AT A TIME WHEN SO MUCH of the world is pursuing the next big thing, it's refreshing to encounter someone who's happily committed to what she already knows and loves. Julia Amory's tastes are radically unedgy. "I love brown furniture," she says. "I love chintz and majolica." She compares her approach to designing houses for herself and her family-husband Minot and their two children-to speaking in her native language. "This is the way Minot and I grew up," she says, "and this is the way our children are growing up." Crayon marks on the upholstery, shirred lampshades, antique quilts that disintegrate with use, a kidney-shaped vanity from the 1950s "these things make me feel safe and cozy," she says.
Her decorating vernacular provides a constant in a life that is otherwise quite dynamic. The Amorys spend summers in Southampton, New York, and the school year in Palm Beach, where she runs a growing women's clothing and textile business. "It's an incredible time to be in Palm Beach," she says. "There's been a convergence of my peers in the design space, and so many young families have relocated. We're always busy."
Southampton, by contrast, is where the Amorys kick back, fling open the doors, and slow down. "Our house is a proverbial clubhouse for all our friends," says Julia. "It's big, open, and easy; we love to have people over." Such conviviality was written into the house's DNA. The home was originally designed by legendary architect Jaquelin T. Robertson for Minot's aunt, decorator and fashion icon Chessy Rayner, to accommodate her whirlwind social life. "She entertained a lot and didn't have children," says Julia, who aimed to strike a careful balance between honoring that legacy and making the house more relaxed and livable for a family with two small children and a pair of dogs.
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.
Allerede abonnent ? Logg på
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.
Allerede abonnent? Logg på
The BOLD and the BRILLIANT
Five indie design ateliers are cutting an innovative path for tomorrow's jewels, from novel geometries to 3D-printed botanicals.
What's the Correct Word...
Designers are split on curtains versus drapery.
Palm DYNASTY
PALM BEACH HAS LONG BEEN AN EPICENTER OF POSH, but now its design lure has the luxury world buzzing louder than ever. With the BOOM IN DESIGN EVERYTHINGfrom shops to events to contemporary arts-could the SIZZLING ISLAND PLAYGROUND get any hotter?
Outside Voices
Art and nature converge in Ann and David Sutherland's Dallas home, where one-of a-kind furnishings and objects speak freely with the garden..
MR. WATSON'S OPUS
In his Upper West Side flat, Marshall Watson composes a symphony of exquisite blues, harmonizing lustrous textiles with auction finds and ancestral heirlooms.
THE PATTERN MAKERS
IN WEST LONDON, A HISTORIC WALLPAPER FACTORY STIRS TO LIFE, INVITING DESIGN DEVOTEES TO WALK IN THE FOOTSTEPS OF ARTS AND CRAFTS TITANS.
Masterpiece Theater
Frank Lloyd Wright's Wisconsin studio comes roaring back with the restoration of his concert hall and its fabled handsewn curtain.
LAKESIDE Reverie
On Alabama's Lake Martin, Bobby McAlpine and Blake Weeks mix this and thatfairy tales, Japanese techniques, Nordic mythology, and Gothic elements-to cast a soulful artists' hideaway.
FARM TO FABLE
Brooke and Steve Giannetti cultivate a storybook homestead in Tennessee, remodeling a circa-1850 log cabin as a warm centerpiece of a slower, more connected next chapter.
PATTERNS of NATURE
Fresh off the opening of her New York showroom, Texan Meredith Ellis brightens her Lenox Hill pied-à-terre in ultra-personal motifs and juiced-up color.
