, Waldo Fernandez, Commune, and Charles de Lisle— all of them AD100. Eight months ago, King struck out on her own, hanging a shingle for Studio Roene in San Francisco. (She is photographed at her new office.) “After years looking through someone else’s eyes, I finally had the opportunity to articulate my own vision,” says King, who was born in the Philippines and moved to San Francisco in 1996. The designer’s inheritance from her formidable mentors becomes apparent in her penchant for blending disparate styles and sensibilities. “I like mixing seemingly contradictory colors, textures, and forms— things that spark conversation—and then finding harmony in the differences,” King explains. “The question for me is how, in the age of Instagram and Pinterest, do you create something genuinely new, perhaps a little weird but always livable?” King is currently addressing that challenge in residential projects throughout California.

“First and foremost, a house must be inviting and casual,” she opines. “If a client doesn’t feel completely at ease, I haven’t done my job.” studioroene.com —M.R.

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CALM AND COLLE

IN ULLA JOHNSON AND ZACH MINER’S MONTAUK LIVING ROOM, A VINTAGE MARIO BELLINI SOFA SITS WITH A 1950s ROGER CAPRON COCKTAIL TABLE, A MOROCCAN TUAREG MAT, A 1950s BRAZILIAN CHAIR BY MARTIN EISLER AND CARLO HAUNER, AND A HANDMADE SHELL BAG FROM PAPUA NEW GUINEA.

At fashion designer Ulla Johnson’s eclectic Montauk retreat, nature sets the tone

CTED

TEXT BY HANNAH MARTIN PHOTOGRAPHY BY PERNILLE LOOF STYLED BY MARTIN BOURNE

U

lla Johnson and Zach Miner can’t stop talking about their garden. “It’s a spring bounty every weekend with new things in bloom,” says the fashion designer. Her verdant surroundings, after four years of work with landscape guru Miranda Brooks, are finally coming into their own. Bulbs planted last fall are pushing up through the soil. Magnolia trees are blossoming. A flash of pink—the petals of a flowering cherry tree—is visible just outside the living room window.

The couple have relished the process. “A garden takes time to grow into itself,” explains Johnson. “Things move around

and find their home. Things you plant come back in a slightly different place. It’s such a beautiful evolution.”

The same could be said of their home out east, constructed circa 2010 by MB Architecture, where they retreat on weekends with their three kids. Like the garden, it’s a little different on every visit: The modular vintage Mario Bellini sofa might remain in a leftover configuration from last night’s dinner party; a stray piece of driftwood—one of the family’s many collections—might end up in someone’s bedroom, thanks to their vizsla, Daphne; a new ceramic piece might arrive in a box, shipped home from a recent trip to Spain.

“It’s all about this idea of layering,” says Johnson, whose elevated bohemian fashion brand follows a similarly eclectic feeling. “Over a lifetime the house will continue to evolve.”

Johnson and her husband, a consultant with an art background, had been spending weekends in Montauk, the windy, low-key hamlet at the easternmost tip of Long Island, for about a decade before they began to look for their own place.

HAIR BY KABUTO FOR THE WALL GROUP; MAKEUP BY MARY WILES USING KAT BURKI SKINCARE FOR TRACEY MATTINGLY.

LEFT JOHNSON IN THE GARDEN, WEARING ONE OF HER OWN DESIGNS, THE SHIBORIDYED INDIGO SYLVAN DRESS. RIGHT WITH ITS LARGE WINDOWS OPEN, THE HOUSE TURNS INTO A PSEUDO PAVILION COME SUMMER.

This house, as Miner puts it, “checked a lot of very interesting boxes—it was unusual, modern, and had character.”

As Johnson says, “Its spirit spoke to us.” When they glimpsed the existing green roof up top, they were sold.

For about five years, they have steadily renovated and furnished the place in phases, with the help of architecture firm Studio Zung and interior designer Alexis Brown, always careful to keep it livable as they work—especially in the summers when they carve out time to surf, swim, hike, and entertain.

To further access the vistas beyond (the house, which sits on top of a hill, offers views of both the ocean and the bay), they added more windows. In the summer, they’re mostly left open so that, as Miner says, “you can basically live outside.” To warm things up, they ripped up manufactured bamboo floors and replaced them with solid Dinesen ash and refinished many walls with hand-applied plaster. They reworked the staircase in ash and powder-coated metal,

and streamlined a few spaces, particularly the kitchen, to create a more casual, entertaining-friendly floor plan. Some elements—like the fossil-stone counters in the bathroom— they left just as they were. And then there was the landscape, in which Brooks introduced trees, a peony path, and a cutting garden. “We planted it very informally, so that things feel quite wild and free,” says Johnson, a flower lover who finds endless inspiration for her collections in the garden.

Brown, who worked with the family on their Brooklyn home and designed several of Johnson’s retail spaces, layered the couple’s personal collections—textiles, baskets, ceramics, shells—with custom pieces and vintage finds (think worn-in Charlotte Perriand chairs; lots of Willy Guhl and Walter Lamb outside) to conjure a laid-back but elevated beach-house vibe.

“They really wanted it to feel warm—a place where the kids could be, a place where their friends could be. A really relaxing oasis for when they want to get out of the city and chill but still feel inspired.”

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A LINDSEY ADELMAN CHANDELIER CROWNS THE SAWKILLE CO. DINING TABLE AND CHARLOTTE PERRIAND CHAIRS. A SHEILA HICKS WORK HANGS ABOVE A 1970s STONE CONSOLE. BELOW A ROGER CAPRON COCKTAIL TABLE ON THE ROOF DECK, WITH VINTAGE WILLY GUHL PLANTERS AND CUSTOM CUSHIONS.

“We’re often feeding at least 13,” Johnson says with a laugh.

VENEERED WHITE-OAK CABINETS AND POLISHED MARBLE SET THE TONE IN THE KITCHEN, WHICH STARS CERAMICS

BY SIMONE BODMER-TURNER, NATALIA ENGELHARDT, RAQUEL VIDAL, AND PEDRO PAZ. THE STOOLS ARE BY SAWKILLE CO., AND THE MULBERRY PAPER ARTWORK (AT RIGHT) IS BY ALIDA KUZEMCZAK-SAYER.

LEFT A TAPESTRY BY ANALIA SABAN SHIMMERS IN THE PRIMARY BEDROOM, WHERE PILLOWS AND BLANKETS ARE MADE FROM VINTAGE TEXTILES. BELOW CERAMICS

BY SHIZUE IMAI AND SHINO TAKEDA SIT TUBSIDE WITH A VINTAGE SHELL MIRROR.

WITH EVERYTHING THEY’VE BROUGHT back from their travels,

there’s inspiration aplenty. Nearly every object has a story.

There’s the mingei Japanese raincoat made of seaweed that hangs in the stairwell. On the dining table, there’s a 200-yearold bowl Johnson uses for flower arranging that she found in the remote Brazilian town of Paraty. In the living room, there’s looking at craft, we’re also looking at fine art,” Miner explains.

