Is an enduring design relationship like a good marriage? We think so. Take the case of New York designer Fawn Galli‘s collaboration with a peripatetic family who have ping-ponged between Paris and New York. Galli has worked on all their residences; her most recent project is the couple’s weekend house in West Cornwall, Connecticut. Galli handled the interiors, while architect Douglas Wright (a friend of the husband’s from college and a former colleague of Galli’s at Robert A. M. Stern’s office), oversaw the renovation.
The first order of business was to rethink the internal flow. “From what had become a rabbit warren of rooms, we created a plan for a modern family,” Wright says. “We recast the details of the original house in a completely new layout; original baseboards, doors, trims, and flooring.”
Galli took on the interior design. “The attitude of the house is Old World but modern, with a streak of bohemian,” she says. “It’s very much a weekend country house; the couple has three boys, 11, 14, 17, and they throw lots of dinner parties, play games, and read by the fire.”
Above: Wright added a modern black barn, which houses a rec room on the lower level and the master suite on the second story. Above: “In the living room, we painted the Stark sisal carpet with Benjamin Moore floor paint,” Galli says. “It brightens the space and is practical since it’s washable.” The $5 coffee table came from a rummage sale, and the French Ebonized Side Table is from Robuck. The wife inherited the Danish chairs from her family. Above: The wife, an editor at the Paris Review, collects books and antique textiles. The sofa fabric is Fern wool flannel from Holland & Sherry. Above: The cabinets are painted Babouche from Farrow & Bal. The dining table is a family heirloom. Above: “The tin-tiled ceiling reflects a lot of light,” Galli says, “which helps because the kitchen is on the dark side.” Above: A butler’s pantry is lined in wallpaper from Timorous Beasties. Above: The acid yellow velvet dining room curtains are lined with an ikat print (in the summer, they can be flipped for a lighter look). The light fixture is from a French flea market. Above: “We wanted an interesting color scheme in the reading room,” Galli says. “The walls are Farrow & Ball’s Fowler Pink (a Farrow & Ball archive color) and the trim is Brinjal.” The built-in banquette is covered in Lorca Kiss cotton velvet from Osborne & Little. Above: The Martin Sconces are from Schoolhouse Electric. Above: The hallway is papered in Lady Green wallpaper (“a baroque style print of lilies, blooming buds, and foliage”) from Abigail Borg. Above: In the hallway, the architects removed, restored, and reinstalled the original boards. Above: The guest bedrooms are almost entirely furnished in flea market and vintage finds. Above: In a guest room, the curtains are made from vintage toile that the owner collected in Paris. Above: “We painted the floors and pelted them with rocks to make them look distressed.” Galli says. Above: A bathroom with a vintage marble sink. Above: The clean-lined master bedroom is on the second floor of the barn addition. Above: The vintage industrial sink in the master bath is from Wyeth in New York.
N.B.: This post is an update; the original story ran on May 20, 2016.
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