DRESSED UP DOWN EAST
Veranda|July - August 2023
EMERALD LACQUER, HADLEY-ESQUE PATTERN, AND UNABASHED GLAMOUR: DESIGNER MATTHEW CARTER DELIVERS BIG DECORATING SWAGGER TO A CLASSIC SUMMER RETREAT IN MAINE.
SOPHIE DONELSON
DRESSED UP DOWN EAST

It was the quintessential Maine summer house, recalls Matthew Carter. "Pea gravel driveway, boxwoods, and ferns. Green shutters and beautifully proportioned rooms," explains the Lexington, Kentucky, decorator who smartly didn't touch any of that stuff.

For many families the interiors were nearly move-in ready: white plaster walls, cotton rugs, some toile-covered furnishings. "Simple and lovely," he reports.

That undecorated feel is the norm in much of coastal Maine, where many cottages change hands generationally and without much aesthetic fuss. A combination of Yankee ingenuity and the vestiges of Puritanism makes for homes that feel more "put together" than decorated. And near the water especially, there's an accepted shabbiness: The salt air lends a gracious patina to whale-motif weather vanes but also flays the undercarriages of Volvos.

There's a real vernacular here, and as Carter's first project in Maine, he could have enjoyed months of drinking in the source material, but he had to stay true to his clients. As he is, they're southerners. Shabby wasn't going to fly for the new homeowners, a Kentucky couple with adult children and grandchildren beginning to accumulate. "They wanted to vamp it up a bit," says Carter. "They have traditional taste-art, maps, threshold for color and pattern." antiques-but also a high

Denne historien er fra July - August 2023-utgaven av Veranda.

Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.

Denne historien er fra July - August 2023-utgaven av Veranda.

Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.

FLERE HISTORIER FRA VERANDASe alt
Aged to Imperfection
Veranda

Aged to Imperfection

In the Cotswolds, Oka cofounder Sue Jones stirs an alluring cocktail of old and new in an agrarian compound, now her forever home

time-read
3 mins  |
September - October 2023
AMERICA'S ENGLISHMAN
Veranda

AMERICA'S ENGLISHMAN

From wide-eyed novice to decorating nobility: how Mario Buatta's journey to mad Anglophile draped a nation in chintz, silk, swags, and a legacy of humor and optimism

time-read
2 mins  |
September - October 2023
Estate of Play
Veranda

Estate of Play

MARTYN LAWRENCE BULLARD revives a romantic Georgian country home in Ireland, deploying grand artistry, craft, and levity in the footprint of local traditions

time-read
3 mins  |
September - October 2023
A PASTORAL PLAYGROUND
Veranda

A PASTORAL PLAYGROUND

Out of an ancestral millhouse, designer MARY GRAHAM raises a new family home in the country, alive with checks, florals, and ruffles

time-read
3 mins  |
September - October 2023
LONDON CORDIAL
Veranda

LONDON CORDIAL

MIXMASTER LORENZO CASTILLO DECKS A CHELSEA TOWNHOUSE IN IMMERSIVE PRINTS, RADIANT SEATING, AND A WELCOMING SPIRIT THAT TIPS TO THE WILD SIDE

time-read
3 mins  |
September - October 2023
Minding the Manor
Veranda

Minding the Manor

How are Ireland's old noble houses seeding their future? At Ballyfin Demesne, it glimmers in the forests, parklands, gardens, and a way of life that goes back centuries

time-read
5 mins  |
September - October 2023
Perennial Bloomsbury
Veranda

Perennial Bloomsbury

The creative troupe that ruled the English countryside in the early 1900s had a muse wilder than its lifestyle: the Charleston garden, reborn here in four riotous arrangements.

time-read
1 min  |
September - October 2023
ENCHANTED GLIN
Veranda

ENCHANTED GLIN

Along the River Shannon, landscape designer Catherine FitzGerald grows her family's castle gardens into a living wonderland bridging generations

time-read
3 mins  |
September - October 2023
Portrait Mode REVISITED
Veranda

Portrait Mode REVISITED

A new guard of English painters leads a resurgence of the deeply personal art form, capturing faces and figures in a fresh light

time-read
1 min  |
September - October 2023
The Bold SPIRITS SPEYSIDE
Veranda

The Bold SPIRITS SPEYSIDE

Scotland's famed whisky region reemerges as a stunning epicenter of Celtic craft. Single malt in hand, writer Tracey Minkin joins gallerist and author Hugo Macdonald to discover its decorative arts bloom

time-read
4 mins  |
September - October 2023