“We’re really interested in that intersection.” a vintage French fishing basket hung from the ceiling like an In spite of the many beloved objects, Johnson insists, “I’m ethereal sculpture. not precious about things in the home.” Wet swimsuits sit on “I was brought up with this love of objects—especially ones the vintage leather sofa. Several cushions need post-pillow-fight that have a personal story or have been created by hand,” says Johnson, whose archaeologist parents gathered treasures across mending. A basketball has, more than once, come startlingly close to a fragile Kazunori Hamana pot. But this is their life. And the globe (her mother, also a painter, collected folk costume). they love nothing more than a house filled to the brim. “We’re Not surprisingly, Johnson has a particular affinity for textiles—batiks and shibori dyes, and anything hand-loomed— often feeding at least 13,” Johnson says with a laugh.

Dinner parties frequently start with drinks on the boatlike which she has been amassing over the decades. With Brown’s roof deck and finish there, stargazing with a pair of telescopes. help, she has turned many of them into pillows and blankets, In between, Miner, an avid cook, plays chef. The first weekend like the custom quilt in the primary bedroom. Outside, some in May marked the season’s opening of their go-to fish market, patterns from her runway collections—florals from spring so they served the kids’ favorite: linguine con vongole.

2022—have become all-weather upholstery fabrics.

Considering their favorite piece in the house, Johnson and The couple’s art collection—spearheaded by Miner—is a perfect complement to the house’s decor. Textile-based works Miner come to an unexpected conclusion: the bunk beds in the basement, the kids’ sphere where they retreat for ping-pong, like a thread-wrapped canvas by Sheila Hicks and a coppergames, and puzzles. “When those are full, the house is full,” wire-and-linen tapestry by Analia Saban mix in with pieces Miner explains. “It means we’re having fun. Friends are here. that nod to the beachy locale—paintings of shells by emerging Family is here. And that’s what the house is for.” artists Paula Siebra and Veronika Pausova. “While we’re

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“It’s a relaxing oasis for when they want to get out of the city and chill but still feel inspired,” says designer Alexis Brown.

VINTAGE OUTDOOR LOUNGES, A TUUCI UMBRELLA, A WALTER LAMB ROCKER, AND A WILLY GUHL SIDE TABLE SIT BY THE POOL, WHICH IS FLANKED BY A WILLOW HEDGE ON THREE SIDES.

design notes

THE DETAILS THAT MAKE THE LOOK BIRDHOUSE BY LISA VISCARDI; $550. COMMUNE DESIGN.COM

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IN A SON’S ROOM, THE BED IS DRESSED WITH INDIAN PILLOWS, A VINTAGE QUILT, AND A 19TH-CENTURY NAVAJO TEXTILE. BIRDS IN THE AIR QUILT; $3,760.

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EEVA CHOKER; $495. ULLA JOHNSON.COM

VERSO TABLE VASE; $139.

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Everything has a story. The house is really a gathering of emotional touchstones.”

—Ulla Johnson

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EVA ROPE SANDAL; $495.

ULLAJOHNSON.COM MEADOW BOTTLE BAG; $295. ULLA JOHNSON.COM

PRODUCE D BY MAD ELINE O’MA LL EY

BRANCHING BUBBLE LIGHT BY LINDSEY ADELMAN; $28,000.

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In the summer we leave the windows open, and you’re just here amid the breeze.”

—Zach Miner

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A VERONIKA PAUSOVA ARTWORK HANGS IN A BATH.

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wild Interior designer Jamie Bush and architect William Hefner reimagine a 1960s Los Angeles home for a client with a dazzlingly eccentric point of view TEXT BY MAYER RUS PHOTOGRAPHY BY STYLED BY MICHAEL REYNOLDS

STEPHEN KENT JOHNSON

card

A WATERFORD CRYSTAL CHANDELIER CROWNS THE LIVING ROOM. SOFAS BY COUP STUDIO; COCKTAIL TABLE BY ARMAND JONCKERS; CHARLES DE LISLE LAMPS ATOP FACTURE STUDIO PINK RESIN TABLES; FRENCH 1950s ARMCHAIRS AND GIO PONTI STOOLS IN DIMORESTUDIO FABRICS. ARTWORKS BY CINDY SHERMAN (LEFT) AND JOHN BALDESSARI.

ABOVE THE ARCHITECT REPLACED THE ORIGINAL PITCHED ROOF WITH A FLAT ONE AND RECLAD THE STRUCTURE IN RECLAIMED BRICK.

oxy Chandigarh chairs and raw linen. Dinesen oak floors and rustic farm tables. Fifty shades of beige. “I didn’t want any of that,” Mary Kitchen avows, rejecting the current vogue among Tinseltown’s elite for soft, hushed minimalism and all things Perriand.

“I wasn’t looking for a cool midcentury house in the Hollywood Hills, with exquisitely tasteful interiors,” she says, adding emphatically, “I didn’t want a house that looks like everyone else’s.”

Mission accomplished. Ably abetted by her team of, well, let’s call them her enablers—interior designer Jamie Bush, architect William Hefner, and landscape maestro Raymond Jungles—Kitchen has conjured a blockbuster vision of Los Angeles swank, at once nostalgic and contemporary, sexy and funny, high-brow and low. With its circular skylights,

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color-blocked rooms, and pink-tinged indoor-outdoor terrazzo floors, the house represents a fearless pasticcio of Hollywood Regency, Art Deco, Palm Springs camp, tropical modern, granny chic, and a dash of Morris Lapidus–style Miami Beach cha-cha. It’s a heady brew, made all the more intriguing by Kitchen’s unapologetic refusal to abide by the shibboleths of modern taste—like the idea that selecting a painting because it matches the color of a sofa is somehow inherently vulgar.

“The house is a glamorous throwback fantasy, but it’s also weirdly unfashionable. Mary pushed it in the most courageous way. Most people simply wouldn’t have the chutzpah,” Bush says of his audacious client, a television presenter, model, and philanthropist dedicated to cancer research, children’s arts education, and a host of other causes.

Kitchen’s fictional backstory for the project involved a widowed L.A. socialite—a grande dame of the old school— who built the house in the late 1940s or early ’50s and maintained it, in all its recherché glory, until Kitchen and her husband acquired the property upon her passing. In reality, the Hollywood Regency–style abode, nestled in tony

THE LANAI IS OUTFITTED WITH GIO PONTI AND FRANCO ALBINI RATTAN CHAIRS FOR BONACINA 1889 COVERED IN DEDAR FABRIC, AN INDIA MAHDAVI COCKTAIL TABLE FOR RALPH PUCCI, CUSTOM SOFAS IN PERENNIALS FABRIC, AND MARC PHILLIPS ABACA RUGS.

VINTAGE CARLO SCARPA FOR VENINI CHANDELIERS HANG ABOVE A LEIGHTON HALL FURNITURE REGENCY-STYLE MAHOGANY DINING TABLE WITH 19TH-CENTURY GUSTAVIAN CHAIRS IN ROGERS & GOFFIGON MOHAIR VELVET. SIDEBOARD BY PAOLO BUFFA, PAINTING BY ALEX KATZ, AND SCULPTURE

BY ANAT SHIFTAN FROM HOSTLER BURROWS.

HAIR BY RENATO CAMPORA; MAKEUP BY FIONA STILES; MANICURE BY MASAKO LEONE AT MCNAIL ATELIER. © 2022 ALEX KATZ / VAGA AT ARTISTS RIGHTS SOCIETY (ARS), NEW YORK. © 2022 FRANK STELLA / ARTISTS RIGHTS SOCIETY (ARS), NEW YORK. CINDY SHERMAN.

