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About This Design
Interior Design: Paul Miller
As with our design for Nest 801 in Winchester, at this historic Clarke County home, filled with antiques and personal history, we used a light touch to brighten and warm up rooms that our clients wanted to update.
One of our nesters was fonder of the existing living room design than the other. The partner who was left cold by the space had a moniker for it: the museum. The term was not used with much fondness and she was frank that she did not enjoy spending time in the room. He saw in it a lovingly built collection of American craftsmanship. I could see both sides of the debate. Often a designer works to diplomatically address differences in opinion like this between householders.
There were choices that our clients had already made that I thought worked exceptionally well, like the punchy ikat fabric on the antique wing chairs. What I saw as opportunities to take the chill off the space were in changing the wall color and floor covering. The larger antique furnishings and art would remain largely unmoved.
The new carpet, custom serged wool in a compact tweed texture, offers a warm, summer straw hue to the space, reflected in the new wall color, Benjamin Moore’s HC-18 Adams Gold. Embroidered custom lumbar pillows heighten the presence of color, double down on the American Fancy inspiration for the room, and take the rigidity out of a classic damask stripe already in situ on the settee.
The foyer wallpaper already in place at the house was stunning, a novelty design with Asian elements in a variety of unusual shades. Over the course of many trips to the house, nosing my car carefully through cow pastures and past an excitedly barking dog, I always looked forward to that first glimpse of the foyer wallpaper.
Yet my clients had lived with this paper choice for thirty-five years. That design had staying power, but it was time for something new. I wanted a design that was similarly playful and expressive, but that lightened up the space and complimented the stunning leaded glass light fixture at the heart of the entry. Figured with birds and bird cages, my first selection hit all those marks and was an instant hit with my clients.
The kitchen eating area is a more recent addition to the house, but even it had not seen change in several years. Here we added custom valances in a beautiful linen printed with watercolor botanicals, a nod to the acres of rolling Virginia farmland visible from the windows. The treatments were mounted to extend the visual height of the windows and to avoid covering the glass and that view. New cushioning on the primitive bench added a classic chambray blue to the mix and Benjamin Moore’s HC-1 Castleton Mist pulled soft hues of spring-like yellow green from the valances. A wool rug in a shades of taupe and brown offers durable warmth and a sophisticated take on the kind of checked design one might have found in a country home such as this - in the past or in any era.
This project offers a glimpse into the curated decisions a designer makes in order to honor what has come before, while opening up possibilities for fresh, new spaces that can inspire and uplift the nester for years to come. By taking a wholistic view of the design, as I do with every project, I was able to work with my clients to find choices that would have an impact and help them find a transformation that balances new and old thoughtfully.
