This Barn-Impressed Connecticut Dwelling Channels Complete Quiet
On a impressive hillside in Litchfield, Connecticut, overlooking the Housatonic River and the Appalachian Trail, my business, Alexander Gorlin Architects, conceived this residence as a series of Shaker-like barns, strung with each other to develop a village in the woods. Each barn contains a discrete function—the entrance corridor, the excellent place, the kitchen, the porch, the bedroom. A garage and guest condominium are connected to the principal home by a wisteria-draped courtyard. This straightforward, restrained exterior was my homage to the uncomplicated farmhouse vernacular of the area.
But a dwelling has a everyday living of its individual, and, mysteriously, at times it is the next proprietor who completely realizes the initial notion. In the home’s 1st incarnation, the interiors took an unexpectedly baroque Irish-place turn—think intense hues, piles of tartan, bewigged 18th-century busts. But when its most up-to-date house owners, Kalyn Johnson Chandler and Todd Chandler, purchased the property as a weekend getaway from their Tribeca and Miami residences, they immediately established about purifying the inside.
Kalyn and Todd enjoy a playful moment outside the house under the wisteria-draped trellis. Todd is a retired lawyer who now enjoys gardening and cooking, and Kalyn runs the boutique paperie Effie’s Paper, named after her grandmother. Their “beach home in the country” offers an effortless escape from New York.
Todd, a company attorney, and Kalyn, who runs a stationery shop called Effie’s Paper, had rented in the space for several years and have been in search of what Kalyn calls “a beach front dwelling in the region.” They fell in appreciate with this specific dwelling nestled in the lush Connecticut woods, and tapped Netherlands-born, South Africa–raised interior designer Ghislaine Viñas to refresh the decor. Soon after building the couple’s condominium in Tribeca, Viñas comprehended how they liked to operate. For this household, she aimed to conjure, in her words and phrases, “peace, serene, and simplicity, both of those everyday and tasteful.”
Hyperactive decor was stripped and whitewashed, allowing the present volumes to arise in serenity and mild. Low-profile furnishings ended up selected for the excellent space and major bed room, to contrast the significant ceilings. Because Kalyn and Todd are both of those resourceful, visually acute clients—spontaneous with a contact of glamour—Viñas acted extra as a curator, guiding them toward their vision for the property. She integrated their beloved colors, purple and grey, as well as nods to their travels a personalized blue carpet with a geometric lattice pattern, for instance, channels a kind of midcentury-present day twist on a Moroccan motif.
Open up on 3 sides to the look at of the river and bordering woods, the porch is nearly a freestanding framework just off the kitchen, excellent for entertaining outside (but harmless from mosquitoes). Even on the hottest times, the cooling breezes supply a breath of clean air. The classic dining table and chairs are from Palm Beach Regency.
In the lush, woodsy location, Kalyn enjoys what she phone calls “sitting inside but feeling outdoors.” Like when she beverages in the check out from the screened-in porch, open on 3 sides to offer you a panorama of the Housatonic. Or when she wakes up on a weekend, luxuriating in the tree dwelling tower of the major bed room, surrounded by forest in all directions. The bedroom’s tall French doors—crowned with modest, sq. clerestory windows—open onto a balcony searching out onto the river. Downstairs, a large row of clerestory home windows encloses the good area as properly, its soaring ceiling open up to the rustic rafters, which were reclaimed from an ancient barn. With an practically religious light from previously mentioned, this house becomes a sanctuary, a spot of tranquil for a person household in the midst of the turbulent globe around.