ABOVE MARY KITCHEN, IN AN OSCAR DE LA RENTA GOWN AND LORRAINE SCHWARTZ JEWELRY, SITS IN FRONT OF A WALTER DORWIN TEAGUE PIANO FOR STEINWAY & SONS AND A FRANK STELLA PAINTING. FASHION STYLING BY DENA GIANNINI. RIGHT A TERRACE FEATURES A MORRIS LAPIDUS–INSPIRED STEEL TRELLIS.

Holmby Hills, was designed by architect Caspar Ehmcke and built in 1966. The residence is located just blocks from the landmark Brody House, a collaboration between architect A. Quincy Jones and decorator William Haines, which served as one of several stylish midcentury touchstones for the current renovation. Kitchen and her husband purchased the home from rock star Adam Levine and his wife, model Behati Prinsloo Levine, who had taken the interior down to the studs before abandoning the project in search of greener pastures elsewhere in the city.

“HONESTLY, THE HOUSE wasn’t that great, but it had generous

rooms with 14-foot ceilings and a few details that were worth preserving. Mary didn’t want to lose the original character entirely, so we tried to imagine what the house might have been if it had really exceptional period architecture,” Hefner recalls. Working within the original footprint, the architect completely recast the character of the structure by flattening its pitched roof, adding spruce modern eaves and corner windows, and cladding the formerly stucco exterior in whitepainted reclaimed brick, the same material he used for

LEFT A 1970s ITALIAN GLASS PENDANT HANGS ABOVE A CUSTOM BANQUETTE IN KELEEN LEATHER WITH A STUDIO VAN DEN AKKER TABLE AND CHAIRS IN THE BREAKFAST NOOK. BELOW THE CELADON-HUED PANTRY.

“I didn’t want a house that looks like everyone else’s,” homeowner Mary Kitchen asserts.

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outdoor screens, planters, and brise-soleils, as well as a few strategic walls of the interior. “It’s not a slavish re-creation of one particular style, but it has the right spirit and it feels familiar,” the architect says.

Inside the house, the purity of the crisp white exterior gives way to a delirious medley of color. The monumental living room, which measures 30 by 36 feet, is bathed in shades of pink and peach, the kitchen in celadon and forest green, the dining room in lavender, the primary bedroom in ice blue, and the extensively renovated poolhouse in bright yellow. The bedrooms of Kitchen’s three young daughters, as well as the bunk room they share for in-house sleepovers, are enveloped in different colorways of the same sprightly tulip-patterned fabric and wallpaper.

“Zoning the house by color allowed us to control the incredible variety of pieces and themes that Mary was drawn to, all these great things from far-flung periods and places.

Once we established the rules, we were free to play within those boundaries,” Bush explains. As an example, he cites the merry mélange of furnishings and artworks collected in the

LOZENGE-SHAPED SKYLIGHTS MIRROR TWIN KITCHEN ISLANDS TOPPED IN EMERALD QUARTZITE. STOOLS BY STUDIO VAN DEN AKKER, CUSTOM BRASS HARDWARE BY PASHUPATINA, AND SINK FITTINGS BY WATERWORKS. FLOORS HERE AND THROUGHOUT BY HERMOSA TERRAZZO.

CLOCKWISE FROM ABOVE THE PRIMARY BEDROOM HAS A CUSTOM BED IN PIERRE FREY FABRIC, VINTAGE WILLIAMS HAINES LAMPS, AN ALPACA SHEARLING RUG BY MARC PHILLIPS, AND ARTWORKS BY JOHN BALDESSARI (ABOVE BED)

AND ANNE TRUITT. A CHARLES HOLLIS JONES LUCITE CHAIR SITS BENEATH A MURANO CHANDELIER IN A DRESSING ROOM. A VICTORIA + ALBERT TUB AND A CHRISTOPHE DELCOURT SIDE TABLE ANCHOR THE PRIMARY BATH.

KITCHEN’S DAUGHTERS (FROM LEFT), BAYE, EDEN, AND MAINE, GATHER IN THE BUNK ROOM. QUADRILLE FABRIC, RH CARPET, SILVIO PIATTELLI PENDANT LIGHT, AND VINTAGE SKIRTED CHAIR IN DEDAR VELVET.

ABOVE KITCHEN’S HOME OFFICE HAS A CAMPANA BROTHERS CHAIR FOR EDRA, A LUIGI CACCIA DOMINIONI TABLE LAMP, DAVID BONK WALLPAPER FROM THOMAS LAVIN, AND AN ANNE COLLIER PHOTOGRAPH.

ABOVE RIGHT AN UGO RONDINONE SCULPTURE IS REFLECTED IN A JULIAN CHICHESTER MIRROR IN A POWDER ROOM. SINK AND FITTINGS BY SHERLE WAGNER, CALICO WALLPAPER, AND CHARLES HOLLIS JONES SIDE TABLE.

“The house is a glamorous throwback fantasy.

Mary pushed it in the most courageous way,” designer Jamie Bush says of his audacious client.

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extravagant living room: pedigreed Italian designs by Gio Ponti and Osvaldo Borsani; a restored seven-foot-wide Waterford crystal chandelier original to the house; William Haines barstools upholstered in Pepto-Bismol pink leather; a Walter Dorwin Teague piano for Steinway & Sons; fuddy-duddy vintage Louis XV–style bergères from Phyllis Morris; a 1970s brass banana-leaf sculpture; signature artworks by John Baldessari, Cindy Sherman, and Yayoi Kusama; and a massive Frank Stella Protractor painting articulated in, you guessed it, shades of pink and peach.

Bush peppered his various ensembles with bits of oldfashioned finery—Sherle Wagner marble toilets and giltfinished fixtures, accent walls of smoky beveled mirror, Dorothy Draper cut velvets, bullion-fringed pool umbrellas— as well as humble midcentury materials such as Formica, linoleum, cork, and vinyl. “Call it anti-establishment taste.

These are things that most people wouldn’t want or would tear out of an old house,” Kitchen says of the more outré decorative effects sure to set the teeth of persnickety aesthetes on edge. “I just love that it feels fun to me,” she concludes.

“At the end of the day, if you don’t have a sense of humor, what’s the point?”

ONE OF THE GIRLS’ BEDROOMS IS WRAPPED IN QUADRILLE TULIP-PATTERN FABRIC AND WALLPAPER. VINTAGE STILNOVO PENDANT FROM REWIRE.

PICTURE PERFECT

VAUGHN SPANN AND HIS FAMILY OUTSIDE THEIR NEW JERSEY HOME. OPPOSITE DOZENS OF COLLECTED ARTWORKS ARE DISPLAYED GALLERYSTYLE IN THE DEN. ANTHROPOLOGIE CHAIRS AND TABLE.

ANA BENAROYA. STANLEY WHITNEY. GABRIEL MILLS. REBECCA NESS. HALEY JOSEPHS. ROBERT NAVA.

