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Cauntry FUSION

On a plot of farmland on the Atlantic coast of Long Island, a firm of Manhattan architects and a London - based interior designer have created a barn - style holiday housefor their clients that is appropriate to its rural setting,yet has all the accoutrements of stylish modern living. It may not always be obvious to those of an urban bent, but the primary function of a barn is to house livestock and feed. Its only when you attempt to impose the requirements of modern man on a structure initially intended for cows that its drawbacks become apparent. My clients had owned a holiday cottage on Long Island for many years and then bought a large plot of farmland next to the sea, says London - based interior designer Veere Grenncy. They originally contemplated buying an English barn and shipping it to the US, but soon realised that wasnt practical. Instead, they contacted Marc Turkel, a partner in Manhattan architectural practice Leroy Street Studio, a firm noted for its sympathetic approach to local building materials and techniques. Mare helped the owners to reinvent the form, taking the simple language of a barn four timber sides, a pitched roof and a single large opening - and using it to make a compelling modern statement. At a distance, the house has a barn - like quality, he says, but here the facade acts like a screen, allowing light to filter through.
At first sight, the building, which sits in a glade of trees, appears solid and opaque. Yet coming closer you see that even - thing has been done to make the most of the surrounding views of fields and ocean. At the start we hired a cherry picker to identify the best vantage points, says Mare. The house was built upside down, with the huge, multi - windowed living space and main bedroom on the first floor, three more bedrooms and a large billiard room at ground level, and a gym and wine cellar in the basement. An Escher - likc array of staircases, gangways and bridges unites and animates the intricate internal space. As in a traditional barn, the link between indoors and out is fundamental, but here the relationship is anything but conventional. Those inside the building are constantly drawn to light and sky from the main entrance, where new arrivals step into an airy courtyard before reaching the front door, to the billiard room, which creates a tunnel of daylight across the house; from the first - floor veranda, with its wrap - around views and folding shutters, to the spinal skylight in the roof ridge. You arc always looking through the bunding, says Marc. Just two - and - a - half hours from New York, the house is used as a weekend retreat throughout the year, but the location has an emphatically holidays - by - the - seaside mood, and when it came to the interior design, Vcere Grenney set out to encapsulate long, hot, lazy days and balmy, starlit nights. We were trying to capture summer/ he says, hence the bleached - oak floors and gentle palette of aqua, stone, earth and creamy white. Comfort was, of course, a key part of the brief, and the decoration makes it easy to kick off your shoes and relax, but the interior, like the architecture, is not all it appears at first glance. Veere is a designer in the classical manner, whose work is defined by a ferocious attention to detail, reflecting a long career at the pinnacle of interior design. A New Zealander, who arrived in London along the hippy trail, he moved from life as an antiques dealer to a top - flight apprenticeship with Mary Fox Linton and David Hicks, then rose to prominence as a director of Sibyl Colcfax & John Fowler. He set up his own Chelsea firm in 1996 and now has an appreciative clientele on both sides of the Atlantic. For the past 15 years, weve always had a project in Xew York or die Hamptons, he says. Two characteristics of Veeres style are purity of line and quality of finish, but perhaps his greatest skill is the knack of combining the antique and the modem to create a look that is understated, luxurious and subtle. I think being a colonial means youre not restricted by tradition, he says. You have no preconceived notions of what you can and cannot do in a specific place.

Cauntry FUSION

In this Atlantic coastal home, the design is both specific to the place and anything but. The tradition of prosperous holidaymakcrs descending on Long Island goes back to the nineteenth century, and the vernacular of the large New England colonial - style Shingle houses that once dotted the shore, with their linear silhouettes and cedar frames, remains very much part of the narrative. The use of wood was integral to this revivalist style and here wood is also a central theme. The owner, an amateur boatbuilder and carpenter, asked thai the facade be clad in teak, a marine hardwood that fades to a grey similar to that of cedar while being much more durable.
Veere used wood as a dominant note, both as a finish and as an art form. In the main bedroom and adjoining bathroom, for example, he has added texture to the walls with seasidc - stvle matchboarding, painted in white gloss. And throughout the sleek, light - filled building he has carefully placed pieces by some of the twentieth centurys finest craftsmen, from ihe knotted solidity of George Nakashima to the sinuous curves of Jean Royere and Italian maestro Gio Ponli. This is country living with a strong city accent and the work of revered designers such as Terence Robsjohn - Gibbings and Maisonjanscn arc the reminder that, while ties have been loosened and suits abandoned, die highest design standards have been maintained. This is a house that seamlessly unites town and tradition in a constantly surprising and refreshing way.
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