For architect and designer Elliott Barnes, a minimalist approach to design can contain multitudes. Take, for instance, the Paris home he designed for veteran art collector and tech innovator Hélène Nguyen-Ban. "There was only one constraint," Barnes says. "She wanted to use one single material throughout the whole home." That material was the grayhued, porous, hard-wearing Vals quartzite that's been used in some of the world's most luxurious buildings, including Peter Zumthor's thermal baths in Vals, Switzerland. It covers two of the three floors in Nguyen-Ban's 8,000-square-foot home.
Here, the stone serves as the protagonist in a space designed to disappear. "My whole job was to provide Hélène the absence of presence," says Barnes, an ELLE DECOR A-List designer. "When a friend walks into a client's house, it's important to me that they feel it's a representation of that person. If they say, 'This is an Elliott Barnes space,' then I didn't get it right." Barnes's use of the stone served an overarching requirement: to afford the best environment for Nguyen-Ban's art collection, which includes contemporary pieces by Danh Vo, Thao Phan Nguyen, and Thu Van Tran.
"My art is part of my family," she says. "I wanted a space that would not only showcase my collection but enhance it.
Diese Geschichte stammt aus der Summer 2023-Ausgabe von Elle Decor US.
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Diese Geschichte stammt aus der Summer 2023-Ausgabe von Elle Decor US.
Starten Sie Ihre 7-tägige kostenlose Testversion von Magzter GOLD, um auf Tausende kuratierte Premium-Storys sowie über 8.000 Zeitschriften und Zeitungen zuzugreifen.
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And How! - Decorator Nick Olsen transforms a Sag Harbor home into a Hamptons retreat with an irreverent humor.
If you must go to the Hamptons, however-because it is devilishly good fun, after all-you may notice an apparently modest, low-slung cottage on Sag Harbor's Main Street and think, with a comfortable sort of feeling, Now that is how a house should look. Nestled amid the Botox bars, helipads, and club-staurants, it could almost set the sordid world aright both a rebuke and a solution to the chaos that surrounds it. A real home.
You Stay Here
At a Martha's Vineyard compound, Steven Gambrel and Tom Kligerman have made a guest retreat so good, visitors may never want to leave.
WHAT'S IN THE MIX?
Rayman Boozer brings his mastery of color and pattern to the renovation of a Harlem duplex for a young family.
THE EMPIRE
A 19th-century gem in Cambridge, Massachusetts, gets a tour-de-force restoration thanks to Frances Merrill of Reath Design.
Now You See It
A modernist beach house's discreet profile hides killer views and knockout interiors by Rafael de Cárdenas.
CIRCLE D'AMOUR
For an object lesson on how to design a Paris love nest, look to Pierre Yovanovitch.
PARK AND RECREATIONS
With the rise of electric vehicles and a fresh focus on design, the once overlooked garage is becoming a future-forward source of joy and energy at home.
Just Like That, But Cheaper
One writer tried to replicate a classic ELLE DECOR interior in his apartment. Could he do it for $500?
But This is My Home - One writer discovers that living in an architectural icon can be a blessing and a curse.
One writer discovers that living in an architectural icon can be a blessing and a curse. My husband and I moved into the Kallis House in Los Angeles six years ago. It was designed in 1946 by the modernist architect Rudolph Schindler, and it's believed by many, including Frank Gehry, to be among Schindler's best. The house is eccentric, perched on the lip of a hill, with a butterfly roof and a shaggy exterior made of grape stakes. The interior is an unfolding series of surprising angles, with a wonderful wide view of the San Fernando Valley.
A SISTER STORY
Jewelry designer Brent Neale Winston and her decorator sibling, Ramsey Lyons, recast a historic Long Island home.