For artist Vaughn Spann and his young family, home is an art-filled midcentury house in New Jersey TEXT BY

GAY GASSMANN

PHOTOGRAPHY BY

MAX BURKHALTER

four years after earning an MFA from Yale, American artist Vaughn Spann is juggling sold-out solo shows, endless requests for his work, and a family life that includes three young children. (His eldest child was an infant while Spann was in grad school, so he had a crash course in balancing work and home.)

With a practice dedicated to both abstraction and figuration, employing a distinctive technique that involves building up thick layers of paint and mixed media to create highly textured surfaces, Spann is one of the breakout art stars of the past few years. Recently, he also wrapped up a major house renovation.

The family wanted to settle in New Jersey, where both Spann and his wife are from. They were looking for something in the Maplewood area, near relatives and Spann’s studio. “We were in our previous place for about three months, and we purchased this place during the summer of 2020,” he explains. “We were looking for a modern house, so when we saw the For Sale sign, I was curious. We loved it immediately. Nothing was negotiable, like the crumbling stairs. It was take as is, so we did.”

The modernist house is unique among the grand and spacious historically inspired properties in the neighborhood.

© 2022 KENNY SCHARF / ARTISTS RIGHTS SOCIETY (ARS), NEW YORK

Just

ABOVE IN THE LIVING ROOM, SEATING INCLUDES A VITRA SOFA, A CB2 LEATHER DAYBED, AND CHAIRS FROM DESIGN WITHIN REACH. RH RUG; PAINTING BY KENNY SCHARF. OPPOSITE JEAN PROUVÉ CHAIRS FOR VITRA SURROUND A CB2 DINING TABLE ON THE SCREENED-IN PORCH. NANIMARQUINA RUG.

Most sit right on the street, whereas this early 1950s house is set back some distance from the curb and so can almost be overlooked. “Actually, we thought it was a much smaller house at first, as one of the trees was blocking the building!” Spann recalls. “Several of our neighbors have said they didn’t even know there was a house here.”

As noted, the five-bedroom, three-bath residence was in need of care. The new homeowners turned to architect Gary Rosard to expand the footprint—enlarging the kitchen, for example—while also taking great care to respect the

building’s integrity and original style. “There was carpeting everywhere, which we pulled up, but we kept all the walls, beams, and rooms,” the artist notes. “We just amplified the aesthetic.”

When it comes to the renovation, Spann describes himself as being “OCD,” adding, “We cleared a lot of trees, repaved the driveway, and redid the steps. We bought everything you see in the house. We modified the landscaping a bit, especially in the backyard, which was basically a hill. It’s now a twotiered garden, so we have lots of outdoor space for the kids.”

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“I love looking through books about design and architecture,” Vaughn Spann says.

What had been a cool brown exterior is now painted a deep charcoal. And the front door went from orange to pink!

Spann wanted to make sure the family made the new place their own and added personal touches to make it comfortable and functional for all of them. Plus, there’s plenty of wall space for his growing art collection, which shows up in every room. “I love looking through books about design and architecture,” Spann says. “My go-to is curves, circular, round, and guess what, that’s me being a parent. No hard edges. Very organic and comfortable.”

“I love that our home is as cozy as it is beautiful,” his wife says. “Our kids come home, throw off their shoes, and run to the den, and five minutes later you’ll find them jumping off the knot pillow into their ball pit. It’s literally a beautiful mess.”

KENTURAH DAVIS

CREATURE CHAIRS BY BRETT DOUGLAS HUNTER PULL UP TO A CRATE AND BARREL TABLE. PAINTING BY SPANN. ABOVE AN ARTWORK BY SPANN OVERLOOKS THE LIVING ROOM SITTING AREA.

A STANLEY WHITNEY PAINTING IN THE PRIMARY BEDROOM. RIGHT A PAINTING BY MARCUS BRUTUS HANGS NEXT TO A SAARINEN TABLE FOR KNOLL SURROUNDED BY CHAIRS BY GEORGE PLIONIS AND WEIRAN CHEN FOR ROCHE BOBOIS.

THE KITCHEN FEATURES PENDANTS FROM DESIGN WITHIN REACH, A WOLF COOKTOP AND OVEN, AND A SUB-ZERO REFRIGERATOR.

HAIR BY CHRIS MCMILLAN FOR SOLO ARTISTS; MAKEUP BY KATE LEE FOR THE WALL GROUP

NANCY MEYERS HEADS OUT TO THE GARDEN. LANDSCAPE DESIGN BY MIA LEHRER OF STUDIO-MLA. OPPOSITE LUSH, MATURE PLANTINGS CREATE A WELCOMING ENTRANCE.

HAPPY ENDING

Having undergone a refresh at the hands of designer Mark D. Sikes, the longtime L.A. home of beloved filmmaker Nancy Meyers is ready for its close-up TEXT BY

CATHERINE HONG

PHOTOGRAPHY BY

AMY NEUNSINGER

if

the story of writer-director-producer Nancy Meyers and her house were a Hollywood movie, it would most certainly be what the late philosopher Stanley Cavell famously termed a “comedy of remarriage.” Just like His Girl Friday, The Philadelphia Story, and The Awful Truth—three of the best-known examples of the genre from the 1930s and ’40s—this feature would begin at the couple’s breakup, trace the rekindling of their sparky romance, and end with their delightful reunion. In this case, however, our heroine’s romantic partner is not Cary Grant. It is her Provençal–style house in Los Angeles.

Sixteen years ago Meyers, the creative powerhouse behind Something’s Gotta Give, The Holiday, and It’s Complicated, decided that things were over

LEFT MEYERS IN HER HOME OFFICE. FLOWERS HERE AND THROUGHOUT BY JOSEPH FREE. RIGHT THE LIVING ROOM SOFAS WEAR A DE LE CUONA LINEN. THE PAIR OF MORRIS CHAIRS IS

BY LUCCA STUDIO, THE COCKTAIL TABLE IS FROM DÉMIURGE NEW YORK, AND THE MIRROR IS FROM BLACKMAN CRUZ.

between herself and her five-bedroom dream home.

For several years, the house had been a beloved refuge. But when daughter Annie went off to college, the house—which Meyers had started building when she was married to the girls’ father, director Charles Shyer—seemed much too big for just her and younger daughter Hallie. “After many years of enjoying this house, I decided I should move to a smaller one,” she says, her eyes twinkling behind horn-rimmed glasses.

Dressed in a crisp white blouse, she’s seated in the home office, where she’s conducted most of her pandemic-era Zoom interviews, a long wall of white-painted bookcases crammed with books and framed family photos behind her. “So I bought the house next door and hired architect Howard Backen to build me a new one,” she continues. That one was going to be much more modestly sized and modern, conceived around indoor-outdoor living. But since

it was going to take a couple of years, “I thought to myself, I’ll just change things up here in the meantime,” she recalls. “Basically, if something was dark— like my dining room table—I made it light, and if it was light, I made it dark.” Pause. Cut to our heroine’s light-bulb moment, when she realizes that she might be making a big mistake. “I fell back in love with my house!” she says with a laugh. She abandoned the plan, sold the place next door, and has stayed happily ensconced here—with some recent “freshening up,” which we’ll get to in a moment—ever since.

Meyers’s talent for conjuring movie homes that audiences covet for themselves has been evident since 1991’s Father of the Bride, which she cowrote.

