This wonderful old farmhouse on 350 acres can be found in Millbrook, New York…a tiny town north of Manhattan. The owners, celebrity hairstylist Frederic Fekkai and his wife, Shirin von Wulffen fell in love with its charm and simplicity and asked interior designer Selina van der Geest to help express their vision. One thing that distinguishes a great designer from the rest of the pack, is the ability to make a house FLOW from room to room. This designer sees the house as one organic whole and uses repetition of color, style and form tie the rooms together. Let’s take a look and see how it was done here.

These two views of the living room feature a big luscious tangerine colored sofa and an old kilim rug of blues/reds and oranges. These same brights pop out of the bookcase, the flower arrangements and the accessories. It seems that all warm tones are welcome here…no need to match the exact shade of red. Use ‘em all….what the heck! And I agree. Creating a palette of closely aligned colors (such as red, orange and pink)?can really add a great element of surprise and depth.

The original kitchen mantel was saved, stripped and given a nice coat of oil. Tucked amongst the antiques that?blend so well with this old home, inexpensive new pieces were added. For example, the metal dining chairs are from the Sundance Catalog. Other accessories came from the Conran shop, Anthropologie and Design Within Reach. Warm toned dishware and bouquets of cut pink dahlias connect this room to all of the others with a common thread of color.

The dining room is a masterpiece, in my opinion. I wish I could have managed to show you the whole long painting all in one piece, but alas my technical knowledge prevents this. It’s quite impressive as you can see. Using gigantically over-scaled elements within a space is one of the most dramatic ways to make visual impact. I would almost go so far as to say the size of the painting is AS important as the image itself….almost. The antique chairs (Renaissance Revival) certainly have a story to tell…just like the house itself.

The color palette in the room is all neutral except for red flowers ?which tie this room in to the others. Notice the shed antler chandelier. It’s a bold reference to nature (and we know darn well that there are deer in ‘them thar’ Upstate New York woods).

Photos from Elle Decor July/August 2008