Top 10 Blog Posts for 2010

Sometimes the verticality of our posts sinking, sinking into the archives makes me wistful. Wonderful friends and family have been so generous to share their amazing homes and photos, I wanted to resurrect some of our most fun and unique posts from 2010.

My wonderful daughter took these photographs while working on Lindsay Coral Harper's  "Let the Wild Rumpus Begin" table. These designer tables from the Lennox Hill Neighborhood House Gala at Sotheby's make me want to throw a party. O.K. I know, everything makes me want to throw a party!

The Best Farm Ever has me fantasizing about building a barn house. Did I say party? Party heaven is right here, with outdoor fireplaces blazing, monopoly money changing hands among frenzied children in the circle grouping, and pizza piling up on the kitchen counter. Football injuries aside, this gathering took the party prize of the year. 

Mrs. P's dedication to her mountain house renovation created a perfect year round getaway for family and friends. This image is a perfect example of using a large scale fabric with matching drapes to make a small room seem intimate and inviting. Don't miss the before pictures in this post, you won't believe the transformation. 

I hope Maria from Colour Me Happy is reading this post. Take Fun Seriously shows a playful mix of bright colors and eclectic furniture in this delightful party fortress. Run downstairs and see my favorite girl cave!

Phoebe Howard's eponymous design palace, Mrs. Howard's, in Charlotte is worth a plane ticket. The nail head trim reiterating the sunburst motif mirror in this dining room is a handsome foil to the soft chintz on the chairs. Every room in this design mecca is literally breath taking. 

Bobby McAlpine alum, Ruard Veltman, of Charlotte collaborated with Mrs. G. to create this Lutyens inspired mountain retreat that I call Nieu Neo Georgian.  The research laid the groundwork for a previously unpublished McAlpine house. The shared DNA is really interesting, start with Sir Christopher Wrenn who perfected Georgian, and embrace the transmutations of the Arts and Crafts crowd. I have more to say about that down the road, I'm smitten with Lutyens. 

Sir Bobby, who I have officially knighted in honor of Sir Edwin Landseer Lutyens, interpreted Mrs. D.'s vision of a Pennsylvania stone farm house. I still owe you part II. I was waiting until the winter got really bleak to cheer you up. 

My ODF (oldest and dearest friend) is married to Edmund Hollander whose unerring taste and contribution to landscape architecture is as grand as Gertrude Jekyl's at the opposite end of the century. I recommend he collaborate with Sir Bobby, for the complete reincarnation of the Lutyens /Jekyl country house revival. If you are the type of person who watches movies over and over, just to study the interiors, Ed did the landscape for the Hamptons House in everybody's favorite, Somethings Gotta Give. It was listed for a mere 10 million. You can see more of Ed's exteriors for this house on Linda Merrill's post here.  

Speaking of movies, this James O'Connor playhouse was featured in the disappointing remake of Sabrina. This rare glimpse into the old country estate boom on Long Island was embraced by the preservationists in our crowd. This beautiful Sister Parish living room survives intact, from when Bunny Williams was her assistant! We have some more pictures of the old estate for the old Long Island crowd posting soon.  

Sending buckets of sunshine to all in gray January. This is my Edmund Hollander inspired window box. 

Edmund Hollander and Maryanne Connelly Landscape Architects, and book Giveaway

I just got off the phone with Ed. He was at Yankee Stadium with my ODF (oldest and dearest friend). I was screaming over the crowd: "Ed, can I blog about you?" He said: "I can't hear you", so ODF translated: "Fine! was the answer." So here goes. I only know the eminent Edmund Hollander as a person. He's a living legend, in the world of landscape architecture, but he doesn't live iconically. You won't find Ed on page 6. or the NY Social Diary. He is not a P.R. guy, but he has won every award, in his field, multiple times.  His gardens speak for themselves, and are backdrops for films and every shelter magazine on the planet. He does beautiful work for the most beautiful people in the world. Get ready!

To quote our favorite Italian waiter, Constantino, after serving us perfect Bellini cocktails: "What can I say--Nothing!" Simplicity, and interplay of light--reflective white hydrangeas, combined with shadowy lavender, are a leitmotif, in design collaborations with partner, Maryanne Connelly. A rustic gate and fence define the space, creating a subtle transition, a new garden room, or a practical barrier for deer. 

Having been an avid gardener for years, I am deeply impressed by this walk to the shore. Plantings  intentionally flow between the boundaries of natural environment, to create an undetectable rhythm, with an indigenous sensibility. You see beauty and nature first and are transported from the quotidian, to the eternal moment. In their book, Gardens for the New Country Place, The Landscape Architecture of Edmund Hollander and Maryanne Connelly, we see the beautiful photographic, end results of their chemistry, first, with mother earth,  layered within the vernacular culture and history of the surrounding countryside.  Collaborating with luminary architects and interior designers, their artistic aesthetics coalesce, into a single comprehensive vision. 

"When you enter a Hollander landscape you are suddenly quite aware of what Architects refer to as scale and structure......This perfect connection between spaces arises from a deep understanding of land that is both scientific and poetic. "

Paul Bennett

We are irresistibly drawn down a path of simple plant combinations of varying texture and planes. If flowers could speak, these friendly companions whisper: "Come this way." 

Soft, airy plantings balance the harder lines of structures, and more formal elements. We flow seamlessly from garden room to lawn to woodland, with smooth transitional space between, in the timeless country house tradition of Gertrude Jekyll. 

An orderly heirloom apple orchard evokes the area's contextual, agrarian roots in this transitional space. I grew up with an apple orchard, and we loved sitting in the fragrant branches in the spring, or lounging among the apples, munching away in the fall. After the first few hard frosts, apple branches can delightfully be gathered and carried inside and forced to bloom, filling the house with scent. Destination spaces, like swimming pools and tennis courts are sited with great concern for the overall natural views.

An infinity edge pool, merges with the bay in the distance, and is subtly tinted to echo the natural water environment, organically shaped as if it carved its own space. Swimmers can float into the conversation, literally. Intimacy within the space is preserved with a verdant pergola and low hedge combination, creating soft shadows, while preserving sweeping vistas. 

Same pool different season! Exterior design is truly three dimensional chess. Preserving the natural beauty of the whole, throughout the course of the day, seasons, considering elements, the mathematics of architecture,  botany, zone...Oy!  White plantings are deliberately employed extensively in these gardens as they shimmer in the evenings, leading the eye and delighted family and friends, along intimate paths, and quiet rooms. 

I yearn to lie exactly in this spot. Built into the steep hillside, discreetly beneath the house and above the apple orchard, water cascades down dry stack walls appealing to all the senses. A fragrant and colorful cottage garden, behind the lounge chairs, repeats the descending walled garden plantings, leading down the hill to the pool. A sweep of lawn connects the two, providing perfect visual punctuation. Lead us into temptation! Let it be the temptation to create beauty, harmony, with the reverent hand of man. I'll leave you with some more eye ticklers. 

Descending borders, planted to bloom in all four seasons, with the perfect grammatical insertions of pee gee hydrangeas.

A sacred space worthy of a water goddess. 

A lesson on balance and color harmony continuing into the fall  season.  Thank you, Ed and Maryanne, for your masterful, living artistry. 

As a gift to our commenters, followers, or including us in your blog rolls, 

we will send a lucky winner Ed and Maryanne's fabulous read.  

By Paul Bennett

Principal Photography by: 

Betsy Pinover Schiff

Additional Photography by: 

Charles Mayer

Tori Butt

Dency Kane

Steve Turner

Giveaway ends on

Wednesday, September 14th