That film (starring Steve Martin) featured a posh white Colonial that seems an early cinematic testament to the low-key good taste that Meyers’s own movies would come to embody. With each film since,

Meyers has masterminded one mouthwatering interior after another. Who has watched Something’s Gotta Give and not swooned over the Diane Keaton character’s Hamptons living room, with its acreage of inviting white sofas? Or the elegantly rustic kitchen in It’s Complicated? People’s obsession with her film interiors, Meyers has said, is so passionate that she fears it sometimes “overshadows” the films themselves. Still, her attention to every chair, lamp, and book on set remains unwavering: “Characters’ homes convey so much about the people who live there,” she says. (Having just inked a deal with Netflix to write, direct, and produce a new ensemble comedy, the director is surely about to envision new spaces that will set fans’ hearts ablaze.)

At any rate, she can’t resist her penchant for beauty, a trait she traces back to her late mother, Patricia, who regularly dragged young Nancy and her sister to

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“Nothing was a complete departure from what was there before,” Sikes notes.

“What you see here is really Nancy’s personal style.”

PAUL FERRANTE LANTERNS HANG ABOVE AN ARRAY OF SUTHERLAND FURNITURE PIECES IN THE POOLHOUSE, WHICH WAS DESIGNED BY ARCHITECT LOREN KROEGER. THE LANDSCAPING IN THIS AREA WAS DONE BY DEBORAH NEVINS & ASSOC. POOLSIDE, RH UMBRELLAS SHADE SUTHERLAND FURNITURE CHAISE LONGUES.

antiques fairs. “We would drive out to the country outside of where we lived in Philadelphia and she’d load up the trunk,” she says fondly. “She was always rearranging furniture or refinishing something in the garage. She had lovely taste.” Meyers seems to have passed the decorating genes to Annie and Hallie. (It’s hardly a coincidence that Hallie, also a director, made the film Home Again, starring Reese Witherspoon as an interior designer, which Meyers herself produced.)

“I mean, it’s fun,” she says. “My girls and I are on a group chat every day, and often it’s ‘Look at this thing I found on eBay.’ ” “INTENSE!” IS HOW Los Angeles–based interior designer

Mark D. Sikes describes Meyers’s focus on details.

Having collaborated with the director on her home over the past eight years (in fact, she wrote the introduction to his first book, Beautiful), he’s come to know her well. “You hear the stories about how as a director she’ll do, like, 50 takes to get just the right one?” he says, chuckling. “Just apply that to her design process.”

Meyers first met Sikes by chance, when she was visiting home-design showrooms on La Cienega Boulevard with Annie. Meyers had agreed to help her daughter decorate her new house and was feeling, as she puts it, a bit “panicked.” They saw a young man setting up a display in a store window who was using “a lot of the same fabrics we had just picked out,” recalls Meyers. (It was during L.A.’s annual Legends of La Cienega event, when interior designers create artful window displays in local showrooms.) “We started chatting and showed him the samples we had in our bags. He was like, ‘That’s good with this’ and ‘No, not that one,’ and pulled something together in, like, a minute. It was clear we were in sync,” she says.

Meyers first brought Sikes in to work on the outdoor areas of her property, which finally culminated in what they refer to as a “refresh” of pretty much the whole house. “From my perspective, what I did was more about giving the house an ‘updated new essence’ than anything else,” he says, pointing out that many layouts remain virtually unchanged from what Meyers and James Radin, her house’s first interior designer, conceived of when she first moved in. “Nothing was a complete departure from what was there before; what you see here is really Nancy’s personal style.”

Full of natural light, warm woods, and pillowy white linen sofas, it’s as gorgeous, inviting, and casual-easy-living California as a home a Meyers heroine might inhabit. These are not rooms built around single showstopping elements, like milliondollar paintings or car-size light fixtures; they feel

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THE KITCHEN BOASTS A PAIR OF ISLANDS. BUELL STOOLS FROM 1STDIBS; ANN-MORRIS PENDANT LIGHTS; WATERWORKS SINK FITTINGS. THE PLATES AND BOWL ON THE LEFT COUNTER ARE BY CAROLINA IRVING & DAUGHTERS.

“I always wanted a big farmhouse-style kitchen,” Meyers explains. “In my old house, I would have to ask someone to scooch in so I could open the refrigerator door.”

MEYERS TIDIES UP THE LAWN WITH HER LEAF BLOWER. BELOW PALECEK CHAIRS SURROUND A TABLE FROM LUCCA ANTIQUES IN THE KITCHEN’S DINING AREA.

unburdened by the effort to impress (while of course making visitors coo with longing). More than a few of Meyers’s new additions, such as the antique table in her entryway, come from Rose Tarlow, whose store in Los Angeles has been a favorite source for years.

(It’s where one particularly eye-catching side table featured in Diane Keaton’s bedroom in Something’s Gotta Give was found.) The one construction project Meyers did undertake, an airy new poolhouse with a wall of sliding glass doors, seamlessly echoes the main house.

“I like creams, I like whites, I like black accents,” Meyers says, gesturing around her living room. “I’ve always been in this zone.” Asked about her decision to use white linen fabrics for both her den and her living room, she pauses, an almost quizzical expression on her face. “I think I hesitate to do color because I don’t know that I’d ultimately be happy with it.” Then she adds with some urgency: “It’s not quite as bright white when you see it in person,” she says. “The living room tones are a little more flax colored.”

According to Sikes, it’s these subtleties that make all the difference when decorating à la Nancy.

“We may have looked at 50,000 different ivory linens,” he jokes. The different palettes in the two spaces are the result of very careful deliberation, he explains.

“The family room has off-white sofas and flax drapery, while the living room has nubby flax upholstery, ivory pillows, and darker flax drapery.” He considered

it a triumph when he persuaded his color-cautious client to add muted notes of greens to the family room.

And it took “years” of gentle pushing until Meyers agreed, after much coaxing, to position a pair of slatback chairs at the entrance to the living room. “It’s in Nancy’s DNA to question and analyze everything,” he says. “The road of getting there is a process.”

WHEN IT COMES TO MEYERS’S luxuriously large

kitchen featuring not one but two islands, however, he refuses to take credit. Created when the house was constructed 24 years ago, the major elements— from the Cotswolds-style stone floors to the glassfronted white cabinetry—remain unchanged. The room is still one of her favorites. “I always wanted a big farmhouse-style kitchen,” she explains. “In my old house I would have to ask someone to scooch in so I could open the refrigerator door.” Sikes kept his hand light here, swapping in barrel-back wicker chairs and white Ann-Morris pendants. “These counter stools are new too,” Meyers notes, adding a confession: “I saw them in a photo of Ina Garten’s house and I copied them!”

In another example of judicious restraint, Sikes left Meyers’s home office untouched, its handsome dark-wood desk centered in front of huge windows.

“It has good vibes,” she admits. “I remember standing

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here with Mark, saying, should we change it? But he said, no, it looks great.”

The filmmaker’s grandest gesture by far was the construction of an 840-square-foot poolhouse, sited on a raised limestone terrace. “If I were to write about the build of this thing, I would call it ‘I thought I needed two umbrellas,’ ” she jokes. Its genesis, she reveals, lay in the unremarkable fact that after cutting down an overgrown ficus hedge, she needed some shade by her pool. That hypothetical pair of umbrellas became a full-fledged poolhouse, which in turn led to a new pool (now rectangular instead of oval), as well as a quest for clay roof tiles to match the ones on the house. For inside the structure, Sikes designed clean-lined built-in furniture (again, white upholstery) for a beautiful blend of form and function.

