The Interior of the Southern Accents Showhouse -- Part II

Before taking you upstairs, it's hard to not show you the stair hall.  Just off the entry and before the library, the stairhall is probably my favorite room in the house.  I never thought a stairhall could be a favorite room but it is mine.  Maybe it has to do with all the time and money we spent creating it, but it's one more element of the house that makes it a true Cotswold style house.  The paneling, tudor style baluster and hand painted burlap wall covering (from Rusty Arena) are beautiful and very fitting for the house.  The oak trusses in the ceiling complete the room.  Our carpenters did all of this work on site and in place including the hand turned finials on the newel posts.

At the top of the stairs you come to the first bedroom, the boy's room.  Joe designed this room, well, for a boy.  With all fabric walls and ceiling, this room is probably the quietest in the house.

Outside the boy's room and before the playroom is the children's library because every child needs their own library.

Just past the children's library is the playroom.  Designed to be large enough for television seating and a pool table, Joe had a different idea for the showhouse.

On the other side of the playroom is the girl's room.  Feminine is the best way to describe this room.  Needless to say, this was the favorite of every girl that toured the house.

The girl's bathroom completes the girl's retreat.  With all white Ann Sacks tile surrounding the tub and a unique limestone floor (also from Ann Sacks) this bathroom is perfect for a little (or any age for that matter) girl.  The photograph next to the vanity is my little girl when she was 5 years old.

On the complete other side of the house is the guest suite.  Above the garage and laundry room and with it's own staircase, the guest room is the most unique room in the house.  Joe selected Porthault linens for the bedding and they were the inspiration for the entire room.  With zebra stripe walls (all handpainted by Shaun Christopher) this room was the favorite of a lot of visitors.

The guest bath continues the same zebra stripe and has all Ann Sacks marble.

I hope you enjoyed the tour of the upstairs.  After I did my previous post on the downstairs, I realized I did not include pictures of the kitchen and morning room.  The cabinetry is all Wood Mode, the countertops are honed black granite and the backsplash is Ann Sacks Gothic tile (handmade in Maine).

The Interior of the Southern Accents Showhouse -- Part I

When I was first told that Joe Minton was being considered to be the interior designer for the Southern Accents Showhouse I wasn't sure what I thought.  I had seen many photographs of his work, knew he was known as one of the best interior designers in the United States and knew he would do an incredible job.  However, even though our offices are within a mile of each other, I had never met him before and had a big concern for the builder/interior designer relationship.  In addition, because of our time constraints on building and finishing the house I was worried about working with someone I had never worked with before.


Well, to say that things went well is an enormous understatement.  Joe and his staff were not only incredible to work with professionally, I feel that we have all become great friends.  They took on the project like they were being paid by their highest-paying clients.  And the outcome speaks volumes for the hard work and dedication they put into the project.

It is difficult to pick where to start with the pictures of the interior because every room is not only beautiful, but very fitting.  When asked what was his favorite room in the house, Joe said, "Whichever one I'm standing in."  Above is the formal living room which is sits directly in the middle of the house.  Even though this room is quite large, Joe's take on this room was to create a comfortable feeling of an estate in the English countryside.  His mixture of furnishings  and antiques are perfect for this room.  The floors in the living room (and throughout most of the house) are wide-plank, hand beveled oak.  The ceiling has enormous oak trusses.

I designed the paneling for the library in a Jacobean style.  Joe's selections for the room are classic English and the room is set up for work, reading or to simply watch television.  Everyone raves about this room and it was difficult to get visitors of the showhouse to move on from this room.

The master bedroom and bath are my favorite we have ever done.  The room is large enough to have two sitting areas.  Joe designed this with a nod to old Hollywood.  The walls are painted in a pearl color and the ceiling is in a very pale blue.  The windows overlook the pool and backyard.  There are two entries into the master bathroom -- her side and his.  On her side, you entire into an octagonal dressing area and on through two closets.  One closet is set up for handbags, shoes and out-of-season clothes and the other is a mirrored room with hidden closets.

The master bath resembles a bath you would see in the Savoy Hotel.  All white Calacatta marble with bespoke cabinetry.  The marble floor was designed to match the millwork on the ceiling.  This room is very bright and soothing.  Joe's mixture of stark white with antiques is beautiful.

When Joe first showed me the sample of the de Gournay hand-painted wallpaper for the dining room I was a bit scared.  The background color was ORANGE.  I think my first comment was, "Wow!".  After more thought, Joe had de Gournay change the colors of the paper and the room is about as much of a statement as a room can make.  The peonies in the paper are about 12"-14" in diameter.  The room is square and perfectly set up for a round dining table which I love.  There is a black tiled fireplace (we put tile in all the fireplaces) with a mantel from England.  The ceiling is silver leafed with a glaze on it.

The conservatory (above right) is one of the rooms of the house that gives a nod to the great estates of the 1920s.  Just beyond the entry hall, this room draws your eye through the house and to the backyard when you open the front door.  With black limestone floors, antique mirrors on one entire wall and french doors opening to the loggia the conservatory calls for morning coffee and a newspaper or afternoon tea.

The bright and cheery laundry room is done in crisp white walls, ceilings and cabinetry and a concrete tile floor from Ann Sacks.  The dog doesn't come with the house (he belongs to Joe).

 

Right after we finished the install on the house we were asked if Indulge magazine could do a fashion shoot at the house.  The first picture is in the master bedroom, the second is in the entry hall, the third and fourth are in the study and the bottom two are in the master bedroom and study.

In my next post I will be covering the rest of the downstairs and the upstairs.

Design Influence for the 2009 Southern Accents Showhouse

When I first met with Larry Boerder to discuss the design of the 2009 Southern Accents Showhouse, I explained my love of Cotswold architecture and how I would like to incorporate it into the Showhouse.  

After traveling to England years ago and spending time in the countryside of the Cotswolds region I was hooked on the design.  One of my favorite buildings of all was The Lords of the Manor inn in Upper Slaughter (the picture with the car in the motor court) which was originally a manor house.  Village after village was full of the architecture that has stood the test of time.  Buildings and homes are mostly all built of Cotswold stone which is a yellow oolitic limestone and the roofs are made of a slate stone.

For the Southern Accents Showhouse, Larry did an outstanding job of designing the house to appear as if it had been added on to over the years (see the rendering in my original post).  The stone we are using, while not yellow, is a close resemblance to a weathered stone and the closest I have found in the U.S. for the proper look.  Ours will be more of a cream and gray color and will have a gray slate roof similar to some of the pictures.

The pictures here are from the Cotswold area.  I hope you enjoy.

Sconces for an English House

While we are in the framing stage of building the 2009 Southern Accents magazine Showhouse, we are working on all of the details: door hardware, lighting, beams, kitchen design, tile selections, plumbing fixtures, etc.

One of my favorite building products to find is lighting.  As I've discussed in a previous post, lighting is not an easy selection to make.  At least, the correct lighting is not easy.  If you are going to build or remodel a house in a particular style, the lighting is one component that should match the design of the house.  Careful attention to the correct style can make the design of your house cohesive and beautiful.

The pictures I have included today are of interior and exterior sconces that I am considering using for the 2009 Southern Accents magazine Showhouse.  As I noted in the post on Spanish Colonial lighting, some of these could be used for Spanish Colonial houses but most of these today are exact reproductions of sconces that came out of English styled houses from the 1920's and 1930's.  I hope you enjoy seeing these and if you would like more information on buying any of these please send me an email for pricing, sizing, etc.