You may have seen the occasional story on Instagram over the past year highlighting a new build project that we are very excited about - The Villa.

 

The name is indicative of the aesthetic: a mediterranean-inspired home that marries our clients’ heritages and a soft, yet soulful style.

And yet, there is so much about this project that the name alone cannot conjure.  These clients are a fabulous young family and their dream house sits on 7 spectacular acres in the rolling countryside of Bartonville.  It will feature glorious flower and vegetable gardens along with miniature Scottish belted cows, beguiling miniature donkeys and heirloom chickens.  It has been an enormous pleasure to work on this project with these lovely clients, made even more so with the team of Scott Mitchell as builder and Aquaterra as landscape architect.

We are excited about each and every space in this house, but we only have so much time and you only have so much attention!  So we’ll feature a few rooms at a time over the next several weeks so you can stay updated on all our progress. 

We sourced the most incredible antique Swedish corner cabinets to flank either side of the entry for a beautiful first impression when you enter the home. I always like to set the tone for the home from the moment you walk through the front door. Both in palette and style, the entry sets the tone for the rest of the home - soft color, antique elements, and a hint of the Mediterranean. 

And since it is a “lantern” room, meaning that you see landscape on both sides of it, we are bringing the outdoors in with garden elements and a palette of greens, off-whites, terra cotta and taupe, oh and of course there’s a spectacular lantern anchoring the space, too.

The lantern will hang from this beautiful arched ceiling.

For the wife, this kitchen is where her heart lives. And both in plan and in style, it is the heart of the home. When we began this project together, I learned that an ivory Lacanche Sully 2200 had already been bought and was sitting in the garage of their current home.  I mean…be still OUR hearts! 

Keeping this range as a focal point in the home, here is a peek at the plans for the kitchen:

And a look at the inspiration we drew from:

We will be using a French antique draper’s table we sourced in Provence last summer as one of her two islands. A gorgeous honed marble window sill will house flowers and fresh herbs. Beautiful rustic reclaimed beams will serve as the counterpoint to the refined Swedish inspired stools and lend additional warmth to the collection of copper pots that we will array across the Zellige tile at the back of the range. 

Here is a similar style draper's table.

While this kitchen was inspired by that other kitchen of ours you’ve seen all over Insta, the palette will be very different as you can see…And can we just say that the pantry may end up being the prettiest we’ve ever done. It is anchored by the wonderful Sanderson pear espallier fabric that will be featured. We can’t wait to see it finished!

 When our client came to us specifying that they absolutely had to have a “chisme” in their new build, we said “absolutely!”. And then we thought, “what in the world is a chisme?!” Meaning “gossip” in Spanish, the chisme is dedicated to gatherings amongst friends and family to chat about all the things! In the spirit of coziness, we’ve designed custom seating to nestle under an arched window.

It will be swathed in a caramel velvet and accented with feather soft pillows in various color blocked fabrics. Swedish antique demilunes from our booth in Round Top anchor the other side of this room, along with some charming antique doors from East End Salvage.

For the palette of this room, I decided to play with the concept of femininity and masculinity, mixing caramel-tones with whispers of blue. Because let’s be honest, although women have the rep for spilling the tea, the guys are also willing to dish the dirt….