It was a huge production to be sure, but then again, nothing that this Hollywood heavy hitter couldn’t handle. And in a nice closing of the circle, the architect she hired to design the structure, Loren Kroeger, was on the original team of architects from Howard Backen’s AD100 firm who designed the proposed smaller house next door that Meyers left standing at the altar 16 years ago. In effect, our heroine got to keep her big house and get her brand-new little house too. Talk about a happy ending. “It’s great, isn’t it?” she says.

ELLSWORTH KELLY

AN ARTWORK BY ELLSWORTH KELLY HANGS ABOVE A SECTIONAL UPHOLSTERED IN C&C MILANO FABRIC IN THE UPSTAIRS FAMILY ROOM. A STRIPED FABRIC BY FERMOIE COVERS THE OTTOMAN, AND THE RATTAN CHAIR IS

BY BONACINA 1889.

THE TERRACE IS FURNISHED WITH SEATING BY THE WICKER WORKS WITH CUSHIONS OF PERENNIALS FABRIC. STONE-TOPPED COCKTAIL TABLE BY SUTHERLAND FURNITURE; RH UMBRELLA; FORMATIONS HURRICANE LANTERNS.

DESIGNER FRANK DE BIASI SOURCED THE LOGGIA’S RESIN WICKER SECTIONAL IN TANGIER. VINTAGE SALTERINI PAINTED-METAL ARMCHAIRS, COCKTAIL TABLE, AND CONSOLE. ANN-MORRIS LANTERN AND SCONCES.

A NEW

Designer Frank de Biasi updates a grand Palm Beach manse for Emilia Fanjul Pfeifler and her family TEXT BY

MITCHELL OWENS

PHOTOGRAPHY BY

KRIS TAMBURELLO

STYLED BY

LAZARO ARIAS

W LEAF

ertain cities are known for iconic architects, talents whose houses and apartments set knowledgeable hearts aflutter. In the historic Florida resort community of Palm Beach, one of those visionary builders was John L. Volk, an Austrian émigré who arrived on the gilded island in the 1920s and left a legacy of villas ranging in style from Mediterranean Revival to neo-Georgian. “My grandparents’ house was a Volk,” says Emilia Fanjul Pfeifler, a cofounder of the Drawing Room, an elegant pop-up space on New York

City’s Upper East Side. “His work has such a distinctive look, especially the way he handled windows, which are a real giveaway if you’re familiar with him, and the staircases are always so pretty.” So when she and her financier husband, Brian Pfeifler, decided to make Palm Beach their permanent address after years of shuttling between Florida and New York, the couple went in search of that architectural ideal.

Designed in 1940 by Volk himself, the prize was a stuccoclad, tile-roofed British Colonial sited on the highest point in Palm Beach. Stylistic pedigree wasn’t the only aspect that garnered their admiration; the fact that the expansive house had been enjoyed by large families right from the start was an emotional draw. (L.A. Rams owner Daniel F. Reeves, who commissioned the house, was the father of six.) “I grew up in a world where family is super important, and when we

© 2022 THE ESTATE OF SIGMAR POLKE / ARTISTS RIGHTS SOCIETY (ARS), NEW YORK/VG BILD-KUNST, BONN, GERMANY

LEFT EMILIA FANJUL PFEIFLER ON THE LOGGIA WITH A MOROCCAN TABLE AND CHAIRS.

LEFT A LE MANACH FABRIC ENVELOPS THE DINING ROOM, AND A FORTUNY PRINT DRESSES UP THE CHAIRBACKS. THE JACQUES ADNET CHANDELIER WAS A PARIS FLEA-MARKET FIND. RUG BY STARK CARPET.

BELOW A PAINTING BY SIGMAR POLKE HANGS ABOVE THE SOFA IN THE LIBRARY. THE SAME GUY GOODFELLOW COLLECTION PRINT COVERS THE SOFA AND THROW PILLOWS, ARMCHAIR, TUFTED OTTOMAN, AND ROMAN SHADES.

GEORG BASELITZ

“We have three kids that have friends over constantly, four dogs that run around everywhere, and a hamster. It’s a perfectly sized house for that kind of life,” says Emilia Fanjul Pfeifler.

CLOCKWISE FROM ABOVE BOUGAINVILLEA FRAMES THE LOGGIA; VINTAGE SALTERINI CHAISE LONGUES WITH CUSHIONS OF FIG LEAF FABRIC

BY PETER DUNHAM TEXTILES; LANDSCAPE DESIGN BY SMI LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE. A COCKTAIL TABLE TOPPED WITH A MASSIVE MARBLE SLAB AND AN ANTIQUE MANTELPIECE, BOTH FROM ITALY, ANCHOR THE LIVING ROOM; PATTERSON FLYNN RUGS. A BLUESTAR HOOD ADDS A POP OF COLOR TO THE KITCHEN; GORDIOLA GLASS CEILING LIGHTS FROM SPAIN; COUNTER STOOLS BY DÉMIURGE NEW YORK.

an idiosyncratic yet welcoming whole. The effect has as much bought the house, it had belonged for decades to a really nice to do with the Pfeiflers’ informed input as with de Biasi’s knack family with five children,” says Fanjul Pfeifler, granddaughter for juggling periods, styles, and materials. of a Cuban sugar king who immigrated to Florida when Fidel “Brian and I really care about every last doorknob,” Fanjul Castro came to power in the late 1950s. “We have three kids Pfeifler unapologetically admits, “and Frank allows us to get that have friends over constantly, four dogs that run around everywhere, and a hamster. It’s a perfectly sized house for that really involved.” The threesome headed to Italy, France, and England to get “lots of antiques, stone mantels, tiles, and more kind of life.” Accommodating that domestic vitality is where to make the house more special,” the designer says. Part of AD100 interior designer Frank de Biasi, who masterminded that booty is the living room’s hunky cocktail table. “We went two earlier residences for the clients, comes in. This time to this incredible place in the Italian countryside where there around, though, at their suggestion, he relocated to the island were piles and piles of stone and tiles,” Fanjul Pfeifler recalls, from his home in Morocco (AD, April 2020) for six months to oversee every detail of the renovation. “I really got into the “and bought this crazy piece of unfinished marble and just had a base made for it.” architecture, the design, and the local artisans I could work Wide planks sourced at a salvage operation in upstate with to make the house special,” de Biasi explains. “It’s the New York pave much of the main level, relieved by well-worn coolest thing I could ever have done.” squares of vintage marble in the entrance hall and equally distressed parquet de Versailles—partly covered with the customINCORPORATING MOST OF THE FURNITURE and contemporary made Portuguese needlework carpets to which the couple abstract art from the couple’s former New York City aparthave become addicted, thanks to de Biasi—in the beamed living ment—even the children’s rooms are outfitted with smartly room. “We don’t love a lot of carpeting, and since this is an recycled familiarities—the designer has produced a house all-season house we left the wood raw,” Fanjul Pfeifler points that blends formal, rugged, bodacious, and cutting-edge into

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IN FANJUL PFEIFLER’S BATH, A 19TH-CENTURY ITALIAN INLAID MIRROR AND PRESSED FLORAL SPECIMENS BY STUART THORNTON HANG ABOVE A MARBLE TUB FROM URBAN ARCHAEOLOGY. LEFROY BROOKS FITTINGS; WATERWORKS MARBLE MOSAIC FLOOR.

out, though, she shruggingly admits, getting splinters in their feet is not uncommon. Walls have been heartily textured, too, from stucco carefully combed like pinwale corduroy in the living room to pine boards that have been lightly wiped with gesso, then waxed by hand, in a guest bedroom. The latter mimics the room’s original Volk paneling, a detail that managed to get damaged during the renovation but which de Biasi deftly reconstituted.

Coupled with doors, windows, and moldings whose natural finish hearkens back to houses constructed during Palm Beach’s midcentury glory days—the 1937 wood-walled octagonal pavilion ordered up by society portraitist Bernard Boutet de Monvel is a de Biasi favorite—the unpretentious background

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hosts a heterogeneous mix of furnishings that shouldn’t work together but happily do. “We didn’t want to make it too off the mark,” de Biasi says of the eclectic assemblage. “It just feels comfortable, like old Florida.”

NINETEENTH-CENTURY ITALIAN PHOTOGRAPHS of landscapes,

Roman statuary, and palazzi swirl up the walls of the stair hall, where a 17th-century Italian inlaid commode found on a shopping trip in Rome is positioned beneath two Ed Ruscha paintings, one bearing the words SCREAMING IN SPANISH. (“I’m Cuban,” Fanjul Pfeifler says, laughing. “We do a lot of screaming in Spanish.”) In the kitchen, Danish-modern chairs are positioned in front of a blue-and-white Dutch-tile mural

A BONE-AND-BRASS FOURPOSTER FROM JOHN ROSSELLI & ASSOC. STANDS IN THE PRIMARY BEDROOM. PAINTED BEDSIDE TABLES FOUND ON 1STDIBS; WICKER BENCH FROM MOROCCO; CEILING LIGHT BY STEPHEN ANTONSON.

“I really got into the architecture, the design, and the local artisans I could work with to make the house special,” Frank de Biasi explains.

of an Old Master landscape, while the dining room walls are upholstered in a king-size blue-and-white gingham check.

Between French doors that open to the loggia—arguably the family’s favorite location for meals, conversation, and just hanging out—a feverish Harold Ancart mixed-media work is positioned above a gilded Italian neoclassical console. In Brian Pfeifler’s dressing room and office stands a vintage Jacques Quinet desk wrapped in macho black leather, while the couple’s bedroom is sluiced with flowing curtains run up in a Brobdingnagian blue-and-white plaid cotton that de Biasi designed and had woven in Tangier, where he lives.

“Nobody else has it, which I like,” he says of the fabric.

“Reinventing the wheel is what I like to do with every project.”

design notes

THE DETAILS THAT MAKE THE LOOK

A WOVEN COTTON COVERLET FROM MOROCCO ADDS COLOR TO A GUEST ROOM.

MOROCCAN ARCH PLANT STAND; $580.

HABIBIBURTON.COM NIGHT OWL BUD VASE; $95.

HABIBIBURTON.COM

FLORIN WALL LIGHT; PRICE UPON REQUEST. JAMB.CO.UK

AMALFI CARREAUX COTTON BY LE MANACH; TO THE TRADE. PIERREFREY.COM

GUSTO CANASTA WINGBACK CHAIR, UPHOLSTERED IN REGATTA LINEN STRIPE SHEER BY SCHUMACHER; $4,500. GETTHEGUSTO.COM

I’m old-school. I want to see it, touch it, talk with the dealer.

I’m tired of buying things online.”

—Frank de Biasi 110

ARCHDI GE ST.COM

BONE INLAY TABLE; $2,075. JOHN ROBSHAW.COM

VINTAGE KILIM; PRICE UPON REQUEST. WOVEN.IS

PRODUCE D BY MAD ELINE O’MA LL EY

INTERIORS: KRIS TAMBURELLO. ALL OTHERS COURTESY OF THE COMPANIES.

BOBBIN CONSOLE BY TURNER POCOCK FOR CHELSEA TEXTILES; $2,279. CHELSEATEXTILES.COM

Brian and I really care about every last doorknob, and Frank allows us to get really involved.”

—Emilia Fanjul Pfeifler

A VINTAGE BLUE-AND-WHITE TILE MURAL DRESSES UP A WALL IN THE KITCHEN.

KINTBURY STRIPE FABRIC BY GUY GOODFELLOW COLLECTION; TO THE TRADE. JOHNROSSELLI.COM

LEADED LANTERN; $3,437.

ROSEUNIACKE.COM

THE CIRCULAR YACHT TABLE; $28,375. SOANE.COM

BOTANICAL STUDIES WALLPAPER DESIGNED BY DE GOURNAY, CREATED WITH MICHAEL S. SMITH; PRICE UPON REQUEST. DEGOURNAY.COM

THE BAR IS COMPOSED OF GLASS MOLDING, PANELS, AND DOORS

BY STERLING STUDIOS OF LONDON. SOANE BRITAIN BARSTOOLS.

JEFFERSON STREET ARMCHAIR; $4,900.

MOOREANDGILES.COM

Designer Nick Olsen’s Dutchess County farmhouse possesses all the optimism of the young republic— plus some revolutionary detours TEXT BY

MITCHELL OWENS

PHOTOGRAPHY BY

MAX BURKHALTER

STYLED BY

MIEKE TEN HAVE

AMERICAN

SPIRIT

VINTAGE PIECES FROM VARIOUS SOURCES MINGLE IN THE LIVING ROOM. THE YELLOW CHAIR WEARS A KRAVET LINEN, AND THE SOFA IS SLIPCOVERED IN A LEE INDUSTRIES STRIPE. JUTE RUG

BY PATTERSON FLYNN.

J

ust over six years ago, Manhattan interior decorator Nick Olsen recalls, “I was very busy with work and feeling a bit bedraggled— why couldn’t I do something just for me?”

The answer to that stressed-out lament swiftly presented itself: a dilapidated daffodilyellow 18th-century farmhouse in New York’s Dutchess County, shingled and humble and straightforward, and as spare and square as a sugar cube.

Driving to and from a photo shoot at a client’s house in the area, Olsen had cast covetous glances over the property, which was prettily perched atop a hill overlooking a main road.

One inquiry later, it turned out that it had been for sale forever.

Emboldened, he made a lowball offer that, to his surprise, was instantly accepted.

His new two-bedroom getaway possessed all the requisite swoon-worthy selling points—beautiful mantels, wide-plank floors, picturesque beams—as well as some wince-making elements that Olsen was determined to eradicate, such as a 1960s kitchen and several sketchy lean-tos. And who knew that renters had been cultivating marijuana in the attic?

“It was an exercise in stripping away,” the designer says of the renovation that followed, a process that advanced slowly as funding waxed and waned. “I wanted to rip off everything that wasn’t original,” except for the one-story late-18th-century wing that contains the kitchen; that was retained and improved with a Greek Revival porch. Olsen also wanted to regularize

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the main floor’s off-kilter layout—knocking together a couple of small spaces to create a commodious living-dining room and reworking the cramped staircase into an elegant Chinese Chippendale–style ascent. So he did. Yet as many renovating homeowners can appreciate, some plans remain incomplete.

For one, he still hasn’t replaced the cinder-block garage with something more pleasing. The swimming-pool daydream has been back-burnered for the time being, too, though, he brightly notes, he gets to splash down in one owned by nearby friends.

“Everybody called the place the Yellow House, so of course I had to go and paint it white,” Olsen says, adding that for a hot second he pondered painting it black. (“Very on trend but harsh in bright sunlight.”) Though the façade is no longer yellow, Olsen has carried the memory of that sunny tone indoors, from the crisp linen that dresses a wingback chair in the living area to a giant pencil, a store prop, that leans against a wall near the jet-black Saarinen dining table. Yellow also accents the entrance hall floor, which go-to decorative painter Chris Pearson crisscrossed with wide yellow and brown bands, and embellished with dark vermicelli squiggles that Olsen once spotted on some “kooky Italian tiles.” The effect is a madcap mash-up of ye olde mochaware and graphic patchwork quilts accompanied by, of all things, a sinewy Thonet chair (“Everybody butch loves that chair”), a dressy Louis XV–style taboret, a tramp-art stegosaurus, and a wood sculpture (“It’s supposed to be a bookcase, but it doesn’t work as a bookcase at all”) that resembles an unsteady stack of boxes.

CAROL ANTHONY

THE KITCHEN FEATURES AN ANTIQUE-TILE BACKSPLASH, A WOLF RANGE, A CIRCA 1800 SCANDINAVIAN TABLE, AND 19TH-CENTURY DINING CHAIRS SLIPCOVERED IN A SISTER PARISH FABRIC.

ABOVE DESIGNER NICK OLSEN IN THE GARDEN. A SET OF VINTAGE POWDER-COATED IRON PLAYING-CARD CHAIRS SURROUND AN RH TABLE. BELOW IN THE LIVING ROOM, GREEN CORDUROY CHAIRS FROM MEG BRAFF DESIGNS PULL UP TO AN EERO SAARINEN TABLE. THE EBONIZED COLUMN PEDESTAL AND FAUX-MARBLE TORSO WERE PURCHASED AT AUCTION.

“DECORATING IS ALWAYS VERY PERSONAL TO ME, and I wanted

to do tongue-in-cheek Americana,” Olsen explains of the painted floor and the animated spirit of the rooms that open off of it. Recollections of his childhood home in Pensacola, Florida, suffuse the decor’s DNA. “My late mother was country living to the max,” he observes. “Red, white, and blue, pineapples, plaids, checks, stencils—she loved it all.”

Olsen does, too, but he’s taken that vocabulary of the past and then fascinatingly fractured it, breaking it down here and building it up there in ways that are cheeky rather than reverential. The result is a big, sexy melting-pot mix that perfectly complements what Olsen describes as “a proud little house.” A plush Napoléon III club chair is parked beside a

When it comes to decorating, “I like to take things to the edge of crazytown,” Olsen says. skeletal cocktail table by populist designer T.H. RobsjohnGibbings. A West African stool crouches next to an old slipper chair clad in chintz, not far from a CB2 table and an IKEA floor lamp. The art is largely abstract (“I need to put the geometric next to the organic next to the floral”), works by Carol Anthony, Simon Nicholson, and Robert Vickers sharing wall space with a mirror wrapped in the kind of frame one associates with Old Master paintings and a pair of big tole birds that Olsen placed on either side of the stove hood.

“My pseudo-narrative is that the house was renovated in the 1940s,” Olsen explains of a fiction that gave him permission to combine granny fabrics with café-society special effects—such as the white trompe l’oeil drapery (created by decorative artist Agustin Hurtado) that seems to ruffle the guest room’s walls—an Art Moderne chest of drawers, and vinyl roller shades that have been finished to match. “I like to take things to the edge of crazytown,” Olsen says, “but still keep it comfortable and warm.” Pearson painted the motif of the guest beds’ coverlets onto the floor, so it appears as if the red-white-and-blue printed linen-cotton has flooded the room, entirely obscuring the original floorboards. In Olsen’s own bedroom, Pearson dappled the white walls and ceiling with colorful painted checks, kinetic accents that were inspired by the bedspread and bring to mind Piet Mondrian’s 1940s masterwork Broadway Boogie Woogie.

“Anyone who’s afraid of paint, I just say do it,” Olsen says.

After all, he points out, there’s not a lot one can do to make a pine floor interesting without resorting to two or three coats of latex and a bit of imagination. “Unless it’s beautiful or has some inherent value, I’ll paint it.”

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THE GUEST ROOM’S FAUX-DRAPED WALLS AND CEILING WERE PAINTED BY AGUSTIN HURTADO. CHRIS PEARSON PAINTED THE FLOOR TO MIMIC THE BED COVERLETS OF PIERRE FREY’S SIRENES.

“My pseudonarrative is that the house was renovated in the 1940s.”

ABOVE CHRIS PEARSON PAINTED THE PRIMARY BEDROOM’S WALLS AND CEILING TO COMPLEMENT THE BEDCOVER OF A JENNIFER SHORTO FABRIC. BLU DOT BEDSIDE TABLES; CHRISTOPHER SPITZMILLER LAMPS (ON DRESSER). RIGHT THE HOUSE’S WINDOW AWNINGS WERE MADE BY DAVID HAAG.

THE ENTRY FEATURES DECORATIVE PAINTING

BY BOTH HURTADO (WALL) AND PEARSON (FLOOR). THE BLUE-GLASS MIRROR IS BY SKYFRAME IN NEW YORK CITY. SISAL STAIR RUNNER BY PATTERSON FLYNN.

one to watch

Sarita Jaccard

“When I arrived it was all grass,” says landscape designer Sarita Jaccard, describing her client’s 1925 home in Los Angeles. Today the plot (pictured) teems with native plants, among them milkweed, salvia, and California wild rose. “We wanted to bring it to life with colors and attract bees, hummingbirds, and butterflies.” Jaccard, a creative pollinator herself, is still rather green to the garden world. The Argentinean American got her start in 2017, working for the L.A. landscape guru Art Luna after cold-emailing him. About two years later, she launched her own office, now made up entirely of Spanish speakers.

Projects have been bountiful ever since, ranging from the West Adams home of artist Henry Taylor to the garden

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and swimming pool for actress and comedian Jessica Williams. Meanwhile, on the grounds of a Paul R. Williams house in Hollywood, Jaccard is sensitively restoring the outdoor spaces, planting a large olive tree and loads of California varieties. Thanks to a degree from NYU in environmental studies, she is attuned to the ecological impact of each job, favoring native, climateappropriate plants that require less water, choosing locally sourced materials, and urging her clients to consider gray-water irrigation systems. “I look at every project as a story that existed before me,” explains Jaccard, who is also mindful to acknowledge the role of Native people as the original stewards of American land. “What do I want to add to this story?” saritajaccarddesign.com —HANNAH MARTIN

PHOTOGRAPHY BY PIA RIVEROLA

LE ARN MORE AT STEINWAY.COM/COLORS

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